My Beautiful Valentine

Chapter 14

"Erin!"

I turned around from my locker. "Hi."

Jason had a sad look on his face. "About yesterday-"

I cut him off. "I'm not mad at you. You didn't do anything. I'm sorry for leaving. I just couldn't handle seeing her."

He smiled. "It's fine. I'm just glad you're not mad at me." He leaned in to kiss me but I stepped back.

"I need to talk to you about something though." I paused. "I want to break up."

Suddenly his smile faded and his expression turned to heartbreak. "What? Why?"

"Because seeing Carolyn yesterday brought back so many memories of my brother. I feel guilty. He was a great guy and deserved to be happy. It wouldn't be fair for me to be happy while he's probably heartbroken wherever he went."

"It's not your fault. You deserve to be happy too. Everyone deserves to be happy." He stepped closer to me but I backed up again.

"I'm sorry. I can't do this." I turned around and ran away. When I reached a bathroom, I ran inside and locked myself in a stall. The tears fell from my eyes.

"What is wrong with me? Why am I feeling like this?" I asked myself. But somehow I already knew the answer. I'm in love with Jason.

After school, Alexa and Riley came over to me while I was at my locker. "Hey," they said.

"Hey," I said.

"We haven't hung out in a while and we were wondering if you wanted to have a girls' night out tonight," Alexa asked.

"Sure. Sounds like fun." I grabbed my backpack and shut my locker. "So who's house is the sleepover gonna be at?"

"Mine," Riley answered.

"Okay. Cool." We walked out of the school. "I gotta go. What time should I come over?"

"Well we were gonna go get manicures at five so sometime before then, I guess?"

"Okay. See you guys then."

"See you," they said.

I headed to my car. I was about to open the door but Jason came and blocked me. "Erin..."

"Jason, move." He didn't. "Please?"

"No. I need to talk to you. You've been ignoring me since you broke up with me this morning."

I tried to push him away so I could get in my car and avoid this conversation. Unfortunately he wouldn't move.

"I'm not leaving."

"Jason, please." I gave him a pleading look.

"No. I'm in love with you and I don't want to lose you. Please don't break up with me."

"You're acting like Noah. And my decision is final. Now move out of the way." I pushed him out of the way and quickly got into my car before he could stop me.

I was on the road for a few minutes before my cell phone rang. I reached into my pocket, grabbed it, and pressed talk.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hey," Jason said.

I rolled my eyes. "Bye."

I was about to hang up but before I could he said something. "Don't hang up! Just hear me out! Please?"

"I already know what you're gonna say. You don't want me to break up with you."

"You're right. I don't want to break up with you. I'm in love with you. Please don't do this to me, Erin. Don't do this to us."