Until I Found You

sixteen

~ ABBY ~

"Abby!"

I stand up from the living room couch as Jonah's figure jogs out of the elevator and straight in my direction. He pulls me into a hug before I can do anything but blink.  

"I was at the office when I heard what happened." He blurts out quickly. "I tried calling you a million times, when I didn't hear back I checked your location on Find My Friends and saw you were here."

He pulls back so that he can see my face, arms still holding me in place on either side of my shoulders. Only he's not really looking at me. His eyes are scanning around the room, taking in every piece of furniture, every piece of art that hangs the walls to the vase of flowers on coffee table. He soaks up every detail he can as I stand temporarily forgotten in front of him.

"Holy hell this place is insane." He says under his breath, his gaze falling back to mine. I think he seems to gage that something is different, that I'm not reacting to him the same way I normally would, because his eyes narrow in on me, examining my face.

"How come you never answered my texts?" He asks. "I've been worried sick."

I take a deep breathe, watching his expression carefully.

"I know, Jonah."

His eyebrows scrunch together in confusion.

"What?"

"I know." I repeat. "I know that you told Benji that Steve is my soulmate. I know he's the one that went to the press with story."

Jonah's eyes widen, his arms falling from mine and back to his side. Even before he speaks I can tell that he already knew. He had already known Benji was the one to leak the story. He had already known and he hadn't bothered to tell me.

"H-how..." He coughs, clearing his throat of the stutter before trying again. "How did you find out?"

"Does it really matter how I found out?" I scoff, stepping away from him. I still can't believe this. I can't believe that he would do this behind my back. And at the end of it all, I can't believe that he came to this tower to "check" on me, all the while pretending like he didn't know the reason this was happening. It all feels so fake now. If he really cared about my well-being, he would have warned me it was going to happen. If he really cared, I wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

"Don't be angry with me." He pleads. "I had to tell Benji. I couldn't keep something a secret this big from him."

"I'm not angry that you told him Jonah." I snap, frustratedly. "If that's what you think I'm upset about right now then clearly you don't know me as well as I thought you did."

He looks away from me, face full of stress and concern as he runs an hand through his hair, agitatedly. I don't know if I can even believe that anymore. As much as he obviously didn't know me as well I thought, it's clear to me now that I didn't really know him either. Or at least, I didn't know what he was capable of.

"Why?" I ask him, stone-faced. "Why did you let him do this?"

"I did it for you." He states, simply.

"How could reporting this story have possibly been for my benefit?" I question him, completely baffled by his statement.

"I did do it for you, Abby." He insists. "I did it because you deserve better than him. The way he's been treating you isn't right."