Look Closer

"Hey Jack, it's Chelley. I wanted to talk to you about something. I'm guessing you're still mad since you've been avoiding me for two weeks, but please, please call me back." Chelley sighed as she hit the button to end the call. She knew he wouldn't call back. This was the fifth message she'd left him in a week and he hadn't returned a single call.

She wandered out of the break room and back toward her cash register. Before she got far, a hand gently caught her arm and she nearly flew right out her skin.

"Jesus, you scared me," she said when she saw who had grabbed her.

"Last time I checked I wasn't Jesus. But I've been known to get it wrong," he said with a laugh.

Chelley let out a soft chuckle. "I'm pretty sure there are some people who think you might be Jesus," she replied. "Oh, the things I could tell them."

Alex grinned but it faded quickly when Cassie chimed in. "Me too, girl. We could write books on just how not Jesus he is," she said.

"Alright, you two. That's enough," Alex said. "I'm a somewhat decent guy, once you get past all the stupid shit I do."

Both girls giggled but Chelley stopped suddenly. "Can I help you find something?" she asked out of nowhere. Her eyes darted from them to a person walking behind Alex and Cassie. Luckily they both caught on quickly.

"Yeah," Alex said. "I'm in the market for a new flat iron. You know, for my hair," he continued and Cassie rolled her eyes. "Could you possibly show me where to find them and maybe give a recommendation?" he asked.

Chelley nodded. "I would be happy to. Right this way," she said, leading them toward the flat irons and hair dryers.

"Believe it or not, he really is here for a new straightener," Cassie said as they turned down the aisle, now out of earshot of whomever it was that started Chelley. "And he probably does want a recommendation because I told him I would come with him but he's on his own when it comes to picking one out. He's more of a girl than me sometimes."

"I believe it," Chelley said. "So is that all that brings you guys here this afternoon?" she asked.

Cassie shrugged. "We kind of hoped you would be working so we could see how you were doing. No one has heard from you since your party," she said.

Chelley rolled her eyes. But not at Cassie. "So I guess Jack didn't tell anyone that I've been trying to call him all week. He's really mad at me, isn't he?" she asked.

Alex and Cassie looked at each other and then at Chelley. For a few moments, neither said anything. "Jack didn't tell you?" Alex finally asked her.

"Tell me what?" she inquired.

He hesitated long enough before answering that Cassie decided to answer the question for him. "Jack went back home," she said and Alex turned his attention to hair straighteners. "We told him he had to let you know and he said he had already told you."

Chelley bit the inside of her lip in frustration, trying her hardest not to let it show. But the two people standing there with her could tell she was getting angry. "When?" she asked.

"A little over a week ago," Cassie said.

"He hasn't talked to me since the morning after the party when he was yelling at me about how I ruined everything and basically told me that I'm a horrible person," she said. "I've been trying to get ahold of him because I just," she paused, "I want to talk to him. To apologize," she explained. "He wouldn't consider even hearing an apology from me because I didn't know what I was apologizing for. But I remember that night now. Most of it, anyway, which is really more than I'd like to remember."

Alex turned to look at the two girls but before he could say anything, Chelley snatched a pink flat iron from the rack and all but threw it at him.

"Get that one," she said. Her small frame was shaking from the frustration and annoyance she felt. "I have to go," she said and hurried away from them.

She was headed in the direction she had just come from, before Alex had grabbed her arm. But instead of heading into the break room, she pushed open a door a few yards away from it. The person sitting at the desk shifted their eyes from the computer screen and looked at her.

"What can I do for you, Chelley?" he asked.

She had already removed her name tag from her shirt and tossed it on the desk, followed closely by her keys. "I'm sorry, but I'm done," she said and turned on her heel to leave.

"Chelley, what's going on?" he asked before she reached the door.

"I just really have to leave. I have something that needs to be taken care of and the person it involves just so happens to be across the country and won't answer my phone calls. So like I said, I'm sorry. But this person just so happens to be more important to me than this job," she said as she pulled the office door open.

The store manager was calling after her as she all but ran toward the front of the store. She ignored him. There were very few people she felt strongly enough about to do something like this. But she had done a lot of thinking over the previous two weeks and she had begun to realize how much she cared for Jack.

She had been wrong to push him away so hard. All he had ever tried to be to her was a great friend. And she had refused to give him the benefit of the doubt, even though he probably deserved it more than any other person she knew. He definitely deserved it more than Alex or Cassie and she had cut both of them a lot of slack.

But because of some stupid drunken mistake, she found an excuse to hold anything and everything possible against Jack. And he had done his best to put up with it and be patient. He had waited for her to get her thoughts straight. But she didn't. And in turn she ended up making an even bigger mistake than a drunken marriage.

Though she had made a rash decision, she knew what her ultimate destination was. It didn't hit her until she was walking through the doors at LAX, however, that she didn't have even one change of clothes with her and she had no idea how long this unexpected trip she was taking would be. But she pushed the thought of her mind as she approached the counter.

"How can I help you?" the woman behind the counter pleasantly inquired.

"I need to get to Baltimore, Maryland as soon as possible," Chelley said.