Just for a Moment

I sit up suddenly, wiping away the hair that was stuck to my forehead. I breathe heavily as I look around the room, regaining myself. Glancing at the clock, I notice that it was almost time for breakfast since it was already 8:50 AM, but I didn't really want to leave my room just yet. I had such a bad dream; it was about Max. He had made it onto campus and kidnapped me, forcing me into a car and driving me to who knows where. Right before I woke up, he dragged me into a room and tied me to a chair, placing a screen on the wall and making me watch clips of Jack being tortured by his henchmen. It was so vivid, bringing tears to my eyes and some paranoia was setting in.

I get up from bed and walk over to the bathroom, immediately getting into the shower. I stand there for a while, letting the warm water hit my face as I look up and count the tiles on the wall. It's sort of soothing to me - being in the water. I drag myself out of the shower to get ready for the day. As I walk towards my closet a faint knock stops me in my tracks, asking myself as to why someone would be coming to my room this early. I quickly pull up a pair of gray sweat pants and slip on a black tank top before shuffling over to the door and opening it. Jack stands on the outside, holding a tray of food.

“What a pleasant surprise,” I sniffle.

“Good morning.” He smiles and walks in, setting the tray down on my desk.

I examine the bags under his eyes as he crosses the room to sit on my bed. I was just about to ask him about his loss of sleep when he asks me to sit beside him. I plop myself down onto my bed and look up at him, cringing a bit from the images of my dream.

“I have some bad news,” he says, taking my hand.

“Wh-what is it?” I ask, a pit filling my stomach.

“We each earned ourselves a strike,” he lets out a sigh. “I don’t know how she found out, maybe she was watching, I don’t know-”

“What are you talking about?”

“Tally ratted us out to JT about the time I slept over, so he gave us both a strike. Ally, one more strike, and you could be out of this school. We should be more careful, especially now that Max is sending you those letters. He could be getting information from her.”

I shake my head and mutter not so nice things about Tally under my breath.

“That makes sense; she could be watching us for him. Or maybe she’s the one writing the letters to me! But how would she have the necklace? I’m so fed up with those two,” I say before wrapping my arms around him and lightly sobbing into his chest. “Why does all of this crap have to happen to me?
Why can’t I just have a nice peaceful time on this campus for once?”

He rubs my back as he hushes me, grabbing my phone from the night table.

“It’s your sister,” he mumbles before handing it to me.

I press the answer key and sniffle to stop my nose from running. As I spoke to my sister, I shuffled over to the desk to examine the food that Jack had brought in. I spy out a good looking hash brown on a plate and pick a piece out with a fork, shoving it into my mouth. After she said some cheesy stuff about Kellin, I decided to end the conversation and get back to my self-pity. I pick up the glass of orange juice and take a few sips when Jack speaks up again.

“This is my fault.”

I turn to face him, swallowing the last piece of the hash brown.

“What are you talking about?”

“This whole thing. If I hadn't have introduced you to Max, you probably would have never met him. Well, he does have a way with girls...” he says getting up and grabbing my hand. “but it wouldn't have been this bad. Ever since we started going out, he’s just been making your life harder. Maybe things would be better if I just left you alone-”

“No Jack,” I plead, “please don’t say that.”

“It’s true though, Ally. If he sees that I’m not with you, he’ll leave you alone. I just want you to be happy,” he says sorrowfully, looking me in the eyes.

“I am happy Jack, but if you leave I’ll just feel worse.”

He lets go of my hands and turns away. My stomach ties in knots, afraid of his decision.

“This is hard for me too Ally, but I think we need to try this. I need to see if he’ll leave you alone if I’m not with you. If he doesn't stop, I’ll come back to you.”

“And if he does?” I get closer to him, missing him already.

He looked me up and down, hurt in his eyes.

“I don’t know,” he mumbles under his breath, walking towards the door. He opens it and walks out, but turns back to look at me. “I love you, Aaliyah, I hope you know that,” he whispers.

For the third time this morning, I break out into tears. I shake my head, the pangs of pain sucking the breath out of me.

“Bye Jack,” I choke up.

I slowly close the door and crumple to the floor, drawing my knees close to me. Did this really just happen? Did Jack really break up with me? I never thought that I’d see this day coming. That was so selfish of him to just leave me like this, the time I need him most. I raise my hand to grab my phone from the bed and send a text to Naomi, filling her in on what had just happened. She checks in on me after a couple of minutes, flinging the door open. I had managed to pull myself onto the bed before she came, but I was still weeping. She sat on the bed next to me and rubbed my back, asking me to look at her.

“C’mon Ally, you don’t want to spend the whole day crying in your room, do you?”

“Yes,” I sniffle, sitting up. She shoots me a glare and hits me with a pillow. I suck my teeth and stand up. “What was that for?” I whine.

“We’re going to hang out today whether you like it or not, you need some fun,” she stands in front of me, a hand on her hip.

“We can’t,” I protest, “I’m waiting for Lizzy to get here so I can spend time with her.”

“Oh okay cool, when does she get here?”

“Around 1:30,” I say, walking over to my desk and skimming over the food again. I lose my appetite just thinking about Jack bringing it over to me.

“Ugh, that’s like four hours away, let’s go.”

She grabs my hand but I snatch it away and plop myself back onto the bed.

“Look Naomi, I appreciate you wanting to make me feel better, but I’m not really up to it right now.”

She sighs and sits in my desk chair, picking a muffin off the tray.

“Ally, I really don’t think that you should be dwelling on this for so long,” she says, taking a bite.

“Easy for you to say, you have Reggie,” I cross my arms.

She blushes and sets the muffin back down.

“That has nothing to do with this. Don’t look at it as Jack being selfish, he’s doing this because he loves you and he’s worried about you. He’s concerned about your well being. If he has to let you go to make sure that you’re safe and happy, no matter how much it hurts him, he’ll do it.” I look away as she picks at the muffin again, clearing her throat to grab my attention after she’s done chewing. “This is hard on him too, you know.”

I purse my lips and roll my eyes, realizing that she was right. She grabs the remote and joins me on the bed, turning the TV on and putting on an episode of Friends.

After a long TV marathon, I thank Naomi for cheering me up then shoo her away. I was so excited to see Lizzy after those long two weeks, I really missed her. At exactly 1:30, I leave my room to greet Lizzy across the hall when I stumble across JT. He says a quick hello to me before following me into Lizzy’s room. I ask her what was going on, curious as to why JT would need to go to her room so suddenly. Then he dropped the bomb of her and Kellin moving in together. He also called her Mrs. Quinn. Once JT leaves I turn to Lizzy, shock seeping out of my pores.

“You guys got married?” I shout, flailing my arms.

“Um,” her face flushes “kind of.”

I put both hands on my hips and scoff at her, feeling betrayed. Why didn't she tell me? Was it his idea to hide it from me? That jerk.

“I’m sorry Als; we just wanted to keep it a secret until we got here.”

I bite my lip and look down at my feet, instantly changing my feeling. It wasn't the fact that she hid it from me that I was mad. I was upset because here she was, married to the love of her life, and I had just gotten dumped earlier today. What a contrast.

“It’s fine,” I sigh, not in the mood to argue with her. “Let ’s just get your bags to your new room.”

I helped Lizzy get settled into her room as we listened to music and laughed at things she had found out about Kellin from his family. It lightened my mood a lot - spending time with Lizzy again. This is just what I needed to get my mind off of things for a while, and I appreciated her for it. I had also told her about how my vacation was here on campus, the ups and downs. She had empathized with me for what had happened this morning and told me that he’d be back sooner than I thought. This made me feel better as well.

My afternoon consisted of fixing the room up with the newlyweds. At some point I decided to yell at Kellin for doing exactly what I told him not to do. He laughingly apologized, telling me that he couldn't help it; he just had to claim Lizzy as his own right away, doing so with his last name. I had to admit, it was cute. I was still a bit upsetting though.

I spent the rest of the day with Naomi at the arcade, then ate dinner with her and headed to my room. Overall, I had a good day, thanks to my best friend and sister. I arrive to my door and look across to Lizzy’s old room. I touched the door and bit my lip, hating how fast things have moved between her and Kellin. I mean, I am happy for them, but…I don’t know. I feel like I won’t have her attention as much as I did before now that she had a husband. It’s crazy now that I think about it. Just over a year ago we had arrived here with high hopes, not even anticipating the things that we had experienced and are yet to happen. I huff and turn to my door, unlocking it and walking in. As I close the door behind me, I notice two letters on the floor. My heart rate speeds up as I pick them up; I didn't need Max to make this day even worse. I tear the first one open, regretting it right away.

Aaliyah,

It’s a shame that you got another strike. Don’t you see how much of burden that new boyfriend of yours is to you? You should just let him go; I’m waiting for you when you decide that you want a real man - one that’ll make sure that you won’t get in trouble.

Anonymous

I was really surprised to read that one, suspecting that it was from Max. The next person I thought of was Rick, but there was no way he could know that I had another strike. I tear open the second letter, baffled. Why did I still read these letters, knowing that it was Max messing with me? I don’t know, I guess I just was so curious as to what he had whipped up next, wanting to know what he had used this time to worry me. I just needed to know what else he had somehow found out about me. When I unfold the second letter, I get another surprise, seeing that it wasn't from Max.

Hey Als,

It’s me Lizzy. If I worried you while you were opening this letter, that was my intention. Not to be a jerk or anything, but I thought it would be a nice change from the usual letters you got from you know who. I just wanted to let you know that I love you, and that our relationship isn’t going to be different just because I have a ring on my finger now. Have a good night, and just know that you can come to me for anything. ♥

Love Lizzy :)

I smiled and placed the letter on my desk, knowing for sure it was her because of the handwriting. That was nice of her to do, even though it did give me a mini heart attack at first. I rip the other letter up and throw it into my trash bin, then crawl into my bed and grab my phone. I had three texts; one from Lizzy, another from Naomi, and the last from Jack. My stomach flopped as I saw his name and decided that I would read his last. I open Naomi’s which was just a short ‘have a good night’ with a smiley face. Then Lizzy’s text was asking me if I had read the letter yet. I responded with a ‘yes!’ and thanked her for it, adding a goodnight to it. I contemplated not reading Jack’s text, but of course I ended up opening it.

‘Hey Ally, I’m sorry about earlier today, I hope that you understand what I’m doing this for. When I saw you at dinner, I really felt like standing up and running over to you with a hug, but I knew that wouldn't be a good idea. I just wanted to let you know that I was thinking about you. I hope you have a good night sleep. Text me if you need anything. Love you.’

I smiled at my phone and set it down beside me, pulling the blanket over my face.