"Kennedy, I can't." Jess looked down at his chest, which was covered with a black v-neck.
She blinked back the tears threatening to fall out of her eyes, and took a deep, shaky breath, reminding herself to stay strong.
"You can't what, Jess?" Kennedy asked in a soft, confused voice.
"I can't be with you anymore. It's-it's just too much!" Jess' voice began to raise, and Kennedy immediately pulled her body towards his, knowing that she was about to start crying.
"It's okay, baby. Everything's going to be fine." Kennedy hushed her, rubbing her back comfortingly.
Jess just let the tears fall, giving in for a moment. A few minutes later, she attempted to contain her composure.
"I just, I feel too pressured to be your girlfriend. Press has started to call my house, trying to schedule an interview, and there were a couple guys with cameras following me when I was walking Rex the other day, and..." Jess sniffled, wiping her eyes. "I just don't know if I can do this anymore, Ken.".
Kennedy looked down at Jess, trying to make eye contact to see what was really going on. But Jess' eyes were aimed towards the ground, something she always did when she was lying or trying to avoid something. Kennedy gave up on trying to get her to look at him, knowing that it was helpless. He knew all he needed to know. Taking her into his arms once again, Kennedy whispered gently into her ear.
"What's really going on, Jess?" He inwardly begged that her excuse to break their one year relationship off was false, that maybe she was just scared to get hurt. Because truthfully, he was terrified too. Frightened that he had become too attached, too in love with her, that she had too much power to just break his heart. Like this.
"I told you, I just don't want to be followed. You know I don't want to be messed up in the whole famous, Hollywood deal, Kennedy. I'm sorry." She rested her forehead on his chest once again. She felt her eyes watering up again. "I'm so sorry.".
"You promised me." Kennedy said, looking ahead with no emotion in his face or voice. "You promised that you would always be there for me, no matter where the band went. You told me that you were happy for me, and that you always would be. We talked about it before we decided to get serious. You assured me that you were perfectly fine with the band getting more popular. Ecstatic, was the word that you used, if I'm not mistaking. I told you that you might get attention, and that rumors of us might come up. But you know what you told me? You said that we would face them together, when the time came.".
Jess lifted her head from Kennedy's chest for the first time as he paused, her cheeks stained with the tracks of her tears. Her eyes glistened with pain from Kennedy's words, but he refused to look into them.
"Well, know the time's come. And you want to leave me." He concluded.
"Kennedy, I don't want to leave you. I want to be friends, I just-" Jess tried to make up for the guilt that was taking over her entire body.
"Friends! Dammit, Jess! I don't want to be friends! Don't you understand that?" Kennedy's voice was raising by the second, and Jess took a small step back, intimidated.
Kennedy took notice of this, taking a deep breath to control the anger in his voice.
"I love you, Jess."
Jess looked at him, her eyes becoming wide with shock.
Of the whole year they had spent together, neither of them had ever confessed their love for each other. They had never really discussed feelings, or emotions with one another. The both shared the mutual feeling of disliking mushy and corny moments, it just made them feel uncomfortable. But the three words that came out of Kennedy's mouth made Jess speechless.
"I do." He said, assuring her that he wasn't just saying that.
Kennedy sighed, growing tired of Jess' lies and now silence.
"Listen, I know you might be a little annoyed with the phone calls, and you're probably creeped out by the paparazzi, but I know for a fact that that isn't why you want to break up. What aren't you telling me?" He made sure to look right into her eyes, in order to know if she was telling the truth or not.
"I'm sorry." Jess whispered.
She glanced back at the ground before turning her back to him, and walking away. Leaving him in the middle of the street, in front of his house.
Now, Jess held back probably the zillionth set of tears in the four months since that horrible day. She had just been walking home from school, and she overheard two young teenage girls gushing about how amazing The Maine concert was going to be tonight.
She had taken a deep shaky breath, and ran the rest of the way home, knowing that she wouldn't be strong enough to hold back the rush of salty water attempting to spill from her tear ducts much longer. Once at her house, she sprinted into the front door, slamming it behind her and taking the stairs two by two up to her safe, isolated room.
Just one more month, She thought to herself. One more month until I graduate and spend the summer in my room, away from everyone. Then I can get the hell out of this godforsaken town.
Jess fell onto her queen size bed, burying her face into her lime green pillow. She closed her eyes, but immediately opened them when she saw his gorgeous smiling face behind them. Seriously?, She thought, I can't get away!
She sat up, sighing. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to get a nap in, she glanced down at the small wet stain on her pillow, and wiped her eyes until they dried. Glancing around her room for something to distract herself, she spotted a small lavender shoebox beneath a stack of papers.
Drawing in a shaky breath, she walked over to it cautiously. Removing the papers, she slowly took the dusty lid off of the box. Her eyes fell on a small stack of pictures, and she instinctively smiled. Surrounding the photos, was a few folded notes, an envelope, a key chain, and a small stuffed pig.
She turned her attention back to the pictures, flipping through them, and smiling widely as she reached her favorite one of her and Kennedy. She was instantly filled with nostalgia, heartbreak,
and regret as she saw the two of them smiling cheesily next to each other after a concert he had
just done, towards the beginning of when they started dating. But despite the devastating rush that
it sent through her body, she couldn't help but smile at the treasured photograph.
Just as she was about to start tearing up at the memories, Jess noticed the abandoned envelope that she had overlooked before again. It had her name in his careless yet neat handwriting on the front. She turned it over, carefully opening it. Then she remembered the exact moment she had gotten this envelope. Kennedy had given it to her personally about a week before the unfortunate day. She ran her fingers over the two tickets, labeled THE MAINE, with today's date on both of them.
"Go." His voice demanded to her.
Jess jumped, glancing around her room alarmed. Where was he? How did he get in here? Why was he here? Jess burst into tears as she realized that it was her conscience urging her to go to the concert, but it's voice belonged to him. Her quick theory for that was that it was because she had shared the happiest memories with him.
Then again, her worst memory she had was shared with him.