woman like me - j.f✔️

XXI

Through the entirety of Sunday, Love hadn't received a single text from Justin. She'd checked in, asking if he was okay after his freak out yesterday, but she'd not received a single message from him. She met Rowan at the mall, as Rowan wanted to spend their day shopping.

Love wasn't much of a fan of spending all day in the mall, she didn't know how Rowan did it, she wore heels almost all the time and could walk around the mall for hours with ease. But Love struggled after the first hour or two. She hauled her own bags, and sat in the seating area of the dressing rooms, as Rowan disappeared behind the curtain.

"So how was your days with Justin yesterday?" Rowan asked, Love glancing up from her phone. She was refreshing her app every few seconds to see if he had responded.

"It was okay, I wanted to be honest and tell him about sophomore year and what I went through. But he got a bit shaken up after, and just left midway through my story." After Love had said that, Rowan saw her opportunity. She was burning with rage that Justin had mistreated her, and never liked him anyway. He just waltzed into Love's life and wrecked it all. She waited patiently to conduct her plan.

"Oh," Rowan spoke. "That's not very nice." She fiddled with the waist of her dress, hoping to find the perfect one for the party tomorrow night. She pulled the curtain back, showcasing the tight, black dress. Love smiled, admiring her girlfriends figure.

"I love it, babe." Love gawked, pulling the hem of the dress to admire the material. She still had to find her own outfit for the party, of which she didn't even want to go to. It was a stupid jock's party, that they had whenever they celebrated a win, and Love was over it.

"Let's find you a dress, huh?" Rowan suggested as Rowan left the dressing room in her original clothes and her chosen dress on a hanger. She dragged Love around the store, holding dresses up to her figure and seeing what they liked and didn't like. Finally, Love decided on a khaki green, satin dress. And once she'd closed the curtain to try it on, Rowan darted into Love's bag for her phone.

She'd found Justin's contact and copied the number into her phone. And quickly replaced the phone into her girlfriend's bag. She had a few minutes to compose a message, while Love pulled the dress on.

Unknown: You should've never step foot in this town.

When Justin got the message, he almost collapsed in the middle of the grocery store. He'd just done his shopping, and was scrolling whilst in line. He didn't know who it was, nor how they got his number. But those 8 words caused a whirlwind of anxiety and thoughts. Did they know about him, and what he did? Did Love know?

He had immediately paid and left, almost speeding home to get everything away. He'd put everything in their appropriate place, sitting down at his table to catch his breath. His mind was telling him to do stupid things, but he wouldn't actually carry them out. Would he? The text had sent him into a downwards spiral, if he wasn't spiralling already. He'd hurt Love without even meaning to, and she was none the wiser.

He was acting out of despair, tears threatening to fall down his face, and he raced to his room to collect a small bag of things. He'd shoved clothes into his bag, a few essentials, and threw it at his door. Tears were falling freely from his face, he was choking on his sobs, and thinking of Love's face and how she'd react to this news had only made him angry. Angry at himself for being so stupid and selfish, and so carefree. He was throwing things around, smashing things onto the floor and off the walls. It felt good, a temporary release of everything he was feeling. The neighbours would assume there was a robbery. But he didn't care.

He took his bag, leaving the house with his keys in his hand. As he was locking the door, he looked down at the doormat. He remembered telling Love about the key, and how he knew how bad he was at misplacing things, so he'd gotten a spare key. He remembered her witty response, and how if he forgot where he put his keys, what makes him think he'll remember where his spare key is?

The memory of that conversation on the slide, only took him back to that night with Hannah. He regretted even reaching for his phone that night. He threw the bag into the backseat, starting the car and resting his forehead on the wheel. His phone was still blowing up with messages, he read them all. All he wanted to do was reach out to her and tell her he was okay. He couldn't respond, he felt it was best to leave her alone. Before he caused any more damage and inevitably fucked things up.

Little did he know, she had gotten home and skipped dinner. She was worried sick, he had ghosted all day and not a single text she sent had been read. Which made things worse. She'd rather be left on read, so she at least knew he could see them. She was curled up in bed, her eyes glued to her phone, where she wished the three bubbles would appear. 

He didn't know where he was going but he needed to leave.