Breakeven

Chapter 1—Discovering a Loss

Rikki POV

As I made my way over to the cafe, I noticed something strange. The cafe was completely deserted. I knew I shouldn't be in here, but hey the cafe did have my name on it. I walked in to see no one. There was no sign anyone had been there that day. I went over to the office door and knocked. "Zane are you in there!" I yelled. There was no answer, so I decided just to try to open it. To my surprise even the office door wasn't locked. I went in and the desk was immaculately clean except for a stack of papers on the desk. If it weren't for the papers I would swear nobody had ever even been in there. The first seemed to be an apology letter. It was addressed to me? I opened the letter and started reading it.

Dear Rikki,

I knew you would be the one to find this first; no one else would go into a deserted cafe except for you. Okay, so maybe they would, but they most definitely would not continue all the way into the office. By the time you are reading this I am probably long gone. I couldn't stand being in the same city as you anymore. The truth is I never stopped loving you. I figured maybe if I created distance, I would heal faster. No one knows where I am headed. Please just let me be. Please don't try to find me or contact me. I don't think I could stand anymore pain. Don't come for me just because you feel bad after reading these letters. Because if you do, chances are we will get back together, but won't last, and I will have to withstand the pain of losing you again. Bye Rikki. I'm sorry I could not tell you this in person. Please do one thing for me. I know how much you loved the cafe, so I'm giving it to you. You were always better at managing it than I ever was. Maybe after my heart heals, I'll be back.

Love, Zane

P.S. I left you every single note I wrote you after we broke up, but was too much of a coward to send.

As I finished reading it I found tears were started to develop. I also realized that sometime while reading it, I sat down in the desk chair. When I was going through the papers underneath the letter, I realized that they were more unsent, dated notes all for me from Zane. They were the notes Zane was talking about! I started with the first, and I couldn't finish all of them at that moment because it was too much to handle: knowing Zane still loved me and the fact that as I was sitting there I had my own series of unsent letters to Zane sitting in my dresser. I knew I had to see if Harrison, Zane's dad, knew where he was or at least could send something to him for me. I grabbed the keys from where I knew Zane kept them and locked everything up. I had issues processing it all. Zane really hadn't gotten over me and that is the reason he left. I wasn't the only one with a broken heart. I took the all too familiar path from the cafe to Zane's house to see if Harrison was home. I knocked on the door only to be greeted by the maid who said Harrison wasn't home and wouldn't return until later that evening. Then I realized how stupid I was being for believing he could be home; after all, it was a Tuesday morning of course he was at work. I made my way home but not before taking a quick swim to relieve my stress. To my surprise Bella was headed out to Mako too, and she didn't look too happy—actually change that, she looked a combination of mad and sad not at all happy. I motioned for her to come up, but she shook her head no. After a couple times back and forth of her shaking her head and me nodding mine, she finally gave in. She looked really upset; I wondered what could be the matter.

All she did was whisper one word, "Sophie." I don't know what she could have done this time. I thought Sophie, Will, and Bella had finally sorted their issues out. I did the only thing I could think of and swam over to one of my best friends and held her in a tight embrace. After a few minutes had passed, she pulled away and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes.

She started to explain everything to me starting with the fact Will accused her of cheating. Yes I know completely insane! Why would Bella ever do that? Besides when would she have time? Either she is with Will, the band, or Cleo, Lewis, and I.

"How does Sophie fit into this?" I asked fearing the answer.

"She is the one who told Will that she had seen me with another guy at the cafe," she responded, "Since there has been no drama in between any of us in months, he believed his sister even though it's a lie."

I had heard enough. I made sure Bella would be okay before heading to Will's boat shack. As I approached the familiar blue shack, I ducked behind a tree just to in time to see Sophie storm of towards the cafe. She is going to be shocked when she gets there. Sucks for her! Is she still after Zane? Oh well no time to think about that now. I flung open the door without knocking.

When I saw Will I yelled the first thing that came to my mind and that was, "You bastard! You believe that bitchy sister of yours over Bella?" Of course his was stunned and just told me to calm down.

"Calm down? She just practically ruined your relationship with Bella kind of how she ruined my relationship with Zane, and your telling me to calm down?" I responded, my voice grew louder with every word.

"But she cheated on me with the new brunette kid!" he told me.

"Will, sometimes I swear you have nothing in that pretty head of yours. How do you 'know' this? Do you have any proof?" I asked.

"Well... No," he answered quietly, "But Sophie told me, and I believe her. She is my sister and I can't think of one reason she would do this to me."

"Why don't you believe your girlfriend? Your sister has a rep for lying. When is the last time Bella lied to you? Sophie has never been particularly fond of Bella, and you know that; don't even try to deny it. Besides she broke Zane and me up. Why would she have a problem breaking you two up?" my voice faltered a bit when talking about Zane. I had almost forgotten about his notes to me.

"I guess you're right," he said, "but the thing with you and Zane would have happened anyway." That is when I lost it.

"Zane and I were happy and completely in love before Sophie came!" I screamed at him suddenly feeling bad.

"I'm sorry Will. I kinda lose it sometimes," I whispered. I told him to meet me at the cafe in 20. I ran to my house to pick up my notes to Zane and then headed towards the cafe for the second time that day. I sat on the bench outside the cafe to wait for Will. When he got there, I handed him all the notes from Zane except for the one he wrote me today without saying a word. He sat there in silence and read the letters.

Finally, he finished and said," What does this prove? We all know he was desperate for you. He was a jerk and you dumped his sorry ass," wordlessly I handed home the notes that I wrote to Zane. I waited while he read them fearing what he would think.

"Wait. You still love him? What's stopping you from taking him back? Are you afraid of what we will think?" he asked me.

"Because I just received those letters along with this one this morning," I answered while handing him the letter Zane wrote me today, "Before today I believed he had moved on."

Will asked, "So are you going to try to find him?"

"Is that even a legitimate question?" I questioned him. I was on the verge of tears, so I took the letters and put them all neatly in my bag before telling Will, "Bella is out at Mako in tears. Go find her before she absolutely loses it." He gave me a hug and took off toward his boat. I went into the cafe and laid on the couch. I laid there just taking a few deep breaths before I realized Harrison should be home by now.

A/N: So what do you think? Please review! I am working on chapter 2; it should be up by the end of the weekend, maybe even tonight.