𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒, 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴

𝐱𝐱𝐢𝐢. regards, c. limbrey

Light tapping could be heard from the outside of the door, bringing Red out of her thoughts and revealing JJ in the doorway.

"Hey," JJ muttered, clearing his throat. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Red shook her head, slightly gulping. "It's late. We should both get to bed."

JJ sighed, entering the room and closing the door behind him. "I need to talk to you. Like now."

"Look, JJ if this is about what happened yesterday, I don't want to talk about it."

"So you're just gonna ignore it like it never happened?"

Red shrugged. "Works for me."

JJ approached the girl, sitting on the side of the bed beside her. "Just, please. Talk to me. I just want to make sure you're okay."

"You only care if I'm okay when it's clear that I'm not," Red muttered, her blue eyes facing her hands.

"Please. What happened to us?"

Red sighed, raising a brow. "You broke your promise. That's what happened."

"What promise?"

"You promised..." Red gulped, already feeling the tears stinging her eyes. "You promised that you would stay, and you didn't. You left."

"Red-"

"No. I shared with you what I was most afraid of. I showed you what hurt me the most, and you turned around and did it." Red sniffled, not wanting to show emotion. "You made me feel like I wasn't good enough, and you left."

"You said you wanted to break up too!"

"Because I thought that would make you happy!" Red shouted in her defense, but instead of coming off as scary, she just came off as broken. "I didn't want to lose you."

JJ shot her a sympathetic look. "Why didn't you tell me that?"

"Because... I was scared. I had already lost John B, and I learned that when I get attached to someone, they leave. So that's why I was so 'distant', JJ. And that's why I brush you off. That's why I shut people out. Because people I love tend to leave." Red bursts out into tears, not being able to hold them in any longer. "Even my dad doesn't care enough to look after me."

JJ put his arm around Red, which she immediately shook off, but he just put it back on, tighter. "I never stopped loving you."

"Yes, you did," Red told him, not doing anything about the arm wrapped around her. "Because you slept with more girls than I can count without thinking twice."

"You think I don't hate myself for that?" Asked JJ. "Serious question. I was trying to cope, Red. Cope. I was trying to make myself seem like I was bigger than I was. And the reason I was distant was that I didn't think you loved me. You seemed okay with the breakup, and you were always smiling. It was like you didn't care about any of us."

Red looked at him, his own eyes starting to form tears. "You think I didn't care?"

JJ nodded slowly. "It seemed like it." He then began removing his arm from her shoulder. "Sorry." Red shook her head, grabbing his hand and pulling it back onto her shoulder.