“So what’s up with Jack?” Franceschi said, pulling me from my thoughts. I’d been standing in the same spot for… I wasn’t even sure how long I’d been there, vision hazy and glued to the area Jack had been in before he’d broken up with me taken off on me.

When my eyes blinked themselves back into focus, the first thing I took notice of was the fact that Josh was directly in front of me, concern dashed across his face and his right hand rubbing at the back of his neck while he looked me over. The second thing I noted was the few tears that had escaped from my eyes, sliding down my cheeks slowly before they dripped from my chin.

“Dude, uh… what’s going on?” he asked, reaching out both arms so that he could grip at my shoulders, holding me up a little bit straighter than I’d been before.

I shook my head at his inquiry, instead opting to sniffle and wipe harshly at my face. The burn on my cheeks helped clear my mind a bit, but I still shook my head again. It was for a different reason that time, though.

“I fucked up,” I mumbled, hands merely pressed against my face in order to hide away the guilt and shame and pity I felt for myself. “I fucked up, and I’m so fucking stupid, and now he hates me, and he’s gone, Josh.”

I wanted to be mad at my best friend instead of spilling my guts to him, but how could I be? How could I be mad at him when he was only doing what any good friend would do? If the roles had been reversed and I hadn’t been around to help, I don’t think I would’ve ever been able to forgive myself.

The next thing I knew, Josh had wrapped one arm around my shoulders and pulled my body into his, holding me close. The gesture was comforting, and I didn’t care that we were still in public or that people were more than likely staring. I had to bite my lip to hold in the pitiful noises that wanted to make themselves vocal, and whatever I couldn’t cover up was thankfully blocked by the fabric of Josh’s jacket, pressed right against my face.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this upset about a break-up, man,” he said quietly, his hand rubbing up and down my back soothingly as I clung to him tighter. “Especially one that didn’t even last that long… you wanna talk about it or something?”

There was a brief pause where I had to think about it, but in the time it took me to come to a decision, Josh had already come to his own.

“Come on, we can go back to yours and you can tell me all about it. I was gonna play soccer with the other guys, but they fuckin’ suck anyway. Let’s go, I’ll drive.”

I didn’t have it in me to fight him as he dragged me along to his car, and soon enough, he was pulling from the parking lot with me sulking in the front seat.

---

“You accused him of cheating?” Josh exclaimed, looking as taken aback as Jack had… minus the angry part… sort of… “You accused him of cheating with me? What the fuck, dude! What could possibly possess you to think that! He’s a nice dude; I’m a nice dude! You honestly think we’d go behind your back like that?”

“I don’t know, okay? I don’t know. It was stupid, and I should’ve thought more about my words before I said them, and I didn’t, and I lost a really great person because of it, okay, I already fucking know. You don’t need to remind me; I feel like shit as it is,” I groaned, burying my face even further into my pillow.

“You deserve it,” he deadpanned, and I rolled over to glare at him. He simply shrugged in response, muttering an, “I told you so.”

“What am I supposed to do? He just… he said he doesn’t… and that he… I miss him, Josh.”

“It’s been, like, two hours, dude. I know the kid more than you do, for God sake. I can get why you’re upset, but really? It just wasn’t meant to be. You can have a few days to sulk about this or do whatever you think is gonna help, but by this time next week, you better be over it. You understand me?” he questioned, reaching out a hand to jab me in the side annoyingly.

All I could bring myself to mumble back was a, “Fuck you.”

---

The first day back to school was hell. I’d figured that maybe Jack had had some time to get over his anger, but when I’d tried to talk to him, he went completely out of his way to blatantly ignore me. At one point, just before the bell was set to ring in English, I turned in my seat and reached for his hand, wanting to press a kiss to his palm like I’d become accustomed to… only to have him tug his hand away from my grasp and send me a glare in return.

It hurt and made me feel just the slightest bit embarrassed, but it didn’t deter me in anyway—I was going to get him back, prove to him that he was worth more than some stupid lie, if it was the last thing I ever did.

---

By the time the next week came around, I’d become a little bit better at hiding my emotions. Not completely, but Josh hadn’t been able to tell that I was still thinking of ways to get my ex back. In fact, that very next Tuesday, Josh was away for the day at a campus across the state for a game. He’d been so excited about it that he hadn’t failed to remind me of its existence since he first found out about it. That, I’d decided, was going to be step one of my ‘Get Jack Back to Me’ plan.

That morning I’d gone out of my way to buy flowers—they were big, obnoxious, and smelled nice. They seemed like the kind Jack would enjoy. It took a small internal battle for me to decide against putting a message or any sort of indication that they had come from me with them.

The second part to step one wasn’t accomplished as easily as part one had been, but after a lot of pleading and persuading with both Dawson and Merrick, they’d helped me figure out the combination for his locker.

The third part took a little bit of skill on my behalf, what with the fact that I didn’t need anyone noticing me breaking into my ex’s locker with a large bouquet of brightly-colored flowers in hand. How would I have even gone about explaining that? ‘See, I’m actually this huge prick who misses being able to kiss and hold his crush, but you can’t let him know that’s how I really feel, okay?’

As if he didn't already know.

The fourth and final part was to sit and wait. I anticipated for him to stop at his locker before going home at the end of the day, and I was right. From my vantage point at the end of the hall, hidden away by the row of lockers and the flood of other teens pushing their way from the building, I watched as Jack moved among them toward his own locker… only, he wasn’t alone.

No, instead of just Jack walking through the hall, Oli was with him. They were laughing about something, and if I ducked around enough, I could catch a quick glimpse or two of Oli’s arm wrapped loosely around Jack’s waist.

I could feel my teeth gritting together in my mouth almost painfully as they eventually came to a stop in front of the right locker. Jack didn’t notice me standing at the end of the hall as he talked away, gleeful smile lighting his precious face. Oli, on the other hand, did see me as he moved just slightly away from Jack’s body to instead lean himself against the locker beside Jack’s own. A smirk overcame his face as he gave me a quick once-over.

It was just as Jack was pulling his locker open, the flowers falling out at him, did Oli turn back. The surprise was evident on both of their faces, but Oli’s was soon masked and swapped with a smile. It would’ve looked genuine to anyone else, but I knew him better than I really cared to.

Jack’s mouth dropped open and closed a few times as he finally got a better grip on the flowers, his wide, pretty, brown eyes staring down at them in awe.

Then he was looking from the bouquet to Oli and back again. His mouth moved, but I wasn’t able to hear what he was saying from how far away I was and how full the hallway still was. I did notice Oli grin a little wider and nod his head at whatever he’d been asked, and then Jack was giving a smile that wasn’t as big. It almost looked a little forced from where I was standing, but the next thing I knew, he was leaning in to press a kiss to the corner of Oli’s mouth.

My blood boiled inside of my veins at the same time my eyes welled with a fresh round of tears—I thought I’d stopped with those after that first night.

It had been a week, a fucking week that we’d been broken up, and he’d already moved on? He’d already moved on to Oli, to be more specific.

Just as I was getting ready to make a mad dash for the exit before I was caught or witnessed something more that I really didn’t need to, Jack was wrapping his arms around Oli’s neck and pulling him in for a tight hug. At about that time, Oli looked up and made eye contact with me once more.

A simper still tugged at his lips, but it soon vanished as he turned his head just enough to kiss at Jack’s hair.

Notes