Chapter 2

Breathe by: Taylor Swift

"Hey, Jinny! Wait up!" Jayden called back from music class.

I smiled and turned around, "Yes, Jayden?" I said trying to be the most polite.

He laughed, "Sorry, kid, that act doesn't really work for you. I was thinking maybe we could go get coffee or something after school. I really need to talk to you," he said with a smile

I had to think for a minute about this. I mean, he could ask me out again, or he could tell me the worst news I could think of; he has a girlfriend.

Knowing that I still needed to talk to him, "Sure. I'll meet you by your locker after final period."

He smiled, "No, I'll be the gentleman. I will meet you by your locker after final period. Oh, and Jinny?" he said while I started to walk away, "Thanks," he said with a smile.

I smiled back, "No problem, Jayden. No problem at all."

On my way to seventh period biology, I met up with Amelia. "Hey, Amelia!" I said with to much excitement in my voice.

She stopped and laughed, "Geeze, what are you so happy about?"

I laughed and started to walk with her to biology, "Oh nothing that important," I said trying to hide a smile.

She laughed, "Yea. Jinny, c'mon. We all know that you can't keep a secret for that long. Really, what are you so happy about."

"Well, first I have a date with Jayden after school, then-"

I was rudely cut off by her screaming, "Oh my God! Jinny finally has a date with Jayden! How could this day get better!?" she screamed to the whole entire school population.

I tried calming her down, but knowing her, she would only get worse, "Amelia! Shh! And it can get better," I said with a smile while she squealed, "Jayden said that he wanted to talk about something important with me!"

Amelia looked like she could burst at any moment, "Double oh my God! Jinny! Do you know what this means?!"

We both shouted the answer at the same time, "JAYDEN PARKER IS IN LOVE WITH JINNY ALISTAIR!" we both shouted as loud as we could so no one that important heard.

"Triple oh my God, Jinny. This is like huge!" she said with the biggest smile.

I smiled back, "We can only wait to see."

Right after eighth period, Jayden was right by my locker. "Jesus, what time does your class get out?"

He smiled and laughed, "May I remind you that it is right down the hallway? And it was study hall, no one really does anything," he said with a laugh.

As I put my books away, all Jayden did was smile at me. I knew that it had to be that he wanted to ask me out again.

"Okay, you ready?" I asked him.

He laughed, "Why are you so happy today?

I smiled, "No big reason."

He laughed again, "Yea. Sure, Jinny. Well, let us go then," he added with a smile.

As we got to the local coffee house, all he was doing was smiling. When I tried to start a conversation in the car, he would just smile. If I brought up old memories, he would laugh, and then he would smile. Jayden was in a more-then-himself mood today.

As I sat down, he went to go order our drinks. For him, a coffee, black with three sugars. For me, decaf, two creams, four sugars. I never knew why I had to have so much going on in the coffee, but it just made it taste better.

"Your coffee, madam," he tried saying with a French accent.

"Thank you kind sir," I said with a smile. "So, Jayden, what's up? I mean, you look so excited for something," I said with a smile.

He laughed, "Remember that time in fifth grade when we were paired up for that science project?" he said with a smile.

I laughed, "The one with the planets?" I asked while he nodded. I smiled, "And then we broke all of our planets, and then we both got paired up with different people," I said with a frown.

He laughed, "You got paired up with Evan, and I got paired up with," he started to smile at this point "Crystal."

As soon as he said her name, my smile immediately turned into a frown. "Yea. I unfortunately remember."

He laughed, "Think of it this way, we both got better grades working with the other person. If we stayed together as partners, we might have had to repeat fifth grade," he said with a laugh.

I frowned, "Where is this going Jayden? I know you didn't want to come to the coffee house just to talk about old memories."

He frowned, "Crystal was the point that I was getting at, Jinny."

I looked confused for a minute, "What do you mean, Jayden? What does Crystal have anything to do with this?"

He took my hand for a moment, "You told us that we could see other people, right?" I helplessly nodded, "Well, today in music, I asked Crystal out."

I laughed, "And she said no, right?" I said with a plead.

He frowned, "No. She said yes, Jinny. I have a girlfriend."

"How could you?" I said in a sad whisper

He looked sad, too, "You told me to go see other people, and I did."

I got up and started to cry. "Wait, Jinny!" he shouted as I left. It was over twenty blocks to get to my house, but I honestly didn't care. I didn't care that it was raining, I didn't care that I would never get Jayden, and I most certainly didn't care that Crystal would have to deal with him for that long. All I cared about was that I got my heartbroken by Jayden; my supposedly best friend.

I heard car tired screech around the corner, "C'mon, Jinny! It's pouring out there."

As I was still crying, I shouted back at him, "I don't care, Jayden! I never cared. I will never care. And I most certainly never care about you and Crystal. God, how low can you get!" I screamed at him.

He looked shocked for a minute, "Low? Are you really saying that I'm low?" He laughed for a minute, "After what you have done to me, you have the nerve to say that I'm low. Wow, Jinny. I really thought that you were better than this," he said in disbelief.

Whispering now, "Just leave, Jayden. Please just leave me alone," I said while he started to drive away.

As I walked home, I just kept thinking of Jayden dating Crystal. It threw me off the most because whenever we would talk about her, he only said bad things. There was never any mention of 'oh. I think I like her,' or 'she's pretty hot, you know?' There was only, 'God. How slutty can she get?'

As I walked through my front doors, my mom, dad, and brother were all sitting in the living room playing scrabble. Only my family of a freshman in college, a lawyer, and a real state agent would be playing scrabble all together.

"Oh, honey!" my mom said getting up to look at me. "What happened to you?" she asked worried.

I started to cry again, "Jayden has a girlfriend!" I screamed while my brother, Austin, came to hug me.

He kept quietly whispering in my ear, "Shh, Jinny. He doesn't deserve you anyways. He was only made for a friend. Hun, you can do so much better," he said only squeezing me tighter.

"But I thought that he loved me," I said looking up at him.

My parents laughed, "When a guy gets a girlfriend after breaking up with his best friend, that usually means that he is trying to make you jealous. You know, that is how your mother and I got back together. I dated her first, and she was also my best friend, and then I broke up with her. Then I dated a girl named Christine, and then I dumped her because I was really only in love with your mother," he said as he quickly kissed her.

I frowned, "But Jayden really loves her. He never loved me," I said starting to cry again.

Austin quickly came back to hug me, "Jinny, you can do so much better. Jayden is just a best friend, and I bet you anything that he will ask you out again. Be like mom and dad, just do the smart thing. I mean, mom dated like three guys before she went back to dad."

I smiled at that, "They seem so perfect for each other though."

Austin laughed, "I know. And they sure made one hell of a child. And one slightly more awesome child, me," he added with a smile.

I laughed, "I love you, Austin."

He hugged me tighter, "Love you too, Jinny. Now, please go take a shower."

I laughed, "Whatever you say, boss."

As I went to sleep that night, I just couldn't help but think of Jayden and Crystal. I mean, if they are happy, then I guess I could be too.

As I started to think more, a song idea just came to me. I knew exactly what chords to play, and I knew exactly what I wanted to say.

I see your face in my mind as I drive away

Cause none of us thought it was gonna end that wy

But people are people and sometimes we change our minds

But is is killin me to see you go after all this time

Mhmmm mhmmmm

Music starts playing like the end of a sad movie

It is the kind of ending you don't really wanna see

Cause it's tragedy and it'll only bring you down

Now I don't know what to be without you around

And we know it's never simple never easy

Never a clean break, no one here to save me

You're the only thing I know like the back of my hand

And I can't breathe without you but I have to

Breathe, without you, but I have to

Never wanted this, never wanted to see you hurt

Every little bump in the road I've tried to swerve

But people are people and sometimes it doesn't work out

Nothing we say is going to save us from the fall out

And we know it's never simple never easy

Never a clean break, no one here to save me

You're the only thing I know like the back of my hand

And I can't breakthe without you, but I have to

Breather, without you, but I have to

It's 2am

Feeling like I just lost a friend

Hope you know it's not easy, easy for me

It's 2am

Feeling like I just lost a friend

Hope you know this aint east, easy for me

And we know it's never simple never east

Never a clean break, no one here to save me

Oh I can't breathe without you, but I have to

Breathe, without you but I have to

Oh I can't breahe without you, but I have to

Breathe, without you, but I have to

I'm sorry…I'm sorry….I'm sorry.

As I went to school the next day, I just knew that Amelia would be waiting to hear the news of my latest hook-up.

"JINNY!!!!!" I heard Amelia call from running down the hall

I looked at her and started to tear up. I knew that if I started to cry, that she would automatically figure out what happened, but I decided to keep my cool with her. "What, Amelia?"

She looked at me kinda confused for a moment, but then went back to her normal annoying self. "Oh my God, how did it go yesterday!? You didn't answer any of my calls," she said in a frown.

"Jayden asked-" but before I could finish, she started to scream.

"Double oh my God! My bestest friend finally has a boyfriend! Oh my God! Oh my God!" she kept screaming over and over.

"No, I don't," I quietly whispered.

She looked at me confused for a moment, "Wait. What?"

I started to tear up again, "I don't have a boyfriend."

She started to look sad, "But you said he asked you out. I'm confused."

I started to cry at this point. "He didn't ask me out. In music yesterday, he asked out Crystal."

She looked sad, mad, confused, and sorry all at the same time, "Triple oh my God. Wait. What? Did he even know what you feel for him?"

I sat down against a wall for a minute. "The truth is that Jayden and I went out in sophmore year for a few months," I said in a sigh.

She sat down next to me, "What? How come you never told me?" she said in a sad tone.

"I was embarassed to be dating one of my best friends. I knew that we wouldn't last, but I thought that I could give him a chance. We broke up like three months into the relationship. I realized that we should just be friends, but I guess I was wrong," I said as I cried heavier.

Amelia put her arm around my shoulders and hugged me. "It's okay, Jinny. You don't deserve him. For someone to do that to you is just wrong. I mean, sure you and Jayden are best friends, but for him to go off with her is just wrong. He doesn't even like her. Trust me, I would know. Him and me are pretty good friends, and that boy loves you. I bet you anything he is just trying to make you jealous," she said with a smile.

I laughed a little, "That's what my dad said."

She smiled, "And your dad is right, Jinny."

After I started to feel a little bit better, I stood up and then the one person I really didn't want to see showed up.

"Hey, Amelia," she said with a smile. "Hey, Jinny," she said with disgust.

"What do you want, Crystal?" I said to match her tone.

She laughed, "So I guess Jayden told you about us, huh. Well, just to let you know, you better not talk to him. I wouldn't suggest touching him either. He doesn't like you anymore, Jinny. Just suck up that fact."

I laughed, "And who told you that you can tell me what to do?"

She laughed, "I did. I'm better than you on so many levels."

I was about to start something, but then I saw Jaden come around the corner. "Yea? Well we'll see about that," I said with a sour face.

She laughed for a minute, "What is your problem anyways, Jinny?"

I started to tear up again, "I'm in love with Jayden Parker!" I shouted to the entire school population, including Jayden.

After I said that, Jayden immediately came over. "What did you say, Jinny?" he asked in disbelief.

I looked up to him while I cried, "I'm in love with you." I said right before I started to walk away.

He put his hand on my shoulder and spun me around. As soon as he looked in my eyes, he bent down to kiss me with passion. Right after I started to kiss back, he pulled away and smiled.

"I'm in love with you too, Jinny. More than you could ever realize," he said while both of us smiled and went to hug each other.