Fallout

Josh noticed something was a bit off when he came home; his door was unlocked and the lights in his apartment were on, which he tried to remember for the life of him if he had forgotten to turn them off and lock his door. As he stood in the doorway, his blue eyes scanned around the place trying to see if he had been broken into. When he found nothing, he sighed and scolded himself for being paranoid –of course his apartment was going to be different now that his ex-girlfriend had moved out.

His eyes snapped over to his bedroom door when he heard it creak open, and his heart dropped. “What are you doing here?”

His question seemed to startle her because she dropped her bag that she was carrying. “I, um, I was hoping to be gone by the time you came home.” She whispered, avoiding eye contact with him as she picked up her bag before trying to rush out of the room. She had almost made it out the front door, but Josh caught her by the arm.

“Are you happy?”

Her body was turned away from him; she would only glance at him from the corner of her eyes. “Yes.” Josh felt all the air being sucked out of his body as he let go of her arm. Watching her walk out on him the first time was just as bad as watching her walk away from him again. Josh was still numb from her answer, and he didn’t care that his apartment door was wide opened and he was standing there like a fish out of water. Her answer had caught him off guard. How could she be happy, when he was far from it?

After a few moments of just standing there, Josh realized how idiotic he was being, so he shut his apartment door and sat on his couch. He knew she was here because she must have forgotten something, but did she really need to sneak around? If she had came and knocked on the door, he would have let her in. She was always welcomed there.

Josh groaned; his phone was vibrating in his pocket of his leather jacket. The guys have been bugging him about Jaiden because, apparently, they had seen him talking to her at the grocery store. The guys had commented that she was cute, and looked very nice, but the statement that left Mike’s lips got him to think about at least trying to become friends with the girl.

She’s not Amanda.

The only similarities the two girls had were their hair color, everything else was completely different. Their height, eye color, and skin color. Amanda was tall as Jaiden was on the short side, her eyes were darker compared to Jaiden’s green ones, and Jaiden was tan while Amanda was pale like Josh.

The girls’ were nothing a like.

Jaiden was nothing like her.

Letting his head fall back against the cushion, Josh realized how truly lonely he felt. He wasn’t used to being single, and being off of tour, but he knew with the band being in the studio to record their newest album, Ever After, his schedule would pick up once more. He would admit to anyone that he liked having a fast pace schedule, no matter how many times he would complain about not having any free time. Finally fishing his phone out of his pocket, he saw that he had a text message from Matt.

Dude! Just saw that girl Jaiden! I got her number for you, bro!

After replying that he was an asshole for doing that, Josh felt as if he should at least be considerate and save her number anyways. All he needed was to work up his courage and text her. It couldn’t be hard, right? Just hitting the keys on his phone to make out a short message to send to a potential girlfriend, couldn’t be that hard. A jolt of shock ran through his body; had he really already thought of this girl who he had only talked to twice become a potential girlfriend?

Pushing all his thoughts, cautions, and fears to the back burner of his mind, Josh clicked on her contact and decided to text her. There was no harm in just texting, a girl, who could either be a complete psycho, or your potential girlfriend, right? It couldn’t hurt to have a decent conversation, plus, Josh needed to meet new people. His world couldn’t revolve around the band and his family. What about starting his own family soon? He kind of needed a girl to do that.

His phone vibrated, and he was instantly nervous. He didn’t understand why he was acting like such a girl. He was acting like a prissy little bitch, and Josh Ramsay is not a bitch.

Hey! (: How are you?

Typing in his reply, Josh wasn’t as nervous as before. Soon after a few texts, he felt himself become more comfortable talking to Jaiden. She was sweet, and was very friendly –something that he needed at the moment. A friend who wasn’t going to push that fact he should be over Amanda, or that fact he was still lingering on the hope that she would come back to him.

Josh found himself smiling when she mentioned that she had taken his idea and made pizza for her friend the other day. Throughout talking with each other, they learned trivial facts about one another. He found out her favorite food was chicken caesar salad, her favorite color was green, that she’s had her dog since she was about twenty, that she only had an older brother, that her mother died when she was fifteen, and that she worked as a waitress in a little coffee shop. Jaiden was easy to talk to, and he liked that.

Do you have a girlfriend?

Josh’s heart felt as if it dropped down to his stomach. He knew the answer, but actually telling someone that he was single hurt him. He was so used to telling everyone how in love with Amanda he was, and how someday he was going to make her his wife… but things change, people change, and he needed to move on because there was a chance that Amanda was never coming back. Answering her question, he suddenly became uneasy. Did she have a boyfriend? Would he get mad that some other guy was texting his girl?

I don’t have a boyfriend, we broke up about a month ago.

A small jolt a happiness spread throughout him; though, he wasn’t going to jump into a relationship with Jaiden, knowing that she was single was going to make things easier for him because she was fair game.