What's Enough?

Chapter 174

"Honey, I don't understand what's wrong with LA?"

"Mom, I just can't go to college in LA," I tell her for the hundredth time.

"But why not?!" She sighs, growing frustrated at this conversation.

Because Ryder is going to school in LA and us being in the same city isn't going to help the whole 'letting each other go before we destroy ourselves thing.

"I just can't," I say without explaining the real reason why. She sits across from me, "I can just go to community college for a year and then apply somewhere else the following year,"

"Oh no!" My father says, turning the corner.

"You are not going to a community college,"

"But-"

"But nothing," he pulls out his phone. "I'm going to make a couple calls; you'll be in Yale by the end of the day,"

"What?!" He can't make that decision for me, "Mom!" I growl.

"I'll handle it," she assures me, and then slowly rises from the chair, holding on to the table for support, "Go on to school, love you!" she looks like she is about to pop; she waddles her way down the hall.

I exit the house and hop into my car. "This is just great! LA! Maybe something is trying to keep you two together," Jess says.

"It can't make that decision for us, we make our own decisions, and we decide to end things; besides, I'm sure Ryder is happy being with Mia now,"

"No, he's not; he's not even with her," she folds her arms. "He called you his girlfriend!"

"Yes, cause he's controlling and territorial, he didn't mean,"

"You don't know that!"

"Well, I do know that he agreed we shouldn't be together and that us being together makes no sense because there's only a month left for school," Part of me wished he didn't agree; I sort of hoped he would come up with something stupid that gave us a reason to try, but he didn't. "Not to mention he hurt me; you heard what he said at his house, I can't just forgive that,"

"He was drunk, Jayda," Is she really defending him?

"That doesn't excuse what he said or did," That side of Ryder scares the crap out of me. I've never seen him how he was. Well, I've never seen him drunk before either.

"He looked really sorry," He really did; I could see it all in his face in his eyes. They held so much guilt and pain.

"He still agreed to end this, he wants to end this, he wants to be with Mia,"

"No, he only wants to be with Mia because he thinks you don't want to be with him, and because of the whole college in different cities thing, but you're not going to be in different cities; you're going to be in the same city you think if he knew this, he would've still walked away from you?"

She makes a good point. "I don't know,"

"Mhm," she smiles.