Teenage Dirtbag

Jack’s POV
I was sitting in the cafeteria on my own, before first period, waiting for the rest to show up. I was having trouble keeping my eyes open as I had hardly slept all night. I fucked up big time with Tay yesterday. I had tried calling her and texting her but so far she hadn’t replied to anything. Not that I could blame her, but I just really wanted to apologize to her. Alex’s happy voice snapped me out of my thoughts as he and Haley sat down oppose me.

​​​“You look like shit” Haley noted.
“Thank you” I replied sarcastically. “Do you know where Tay is?”
“She’s not coming” Haley replied. “She’s ill and staying home for the day.”
I sighed.

​​​“What do you need her for anyway?” Alex asked.
I was silent for a moment, rubbing my neck before I spoke. I might as well just tell them what happened, they’ll find out eventually anyway.
​
​​​​​“I fucked up” I muttered.
“What did you do?” Haley asked
“Well, I went over there to borrow a couple of movies yesterday and when I was on my way home, I realized I’d rather be watching them with Tay” I started my story. Neither of them said anything so I continued talking. When I got near the end I could tell from Haley’s face she knew what was about to happen.

​​​“So then I kissed her” I muttered.
Haley covered her eyes with her hand and sighed. “What were you thinking?” she asked me, as she moved her hand back to rest on the table.
“I wasn’t” I replied.
“Clearly” Haley hissed. “For weeks you’ve been telling her how much you do not like her like that and then, only a couple of hours after you broke up with Aimee, you fucking kiss her? Have you lost your mind?”

​​​“Haley, calm down. He probably feels bad enough as it is already” Alex said calmly, while I just looked at the table, waiting for her rant to be over.
Haley sighed. “Sorry” she muttered. “But you can’t keep doing this, it’s not fair to her"
I sighed. “I know. I just want to apologize and then I’ll just leave her alone.”

​​​“Well, I wouldn’t go that far. Just wait till she’s ready to talk to you and explain yourself. I know you didn’t mean to hurt her, and I think she does too. Just give her some time to process” Haley said, reaching out for my hand in an attempt of comforting me, probably.
“It’ll be okay” she said softly.
I sighed. “I hope so.”

Haley’s POV
Though I felt sorry for him, I did want to try to understand what made him think kissing Tay was a good idea. I couldn't think of a single scenario in which it would’ve been appropriate.
“Look, I love you, you know that, but you’re an idiot Jack” I told him.
“Gee, thank you so much for your support” Jack groaned.
“You have to admit it wasn’t one of your finest moments. You should’ve waited, make sure you’re over Aimee first” I replied.

​​​“I just… I don’t understand. I understand it wasn’t a smart move from me, but Tay is doing the exact same thing” Jack replied.
“What do you mean?” I asked, trying to understand what he was thinking.
“At first, she’s in love with me and now that I’m not with Aimee anymore – not that I ever was – she’s not anymore” he muttered.
“Oh Jack, there’s so much you have yet to learn about girls” I said, a sympathetic look on my face. “Of course she’s still in love with you, she probably just doesn’t want to be your rebound.”

​​​“My rebound?” Jack asked confused.
“Yeah, you know, the girl that helps you get over Aimee. Relationships based on getting over your ex don’t last. You’re in a vulnerable place right now. The whole Aimee-thing probably made you feel like shit right? Using Tay as a rebound means that you would just be using her to feel better about yourself. It is a way of dealing with a breakup, but in my opinion, not a very good way. Especially not if you’re using one of my friends to do it. You should deal with whatever feelings you have towards Aimee and about your breakup first before you can open your heart to anyone else. A rebound is just taking the easy way out, finding a new love instead of dealing with actual feelings, but those relationships hardly ever work. You might think you like her right now, but she’s more likely to be someone to help you through your pain. Once that pain is gone, you’ll come to find you don’t love her as much as you thought at first and people will get hurt” I explained.

​​​Both Alex and Jack looked at me in surprise.
“I didn’t know you were a psychologist” Alex said.
“I’m not, I just read too much” I shrugged.
Jack sighed, his face falling. “In that case, I should probably just leave Tay alone for a while. I don’t want to fuck up any more and if I want to have at least the smallest chance of us becoming friends again, leaving her alone is probably the best thing to do.”

​​​I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. He might not like Tay as much as he thought he did, but I did know he cared for her and that all of this was killing him inside.
“She knows you want to talk to her right?” I asked.
Jack nodded. “I left her a thousand messages.”
“Then she’ll come to you when she’s ready to talk. I don’t think she’ll be willing to throw your friendship away over this either. I’m sure it’ll be okay, in time” I said. “In the mean time, you just focus on getting over Aimee and figuring out your feelings for Tay, okay? Don’t leave Tay any more messages. At this point it will probably just annoy her. She knows you want to talk to her and that’s all you can do for now.” I said.

​​​“I just want to know if she’s okay” Jack muttered.
I tilted my head. “I can tell you she isn’t, Jack. How about I go check up on her after school and let you know how she is?” I proposed.
“Yes, please” Jack replied. “Thank you.”
I smiled. “No problem.”

The school bell announcing our first period starting rang. I would have my next class with Jack, so I quickly kissed Alex goodbye and followed Jack to our classroom. He still looked like he could start crying any moment. I realized in this moment he didn’t need me to lecture him, he needed me to be his best friend.

​​​“Jack, stop” I said. He halted and turned around, giving me a quizzical look.
“Come here” I said softly, pulling him in for a hug, which he instantly returned, wrapping his arms around me and resting his chin on my head.
“She won’t be mad forever, I promise” I whispered, into his chest as he was that much taller than I was. We stood there like that for so long, I was pretty sure we’d be late to class.

​​​“I really do care about her” Jack whispered as he let go of me.
“I know” I replied. “And I’ll make sure to tell her that. There’s just a difference between caring about someone and being in love with someone. I probably care about you more than I care about anyone, but if you would suddenly kiss me I would probably punch you in the face.”
Jack smiled. “I should put that on top of my list of things I shouldn’t do, then.”

​​​“You’re such a dork” I said, shaking my head. “Let’s go to class.”
“Let’s do that” Jack said, slinging his arm around my neck and dragging me with him, almost causing me to fall over.
“Stop that” I exclaimed as I tried to untangle myself from his grip.
“Okay, okay” Jack said laughing as he let me go.

​​​“At least you’re laughing again” I said, poking his side.
“Yeah, thanks to my very best friend” he replied.
“Oh really, who is she? I’d love to meet her” I said.
“Dork” Jack stated. “But we really do have to get to class.”
Looking at the time I had to agree and we rushed to our class room, making it there just in time.