Five Years

I woke up surrounded by a pile of blankets and a snoring Jack. I laughed to myself and got up to go to the bathroom before I went to grab something to eat. I would have eaten more junk food from last night but I was honestly so sick of eating crappy food. I poured myself a bowl of cereal and ate up while I scrolled through emails and twitter.

It wasn’t long before Jack was up and ruffling his hair while he made his way into the kitchen. “Good morning.” He yawned and grabbed himself a bowl. He was sitting beside me in a moment and then we were eating in almost silence. Minutes passed and we were both done with our meals. While I scrolled through my phone he took our bowls into the sink and went back into the living room to fold up the blankets.

“Need some help?” I asked as I picked up a blanket and started to fold with him.

He smiled and started to put the blankets in the linen closet down the hall. “Thanks for helping out.” We finished all the folding and ended up plopping down on the couch together. “So have you given any thought to what I said last night?”

I furrowed my brows and remembered what he said last night, right before we fell asleep. Did he mean it though? We had been drinking a lot last night so he could’ve just been confused. “What did you say last night?”

“Uh, nothing.” He shrugged and got up to go upstairs. “I’m gonna go shower, you can stay here if you like.”

“I should probably go home too.” I shrugged and headed toward the door. “Thanks for last night Jack, it was really nice to spend time with you again.”

He smiled and pulled me into a hug. “Same here, see you later.” I walked out to the car and sat in there for a minute. I just recollected last night’s events, all of our events together and it all seemed to make sense. I don’t know how I wasn’t able to see how Jack liked me. It was all so obvious, the flirting, the tones, all of it. And I never told him to stop, have I been leading him on this whole time. You didn’t know any better Shay, I told myself. I started the car and drove home, trying to clear my head of everything. When I pulled into the driveway I noticed another car, Alex’s car. It was the afternoon now, Jack and I had slept in pretty late considering how long we were up. I got out of the car and headed inside to see the two of them.

“It’s about time!” Zack laughed when he heard me walk through the door. I kicked my vans off at the front door and walked into the living room to see what they were doing.

“Hi guys.” I smiled and sat down on the armchair closest to the fireplace.

Alex turned to me and smiled. “Did you have fun with Jack?” He asked. “Nothing nasty right?”

“Oh shut up Alex.” I rolled my eyes and saw beers in their hands. “Mind getting me one of those?”

Alex got up and walked toward the kitchen. “No problem.”

The rest of the afternoon just seemed to fade into new memories. Zack and Alex were laughing about tour memories and I was able to drop a few in that I remembered. It seemed like that’s all they wanted to talk about when I was around. All Alex talked about with me was old memories when we could be going out to make new ones, better ones. The last thing I want is for history to repeat itself and have things end on a bad note.

Now I was in the shower and washing away everything, recalling the day’s events as I went. But the more I thought about how tonight went with Alex, the more I realized that my time with Jack seemed to be so much better. It’s not like I can just leave Alex for his best friend, he’s trying so hard to fix everything. It’s best to get a second opinion on things, but who could I talk to?



“I need your advice on something.” I asked Jake through the phone.

He chuckled. “Go ahead, it’s not like I’m new to this.”

I twirled my fingers in my hair and looked out the window at the street below. It was empty and leaves scraped across the ground as the wind dragged them along. “So I’m having more relationship troubles, it’s not really news is it?”

“What’s the problem? Is it Alex again?” His tone was still light and happy, just another reason why I want to keep Jake around.

I sighed and placed one hand on the glass while the other was holding my phone up to my ear. “Well I told Alex that if he wants to try giving us a shot again then he needs to win me back all over again. I didn’t want to pick up where we left off because of how bad things ended, but now that I’m starting to think about it none of this is an ideal situation for me. And on top of that, someone else told me something that might pull me in a different direction.”

“What was it?”

I turned from the window and walked back to the bed, flopping onto my stomach. “Jack told me that he likes me, that he’s always liked me. And then he told me that I can do so much better than Alex, that I shouldn’t be getting hurt like this. What should I do?”

He was quiet for a minute; I could almost hear him rubbing his chin. “Do you remember what I told you before you moved back to Baltimore? I told you that you need to follow your heart, do what you think is right. I’m not here to make choices for you, just help you figure out which path is the right direction.”

“But how am I supposed to know which path is the right path?” I sighed.

“Just think about who makes you happier and go from there,” he told me. “Now I have to go but I’ll talk to you later, okay? Sorry about all the boy drama.”

“Bye Jake.” I told him before we both hung up.

I lay in my bed and looked up at the ceiling while my head was still running with every single possibility that I could think of. My life with Alex was already started, our relationship was being rebuilt stronger by the day. My life with Jack has always been the same, we were best friends and he ended up being the third wheel for me and Alex. It would be weird if we started dating all of a sudden.

Think about who makes you happier. Jake’s words rang through my head, and I knew that I was still far from making a decision.

Notes

Yeah... I don't know either.