Words Only Count If You Mean Them

Chapter 11

“Are you, are you breaking up with me?”

“No, I just- yeah, I guess I am.” Jack’s words hit me hard. He turns and runs, faster then I’ve ever seen him run before.

And me?

After those words came out of his mouth, my body got numb. My feet couldn’t support my weight and I feel to the ground. I sobbed softly, the sound of that and my breath, drowning out the sound of the bustling people around me. I’m sure people stared at me, the sobbing, teenaged boy who was in the middle of the sidewalk.

I’m not sure how long I was there, without Jack; my body’s natural clock had been thrown off. I knew when to get up because my body was programmed that way because to my body it meant, ‘wake up and go see Jack.’

My body told me I was on the ground sobbing for hours, when my mind knew it was only about ten or twenty minutes.

I feel a pair of arms pull me up and into a hug. “I came looking for you, after I felt something wasn’t right. What happened?” His voice was calm, kind and strong.

I cry harder, when he asks what’s wrong. I hate when that happens. It always makes people more worried about you. “H-he broke up with me.” My voice is raspy.

“Do you want me to take you home?” Caleb asks, “I can call my Dad. He can be here in ten minutes.”

I shake my head. “I’ll, I’ll call my mom.”

He nods, “Do you want me to wait with you, until she gets here?” He asks.

“Yes, please.” I mumble, “Thanks for asking,” I hug him and pull out my phone dialing my mom.

I call her and she tells me, she’d be there soon.

“Hey, Alex,” Caleb says.

I glance up, acknowledging him. I wait for him to go on.

“Let me see your phone,” I hand him my phone and he starts playing around with it, “I put my number in there, if you need to speak to anyone. Call me.”

“Okay.” Just as I say that my mom pulls up. Her face is a bit startled. I’m guessing at the remains of tears and the way my eyes are red. “Thanks, Caleb.” I mumble, opening the car door, sitting down and putting on the seatbelt. I wave goodbye and he does the same

“I hope I get to hear about what happened earlier. I really would like to know why you were crying.” My mom says, pulling away.

I look out the window, trying to ignore her. I didn’t want to talk. I had to think. I needed to get Jack back. Without Jack, I wasn’t me. Without him I was just Alex.

My mother’s voice comes screeching in, making me lose my train of thought, “ALEX!”

“What?!” I shout back at her, immediately regretting it. I didn’t want to take my emotions out on her, “Um… Sorry for yelling at you just now.”

“It’s okay, but baby, what happened? Why were you crying?” She asks me.

“J-jack,” My throat gets tight, making it hard to continue.

“What about Jack?” My mother asks. Her eyes suddenly become curious.

“H-he, he broke up with me,” I manage to say, tears deciding that, this, is a great time to start falling.
My mom blinks, like multiple times, clearly confused, “WHAT?!”

“He, he broke up with me. That’s why I was crying.” I mumble looking at my feet, wishing I could get away from my mother’s questions.

“But, you always seemed so happy. What happened? Why did he break up with you?”

“I, ugh, I umm…” I can’t finish the sentence. I don’t want my mom to get pissed that I lied to her.

“You…?”

“I lied to him about where I was. I-I told him I was with you, when I was with Caleb. He was outside Starbucks when he asked. He knew where I was. Jack doesn’t like Caleb and he was angry because I actually never called him. I’m sorry that I lied to you too, Mom”

My mom just shakes her head in disapproval and goes back to driving. She doesn’t question it further. She just full on ignores me for the rest of the ride. She gets out of the car and slams the door, shut. I jump a bit; she’d never been like this before.

I whip out my phone and text Jack.

Jack, I’m really sorry. Please text me back. I promise I will do anything to get you back. I love you. Just please text me. I miss you so much! Love Alex.

I sit in the car waiting for him to text back. The sun starts to set and that’s when I realize, I may have lost Jack.