I Broke The Girl I Loved

I'm Back

The antagonizing beeping of my alarm made me wish I had decided against going back to school. I lazily reached my arm over my head and moved it around my bedside table until my hand made contact with the snooze button. My eyes once again drifted closed and I fell back into the world of dreams before that world was shattered as my alarm went off for the second time this morning. Snoozing it wouldn't help me to get ready for school so instead I turned it off and got out of bed. I took a quick shower before throwing on a pair of black jeans and a light gray t-shirt. I walked out into the hallway at the same time that Evie did. She was wearing a hot pink skirt and a white ruffled shirt that had a pink sequin heart in the middle.

"You ready?" I asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she responded.

With that we headed downstairs and ate a quick breakfast consisting of a bowl of cereal and a cup of orange juice. Once we finished, we returned to getting ready by collecting our backpacks and brushing our teeth. Both of us finished and I locked the front door once we were outside. I made my way towards the car but Evie stopped me on the porch by tugging on my arm.

"Jayce, mom always took a picture of me on my first day of school," Evie said, looking down at the ground. I pulled out my phone.

"Say cheese," I said as I snapped a couple cute pictures of Evie standing in front of the front door with a huge smile on her face.

"Now let's go," I said and Evie nodded her head.

                                     •••
I dropped Evie off at school and stayed parked where I was, until I saw her walk through the doors. Once she was out of sight, I pulled off and drove to school. A letter arrived in the mail for me, the day my dad passed away, that said my form for a reserved parking spot had been approved and I was assigned number 06 which was a parking spot located on the far left of the parking lot. I parked my car and rested my hand on the handle knowing I needed to open the door but not being able to. 

My dad stopped driving me to school the day I got my drivers license. I remember walking out of the DMV with a proud smile on my face, which clearly let him know I passed, and him coming up to me and resting his hand on my shoulder as he told me that he wasn't surprised I passed the test since I had plenty of practice driving him nuts. That made the both of us burst into a fit of laughter before he pulled me into a tight hug and told me he was genuinely proud of me. He let me drive us home that day and the moment we arrived home I went around asking the neighbors if they needed a car wash or if their lawns needed to be mowed so I could rack up some extra bucks and buy myself a car. That wasn't enough so I got a job after school working four hour shifts at a restaurant walking distance from my house. The car I wanted was $22,500 and I had managed to make $15,500 in two years but by then the car I wanted had long since been sold. My dad tried everything to cheer me up about it but I was heartbroken.

On my seventh birthday he told me about a Pontiac Catalina in good shape that was selling for around a thousand more than I'd made and so he told me he would pay the extra thousand for me to get it. We went to check it out and when we got home I had my own car. It could have used a new paint job and my dad knew that since he'd been keeping tabs on it before we bought it. He told me he had a surprise for me and he led me into the garage where there were two cans of blue paint along with one can of white paint. The next day I spent every minute outside painting my new car the exact way I wanted.

I slammed my hands against the wheel in anger as I felt my chest tighten at the thought of my dad. If I was ever going to make it through today I had to block everything relating to my dad out of my mind. I took a deep breath and cleared my mind as I stepped out of the car.

"I'm back," I whispered to no one as I walked through the front doors.

The halls were bustling with all the latest gossip that everyone would forget when new drama arose. I blocked out the chatter and headed straight for my locker in order to grab my binder for English. Everything in my locker came pouring out as soon as I opened it and I cursed under my breath. My knuckles were turning white as my grip tightened on the door of my locker. Calm down Jayce, everything is going to be okay just breathe, I thought to myself as I inhaled deeply. I loosened my grip and bent down to pick up my books. As I was collecting them someone bumped into me and my head made direct contact with the cold metal of the locker. The person laughed and I snapped.

"Dude you messed up man," one of the guys' friends said as he look over at me.

The guy laughed it off and looked in my direction. Just as he did my fist made contact with his jaw and he stumbled backwards, throwing a hand up to his chin. This didn't make him too happy and he ran towards me and used all his force to slam me against the locker. By now a mini crowd was starting to form around us as we tackled each other to the floor. I was significantly larger than him and pinned him down as I threw another punch at his face. People were cheering and chanting around us and I could see phones being pulled up and directed towards our fight. I went for another punch when someone grabbed my fist. When I turned around to see who had stopped me I assumed it would have been one of his friends but instead it was Aydrian. My face softened when I looked into her eyes and saw how worried she looked.

"Oh he's going soft on us," the guy beneath me said. That set me off again and I freed my hand from Aydrian's grasp in order to punch him again.

He flinched in pain and I stood up. The crowd dispersed, everyone walking every which way, as the principal appeared in front of us. Her eyes met mine and they filled with anger.

"Both of you, my office now!" She yelled.

•••
"You got suspended for a day on your first day back!" Evie exclaimed as she repeated what I told her.

"Yes but enough about that. How was your day?" I asked, trying to divert the conversation.

She excitedly clapped her hands together and began describing her day to me.

"My teachers name is Mrs. Martinez and she is super sweet. We did a fun ice breaker game and then during recess a girl in my class invited me to play with her. Her name is Amara and she invited me to her house tomorrow if that is fine with you. This is Janet's number. That's her moms' name," Evie finished her story and handed my a paper with a number scribbled on it.

"I'll text her but I think it should be fine if you go as long as her mom is fine with it," I responded.

"Yes! Thank you. I love you," she hugged me super tight before running upstairs and into her room.

I input the number into my phone and sent a text to the owner of the number:

Hi Janet. This is Jayce, Evelyn's older brother. She gave me this number and mentioned something about getting together with Amara tomorrow, I just wanted to check in and make sure this was something you were okay with. If so I'd be happy to drop her off after school.

Her response was almost instant:

Hi Jayce! That is completely fine with me, Amara is super excited to have her over. She is welcome to come over at anytime after school and she is more than welcome to stay for dinner as well.

I wrote back a quick reply before putting my phone away:

Sounds good. I will drop her off around 3:30pm and pick her up whenever you need me to.

"Evie!" I shouted. "You're going to Amara's after school tomorrow at 3:30pm!"

"Thank you!" She yelled back.

                                      •••
I didn't feel like cooking dinner so I put one of the pizzas I bought in the oven and Evie and I ate that for dinner. She showered and I tucked her in bed before going downstairs and washing the dishes that had started to pile up in the sink from the last couple days.

Getting suspended on my first day back to school was nowhere in my plans. I knew something was bound to make me snap but it all happened so early; I didn't even make it to first period. The principal wasn't too happy about what she'd witnessed but luckily since it was Thursday and we only had one day left before the week was over, she just suspended me for the one day. As for the other guy, he got let off the hook since he made it as clear as day that I threw the first punch. I wasn't too worried about it but I was still annoyed. If I could have just ignored it and not reacted I wouldn't have put myself in that situation but I couldn't control it. Going back to school was going to be harder than I anticipated.