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another edited note: this is definitely not one of my best stories.

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Six months later…

I laid curled up in my bed, playing with the ends of my hair. In front of me, the TV ran the most recent episode of House and it occurred to me that I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Fumbling with the mess of sheets surrounding me, I pulled off my comforter and looked up at the one laying beside me.

“What’s going on?”

He turned to me and smiled, blowing a tuff of hair out of his face. “Honestly? I have no idea.”

“Then why are we even watching this,” I asked. “Change the channel.”

Instead of changing the channel, he turned off the TV completely and smirked at me. “You know, there are other things we can do.”

“Shut up, Matt.” I giggled slightly as he buried his face into my neck, loving the close feel.

The past few months have been anything than I had expected. Starting from that morning when I found out Jake resigned, I expected everything to go downhill. And it did. For a while. It was funny because despite the fact that we were living in the 21st century with a vast range of resources, I couldn’t contact him. I called. I emailed. I rang his door (apparently he moved out). I tried to physically find him. (Sometimes I’d walk around in malls hoping that he’d be there.) But nothing I did gave me any sign of him.

At first, I thought that it was my fault. Sure, I did say that I never wanted to speak to him again and that he should get out of my life but I didn’t mean literally drop off the face of the planet. After the first two months, his AWOL act got pretty annoying and I surprised even myself when I decided that I wasn’t going to care anymore. The fact of the matter was that that was exactly the eye opener I needed. Maybe I thought I loved him and maybe I thought that he was the one but now that I think about, I don’t want or need to spend any time with someone so immature.

Everything got better after I started dating. Every guy I was with constantly reminded me of all the weird things that I hate about Jake and I realized that I don’t need him. That whole…episode with him was just a display of unrequited young, foolish love from ages ago and the whole time it was just like a wildfire slowly dying. And, now that it died down, I could finally move on with my life.

And I knew that I was okay and that I will be okay, even if I never have to see his face again.

I didn’t hear the knock on my door outside until Matt nudges me on the shoulder.

“Babe? There’s someone at the door. Can you go get it? Seeing as how I’m in no position to be contacting the outside world right now…”

I glanced down at his boxers and stifled a laugh. The knock got more impatient and I rolled my eyes. Can’t people wait?

Throwing my legs off the side of my bed, I tossed on one of Matt’s dress shirts and headed to the door. Good thing he’s like almost a foot taller and that his shirt covered enough of my thigh to seem decent.

I opened the door just as I was buttoning up the shirt. “Can I help—

“Hey, Jessica.”

My hands immediately stopped fumbling with the buttons and I look up.

Standing in front of me was Jake. Jake, who used to be my best friend since the 4th grade. Jake, who I used to tell everything to. Jake, who used to know everything about me. Jake, who broke my heart when he stopped calling. Jake who I never wanted to see again who I was completely down with. And he was here. Standing in front of me in flesh and bone. Outside of my apartment.

Anger built up inside of me so fast, I could hardly recognize it happening. I didn’t want him to be here. I didn’t want him to come back. I didn’t want to see him. Who does he think he is?

“Can you help you?” I snapped harshly, tossing my hair over my shoulder.

Jake gulped and looked down. Suddenly, I realized how see through I was, wearing a cotton white shirt and no bra.

I snapped my fingers. “Hey. Can I help you?”

“Yeah I was – um, I was wondering if I could come in,” he said hopefully.

No – freaking – way.

I crossed my arms out of frustration. “You want to come in?”

Jake smiled sheepishly and ran a hang through his hair. “I was hoping that we could talk.”

“Talk? We can talk right here.”

He lifted his head to look past me into my living room. “But maybe it’d be better if we were sitting down and—

“Jacob, I am giving you 5 minutes of my time so you better use it wisely,” I said, closing the door behind me and stepping into the empty hallway.

“C’mon Jess, you know I’m sorry and I really apologize for disappearing like that for the past few months.”

“Are you sorry? Are you apologizing?” I glared at him. “Do you know what time we live in Jake? We live in a time where messages can be sent half way across the world in less than a second. We live in a time where people can travel to the moon and back. We live in a—

Jake looked exasperated. “I’m sorry!”

“Don’t interrupt me. You don’t get to say ‘I’m sorry’!” I cried.

“I needed some time” he sighed.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I waited for months.”

“I love you.”

“No.” I shook my head. “You don’t get to say that either.”

“Why? It’s true.”

“Because it’s too late. You had your chance, you messed up royally, and then you messed up some more and now it’s – too – late.”

Jake laughed half-heartedly. “Don’t be so serious. It’ll work out. We’ll work out. We always do.”

“I don’t want to make it work! We’re in our 20s, Jake. Twenties. And you still prance around like you’re 15 and I don’t want to deal with that.”

“But you know how much I love you!”

With an annoyed sigh, I closed myself, stopping myself from going berserk and yelling at him with no avail.

Jake’s voice softened. “You’re my bested friend in the whole world, Jessie. Let’s try to make this work, okay?”

“No, we’re not going to make this work. I’m sick and tired of you thinking that we’ll be okay. Not everything ends of okay. I’ve always been there for you. Even when you broke my heart, I came back. And then you go and hit one little speed bump and then it’s like the end of the world.”

I didn’t realize that I had a death grip on my door handle until it slipped out of my hand.

Matt stuck his head out and smiled. “Hey babe, you okay?”

I turned around and offered a small smile back. “Yeah. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Matt nodded and gave me a quick kiss before walking back into the apartment.

“I’m gonna go,” I told Jake when I turned back to him.

He had a defeated look on his face. I felt no remorse. “Just like that?”

“Yeah,” I whispered.

It felt like the end of something big, and I knew it but I wasn’t emotionally feeling like the end of something big. There were no tears, no trigger for tears. Mostly, it felt like a goodbye that was long overdue.

“I’ll call you sometime next week?” Jake said before I closed the door.

I paused for a moment, debating on whether or not I should reply. Finally, I didn’t say anything and just closed the door because I knew even then that if he called, I wouldn’t have picked up the phone. To me, Jake was just a memory, a foolish choice in my past—just an ex best-friend that I didn’t need anymore, and one that I certainly didn’t care about anymore either.

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EDITED NOTE: i don't know how to say this without sounding somewhat like a b-tch, but.

i know that some of you aren't satisfied with the ending, but i don't know what i can do to make it better. this is how i planned it in the end and i don't think it seems rushed at all. you have to keep in mind that jessica and jake are both fully grown adults and time in adult years is longer than time in teenage years and decisions in adult years are much more thought out. the whole point of this, for me, is that jessica made the same decision TWICE, which really speaks about her feelings towards the relationship with jake.

i am well aware that a lot of stories on wattpad is about finding the person that you'll love for the rest of your lives, but that's not really the way it works in real life. it is possible for people to just walk out on you, and trust me this has happened to me before.

you guys have my word that i did NOT give up on this story and made this a rushed ending, but this seemed like the better way to end it than rather "oh my god, jake you're back i hate you i hate you i hate you so much okay i forgive you let's get married". if you understand what i mean.

also, i don't plan on having a sequel. i realize that i hate sequels and yeah, sorry guys :(

moving on,

final chapter! notice anything similar? like deja vu?

haha i'll leave that up to you to figure out. hint: i just felt i needed an epilogue since i had a prologue.

anyways, thanks to all of you who stuck with me through this story with the heart breaks and the late updates and all that jazz! this would be my first completed story on wattpad and i feel as though i have reached some milestone!

i hope you guys really enjoyed this ending and i know that's it's not exactly the happy ending most of you were looking forward to, it's a happy ending nonetheless.

remember to check out my other stories!

happy reading, xoxo.