Rumours Ruin Reputations

I hadn’t seen Jack in a while. I didn’t know why, but everything seemed off that entire time. The best way to put it was that he seemed distant. We used to text and call a lot, just to talk. But I hadn’t heard his voice in a week and a half, and all of his text messages were short. He was never the one to text me first anymore. It was like our relationship had done a complete one-eighty. Something happened that caused it to be one sided, that caused him to stop putting any effort into it.

I asked him multiple times if he was cool with me coming over. It wasn’t like I was repeating it over and over again, annoying him. No, I was very careful when asking. He was obviously already put off, I didn’t need it to get any worse. He ignored me every single time until hitting me with a ‘let me check’. That was the furthest I had gotten. I never got a reply saying he was busy or if he was free.

So, I just went over there. It probably wasn’t the smartest idea, but I had something for him. I had gotten it before he started becoming so distant, so I felt like I owed it to him. Honestly, I wouldn’t have bothered much to get the gift if it weren’t for him. My full intentions were to surprise him. But right in the middle of that process, he started to ignore me.

I parked my car in the parking lot at his apartment complex and rang the doorbell outside the downstairs door. A short buzz came through the speakers before a small ring played. Eventually a crackle stopped the melody.

“Hello?” The voice of one of Jack’s roommates greeted.

“Hey, it’s me, Stevie,” I responded, silently praying that they would let me in.

“Okay, come on up.”

A similar buzz to the first one filled the air, only this time it lasted a lot longer. I reached out for the heavy black door and pulled it open before slipping in myself. My thoughts started trying to play out a scenario as I was waiting for the elevator to come down. I had no clue what was going to happen. Obviously, one of his roommates let me in, which meant that Jack didn’t do it himself (duh). Either it meant he was still ignoring me, or he just didn’t happen to be the closest. To me, it could only be a good sign that I was let in. At least his friends hadn’t been turned against me yet.

I stepped into the elevator and started nervously picking at my thumbnail. What was going to happen when I saw Jack? Where things just going to go like nothing had happened? Was he going to act like he wasn’t just being a total dick for ignoring me without a reason? Or was he going to hate me and make the situation worse?

Once I was stood in front of the apartment door, I knocked and just prepared myself for whatever was going to happen. Yet again, one of Jack’s roommates opened the door instead of Jack himself.

“Hey.” Dan let me in, leaving me to close the door myself as he walked into the kitchen. “Jack isn’t here right now, but I’m sure he will be back soon.”

“Oh, okay,” I nodded, gladly accepting the excuse and waved at Andrew who was sitting at the table with his laptop doing some work.

“You can join us while you wait if you’d like,” Andrew offered. Although he was very skeptical at first, he had warmed up to me. I used to come over quite a bit, so it just happened naturally.

I accepted and joined the two guys who were originally doing their individual things. Without even having to ask, I was given a cup of coffee by Dan and we just started to chat, waiting for Jack to come back from whatever he was doing. We got carried away a little, not noticing how much time was passing. Or, that was at least until Andrew checked his laptop again.

“Usually Jack doesn’t take this long…” He frowned and double checked the time by looking at his watch.

“Oh, shit, it’s been an hour,” Dan commented. “He’s often late, but not this late when you guys have made plans.”

“Well…” I sucked in a breath and let my fingernails tap against my mug. “We didn’t exactly have plans. I mean, I messaged him multiple times over the past few days, but he never really replied. I thought you said he was coming back soon, that’s why I stayed…”

“I thought he would be coming back because you were here…” Dan replied, making the situation a tad awkward. Luckily it wasn’t like we didn’t get along the entire time. But it was just a little weird for me to be here.

“I wouldn’t have stayed if I knew… Honestly, I just wanted to drop something off and I happened to be close by. I think I should probably go.”

“You don’t have to,” Andrew told me, trying to be polite.

I shook my head and shuffled my chair back. “No, I should. It’s just weird waiting here for an hour without Jack expecting me. I don’t want to seem like somebody creepy. I’ll just leave what I wanted to give, like I should have done in the first place.”

Just as I stood up, the door opened and Jack walked in. He didn’t notice me at first, but that’s when the real fear set in. I was just trying to leave so I didn’t seem like some girl who felt the need to come to his house just because he was ignoring me. Honestly, if I had been told Jack wasn’t there and wasn’t going to be back soon, I would have left. Now I just looked like I was forcing my way in.

The entire situation was tense. I could just feel Andrew and Dan holding in a breath. However, when Jack’s eyes fell on me, he completely ignored my presence. He didn’t even acknowledge his own roommates, probably because I was there. Honestly, this was worse than anything I could have come up with. I just wanted to know what was wrong, and I felt like I had made the situation worse.

“I should probably go talk to him…” I breathed out as Jack disappeared into his room, and abandoned my plans of leaving.

Once I entered the bedroom, I saw Jack plugging his phone into its charger. He decided to act like he didn’t notice me and instead went through his notifications while sitting on the side of his bed. Just based on his posture, I could tell he was trying his best to give me the cold shoulder. He was turned away from me, taking his sweet time to read every single message, even for things he would usually ignore.

“Jack…” I started, knowing there was no way to get past this unless we talked about it.

But before I could even continue my attempt, Jack breathed out loudly, turning his head in my direction in annoyance. “Really?”

“What’s wrong?” I tried to stay calm and approached him carefully despite the fact that his outburst was very unexpected.

“You just come over here and hangout with my roommates without saying shit to me?”

“Well, you see, that was just a misunderstanding,” I tried to explain, hoping to calm down the situation a little, but I could feel myself becoming more defensive as I continued talking.. “I thought they let me in because you told them to, while they thought you were going to come back because we had made plans. When I realised that was the case, I was going to leave, but that’s when you walked in and just completely ignored me.”

“Maybe it’s because I wanted a little space.” He rolled his eyes and got up, shaking his head. “You can’t just go and show up at my place whenever the fuck you want.”

“Hey, don’t put this on me.” I left behind my idea of trying to talk calmly. It obviously wasn’t working, and I wasn’t just going to let him make me feel like it was all my fault. “You’ve been ignoring me for ages. I asked if you were cool with me coming over, and you couldn’t even reply with a simple ‘no’. Honestly, that would have been a lot nicer than what you’re pulling now. Or are you trying to purposely hurt me?”

“God you really know how to make things dramatic,” he scoffed and pushed past me, leaving the bedroom.

I followed him, expecting to just take this to the kitchen or something while he either grabbed a drink or whatever else he deemed fit for the middle of a fight. Maybe he needed a light snack to keep it up. But no, he rushed past the kitchen and stomped past his roommates, going right for the front door and leaving the apartment.

I felt pathetic following him, especially when he closed the elevator doors on me. Luckily, the stairs still existed. I rushed down them, at a speed that just barely let me fly down them without tumbling. There already were many reasons why I worked out multiple times a week, but who knew running after a boyfriend would be one of them.

I still felt pathetic when I made it all the way down to see Jack just leaving the elevators. Was he really worth this?

“No,” I stopped him from walking out of the building just by using my stern voice. “I am not letting you go without you telling me what the fuck is going on!”

“Like you give a fuck,” he mocked.

“Umm, I just ran down five flights of stairs. Do you honestly think I do not care?”

“You know what? No, no I don’t,” he stopped trying to get away and went into confrontation-mode.

“Care to elaborate? As far as I recall, I’ve been the one trying to call and message you, you’re the one ignoring it all.” I crossed my arms, feeling that he was somehow going to pin everything on me.

“What does all that digital crap matter when you can’t even fucking care when face to face?”

“I’d like to recall the moment again where you blatantly ignored me when you walked into your apartment.”

“At least I’m not messing with your head,” he retorted.

“Okay, can you just stop being ambiguous and just tell me what the fuck I did? Because this is going nowhere.”

He shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t control what the fuck you do when I’m not around, but to be flirting with people right in front of my face. Really?!”

“Who have I been flirting with?” I frowned. Sure, I could be overly nice to people when the situation called for it, but I couldn’t recollect any moment I had been flirting with anybody, especially with Jack around.

“Well, you’ve been acting really cutesy with Travis, like you’re still some teenager with a crush.”

“Travis and I are friends…?” I replied, questioning if Jack was being serious or not. “We literally got a divorce not long ago. Why the fuck would I even want to flirt with him?”

“Lingering feelings are not an uncommon thing, don’t worry,” he snarled back sarcastically. “It’s not just him either. You and Nat seem more than happy to practise your scenes off camera.”

‘Wait, hang on,” I took a second to check if I really heard him correctly. “You think I’ve been cheating on you?

“There’s a thin line between think and know,” he sneered and made his move to leave. He opened the door and left.

A few seconds later, I saw his car leaving the parking lot. It was as I feared. He really wasn’t worth following. Yes, I was upset, but I was too riled up for the reality to hit me. Even though neither of us had said the words, it was quite clear that this was a breakup. I regretted coming over and having this happen, but I was also glad he didn’t drag it out longer. At least I didn’t waste more time on him.

After composing myself again, I took the elevator up to the fifth floor. Before ringing the doorbell, I tried opening the door myself. Somehow it hadn’t closed properly when Jack and I ran out, and I managed to get in without trouble.

Dan and Andrew were still at the table, immediately alerted by my presence and trying to assess the situation.

“Don’t worry, I’m just here to pick up my bag,” I said, seeing them relax a little bit. They probably thought Jack and I were going to go out somewhere or something. Little did they know it was the opposite.

I pulled out the envelope with two tickets to a baseball game I knew Jack would have loved to see and put it on the table. “I was going to give these to Jack, they’re the entire reason I came here. He, however, does not deserve them. You guys do, though. So, go have fun, it was nice knowing you guys.”

I left without any further comment and had no intentions of ever coming back.

Notes