it's bittersweet to think about the damage that we do

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Never overlook support, even if implications direct you in an opposite direction. It's better to have someone lean on your shoulder than to coerce them into your world of emotions, hard to navigate and easily damaging. Support system first, and just maybe everything else will follow.

A week and a half later.

From one event to the next encompassed by laughter, joy, happiness, and love amidst the couple's excitement, Jack Anderson stood by compliant with the atmosphere of it all. Applauding when it was appropriate, smiling and sharing his thoughts when it was best fit, and delivering improvised toasts while biting his tongue wasn't in his best interest for the blonde he used to call his home..but with the essence of time marking his position and his inevitability looming over his ever waking soul that someday he had to give her up for the sake of both of them and the pain they have bestowed upon one another, he performed flawlessly. For she was to suspect nothing else from the devotion he carried despite the fact that his true intentions weren't aligned with her's and his motives had lied elsewhere. As much as Jack wanted to tell Ayla the wholehearted truth about Nathan and his baggage that would inevitably hurt her in the end, he simply couldn't for it would be one, a type of pain bestowed upon her already healing and suffered soul she could interpret in any direction, and two, a subtle but prevalent betrayal of his own support towards his soulmate for he vowed once before that it was in his best interest to let her go and so he had to...and that included everything that had come with what they used to have. Long talks accompanied by long walks, honesty and trust in confiding in one another, and the simple act of being there. It had to be stripped away. There had to be room for Nathan to take his spot and provide so Jack evidently moved aside and watched from the sidelines as a happy and supportive bystander even if it hurt him more than it could ever hurt her given his own personal woes tied into his less personal ones. So he attended every event with a smile and let it fade directly after it was done. He put up a good facade and he tried to maintain it for as long as he possibly could even amidst the desolate silence of his dark apartment bedroom as he lied awake on his bed, listening to none other than Lou Reed..trying to navigate the state of all of this.

"Come on jack..how the hell do you tell her without coming off as an ass" jack whispers to himself, eventually making his way out of his bed just to pace around his apartment.

Scanning the entirety of the atmosphere he placed himself in from clothes tossed everywhere and dishes in the sink with some on the small table to the spread of memories covering the floor from the box he vowed to never touch again yet did, Jack had come to the realization of just how bad the situation really was and how much he desperately wanted to fix it. But his confirmation and the go ahead didn't lie amongst his lifestyle let alone the memories scattered amongst his hardwood floors, it lied within the moral implications that came with the infamous book situated on his desk. The same book that had carried the two souls throughout their childhood up until now, with its hard baby blue covering and golden imprinted letters hardly touched as if it was brand new when indeed it was not. Sitting himself down amongst the clutter of his desk filled with university work and trial and error pages dedicated to his ambient music, Jack began his journey through every written page from quotes to pictures and inside jokes. However that wasn't what he was truly looking for as he instantly flipped to the back of the book where their last memory lied clear and distinct as if it had happened yesterday.

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Flashback

"Ok, we're in the middle of the woods..overlooking the city skyline if you could call it that..and you have us situated on this probably bug infested and wet grass, what are you planning Anderson?" ayla giggled, sitting directly across from him as he smiled placing a small bag in the middle of them.

As we Come and Go                                        ~~ Jack x Ayla Story ~~Where stories live. Discover now