Back to the Place We Knew Before

Zack really threw me for a loop on that one. I mean, I knew he was upset, but I thought he was trying to get over her.

“I can’t do this anymore,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t do this, any of this,” he sighed and sat down at our kitchen area, cradling his head in his hands. “There isn’t a minute that she’s not on my mind. I miss e verything about her: her soft brown hair, her sparkling emerald eyes, her smooth pale skin, her melodic laughter, the way that her hand in mine sends waves of electricity throughout my entire being, the way every time I hear Dammit by Blink 182 I think about her, the way she used to not care about anything other than the fact that when everything else was slipping out of reach we could hold on to each other.” he sighed, his voice cracking, “I can’t live like this anymore. I don’t have any will to live.”

“Zack” I started.

“Raegan, you don’t understand. I can’t deal with living this way. You and Alex have each other, and I‘m not saying I don‘t want to see you two happy, I just can‘t help but wish it was your sister on tour with us. Then I wouldn‘t be like this.”

“Have you tried talking to her?”

“No, I know she’s got no interest in speaking with me. Could you blame her?”

“It’s not entirely your fault, though. Didn’t you both agree that it’d be best to break up?”

“She kind of hinted that she didn’t want to break up in the middle of summer. Then we got into that huge fight at Akari and she didn’t speak to me for days. This is worse.”

“Then why did you break up with her? You didn’t want to, and she didn’t want you to.”

“I don’t know. When we first found out about the tour, Mikayla said I should, so that we wouldn’t be tying each other down. Then she said that I should break up with Braelyn earlier than planned so that we’d both have time to get used to it.”

“So this is Mikayla’s fault?”

“No, this is all on me. I’m so fucking stupid.” he said with a tear rolling down his face.

“Don’t cry. Please.” I pulled him into a hug, “D-do you want me to talk to Braelyn?”

“I-I don’t know. I mean-”

“Guys, it is 11.20, we have to leave right now or we’ll be late.” Flyzik yelled to us.

Without a word Zack stood up and walked off of the bus. I followed suit and walked the short distance to the record shop. As we approached the store, we noticed a huge line formed outside, and the all roared in applause as the guys approached. Alex was already inside, but ran out to greet me with a kiss. Half of the crowd awh’ed, while the other half boo’ed.

“Guess what!” he said, excitedly.

“I dunno, what?”

“This little acoustic show, just us, no other bands, SOLD OUT!”

I smiled and told him how great it was. ‘This is really going to happen for these guys,’ I thought.

Alex took me by the hand and brought me inside the store.

“Come on, there’s someone I want you to meet.” he led me over to some girl wearing a low cut v-neck and a short, high-waisted skirt.

“This is Jess. She’s Amber Pacific’s merch girl. We met up as I was walking to the Radio Station today, she came to the interview with me,” he said. She looked me up and down, and gave me the fakest smile ever.

“Jess, this is Raegan.” Alex introduced me.

“His girlfriend” I added. He shot me a questioning look that I returned with a smile. What the hell? Why would he not introduce me as his girlfriend? Who was this bitch? “While you set up, I’m going to go call Braelyn.” I said before kissing him hard on the lips right in front of her.

“O-okay.” he said, smiling at me.

I walked out back to a small alley and called Brae. She told me all about some cute, funny boy that she’d been seeing. I didn’t even know how to respond. What was going on in life? Super confident Zack was on the verge of suicide, Alex was talking to and hanging out with some slutty girl without me there, and Braelyn has seemingly moved on from Zack. I don’t know if I could handle this.