Not Him

"Fuck off." - 6/27

8/27/22
1:23am
Jaden was sobbing when he got into Linden's car.

"Why did you– Why did you take so long?"

"Since when were you a whiny drunk?"

"I didn't– I thought you weren't coming. I was scared."

"Whatever. I had to finish what I was doing. You want to go home?"

"Yeah."

"Yours or mine?"

"My house."

"You sure?"

"Yes, Linden. I don't want to spend the night with you."

"Someone's gotta take you to get your car in the morning, love."

"Don't call me that." Jaden crossed his arms, turning to look out the window.

"Oh, so you can call me at eleven to pick your drunk ass up from a party, but I can't call you an endearing nickname? You're lucky I even showed up."

"Can we not do this right now? I just want to go home."

"You can't just fucking call me and expect me to act like I'm not pissed at you. You broke my heart, Jaden."

"And you called me a worthless piece of shit every day, so I guess we're fucking even."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"Fuck off."

"Then get out of my car." Linden stopped the car abruptly. The streets were empty, luckily, but Jaden was still inherently worried about road rules.

"Linden–"

"You heard me, Jaden. You clearly want nothing to do with me."

"How am I going to get home?"

"Should've thought about that before telling me to fuck off, huh?"

"Linden, I'm sorry."

"Fuck off."

Jaden slowly opened the car door and unclicked his seatbelt. He waited. He made eye contact with Linden. He expected something, anything else, but no.

"Have fun walking home."

Jaden got out of the car and Linden drove away. They hadn't gotten very far. Jaden was still rather far from home, and judging by the way his body swayed, he wasn't going to have an easy time making it.

He didn't even try to start walking. He merely sat on the curb, holding his head in his hands. A car was coming, and Jaden prepared to get away from the curb, but–

He just went around the block. Jaden felt relief wash over him and he stood, being too drunk and too tired to be pissed. He just wanted to get home.

Linden stopped and Jaden opened the passenger side door, stepping into the car.

"Wait."

"...Yeah?"

"Apologize."

"Linden, I'm sorry."

"Oh, real sincere, Jade."

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry for yelling at you, I'm sorry for hurting you, just please take me home. I want to go home."

"Get in the car."

There was a pause. Nothing but the buzz of late night radio played in Linden's car for what could've been fucking hours for all Jaden knew, every second felt like a lifetime as he tried to pry his eyes away from the man he wished he felt disgusted by.

"Did you even ask anyone else at the party if they could take you home?"

"Everyone was drunk or high."

"So basically, you defaulted to me. Glad to be your first choice."

"Can we just– can we not right now? I have a headache."

Linden slammed a fist into the side of the steering wheel. Jaden jumped.

"I thought– I just thought that when you texted me, maybe, I don't know maybe you'd want to fucking talk about what happened."

"I'm drunk, Linden."

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm just an idiot. Should've known."

"I'm sorry."

"No you fucking aren't."