Let's Stop Running From Us

play it back and press rewind

Jacob groaned as he woke the next morning, his neck hurt by being crammed onto a couch with two other people. Still, he was thankful for their friendships, especially when he and Troye were fighting.

Jacob looked at his phone to check the time and then gasped as he saw Troye had texted him. He looked at the messages that were displayed on his screen and his jaw dropped. "Well fuck," Jacob said. He dropped the phone and buried his face in his hands.

"Jake?" Hari asked, "are you ok?"

Jacob wiped his eyes, "Troye said some really awful things to me."

Tommy's eyes went wide and they looked at Jacob's phone. They picked it up and sighed. "Jacob, he didn't say this to you. He said it to me."

"What are you talking about?" Jacob asked.

"I woke up because your phone was going crazy, I saw it was Troye so I replied to him telling him you were sleeping and he went off on me," Tommy explained.

"What the fuck! He has no right talking to you like that!" Jacob nearly yelled. Quickly he picked up the phone and dialed Troye's number. Troye answered on the second ring.

"Jacob?"

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Jacob shouted. "don't you ever talk to my friends like that again! You have no right!"

"Are you serious right now?" Troye asked infuriated.

"Yes! You can be pissed at me all you want, but don't take it out on Tommy."

"I'm not pissed at you! I'm sad and hurt- you're the one who is pissed at me for some bullshit reason," Troye responded.

Jacob laughed, "It's not bullshit."

"Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree," Troye answered in a snarky tone.

"You're such a fucking child, sometimes," Jacob spit out, "I wish you weren't so damn immature."

"Well pardon me for not being some pinky up art connoisseur," Troye scoffed.

"Right, because that's what I am and what all my friends are, huh?"

"Pretty much," Troye quipped.

"You know sometimes I wonder how life would be so different if I hadn't messaged you that first time," Jacob angrily replied.

"Wow- that's really fucking nice of you to say," Troye said, his voice breaking before hanging up.

"Shit!" Jacob said gripping his phone tightly.

"Jake..."Hari said, "I can't believe you said that to him...is that really how you feel?"

Jacob shrugged and sunk into the couch.

"Jake- you can't stay with someone just because you think it's the right thing to do. If you don't love him like that anymore, going on with your relationship is just cruel," Hari added softly.

"I do love him, Hari- Just he's so fucking difficult. It's like- I miss the old Troye."

"The old Troye?" Hari questioned.

"Ya, like he use to be more chill and funny and a lot less self conscious."

"It's hard being in the spotlight," Tommy spoke up.

"He has everything he ever wanted and yet it's not enough. I'm not enough," Jacob sighed.

"Babe, that's not true at all," Tommy said moving to kneel in front of Jacob. "You're fabulous and you aren't the problem."

"How do we fix this?" Jacob asked tears in his eyes.

"I think only you can figure that out," Tommy smiled as consolation, "only you two understand what you're going through and how broken things are."