Go Around

The next morning Alex woke up alone in his bed only briefly remembering the previous night because of how much he had drunk when he had gotten back to his house after being at Kennedy’s.
Alex turned to look at his clock that read 2:43 pm. He let out a sigh and fell back onto his pillows. He couldn’t believe that he had slept in so late, but on the other hand he wouldn’t have been able to believe it if he had woke up earlier either.
His phone on his night stand started ringing and he hoped that it was Kennedy calling to tell him that she had changed his mind so he lurched forward and grabbed it but then read the ID and saw that it was Lisa calling him. He let out a deep breath and fell back on his pillows again before answering the unwanted call. “Hello?” he asked, staring up at his ceiling.
“Hey, honey. Are you just waking up?” she asked in a voice that sounded like she had been up for hours.
He let out a little laugh. “Yeah, I guess that party got the better of me,” he said and he heard her chuckle on the other end of the line.
“Yeah, well, I was just wondering if we still have plans for tonight,” she asked and Alex heard a female voice in the background and wondered who was with her.
“Yeah, we can still hang out if you want,” he told her because he’d pretty much given up on Kennedy. He realized that what Kennedy wanted he couldn’t give her.
“Of course I want to!” Lisa exclaimed, “I’ll be over around 7?” she asked.
“Sounds good,” he told her and nodded at the same time.
“Okay, I’ll see you then,” she said.
“Okay,”
“I love you,”
“I love you, too,”
“Bye,”
“Bye,” he said and then hung up his phone.
He let out a sigh and looked at his phone again just to make sure that he hadn’t missed any calls or text messages from Kennedy. He realized and acknowledged that he had utterly fucked up and that it would take a lot for him to earn her forgiveness, but he could still hope for her.
He decided that he should probably get out of bed, so he got up and put on some pants before heading downstairs for breakfast. His mom left a note on the kitchen table for him telling him that they had a few errands to run and that they’d see him later. He crinkled up the note in his hand and threw in the garbage before going to the pantry and getting some cereal. He had three bowls of Frosted Flakes and then headed back upstairs to his room because he realized he left his phone up there on his bed.
He walked into his room and his phone was ringing, sending his heart into a panic and jumping across the room onto his bed and scrambling to find the ringing phone that was entangled in his sheets. He answered it without looking. “Hello?” he asked frantically.
“Hey, what’s up?” Jack asked from the other line and Alex let out his hundredth sigh for the day in disappointment. He realized that he really shouldn’t get his hopes so high up.
“Nothing, what are you doing?”
“I was wondering if you wanted to hang out,” Jack asked but sounded distracted.
“Sure, as long as it’s before seven,”
“What’s at seven?”
“Hanging out with the girlfriend,” Alex said sullenly, but tried to sound chipper.
“Oh yeah?” Jack laughed. “I’m actually with Kenne right now, but I was just about to leave. I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Jack told him but at the mere mention of Kennedy his heart skipped a beat.
“You’re with… Kennedy?” Alex asked slowly slightly out of shock and also because he wanted to tread easily over the subject. He didn’t want to seem like he cared too much because he didn’t know what Kennedy had told him about the previous night.
“Yeah…” Jack said, wonder in his voice.
“Um… how is she?” Alex asked trying to be nonchalant.
“She’s alright,” Jack told him and he was obviously feeling awkward talking about Kennedy right in front of her.
“Did you meet her boyfriend?” Alex couldn’t stop himself though.
“She’s not dating Mike, but yes, I did meet him,” Jack said coolly and Alex heard Kennedy mutter something in the background that Jack laughed at.
“Did you like him?”
“I thought he was decent,” Jack conceded and it was apparent that Jack didn’t really care either way. At the beginning of Kennedy’s and Alex’s relationship, Jack had been routing for them to be together but after all the shit that Alex had put Kennedy though and vice versa, Jack was really the only one who saw how damaging they were to each other if they were in a relationship.
“Oh, okay. Well, I guess I’ll see you in a few,” Alex said, wishing that Kennedy was right beside him this time.
“Yeah, see you soon,” Jack said and then hung up the phone.
Alex sat around his room wondering about Kennedy and Mike and how they had met exactly. He thought that it must have been the night that he said those awful things about her because that would be the only reason she would do something with someone else, but he didn’t want to believe that even though Kennedy had been hurt that she would sleep with someone else just to get back at him.
Alex heard someone walking up the stairs to his room and he sat up just as Jack opened his door. “That was quick,” Alex commented, looking down and realized that he was still not wearing a shirt, but he also knew that Jack had seen him naked more times than he had cared for so it didn’t really matter.
Jack laughed. “It took me an hour,” Jack commented.
“Oh, well, I guess I had a lot on my mind,” Alex told him.
“I gathered,”
“What did you and Kennedy talk about?” Alex blurted out.
“You, Mike, Audrey, Lorelei, her, and me – pretty much everything, but she really needed to talk to someone about everything who was a third party member and had no interest in the situation,” Jack concluded.
“Did she tell you what happened yesterday?”
“Yes, and frankly I think she’s right to do what she did. You’ve fucked her and Lisa over so badly and I really don’t think that you deserve either of them,”
“That was blunt,”
“I’m not trying to be a dick, I’m just telling you my honest opinion,”
“And none of this has anything to do with the fact that you used to have a crush on Kennedy and then I got her and then you had a crush on Lisa and I got her, too?”
“No. I appreciate both of them as friends, but I don’t want anything more than that anymore,” Jack told him, keeping himself calm because there was no reason for him to get worked up.
“Jack, you don’t get it – I need them, both of them. They both provide something different and I need –” Alex started saying but Jack cut him off.
“No, you don’t need both of them – you want both of them. There’s a difference. You really need to pull your head out of your ass and stop toying with each of these girls because honestly you’re giving both of them a world of hurt along with yourself,” Jack started lecturing him and Alex just sat back and listened. “I know that you love Kennedy, but if you honestly love Kennedy as much as you say you do then you would have broken up with Lisa a long time ago and not have made Kennedy hide your guys’ relationship and continue to flaunt your relationship with Lisa in front of her like nothing happened. And not to mention poor Lisa. She loves you so much and pretty much worships the ground you walk on and this is how you treat her? I really think you need to take a step back and think about what you need and who you really want and for both of their sakes I hope you choose to let them both go,” Jack said and then stood up and walked out of Alex’s room.
Alex sat there, trying to process everything that Jack had just thrown at him, but he couldn’t really concentrate because there was one phrase that he said that kept going and going in his mind because it had been thrown at him at least two or three times in the past few days by different people. If you honestly love Kennedy as much as you say you do…. It just kept going and going in his mind. Why did people keep saying that? They had no idea what he was feeling and how much he loved Kennedy. Half of the stuff he did he did for her own good, but nobody saw that they only saw him being selfish.