A Story to Tell Your Friends

“Why did I know you’d bought this?” Jack asked me, inspecting the three games I’d picked up in Target.
“Because Geralt is fit,” I replied, keeping a straight face and staring him in the eye. “He’s the only man I have time for in my life.”
“Oh, so what am I?” Jack placed the games back on the floor next to the TV, continuing to plug the correct leads in. Tammy had gone to her bedroom to watch TV and chill out before work tomorrow, leaving Jack and I with the living room to ourselves.
“Your name’s Geralt, isn’t it?” I blinked at him, pretending to be confused by his question. “If it’s not, boy is he gonna be pissed.” He turned on the console, putting The Witcher 3 in the CD slot.
“Only if your name’s Yennefer. If it’s not, boy is she gonna be pissed.” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“I hate her. On what planet do I look like a Yennefer?”
“On what planet do I look like a Geralt?” I rolled my eyes. “You like Geralt best and I like Yennefer best, suck it up buttercup.” I laughed at him, finally nodding.
“I’ll probably be as much of a crazy bitch as she is anyway.”
“Atta girl.” He handed me the controller, sitting on the sofa next to me and putting my legs over his. I rested my back on the arm of the sofa, getting comfortable and waiting for the game to load in.
“I can’t believe you leave in a week,” I groaned.
“Why? Gonna miss me?” He asked, rubbing my legs lightly, comforting me a little.
“Well, you know, I don’t normally sleep with a guy when we have a time limit,” I retorted.
“The only time limit we have is how many minutes we have combined in our phone plans.” I pursed my lips, looking away from the TV and back at him. He was staring at me, smile pulling at his lips.
“Yeah, right. You’re going on tour where girls will be throwing themselves at you. We have a time limit.” I didn’t mean to sound harsh or bitter, but I had a feeling in my gut that Jack would disappear when he went on tour and realised there were much better girls out there than me.
“Girls throw themselves at me now, Clara,” he told me, rolling his eyes. “And yet, somehow, I’m sat here on your sofa, spending time with you. No matter who throws themselves at me, I’m still coming back here to you.” I bit my lip, trying desperately to believe him.
“You’re not the first guy who’s said that to me, Jack,” I admitted. “And, I know we’re only half a thing right now, so I have no right to throw this shit at you, but I just worry.” Jack pushed my legs off his, shifting closer to me and pulling my face right to his own, so close to each other our noses were touching lightly.
“I’m not anyone else, Clara. I’m not going to sit here and lie to you for three weeks and then run off with the first girl I find,” he told me softly. “I told you, I don’t play games. If I was going to do that to you, you’d know about it by now.” I pushed my lips to his own, my hand resting on his cheek. My heart fluttered at the sincerity in his voice and I honestly found myself believing what he was telling me. The thought of Jack leaving me for someone else the moment he was on tour made my heart feel like breaking, because I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else. He was the only person on my mind all of the time, and I just hoped he felt the same.
“I’m sorry. I’m being a loser,” I told him, finally detaching myself from him.
“You’re not a loser. You’re adorable. But, as long as you believe me, that’s all I need. There’s no mind games here for me, Clara. If I didn’t want to be here with you, I wouldn’t be.”
“I know,” I assured him. “Maybe I’m just a little more damaged than I let on.” Jack looked at me curiously as I gnawed on my lip. “It’s nothing major, don’t worry about it.”
“If it’s making you worry about what I’m going to do, then I’m going to worry about it.”
“It was the summer before college,” I blurted out after a short pause. “His name was Dean. We’d been friends for as long as I could remember and I’d had a crush on him for just as long. We went together to prom and the next thing I knew, we were official and spending every second together.” I paused again, shaking my head. “It’s stupid. Ignore me.”
“Clara…”
“Fine,” I huffed. “I moved to Seattle and he moved to Chicago. We said we’d keep in touch, stay together and visit as often as possible. It would be difficult, but we’d make it work. And then… nothing. For three months. I didn’t find out until Thanksgiving that he’d been hooking up with every girl he could lay his hands on since the first week of classes. I wasn’t devastated when I found out, I was basically over it by then, but it always stuck with me, you know? He’d been perfect for three months, then he just dropped off the face of the planet and ignored me.” I felt Jack’s arm around my shoulders as he pulled me closer to him, placing me firmly in his lap.
“Do you trust me?” He asked softly. I shuddered as his breath hit my neck. I had my back resting against his chest and he held me close.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Then believe me when I say I’m not going to do that to you. I couldn’t do that to you.” I shut my eyes, leaning back into him and letting out a long breath.
“I believe you.”

Notes