Three's A Crowd

The worst feeling ever is to be standing in a room and not only think that nobody would miss you if you weren't there, but knowing you wouldn't miss them if they weren't.

Luckily for Lauren, she'd never known that feeling. She had her boyfriend, Jack's arm slung around her shoulders, and her two best friends were at the opposite side of the room. In fact, life couldn't be much more perfect.

In all honesty, she hadn't even wanted to come to Kat's party tonight. Jack had wanted to stay in and watch a movie, and the thought was delicious, but Lauren had a sneaking suspicion that Kat had only arranged it so that she could get the group back together - how could she not come?

There were about fifteen people scattered around the ground floor of the house. Hardly a party, but it was much more personal, and at least you got a chance to talk to everyone there. It was a small house bought by Kat's parents just over a year ago when Kat had first entered Lauren and Stacey's lives. Her dad had left soon after, leaving her mum with a mortage she couldn't afford so that she had to do extra shifts at the hospital where she worked in order to feed her only daughter.

"Hey, Loz?" Jack nudged her with his elbow making her jump. She'd been considering going over to talk to Stacey, perhaps kindly suggest she not sleep with the guy she was currently flirting outrageously with in Kat's mum's bed. That had been done before and the aftermath had not been pretty. On the other hand, going over there would mean leaving the warmth of Jack's side, and she didn't particularly want to do that. Perhaps she could indicate for Stacey to come over here...

"Yes, baby?" Lauren looked up into Jack's breathtakingly good-looking face with a now familiar surprise. He was hers. She still couldn't comprehend how a guy that attractive would want to be with the girl she saw in the mirror. Average hair. Average eyes. Average height. Just average.

"Can we go upstairs for a sec? I need to talk to you.." She knew what that meant.

"Can't it wait, Jack? It's a party, you know, people will get suspicious." Jack laughed.

"No, Loz, I actually do want to talk. Listen, let's just go outside on the porch. Please?" She'd never refused him anything, and she so wasn't about to now.

"'Course." In actual fact, she wouldn't mind getting a bit hot and heavy; this party blew.

When they were outside, Lauren started to shiver. It wasn't all that cold, but the slight breeze was bringing up goosebumps on her arms, and she wished she'd thought to bring her jacket. Jack gave her his. It was a weird night, like it could change at any minute; the clouds hinted darkly at rain though the day before had been beautiful. Lauren sat down on the front step but instead of joining her, Jack stood in front, looking down at her with a frown tugging at his perfectly proportioned features. She was so lucky.

"Loz, I was going to tell you tonight. I... God, I don't know how to say this. It's shitty timing, I know." Lauren wondered if it was about university; they'd talked about where they wanted to go next year, but no plans had been decided. It's seemed like a lifetime away. All she knew was that she wanted them to be together. "I want to break up."

Jack's jacket fell off her shoulders and onto the porch without her having moved at all. Her mind refused to function, tried to erase the last few seconds. It was a joke, it had to be. Someone would jump out from behind the tree's in the front garden screaming "April Fools!". But it was October.

"...what?" Jack just nodded, his usually warm expression hardening as though she was seeing him for the first time. "You can't be serious! We've been together for almost a year, Christ, you said you loved me! I gave my fucking virginity to you!" She didn't even care that people inside would probably have heard that last bit. Jack still remained silent, and it distressed her all the more to think that he knew her so well as to let her ride out her anger without interruption.

He started to back away down the drive, and hysteria gripped her so hard she almost choked.

"No, please don't leave me, Jack!" He looked at her, his eyes like granite.

"Don't make this harder, Lauren." It was the first time he'd called her Lauren. Even when they'd just met, he'd had to be different.

"Harder? You thought this wasn't going to be hard??" She took a deep breath and finally started to claw back her sanity. She needed to stop being so pathetic. "Can you at least tell me why?"

"It just...stopped being special." As he walked away, Lauren had to turn back towards the house so that she didn't have to witness her own loss. She staggered back into Kat's house and was immediately infolded by Stacey who held her so tightly that Lauren could almost imagine that she wasn't falling apart.