You Belong With Me

Taylor's P.O.V.

“I need to tell you something,” Jack said. He refused to look me in the eye.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I-I don't know how to say it,” he hesitated.

“Whatever it is, you'll feel better once you get it off your chest, so just say it.”

“Ok, fine, I'll say it. I think I'm in love with you.”

As soon as those words came out of his mouth, my whole body froze. My heart skipped multiple beats and I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing. I felt my own mouth drop open in surprise and it took all the strength I had not to slam my face into my palm. Oh no, this could not be happening...

“Say something,” he said anxiously after a few moments of silence.

“Jack, I-I honestly don't know what to say,” I responded breathlessly.

“Look, whatever it is, just be honest with me. That's all I ask.” For the first time since he came into my house, he looked at me with those deep, puppy dog eyes.

“Ok,” I said. I hesitated trying to think of the best way to voice my feelings.

“Come on, just tell me where your head is.”

I nodded and looked over at him with sorry eyes and took a deep breath. “I love you, Jack, I do, but not the way you want me to. The last thing I ever want to do is hurt you. You're my best friend.”

His expression was crestfallen and I could tell I had broken his heart even though he tried desperately to hide it. “Ok,” he said. “That's what I thought. I just wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't tell you how I felt.”

A tear escaped from my eye and I wiped it away. “I'm so sorry, Barakuda.” I couldn't take the thought of hurting him.

He took me in his arms and rubbed his hand between my shoulder blades in comfort. “It's not your fault” he murmured as I cried on his shoulder.

“I can't believe I turn you down, yet I'm the one who needs comforting,” I joked once I had pulled myself together a little bit. “It seems to be a trend lately.”

“Don't worry about it,” Jack said giving me a small smile. “But listen, I actually have to get back home. I just wanted to tell you before it was too late.”

“Ok,” I nodded. “Will I see you at school tomorrow?”

“Of course,” he said as he got up. When he was halfway to the door, he turned around again. “Oh and Taylor?”

“Yeah?” I said looking up at him.

“I have a favor to ask.”

“Anything.”

“I am so sorry to do this to you, but I don't think I can go to prom with you anymore. It would just be too painful for me.”

I nodded again and looked down at the floor. “I understand.”

“But,” he continued. “I don't want anything else between us to change after this. In fact, pretend this never happened. I don't want my feelings to get in the way of our friendship. The last thing I would ever want to do is lose you.”

I looked up at him and smiled. “You got it.” He smiled back and gave me a thumbs up and then turned and left.

After I heard the door slam, I went back up to my room. I didn't want to go out anymore. I didn't want to do anything except sit in my room and think about the terrible person I was to my best friends and cry. First, I hurt Alex by telling him I couldn't go to prom with him and now I broke Jack's heart and stomped on it. I didn't deserve either of them.

I thought about all those times that I had called Jack after being with Alex and told him every little detail of it. I couldn't even imagine how he must have reacted when I told him about our kiss. God, that must have hurt him so much. Why couldn't I realize what was going on and stop being so stupid and selfish? Jack deserved so much better than me and I prayed more than anything that he would find it.

As I continued on my path of self-loathing, I turned over on my bed and immediately noticed that my closet was open. There, in the middle of the chaos, was my beautiful white prom dress. I let out a long sigh as I realized that I wouldn't get to wear it and then a fresh wave of tears overtook me.

Alex's P.O.V.

Things with Jack and I haven't gotten any better. We haven't spoken to each other at all since we had that fight. We never had a fight like this before. It felt weird not talking to him in class or texting him randomly. However, every time I laid eyes on him yesterday, I couldn't help but get angry. As far as I was concerned, we had nothing to say to each other other than band business. That bastard went behind my back. We had an agreement and he went against it. He had never betrayed me like this before and he was the last person I would expect this type of thing from. I wasn't sure if or when I would be able to forgive him.

The next day, I was still just as angry as I was before. I still couldn't get the whole situation out of my head no matter how hard I tried. In fact, I was up the whole night last night just thinking about it and wondering what I would do if Jack and I couldn't get past this. What would happen to the band? This could affect my entire future.

When I came into school the next day, I was careful not to look around me. I didn't want to see him, so I went straight to my locker and got my books. When I was done, I furiously slammed the locker shut.

“Wow, someone needs some anger management.”

I turned around to see Katelyn walking toward me. I told you, this girl never gives up.

“What do you want?” I spat at her.

“I just wanted to see if you were ok,” she responded. I searched for signs of a lie, but saw nothing but sincerity on her face. “I noticed that you have been pretty angry lately and I was wondering if you needed someone to talk to.”

“Thanks, but I think this is something I need to deal with on my own.” I said as I began to walk to class, but she followed me.

“I know this might seem kind of weird, but I want you to know that I'm here for you.”

“Why?” I asked her.

“Why what?”

“Why are you here for me? I practically spat in your face the last time we talked.”

She merely shrugged. “I deserved everything you said to me. Look, Alex, I know you have absolutely no reason at all to trust me, but I really do care about you. I know I totally messed up my chances with you romantically, but I want to show you that I can still be your friend if you'll let me.” She gave me a questioning look, but I hesitated to answer. “Look, I know it's going to be hard to be friends, “ she said, “but I think it's worth a shot. I'd rather be friends with you than nothing at all.”

I wondered if I could really be her friend. She was the first girl I had ever truly loved, but then she smashed my heart to pieces. I remembered the girl back then, but then I looked at the girl now and I realized they were two different people. The girl back then would not have given two shits if I was angry, but this girl had concern written all over her face. Something about her was definitely different. I knew I could never get to that point where I wanted to date her again, but I thought I could at least be friends with this new girl. “Ok,” I said giving her a small smile.

“Friends?” she asked offering me her hand to shake.

“Friends.” I shook it. We walked to homeroom together.

“So you still didn't tell me what's bothering you,” she prompted once we reached the classroom and sat down.

“Uhm it's just stuff with Jack and Taylor,” I said vaguely.

“Look, Alex, you said we could be friends. Friends tell each other things and are there for each other. You have to try to trust me.”

“Ok,” I nodded. I proceeded to tell her some of the story about me, Jack, and Taylor. I didn't tell her everything though. We weren't at that point.

“Wow that sucks,” she said once I finished. “What are you going to do?”

“I honestly don't know, but I have never been as pissed off at him as I am now.”

“I don't really blame you. If my friend went behind my back like that, I would be angry too.”

“I never really expected Jack to do anything like that and that's the worst part of it.”

“He shouldn't have went behind your back and asked her to prom like that. That was definitely wrong of him.”

An idea suddenly popped into my head. “Hey, do you have a date to prom yet?” I asked. She shook her head. “Do you want to go with me? It would be just as friends, of course.”

She smiled at me in response. “Sounds great.”

I smiled back. “Ok, good.”

The bell rang, so we went to class. I told Katelyn that I would talk to her tomorrow and that really seemed to cheer her up. To be completely honest, I was sick of being mad at her all the time. Now that I was finally over her as a girlfriend, there wasn't really a reason why I couldn't be friends with her. I knew things would be better this way.

Jack wasn't there yet when I walked in to class, so I sat down in my normal spot. Five minutes into class, he busted through the door out of breath and practically ran to the seat next to me. I looked around the room and noticed that there were plenty of other desks he could have sat at.

“Nice of you to join us, Mr. Barakat,” the teacher said and then continued with the lesson.

“Psssst,” I heard someone whisper a few minutes later. I felt a tap on my shoulder, so I turned and saw that Jack was trying to get my attention. I stared at him, so he said, “I need to talk to you.”

“I don't have anything to say to you,” I said coldly.

“But I have a lot to say to you,” he whispered back. “I'll meet you at your locker before lunch.” He turned his attention back to the lesson before I could say anything else. I spent the next three hours wondering what he could possibly want to talk to me about.

Finally, the bell rang for lunch. I jumped out of my seat and walked quickly to my locker. Somehow, Jack was already there waiting for me.

“Hey,” he said casually as I opened my locker to drop off my books.

“Just cut the bullshit and say what you need to say,”I responded without giving him a second glance.

“Ok fine. I want to apologize.” I slammed my locker and gave him my full attention. “I was wrong,” he continued. “I shouldn't have asked Taylor to prom without telling you and I shouldn't have lied to you and told you to ask her after she already said yes to me. It was a real asshole thing to do and I'm sorry.”

“Why did you do it?”

“Because I wanted her all to myself for a change.”

“What do you mean?”

“It's so rare that I get to be with her alone. I just wanted to have her to myself.”

“But you won't be alone with her anyway. Everyone else will be there hanging out with you guys.”

“The difference is that she would have been mine, at least for the night.”

“Would have been?”

“Yeah. We aren't going together any more.”

This one small revelation made my head spin. “Wait, what? Why not? What happened?”

He took a deep breath. “I-I went to her house last night. I told her exactly how I felt about her and she said she doesn't feel the same way. Now, going to prom with her would be a lie. It would be too painful going with her knowing that I couldn't have her, so I told her we can't go together. I guess what I'm trying to say is that she's all yours now and I'm an asshole.”

My mouth dropped open a little bit. “Jack, I-I'm really sorry too. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

“I know,” he said glumly. “It just sucks.”

“It all sucks,” I agreed. “What's going to happen with you two?”

“We're going to continue being friends. I made her promise me that we wouldn't let things get awkward. I don't want it to change things between us.”

“That's good I guess.”

“Speaking of friendship, is ours still intact?”

“What do you mean?”

“That's Jack-code for do you forgive me.” He had a pleading look on his face.

“Right. I guess so.”

Jack nearly jumped on me and threw his arms around my neck in happiness. “Yes! I promise that I will never ever do that to you ever again!”

“You better not,” I laughed patting his back.

“Just do me a favor,” he said.

“What's that?”

“Don't break her heart again. If you do, I may have to kill you and I would hate to do that.”

“I'll keep that in mind.”

Just then, Katelyn walked by and waved at me. I smiled and waved back at her. Jack just had a dumbfounded look on his face.

“What' the story with that?” he asked motioning to her. Luckily, she now had her back to us, so she didn't see.

“I've decided it's a waste of effort being mean to her now. She really seems like she has changed. I was really angry at you before and she could tell. She seemed genuinely concerned about me. She told me she wants to be friends.”

“Are you sure that's a good idea though? I mean, she has been known to lie before.”

“I can't put my finger on it, but something about her has changed and I think it's for the better. I really think she's not the same person she used to be. I could never be with her romantically again, but I don't see the harm in being friends with her. Besides, I haven't seen her hanging out with anyone else lately, so I think she really needs a friend.”

He shrugged. “It's your funeral,” he said.

We finally reached the door to the cafeteria, but I stopped Jack before he could open it.

“Wait! Before you go in there, there's something I have to tell you.”

“What's up?”

“Don't freak out or anything, but I kind of asked Katelyn to go to prom with me.”

“Why the hell would you do that?”

“We both needed a date. I figured it would be a good way for us to get more comfortable being friends. I wouldn't have asked her if I knew you weren't going with Taylor anymore.” I put my hand on my forehead in stress.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don't know. I would love to go with Taylor more than anything, but I can't just tell Katelyn that I can't go with her anymore. That's not fair, especially since I just asked her today.

“Yeah, that's tough. I'm sorry I put you in that position, dude. If I never asked her, you would be going with her and not even thinking about Katelyn.”

“It's not your fault,” I said, “But we should probably go sit down before Taylor sends a search party after us.”

We walked into the cafeteria toward Taylor. It figured that the day I asked another girl to the prom would also be the day that I found out that the girl of my dreams had just become available. Fuck my life.