Chapter 4-

A couple weeks later Erika was walking with Bradin up to her apartment. Bradin knew about Jay's request and he noticed Erika's change in behavior. She was a lot quieter and she seemed to always be sad. She smiled around Bradin, but otherwise her smile was gone. She started partying and coming home drunk more. It was two of the hardest weeks of her life. Many nights were spent lonely with her lying on her bed, letting silent tears fall. Not seeing Jay was tearing her apart.

When they got to the door, Bradin noticed a note taped to her front door. "What's this?" he asked.

"I don't know." Erika replied as she removed the note. She unfolded it and read it over. "Great." she said as she opened the door.

"What'd it say?"

"They're raising my rent." she said as she threw her keys down onto a table. "I had hardly any spending money before."

"I can lend you some money if you need it." Bradin offered. His lawsuit with the surf company turned out well in his favor. He still had plenty of money.

"Thanks Kansas, but I'd rather earn the money myself." she replied.

"Okay... but if really need it... feel free to ask." he said, concern in his voice. He looked at his watch. "I have to go. My shift starts in 8 minutes at the Surf-" he stopped himself. He didn't want to remind Erika of Jay.

"It's okay. You can say it you know." Erika noticed his slip-up and although it hurt to think of Jay, she tried to act like the whole situation was cool with her. Bradin left and Erika jumped on her bed to wallow in her misery.

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When Bradin arrived at the surf shop Jay was doing an inventory check. "You're late." Jay said, not even looking up from his clipboard.

"I'm sorry. I lost track of time. Besides, I'm less than 10 minutes late." Bradin replied as he started working.

"Well, if you lost track of time, where were you?"Jay had lost his sense of humor since he had stopped seeing Erika. He too was in pretty bad shape ever since the day he told Erika that they couldn't see each other anymore. He still had Isabelle, but it wasn't the same. He'd rather have Erika as only a friend he now realized, but after the way Erika just stormed out he knew that his chances of having her as a friend were gone too. He didn't know of Erika's bad condition as she didn't know of his. He did often see her partying on the beach all over some guy with her friends, but he never went over to her. Seeing her with other guys hurt, but not as much as not seeing her at all.

"I was surfing." Bradin responded.

"Alone?" Jay had told Bradin about surfing alone before, but he knew how Bradin could be too.

"No." Bradin replied shortly. Bradin knew of Jay's condition too and he didn't want to mention Erika, but he couldn't lie to Jay.

"So who were you with?" Jay asked.

"A friend." By the look on Bradin's face, Jay could tell who the 'friend' was.

"Just get to work." Jay said shortly, before going into the back.

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Erika was walking on the beach thinking about money. She didn't have enough. She'd have to get a new, less expensive, apartment. She didn't want to move again. She'd moved many times over the past year, and finding apartments was getting harder and harder. It was extremely hard to find the one she was currently in. There was one other option. She could get another job. No places were hiring though. She already had her job at Mona's Sandbar. There was one other place that she knew was always hiring. She didn't want to go there and she knew that it would hurt to go there. But she had to. She looked up towards the promenade and started walking.

A/N- I know it's kinda short, but I thought this would be a good place to stop. Um... some JohnnyAva coming up in the near future! but this is still a JayErika based fanfic. Hope you liked it. REMEMBER TO REVIEW!