Chapter 13: Do Or Die, We Both Break Hearts

Autumn's POV

Zack met me halfway between his school and Dulaney the following Monday morning. Since we were in a parking lot of a fast food restaurant, I was leaning against the outside of my car, waiting on him. I see him walk up and he smiles at me.

"Hey." He tries to kiss my lips, but I turned my head and he kissed my cheek. "O...Kay. Did I do something wrong?"

I shake my head. "No. You're- You did nothing. It's just-"

"What is it?"

I crossed my arms and wouldn't look him in the eyes, just kept looking at the street. "I don't know if we ever really were official, but," I pause and take a deep breath, "I can't keep doing this. We have to break up."

Zack hadn't said anything for a while, so I looked up at him. "Why?" he asked. "I mean, do you like someone else, or what?"

I smirk. "Something like that."

"What do you mean?"

"Look, Zack, I'm not a good girlfriend. I fuck up, I cheat, I cause too much shit." I shrug. "You're better off without me."

"You know, Autumn, you're allowed to fuck up. It happens."

"I've never fucked up this bad before," I mumbled.

"What?" Zack asked.

I shook my head. "Nothing."

"No, what'd you say? How'd you fuck up?"

I shook my head and took a step away from him, placing my hand on the door handle to my car. "I'm sorry, Zack."

"Autumn, no. What happened?" He tried reaching for my other hand, but I wouldn't let him.

"Just don't worry about me, Zack." I opened my car door. "I'm sorry," I said before shutting the door and driving away. I looked in my rearview mirror, seeing him stare after me with confusion written all over his face.

That was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

Alex's POV

Autumn walked in late to history that day. Instead of sitting next to me, she sat on the opposite side of the room next to a girl named Sophia. The teacher came over and handed her a pink slip that I recognized as a detention slip. Nice, I had detention today, too.

History was boring and stupid. Without Autumn sitting next to me, I had no one to talk to that wasn't annoying. The class went by slow and then it was time for detention. I was the last person to leave the classroom, going to the library where detention was.

When I walked into the room, there was five kids here, besides me. Jack was one of them, so I sat next to him. "What'd you do?" I whispered to him.

"Threw pizza at Rian in the cafeteria," he replied, shrugging. "What about you?"

"Cussed out this chick and the teacher heard," I said.

Jack scoffed. "Nice. So, guess what I found out."

"What?" I asked, slightly distracted because Autumn walked in. She sat down two tables away from us.

"Autumn, broke up with Zack," Jack said.

"What?" I turned to him.

He nodded. "Yeah, this morning. He texted me last hour."

"Do you think he knows?" I asked, referring to Autumn and I.

Jack shrugs. "He didn't say. I couldn't reply because I sit in the front right by the teacher's desk."

"Well, reply now!" I nudged him in the arm with my fist, but got shushed by the librarian.

"Okay. Jeez. Hang on." Jack pulled out his phone and started typing something. "Okay. I'm waiting."

My own phone buzzed in my pocket, so I pulled it out and saw I had a text from Autumn. Opening it, I noticed all it said was that she needed to talk to me after school. I sent a reply saying I'd meet her outside the school, then looked up at her. She nodded at me and I ignored the bad feeling I had in my gut.

Jack hit my leg, making me look down. He held his phone out to me, so I took it, noticing a text from Zack that said, "She didn't really give me a reason. All she said was that she was bad girlfriend and that she fucked up. But didn't say what she did."

A new message icon came up from him and I opened it. "Then, she got in her car and drove off. Dammit, I really like her."

Ignoring the jealousy growing in the pit of my stomach, I handed Jack back his phone. He took it and typed something back without a word. To make things worse, we have band practice with him today. I don't know if I can hide this secret from him.

Autumn's POV

I met Alex outside of school a half hour later. His hands were shoved into the pockets of his skinny jeans, mine in the pockets of my hoodie. We were standing right outside the doors.

We stayed silent for a while and I was chewing my lip ring. Finally, Alex said, "So, what's up?"

"I don't have an easy way of doing this," I started, "but I don't wanna do this anymore. And I mean that."

"You mean, you don't wanna..." He trailed off, looking like he was trying to figure out how to word what he wanted to say.

"Yeah," I said, knowing what he meant. "I'm sorry, Alex."

"But you broke up with Zack," he said.

"I did," I said. "But that doesn't change how I don't want to do this anymore."

"But why do you want to stop?"

"Because I don't want to fuck up anymore."

"So, I'm a fuck up?"

"I never said that." I sighed, trying to calm down a little. "I just need some time to think. Please. I don't want to date anyone or be 'friends with benefits' with anyone, until I figure some things out."

Alex was silent for a minute. "Can we still be friends?"

"I guess..." I paused. "Honestly, I don't think that's a good idea right now either. We can still be friends, but I need to clear my head."

"So, you're breaking up with both of us?"

"We were never together," I mumbled. "But, yeah." I looked up at him.

"I'm sorry." I turned, leaving him standing there.

Worst day ever.

Alex's POV

Well, I didn't expect that one.

When I got home, I found Jack already in the basement. "What took you so long?" he said, putting his guitar strap around his neck.

I shrugged. "I guess she broke up with me."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's...interesting."

"Yup."

"What'd she say?"

"That she needed to clear her head and that she didn't want to date anyone or be 'friends with benefits' with anyone." I walked over to an amplifier and sat on it.

"Well, that makes sense. She's confused." Jack strummed a few notes on his guitar, but stopped.

"...I didn't think about it like that," I admitted, eyebrows furrowed together and looking at the floor.

"Alex, she likes two guys and was basically dating both of them. How could you not think about it like that?" He shrugged. "Autumn's just trying to figure out who she wants to be with, if either of you."

"Since when are you a relationship genius?" I looked up at him.

Jack smirked. "I just put stuff together. It wasn't hard."

"You're really close with her, huh?"

He shrugged again. "I guess so."

I picked up my guitar and started playing the beginning to Memories, but stopped when I got to the first verse. "This is not the best song to play right now," I said.

Jack scoffed and shook his head, smiling. "Nope."