Two chapters in three days, whoa! I had bucket loads of inspiration for this one so I really hope you enjoy it.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Las Vegas, Nevada
Jet only woke up when she heard a loud banging on the door, dragging her out of her completely dreamless sleep. She twisted around, immediately feeling a pounding pain in her head. She'd earned herself a spectacular hangover. She didn't move while AJ went over to wrench the door open, immediately scowling when she saw Dave waiting outside.
"Hey, is Jet up?"
"No."
Dave put on his most charming smile. If he ever wanted Jet to give him a shot, he'd have to win over her best friend. "Okay. Could you just tell her that I stopped by and I'll hopefully see her soon?"
"No."
Jet rolled over onto her feet, moving to stand behind AJ at the door. Every step exacerbated her headache. "Hey Dave," she greeted. AJ deliberately kept her position between the two of them.
"Hey. Just wanted to check you got back okay last night."
"Well, I guess so. I remember basically zero of what happened." Jet chuckled uncomfortably. It was an old but painfully familiar feeling to her to be completely at a loss on what had gone down. It had never happened because of alcohol before; it was only in her darkest days on the indies that she ever lost time.
Dave paused for a moment. If she didn't remember anything, she wouldn't remember telling him about her ex. He wasn't going to bring it up, just in case AJ didn't already know. He doubted the little Pitbull would be in the dark, but he wasn't going to risk it.
"Yeah, you did throw a few back," he laughed teasingly. "Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I'm heading back to LA, so I guess I'll see you whenever?" He'd make sure they crossed paths sooner or later.
"Yeah, sure," Jet nodded, not bothering to mask her hangover by forcing herself to sound enthusiastic.
Dave waited for AJ to move, probably hoping for a hug goodbye, or even a cheek kiss, but the small woman crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down, refusing to budge. He finally sighed and gave up, waving awkwardly before making his way back down the hallway.
"Bye Dave!" AJ called after him, a broad smile across her face.
Jet winced at the raise in volume, pressing her palm against her forehead. When AJ closed the door and turned around, she caught the first sight of her best friend's face. She looked like shit. "Fuck, what happened to you?"
"What happened to me? What happened to me, Juliette, is that I stayed up all damn night to make sure you didn't vomit and choke in your sleep."
Jet smiled sheepishly. "Was I that bad? I'm sorry."
"That bad? No, you were worse. Joe had to carry you here because you were so out of it. What the hell did you get up to last night?"
"You heard me tell Dave, I honestly don't know. Last thing I remember is Dave talking about Cirque de Soleil at the Bellagio."
AJ's face showed her clear concern. "He should never have let you drink that much. He was probably just hoping he'd get lucky if you were completely out of it."
That thought had crossed Jet's mind. She had really been trying her hardest to give Dave the benefit of the doubt – even with all her friends so adamant about him – but he was the only one associated with her lapse in memory, and it was incredibly unsettling. Jet tried to dig through the haze, but nothing jumped out at her.
AJ could easily read the nervousness on Jet's face, so hurriedly continued talking. "You're driving us to Phoenix while I get some sleep in the back seat."
Jet nodded, hugging AJ tightly. "Thank you for looking after me. You really are the best friend I could ever ask for."
"Yeah, you better believe it."
Jet downed a couple of painkillers before she started getting ready for the trip to Phoenix, feeling horribly guilty for AJ being up all night. They both knew they'd do that for each other, but it didn't make her feel any better about being the cause.
"I'll take our bags down and meet you at the car," Jet offered, taking both suitcases in hand while AJ finished putting on her make-up.
"Okay, I'll be down soon."
Jet made her way down to the lobby to check out, then exited the hotel with two over-packed cases crashing into the backs of her ankles. When she turned around the back of the hotel to find the car, she stopped walking. Jon was leaning against the back panel of the rental, idly tapping his foot on the cement. She glanced around anxiously and was immediately relieved to see that they were completely alone. The fans had apparently be sated by the interaction they'd received outside the Thomas & Mack Center the night before. She hurried over to the car, a frown of worry on her face.
"What are you doing?" she whispered, still looking around for anyone paying attention to them.
Joe hadn't given Jon much information when he came back from dropping Jet off. It was easy to read on the Samoan's face that he was concerned, but he barely uttered a few words about it, just assuring his old teammates that Jet would be fine with AJ. Jon knew that was true and he wasn't worried, he'd just prefer to check on her himself. Just in case.
"What?" he smiled innocently. He knew she'd get weird if he admitted he wanted to make sure she was okay. "You deserted me last night, aren't you gonna let me ride to Phoenix with you?"
Jet knew they shouldn't, someone would get photos and start rumours. And yet, his little dimpled smile was incredibly convincing. "You're gonna get us in trouble."
"We'll live," he winked, sliding into the passenger seat, tossing his bags in the trunk when Jet unlocked it.
"How did you know which car was mine?" Jet asked as she took the driver's side.
"Psychic."
"How long have you been waiting?"
"'Bout fifteen minutes."
She shouldn't have been, but Jet was completely surprised when Jon leaned across the centre console to kiss her. All thoughts of not wanting to get caught in public flew completely out of her mind when his hand snaked around the back of her neck to pull her closer, his tongue swiping along her bottom lip.
"I swear to God, I am going to neuter you."
Jon backed away immediately in surprise. Jet snorted at AJ's announcement of her arrival, the slamming of the door punctuating her disgust with the two of them. Jon shot Jet a look.
"What? We always ride together; you think I'm kicking her out because you showed up? Think again, tiger."
"Well, there goes all my fun," he sighed, leaning back in his seat.
"How do you think I feel?" AJ grumbled. "I don't exactly like sitting back here, y'know."
"You're barely five feet tall, you'll be fine."
"I'm gonna take my whole barely five feet tall self and kick your ass."
Jet tapped her fingers on the steering wheel, waiting for the the two of them to calm down. Neither of them snapped with any real venom so she sat with a small smile.
"Oh please, you're so tiny I could just put you on a shelf and you'd be stuck there."
"Give it a try, I'll – "
"Are you two done?" Jet cut in before AJ could describe her surely very imaginative threat.
AJ crossed her arms and leaned back. Jon grinned, seeing that as a victory, and leaned back across to kiss Jet again, just to rub it in AJ's face a little more. He made the kiss way more of a show than it ever needed to be, but Jet certainly wasn't complaining.
AJ kicked the back of Jon's seat. "For two people who don't want anyone to know what they're up to, you sure are making out in public."
"I'm innocent," Jet declared as soon as she had room to breathe.
"Takes two to tango, kitten," Jon shot back.
Jet blushed immediately while AJ gagged loudly at the petname. "Never utter that again when I'm around. Seriously, I'd rather go deaf than hear that again." She shuddered.
Jon poked the tip of his tongue out of his lips. "She hates me," he whispered to Jet, his smug smile all over his face.
"No, she doesn't. If she actually hated you, you'd really know it. You should see how she is with Dave."
Jon's face fell into one of distaste at the mention of the part-timer. "What happened with him last night?"
"Got too damn drunk to remember. It's a good thing Joe was there; who knows what would have happened."
"Good ol' Joe," Jon agreed, a small smile returning.
Jon wasn't entirely sure what he'd expected from the five-hour drive to Phoenix, but it definitely wasn't Jet and AJ bursting into over-excited song every fifteen minutes. Jet, as the driver, had her iPhone hooked up to the car's stereo, with awful song after awful song coming up. In the early stages of their friendship, AJ had despised Jet's music, but when they rode together so often she had developed a reluctant and ironic love for the upbeat pop tunes.
"Hey baby, even though I hate ya, I wanna love ya – "
"I want you-ou-ou!"
"And even though I can't forgive ya, I really want ta – "
"I want you-ou-ou!"
The two of them went on like that all the way through the song, like a well rehearsed event. Jon got a little concerned when Jet lifted her hands off the steering wheel to dance, despite being on the highway going eighty miles an hour. He slammed his own hand down on the wheel but Jet barely paid it any attention, sliding her own down on top of his and winking at him. She lifted her palm to let Jon free his hand, smirking to herself when he moved it down to squeeze her thigh. AJ pushed herself as far forward as the seatbelt would allow, singing directly into Jon and Jet's ears.
As soon as it finished, Jon shook his head in amusement. "You two are like Thelma and Louise."
Jet snorted. She could imagine herself on a road trip with AJ like that. "I prefer to think of us more as Bullock and McCarthy in The Heat."
"Which one are you?" Jon laughed.
"Bullock," Jet replied without hesitation. "I'm a shit dancer, and AJ is totally more willing to yell and punch people to get what she wants."
"Sounds about right," AJ agreed, sitting back. "Not to mention, you'd be the idiot who would actually shoot someone in the dick."
"Precisely the reason I should never be allowed to own a gun."
"I should take you to the range," Jon chuckled.
"You taking her shooting would require you two to actually be seen in public. Like, for real," AJ reminded him.
"What's this?" Jon asked, waving his hand around the car.
"This is three co-workers riding to a show together. You two going on a cutesy little outing to a shooting range screams date."
"She's right," Jet agreed. "The internet would probably explode."
"We could distract them by releasing nudes of someone."
"Like who?"
"I vote Colby," AJ suggested.
"Leighla might actually garrote us though."
"Yeah, there's that. Alright, who's single and hot?"
"Me," Jon grinned.
"Single, yes. Hot?" AJ scoffed. "Definitely not. You're a trash baby."
"She says that with all the love in the world," Jet assured him, lifting her right hand from the steering wheel to weave it into his hair and scratch lightly at his scalp. "Although, speaking of single and hot… Age, you coming to Orlando tomorrow?"
"Why would I do that? I like Tampa better."
"Yeah, but Tampa doesn't have a certain Fergal Devitt training shirtless."
AJ's head shot up. "I'm there."
"Thought you would be. What happened with you two when I left you in the gym on Sunday?"
Jet glanced in the rear view mirror to see AJ smirking to herself. "Nothing."
"Bitch, give me the details. It's thanks to me that you even got to creep on the guy."
"Nothing happened," AJ repeated, most earnestly. "We talked, he helped me with some ab workouts, nothing that interesting."
Jet huffed. "I was hoping for something sordid."
"I'll give you something sordid," Jon winked, leaning across again to whisper in Jet's ear. Her smile grew at his promises while his fingers drew idly on the skin just under the bottom of her shirt.
AJ grimaced. "Gross."
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Orlando, Florida
AJ shook Jet awake just as the pilot was announcing their descent. She rubbed her eyes with her palm, trying to make herself as alert as possible before they stepped into the hustle of Orlando International airport. She hadn't had a whole lot of sleep after Jon got hold of her following the Smackdown taping, and then she had to suffer through a lecture from AJ after she'd returned smelling of smoke from a cigarette she had shared with Jon again. Thankfully, their four hour flight had given Jet time to catch a nap, and AJ time to get over how Jon was trying to destroy her best friend.
Corey was already waiting for the two of them, beyond eager for his best friend to be home again. Being with her during pay-per-view shows just wasn't the same as having her back in their old stomping ground. When he saw the two women dragging their luggage into Arrivals, his face lit up. Jet would have run to him if she had the energy, but had to settle for hurrying her pace a little and throwing her arms tightly around his neck. The car ride was spent filling each other in on work; Jet was all too excited to tell Corey all about being put back into the title picture with AJ and Paige (and Nikki, momentarily), and Corey gave Jet all the details of what the doctors had told him concerning his recurring concussions.
The two women were both going to stay at Corey's apartment, so they made a brief stop there to drop their luggage off before continuing on to the Performance Center. It was still early in the morning so it was quiet, but Jet's two other favourite men were in the ring, running a few moves with each other. As soon as Sami laid eyes on Jet, he beamed and sidestepped Nev entirely to slide out of the practice ring. He hurried to his gym bag, wrenching open the zip to retrieve what he had been carrying. With the item in hand, he knelt in front of Jet, smiling up at her. He produced the Ring Pop from behind his back, holding it up to her.
"I've been saving this for you. Juliette Madden, will you marry me?"
Jet clapped her hands together in excitement, letting Sami slide the Ring Pop onto her finger. "Of course I will!"
AJ was watching them with some pretty intense bemusement, but Nev could only laugh. "What is that, like, the ninth time you two have got engaged?"
"Eleventh," Jet and Sami replied simultaneously. It had started barely a week after Sami had first reported to NXT; Jet opened a bag of Haribo her mother had sent and pulled out a ring, presenting it dramatically to Sami with a playful marriage proposal. A week later he returned the proposal with a Ring Pop. Ever since then, whenever one of them had a Haribo ring or a Ring Pop, a proposal followed.
"You two should go through with it one day. That would be hilarious," Nev insisted.
"Not as hilarious as that time Corey got married," Jet interjected, smiling fondly at the memory.
"I still can't believe I wasn't here for that," Sami sighed.
AJ looked between the four of them, her mouth still half open in confusion. "I have clearly never heard the good NXT stories."
Corey patted the ring apron, inviting AJ in to take a seat. Jet and Sami followed behind her, all five sitting in a circle while Corey began to tell the tale of his 38 hour long marriage. "So, we were all just having a good night, yeah? But then I guess we all got a little carried away with the booze and this fucking idiot – " Corey paused to push Nev in the forehead, " – thought it would be hilarious if I went over to put the moves on this girl who had been giving me the eye all night."
"I would like to state right now that I was immediately against that plan," Jet spoke up.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so I was goin' real well, I was totally gonna get laid, then we decided to take it back to my apartment and everyone tagged along too. I've got like five of these fuckers hanging out in my living room while I'm trying to get this girl in bed. She obviously wasn't down for that while they were all there, so we figured we'd just hang for a while, and I guess the drinks just got stronger and stronger."
"You guess?" AJ repeated.
"Well, yeah, since I can't remember any of it. The only ones who could remember a fucking thing were Jet and Chris Hero. I woke up the next morning with those two making breakfast in my kitchen, everyone else passed out on the floor, and this girl in my bed. It was awesome for about five minutes."
"Until he came out of the bedroom and I casually reminded him of the wedding he'd gone through with the night before," Jet beamed proudly. "He lost his fucking mind."
"I still maintain that it definitely must have been your idea," Corey shot at her while Sami chuckled.
"It was not! You proposed to the girl! I just didn't stop you."
"Didn't stop me? You went out and bought rings at the pawn shop!"
Sami lost it, his chuckles turning into full-on belly laughs. Jet was giggling to herself as well, still finding the whole thing hilarious, nearly two years later. "Well, if you were gonna do it I had to make sure you did it right."
"What happened with the girl?" AJ asked eagerly.
"I woke her up and told her what had happened."
"Was she angry?"
"The opposite," Jet laughed. "She was fucking chuffed and couldn't stop going on about how she had to call her mum to tell her the news. When the suggestion of an annulment came up, she basically went psycho."
"Turns out Florida's law on annulment basically says the whole thing was voidable if I didn't have sex with her after I was sober, which I definitely didn't, but she was going on about how she'd tell the judge we did and that we'd have to stay married and, ugh, she was the worst," Corey muttered.
"What did you do?"
"I called Regal," Jet shrugged, as if that was the only obvious course of action. "He came over, kicked us all out and spent about fifteen minutes speaking to this girl. She came out, hugged Corey, and promised that she'd let the annulment go ahead. We still, to this day, have absolutely no idea what Regal said to her."
"Holy shit," AJ muttered, leaning back against the ropes. "No wonder you loved it here so much, it sounds like you guys had a blast."
"Getting drunk married is not a blast," Corey deadpanned.
"Was for the rest of us."
"How had I never heard this story?" AJ demanded.
Jet shrugged. "The only people that knew were the gang of us that were there. Who was it?" she turned to Corey, "me, you, Nev, Paige, Enzo, and Hero, right?" Corey nodded. "Regal and DeMott found out, and then Sami, obviously."
"It's a banned topic," Corey insisted.
"I'm still super surprised 'Zo didn't give it all up."
"He probably told – "
"Is this circle time, children?"
Jet jumped. She'd forgotten just how powerful Bill DeMott's voice could be when he wanted. He was standing with arms crossed outside the ring, staring them all down. His eyes fell on Corey and Jet sitting beside each other and he rolled his eyes.
"I should have known. Whenever you two are in the same building you cause havoc."
"I'll have you know I'm a mature and responsible employee," Jet replied haughtily.
"Oh please, don't give me that. Do you forget I have firsthand experience of the horrors that come with the tag team of Graves and Madden?"
"We were just re-living Corey's wedding," Nev explained.
Even Bill couldn't resist grinning. "There's the proof that you two are social menaces."
Jet and Corey exchanged identical grins. It was impossible to deny. Bill had really minded; like Regal, he had known something was wrong with Jet as soon as she showed up to FCW. Bill worked with these kids almost every day and had grown to feel like something of a father figure to them all. He didn't want any of his kids to feel like Jet so obviously had at the beginning, and if that meant she had to cause a bit of a ruckus now and then with Corey Graves, so be it.
"We're sorry," Jet smiled. "We're getting out, honest."
AJ's head suddenly perked up, looking over Jet's shoulder. "Yep, I'm off." She bounded out of the ring immediately, heading over to the newly arrived Fergal Devitt. "Hey, wanna spar together?"
"Sure," Dev smiled. The two of them made their way over to one of the other rings while Jet winked at them.
Corey wrapped his arm around Jet, pulling her into a mock headlock. He dragged her out of the floor, still under strict instructions that he was to do absolutely zero ring work. The others got to work while he led her over to the quietest area in the vicinity, sitting on one of the uncomfortable metal chairs and pulling Jet down into his lap.
"I'm glad you came home, kiddo."
"Yeah, me too. I've missed you guys."
"We've missed you. Sami's kept that Ring Pop for weeks."
Jet snorted. "Bless him."
"Is it weird that I'm totally rooting for you two?"
"Yep, very weird." Jet and Sami were undeniably in love with each other, but in a completely platonic way. They would make awesome life partners, but she couldn't ever imagine getting passionate with the guy. "He admitted that he roots for us."
"Me and you? Ew, no."
Jet thumped him in the upper arm, unable to repress her grin. "You fucker. I'd never wanna be with you anyway." She knew they were both thinking of when that had nearly happened one drunken night years ago, only for them to kiss and realise it was the most uncomfortable they'd ever been. Jet was pretty sure it was how Lorraine felt kissing Marty in Back to the Future.
Corey laughed, tugging Jet right against his body for a tight hug. "I love seeing you like this. You seem so easy-going for the first time in so long. Remember when it was like this all the time, back when we were all just blowing NXT apart? I miss the old Jet."
Jet was quiet. He was right, like always. The last weeks of her relationship with Punk had felt so strained and she'd definitely been nothing close to happy since the end of it. Even before that, when things were good with them, work stressed her out. The main roster was a world away from the atmosphere in Florida, and it obviously showed on her. Jet sighed. She owed it to Corey, the man who had put so much time and effort into helping her, to really try to be like her old self again. More importantly, she owed it to herself. The past couple of days, with the great road trip and seeing her friends again, had reminded her just how happy she could be.
"Old Jet's on the way back. I promise."
By the time they made it back to Corey's apartment, Jet was ready to curl up in bed and watch a movie. Corey started working on dinner whole Jet dug through the DVDs stacked next to his television. AJ sat on the couch, flicking idly through her Twitter timeline.
"Hey Corey, where's Lion King?" Jet asked, glancing up from the movies. Her entire collection had stayed at his place, knowing she'd use them way more there than she would in her own apartment.
"Not here. You took it about three months ago."
Jet blinked, trying to remember back. She looked back down at the DVDs, seeing that quite a few of them were missing. "Oh fuck," she groaned. She remembered grabbing them to throw in her bag before a trip to Chicago. She'd left most of her favourite things in Punk's house.
"What?" AJ asked, looking up from her phone.
"My stuff is at his house."
It didn't take AJ long to catch on. "Oh. That sucks. Want me to go out there and get it for you?"
Jet shook her head, already knowing what she had to do. She had to go herself and draw a line under everything. She had to do that so she could be the old Jet like she'd promised Corey. She could see him out of the corner of her eye in the kitchen, watching her and waiting to see how she'd react.
"No." Her voice sounded much more confident than she felt, but when Corey smiled to himself, she knew she was making the right move. "I'll go."
Jet stayed quiet after that, all the way through dinner. She tapped away at her phone, searching for the earliest flight to Chicago. She knew that if she thought about it for too long she'd talk herself out of going. The sooner she got this over with, the better. She just didn't know how she was going to be able to face him. She didn't know how to look him in the eye for the first time since Los Angeles. When Corey announced that he was going to bed and AJ went out for a quick late night jog, Jet booked her flight for the following morning, and opened her contacts list. It only rang a few times before she heard a familiarly cheerful voice.
"Wow, wasn't expecting to hear from you."
Jet was just relieved to hear him still sound friendly. She wouldn't entirely blame him if he hated her solely through loyalty to Punk. "Hey Colt. It's not a social call, I'm afraid. Er, can I ask a favour?"
"Well I guess that depends on what it is."
"You think you can get him out of the house tomorrow? Just for a couple of hours?" She knew she was being a giant baby going to such lengths to avoid him, but she was so unsure of how she'd react to seeing him again.
Colt paused, knowing what her question suggested – she was going to be in town tomorrow. Not just in town, in Punk's house. If his best friend was ever going to move on properly, he needed closure. This was the perfect way to get it. He felt guilty already but it had to be done. "Yeah, sure."
"Thanks Colt."
She said it with such sincerity. Colt almost winced, knowing he was throwing her deliberately into a situation she didn't want to be in. He hoped she wouldn't hate him after this. "No problem, kid."
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Chicago, Illinois
Stepping outside of O'Hare was terrifying. AJ and Corey had both offered to go with her when they'd dropped her off at Orlando International, and Jet had almost just given up entirely. Her nerves were destroying her from the inside out, almost to the point of visibly shaking. She thought she might throw up, right there on the pavement beside the taxi rank. A couple of people were already taking photos of her with their phones, undoubtedly starting a million rumours about why she was in Chicago. The taxi ride was too short and, before she knew it, she was standing in front of the building she had considered home. She fiddled with her keychain for a couple of minutes, holding up the key that she had just not got around to taking off. Her hands were definitely shaking by then. She didn't want to go inside, didn't want to remember how much she used to love being there. She finally managed to slide the key into the lock and pushed open the door.
Her heart nearly stopped when she saw him laying out along the couch.
Punk had heard some noise outside but hadn't thought anything of it until his door opened. He glanced over for where he had been trying to take a nap, expecting Colt. Instead, the one person he'd wanted to see for weeks stood in his doorway, her face completely white and tremors going through her hands. He sat up and they stared at each other, complete silence surrounding them until Jet finally opened her mouth, forcing words out.
"You… you're not supposed to be here."
"I'm not supposed to be in my house? Where am I supposed to be?" Punk's forehead crinkled with confusion but a small smile spreading over his face.
"Somewhere else," Jet mumbled, staring down at her hands.
He got to his feet, taking quick steps to her. He wanted to touch her, hold her, kiss her, anything and everything. She looked so perfect. His hand started to move of its own volition, reaching up to touch her face. Nothing hurt him as much as when she ducked away from him. Jet started moving quickly, going around him and towards the staircase. Punk was frozen for a second before following her up to his bedroom. He watched her shoving DVDs and clothes into her duffel bag, and he understood.
"That's what you came for? You just want your stuff?"
"Yes."
"Juliette – "
"I just want my stuff."
Punk sighed, hanging his head. "Can't we just talk?" he asked softly, leaning against the doorframe while Jet continued throwing her belongings into her bag.
"I think it's best if we don't." She could only picture herself crying if she tried to have a conversation with him.
"Juliette, please."
She paused, hating the desperation in his voice. She twisted her head just slightly to let him know she was listening, but she couldn't look at him. "What?"
"I just… I want to explain why I said those things to you in LA."
Jet swallowed heavily. This was so much harder than she had imagined. "You don't need to. I get it."
"No, you don't," he replied forcefully. "I never meant a damn word of that. I was angry and I let that get the best of me, and I know better. I know that you would never think of being with Dave."
"Shame you didn't know that in LA, huh?" Jet muttered, resuming her packing.
"I did. I've always known it, I just couldn't think straight."
Just chuckled sadly, feeling tears prick at the corner of her eyes. She placed the last item – her Ribera jacket – into her bag and zipped it up before finally turning to face him. Looking into his eyes destroyed her; his stare was devastating. Jet had never been able to win a stare-off with him, even a playful one, and nothing had changed in that realm. She glanced down at the floor after barely a few seconds, shuffling uncomfortably on her feet. She slung her bag over her shoulder.
"I think it's best for both of us if I just go."
Before she could make it through the doorway, Punk grabbed her wrist gently, holding her in place. "I don't want you to go. Stay with me."
"Phil–"
"Juliette, just listen. Stay with me, just for tonight. Let me talk to you and then if you still want to leave in the morning, I'll drive you to the airport. I promise if you still want to go, I'll never try to change your mind."
If she stayed the night, he'd convince her. He was so good at that and she was still so open to it. He'd say all the right things and she'd believe him, and then they'd be right back in their cycle. She needed to beat that.
"No," she told him gently, pulling her arm from his grip. "There's nothing for you to say to me. We're done and I'm over it."
It was the biggest lie she'd ever told to someone she loved. She hadn't even begun to learn how to get over him, and that was evident by the guilt that she felt when she saw a flash of pain in his eyes.
"You're lying," he replied quietly, not even convincing himself.
Jet let out a heavy breath. "Yeah…" she admitted. The flash of pain was replaced by one of hope. "I'm not over you. I haven't started that yet and I'm not sure I'm ready to."
"So just–"
She lifted a finger to his lips, silencing him. "I'm not sure how I'm going to get over you, but I will. And you'll get over me. We'll both move on and it'll be better for us. You know I've never wanted to hurt you, and I know you've never wanted that for me either. This is how we do that. We let each other go so we don't have to hurt anymore."
It was crushing him. The weight of Jet's words was literally crushing Punk, right over his chest. He could barely breathe while she spoke, feeling infinitely worse than he had that night in Los Angeles. On that night, he'd opened a wound and she'd reacted immediately. He always maintained a bit of hope that when she'd given the old wound time to close, she'd come back. But here she was, calm and thinking clearly, still telling him she was leaving. She had made up her mind and there was nothing he could do to change it.
While he was frozen in place, Jet swept past him. She pulled her bag higher on her shoulder, trying desperately to hold onto the tears that wanted to be shed. They were clouding her vision, making her reach up to wipe them before pulling the front door open. She could hear his footsteps rapidly on the stairs behind her.
"Juliette…"
He was right behind her. He stepped so close, his chest almost touching Jet's back. "Phil, don't."
"Listen to me. You know this isn't how it's supposed to end."
"I didn't think it was supposed to end at all," Jet admitted, turning to face him. "I thought we'd be forever."
"We can be. We can still have that."
Jet shook her head. "No, we can't. We tried, Phil, and that's the best we could do." She removed the house key for her chain, passing it to him.
"Keep it," Punk implored, pressing it back into her hand. "Just in case. You might want to come back."
His hand came up to her face, gently cupping her cheek and wiping the stray tears with his thumb. All the hope on his face cut straight through Jet. She kissed the palm on her cheek, then slid the key into the pocket of his jeans. She stepped backwards away from his touch and out the open door.
"I won't."
Please don't hurt me.
