The Boy In Suite 121 (Watty Awards 2013)

Chapter Thirteen: Memory Lane

The last four months hasn't been easy.

In fact, my life had turned into a but wait, there's more! Kinda thing. It's not like I was expecting some whimsical, fairytale life, but come on.

So many people have given me the run around. No one in my life was telling the truth. Mina was still lying to Skylar's face and Jason "couldn't" tell me the truth. My dad refused to admit to me that he'd been to the academy since the lacrosse game. The secrecy between my dad, Cyrus and Dean Lincoln continued. My room had been raided multiple times, looking for the Phoenix although they would never admit to such thing. And I still didn't know what was so special about that damn necklace. It was a stupid freaking pendant.

My relationship with Jason became strained and I was sure there was no way to come back from this. One of us would break from the heaviness of the situation and then-

"Hey." Jason's voice broke my thoughts. It'd been a week since we spoke last. Between whatever was going on between us, school had been getting in the way. Jason was so close to getting his degree in psychology and I didn't want to be the reason he failed his midterms. Plus, neither one of us knew what to say. Not without things being awkward and incredibly uncomfortable. "Can we talk?"

I nodded and shut the chemistry book I'd been looking at and we went to a quieter part of the study. I couldn't trust my voice to speak. Not when all I could think was, this is it.

He sat down and took my hands in his, trying to prepare for whatever he was about to tell me.

"I've been battling with myself for the last couple months. And I've been trying to figure out what kind of man I am. If what I found out- what we found out is true then I'm not half the man I thought I was." I could see the pain his eyes. The aqua flecks in them throbbed with agony. Jason was always so strong, he never showed weakness, even in his weakest of moments. But right there, with me, I saw his walls come down.

"From the moment I met you,"-We both kinda cringed- "I knew you were a good man, Jason. So why would you think anything less of yourself?"

"I can't help but think that I took advantage of you back then. You were so young, Chelsey. And I don't trust that I did the right thing." He confessed. He couldn't look me in my eyes anymore. Instead, he adverted his gaze to his lap. I knew in my heart that nothing happened between Jason when I was that young. I was always the kinda girl who did what I wanted, when I wanted and how I wanted. The idea of sex didn't even cross my mind until at least fourteen and even then, it would have been my decision, my choice.

"Don't do this to yourself. I know you wouldn't do that. I trust you didn't do that."-I put my hands on his face and made him look at me. - "So even if you can't trust yourself, trust me."

"Okay." The words hardly escaped his lips. "How are your finals going?"

"Well besides probably flunking senior year, other than that pretty good." I muttered. College calculus was going to kick my ass and then throw me to the wolves of chemistry and literature.

He laughed. "I won't let you flunk your senior year."

"Yeah well I'm gonna need a miracle. How about you? Are you getting your bachelors degree in June?" I changed the subject. School was a relatively safe subject, academics was even better.

"From the looks of it, yes. I haven't decided if I'll stay and do my master's program here like Owen. I'm sick of being here, but this is my family. All of you are." He explained. As long as he'd been here, I knew leaving was like a dream within his reach. But he was too afraid to leave all he's known for the past few years.