Courtesy of You | Jalen Hurts

nine

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Jalen Hurts.

Jalen laid in his bed, looking up at the ceiling while listening to Al Green's greatest hits which had been on repeat for the last three hours. He had placed his phone on Do Not Disturb to ignore the many calls that he knew were coming.

When Nicole told him that Sapphire wanted her to release a statement to the public about their separation, he was hurt. Mainly because a part of him felt that this was just a phase and she would be giving him another chance, but the statement plus her recent spotting with her ex-boyfriend was confirmation that he was wrong.

"Jalen!" The sound of Cameron's voice echoed through the house causing Jalen to furrow his eyebrows. "Man, I know you in here!"

Jalen sat up in the bed, pressing pause on the music. "What the fuck is he doing here?"

Before Jalen could make it out of the room, Cameron was already standing in the doorway. "Nigga, are you okay?"

"I'm good, what're you doing here?" Jalen questioned, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"Your mama called me. She said she had been calling you for a few days and you haven't been answering!" Cameron answered, looking around the room. "You can take them pictures down though man, she gone big dawg,"

"Fuck you," Jalen shot back, looking at the many pictures of him Sapphire hanging on the wall. "I'm not taking shit down,"

"You have to man. You ain't doing shit but hurting yourself at this point," Cameron sighed, sitting next to him. "I know you love her and you miss her, but she's not ready to be back with you,"

"You talked to her?" Jalen asked, looking over at him.

"Yeah, we talked earlier today. I saw the post yesterday and called her to see what was going on, since you ain't wanna answer the phone," Cameron nudged his shoulder. "Your mama called and made me get on the first flight here to check on you,"

"Thanks," Jalen mumbled, shaking his head. "You didn't have to do that,"

"My best friend of eight years just broke up with his girlfriend and is visibly heartbroken," Cameron pointed out. "What kind of brother would I be if I didn't make sure you were good?"

Jalen sighed, laying back on the bed. "I fucked up. If she would just talk to me I think I could convince her to give me another chance,"

"J, that's exactly why she's not talking to you," Cameron replied, standing up. "She knows that if she sees you she'll be tempted to jump back into your arms. This is all too familiar for y'all, you did this dance back in college."

"Don't bring that up," Jalen said, closing his eyes. "That was different,"

Cameron shrugged, grabbing the photos. "Whatever you say,"

Jalen furrowed his eyebrows, opening his eyes. "What're you doing? Put those back,"

"I'm saving you from yourself," Cameron answered, still grabbing photos. "You can't sit here and cry about it. Leaving her pictures and stuff in here isn't going to help you move on."

"I don't wanna move on," Jalen jumped to his feet, attempting to grab the photos but Cameron turned his back to him. "Bro, I'm serious put them down!"

Cameron turned around, trying to read his face. "I'm calling your mom,"

"For what?"

"This ain't healthy man," Cameron sighed. "J, I get it it's only been a few days but you cannot sit around and be sad when you got a game coming up. This is your bye week so you can indulge in your feelings but after that, you gotta pick yourself back up. You can't do that if every time you turn around you're reminded of her,"