Our relationship had been going downhill ever since summer vacation started. Jonny and I would always be together, but then my dad started flying me out to California and his mom disappeared along with her boyfriend. It’s been hard for both of us and we lost time and patience. I would often find us in meaningless arguments always resulting in one of us crying. The beginning of the end started when one date turned sour.
“Where is he?” I said to Derrick, my best friend since I was 8.
“I don’t know,” Derrick said. Jonny had asked meet me at the café. I shrugged.
“Hey, Kristy, I can stay with you until he comes,” Derrick offered. I smiled. I could always count on Derrick.
“I don’t know if he’ll like this,” I said. Derrick shrugged.
“I can’t just leave you. I’ll stay just until he comes. Then I’ll leave. In the meantime, let’s get some apple pie,” he said, calling the waiter.
45 minutes later
“Best 4 out of 7,” I said laughing and I grabbed Derrick’s hand. We’ve been arm wrestling.
“Kristy,” he said.
“C’mon. You scared?” I asked.
“Never,” he said and he put his elbow on the table. I did the same.
“Your call,” he said.
“One…two…,” I started. I heard the café door open. I looked over and there he was. He quickly spotted me and Derrick and walked over. I smiled at him.
“Hey, Jonny,” I said. He had a slight smile and glanced at me and Derrick’s hands, still in wrestling position. I quickly let it go and stood up and went to hug him.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” he said. I sat back down.
“That’s okay…Derrick you can-,” I started.
“Bye Kristy. Bye Jonny. See you guys later,” Derrick said and he walked out. Jonny stood awkwardly.
“Sit down. Stay awhile,” I said laughing. He sat and stared at me. Uh-oh. I’m in trouble.
“Why was he here?” Jonny asked.
“Who?” I asked dumbly and took a sip of my hot chocolate.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Kristy. Why was Derrick here?” he asked. His jaw was clenched which meant he was mad.
“He was just keeping me company, geesh,” I said.
He sighed loudly.
I muttered, “I mean you were late.” Jonny looked up sharply.
“I had to take care of my brother. He is sick,” he said, trying to keep his voice down.
“I know that and I’m not mad. I just wasn’t going to sit here for 45 minutes waiting on you,” I said nearly shouting.
“If you didn’t want to wait, why’d you stay?” he asked.
”Because. It would’ve been wrong if I left, right?” I said.
“No,” he responded. I nodded my head and found my wallet. I put down 5 dollars for the pie and hot chocolate. I stood up and put on my jacket.
“What are you doing?” he asked me.
“Leaving.”
“Why?”
“Because apparently I shouldn’t have stayed,” I said and walked out the door.
That was Sunday. Now it’s Friday. I haven’t really spoken to Jonny since. I decided to go over my friend Tara’s house. She’s my lab partner and I needed the notes. When I rang the doorbell, Tara answered. She looked surprised to see me.
“Oh! Are you here to get Jonny?” she asked.
“Uh…Jonny’s here?” I asked.
“Yeah…we gotta practice for our concert. We do a duet on our clarinets,” she said.
“No I-I just wanted the notes,” I said.
“Oh. Well come in and I’ll get them for you!” she said. I walked in and sat on her couch. Two clarinets sat, one in the case and one on the couch. Jonny came in from the kitchen.
“Oh! Uh…hi, Kristy,” he said. I waved. He cleared his throat and went to his case. He started messing with his instrument. It was so awkward and it felt like forever until Tara could find her notes. She finally came in the room with papers.
“Here you go,” she said to me. I stood up and took the papers.
“Thanks…bye Tara, Jonny,” I said and quickly walked out the house. I looked at the driveway. Empty. Tara and Jonny were in the house alone. I tried to push the thought out of my head. Jonny wouldn’t. I went home still wondering about the ‘what if’s’.
Next Day
At around 3:00 that Saturday, my phone rang. I answered it.
“Kristy, we need to talk,” said a very familiar voice.
“I know. When?” I said. Then my doorbell rang. I opened it with my phone in hand and there was Jonny standing there in his pajama bottoms, some slippers and a Looney Toons shirt holding a pizza box and 2 cans of Pepsi.
“How about…now?” he said with a smirk. I couldn’t help but smile.
“Come on in,” I said. He set the food down on the coffee table in the living room and hugged me.
“You know, I’m not ready for company,” I said gesturing to my clothes. I was wearing sweatpants, a white kami shirt and some flip flops. I had sleep hair and I was wearing my glasses instead of contacts.
“Me neither,” he said. I knew he dressed in his pajamas on purpose so I wouldn’t feel so bad.
“Okay then. Well let’s eat.”
15 minutes
I ate 2 slices of pizza. Jonny ate 3. Now we were chugging down our Pepsi, preparing for a burp contest. Then my phone rang. I answered and it was Derrick.
“Hey Christy wanna go see that movie you were talking about?” he asked. I glanced at Jonny. He was staring at me.
“Not today, Teddy. I have company,” I said. I called Derrick Teddy because ever since we met, all I had to do was hug him and I felt better. He always comforted me and made me smile-like a teddy bear aka Teddy.
“You know you can always bring him. Me and Carly don’t mind,” he said. Carly was Derrick’s unofficial girlfriend, only because Carly was part of a very successful band that may be in another state for a few weeks at any given time. They were allowed to date other people but I doubted they would. Every time Carly came back they were always together.
“No,” I said, “Carly’s back. Have your date. I’ll catch the movie some other time,” I insisted.
“Okay…Love ya, Kristy!” Derrick said.
“Kudos. Bye,” I said and hung up the phone. Jonny stared at me.
“What?” I said reaching for my soda again.
“That was him, wasn’t it?” he asked.
“If the ‘him’ you’re referring to is Derrick, then yes. He invited us to a movie, but Carly’s back so I let him hang out with her for a while,” I said as casually as possible.
“Whatever,” he said.
“Jonny what’s your problem? Every time Derrick is mentioned you turn into a total douche,” I said.
“Excuse me?!” Jonny said.
“Did I stutter?” I retorted back.
“I see the way he looks at you,” he said.
“Oh my goodness, Jonny. Derrick has a girlfriend. Her name is Carly. He’s so nice to you and you can barely smile at him.”
“That’s because you’re always with him like he’s your boyfriend or something.”
“You think I’m a cheater!” I yelled. Jonny took a deep breath. “You know if we’re going to play the cheater card, let me ask you a question: did you or did you not think about hooking up with Tara yesterday?” I asked.
“You’re my girlfriend,” he said.
“You didn’t answer my question.” I looked at him. He stared back. We glared at each other for a few seconds.
“Yeah I thought about it and for a good second I thought about doing it for real, but only for a second,” he said. I shook my head.
“Well just so you know, I've never even thought about hooking up with Derrick. Ever. So you can stop calling me a cheater,” I said feeling tears coming to my eyes.
“I only thought about it because you’ve been going to Cali and not even showing affection to me anymore…what’s happened to us, Kristy?” he asked me, holding my hands in his. His eyes were getting teary too.
“Stop it,” I said, wiping the tears from his face. He was crying and I’m the reason. No, we’re the reason. “We need to take a break,” I said quietly. He looked at me and shook his head.
“No, no, Kristy, please. I can’t,” he said. Now I was crying too.
“But I can,” I said, “we both got a lot going on and it’s all making this relationship harder than it needs to be.”
“Stop. Please. Don’t.”
“We have to. It’s not fair to us. It’s tearing us up inside,” I said.
“I don’t want to lose you,” he said.
“You’re not going to. I’m going to be right here,” I said standing up. He got up with me. I made my way to the door and opened it. He was standing into the doorway and grabbed my hands and pulled me into a kiss. It was salty because of all the tears and I pulled away first. I hugged him and smelled his cologne. His face wet my hair. He took a deep breath and walked outside.
“Goodbye, Kristy,” he said and turned away.
“Bye, Jonny.” I said and closed the door, leaving myself broken, finally reaching the end.