"Aria," I ran into the shop after her, "Aria!" She turned around and met my eyes from her spot in line. Then she turned around, ignoring me. "Come on," I pleaded.

"Not here, Ezra."

"What?"

"If you want to talk that's fine, but I'm not going to make a scene here."

"You weren't afraid to make a scene last night with your tongue down Jason's throat." I was almost screaming, I was completely furious.

"Not here, Ezra." I noticed that a few people were staring from nearby seats.

I turned to them, "Mind your own business."

"Come on, Ezra. I could see you being upset with me, but really...you're here with Jackie? How do you think I feel right now? How do you think I'm taking this?"

"Well according to what I saw last night, you don't care what happens to us. A relationship is a two way street, Aria. I'm not going to be the only one fighting to keep us together."

"So Jackie is your way of keeping us together?"

"And Jason's yours?"

"He kissed me, I didn't kiss him back. I told him I was seeing someone."

"That's not what I saw."

"Listen, Ezra. He. Kissed. Me."

"I know he did, but from what I saw you weren't fighting to get away."

"Jesus Christ. What do you want me to say now?"

"I don't know, Aria."

"And really? Going straight to Jackie? You told me you were over her!"

"I was Aria...I am."

"Holding hands is your way of being over someone?"

I was speechless for a moment; I was already in a deep enough hole. Where should I go next? Where could I go next?

"Please hear me out," I could see tears welling up in her eyes. This wasn't just a normal fight that was easily fixable; this was going to take time.

"Ezra, not now. Calm down and we will talk later." And with that, she walked out of the shop. She walked out on me. I slowly started my way back out.

"Jeeze Ezra! That was a long time just to use the bathroom."

It took everything in me not to take my anger out on Jackie. "There was a line."

"For the men's room? Wow!"

"Yeah...a little one. And I caught up to Aria for a moment."

"Ahhh," she nodded. "I'm telling you, the girl has the hots for you."

"Jackie, drop it already." I snapped.

"I'm just playing with you, you know that."

"Sorry, I'm just not completely with it today."

"I can tell. What's got you down?"

I looked at her and then I looked down into my lap trying to figure out if I wanted to tell her the truth. Of course I couldn't, was I kidding myself.

"Unless, you don't want to talk about it. I'm fine with that too." She soothed.

"Thanks."

"I'm always here for you, Ezra. We have quite a history together and nothing can erase that."

I couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing.

"Thanks for meeting up with me, Jackie. I really appreciate it."

"Anytime! Hey! You want to go out with us tomorrow night? A few people from work are going out and I'm sure they would love for you to join, and I'd love for you to join."

"Yeah, sure. I'll come." What the hell was I thinking? What did I just commit to? Could I dig this Aria hole any deeper?

"Oh that's great! I can't wait to see you again!"

"Mmhmm." I replied.

"I text you more details later." She hugged me, "Try to cheer up, hun." Ugh, she just called me hun, why was I playing along with this? I could not use Jackie as rebound if Aria is done with me. Aria was rebound from Jackie. How do I get myself into these things? "I missed you, Ezra." She kissed me on the cheek and then quickly on the lips. I felt like I was going to throw up again, but I played along. I felt like I had no control over what was happening to me. "You know we could get back together."

"What?" I was shocked at what just came out of her mouth.

"We're older and wiser and I think you've actually gotten hotter, hard to believe. We could have a chance, we're not two college kids anymore."

I looked at her, confused and shocked.

"Just something to think about." And with that, she walked away. I was left there standing. How could this all be happening. Something that was going so perfectly had dramatically changed ways in the last 24 hours. How could I be doing this to Aria? How could she be doing this to me? Why was I letting myself play along for Jackie? For all I know I am leading her on. Is that what I want? For a few moments I pushed all of the questions out of my head and I drove back to the apartment. I unlocked and opened the door to 3B where memories of both Jackie and Aria reside. I felt my eyes start to get heavy with tears and heavy with sleep. I turned my iPod on and put on some classical orchestral music that I didn't have any memories attached to. No Aria. No Jackie. Within minutes, I was asleep.


Hope you like it so far! I promise it's going to get better (I love happy endings!)

If you're reading this please review! It would mean the world to me! It helps me to become a better writer and it is super motivating!