Shooting Stars

Chapter 49: Tricks of the Mind

{Patrick}

Two weeks.

It's been over two weeks since it happened.

And literally nothing has changed.

It's Monday, August 25, at about 10:15 in the morning.

Jonathan, Ally, and I have been living separate lives in the same apartment for roughly the past two weeks.

It's the weirdest thing. 

We don't talk to each other.

We don't even acknowledge each other.

Not a single word has been spoken to one another. 

We all do our own things throughout the day.

I've been going out on small dates with Abigail here and there, Ally goes out for walks, Jonathan goes out for dinner or lunch or whatever it is that he does, but none of us talk to each other.

No one has said a single thing to each other.

It's as if none of us so much as even exist to each other.

And it's really getting old.

We ignore each other all day, and we don't socialize at all.

And oh God, the awkwardness.

Christ.

It's too much to handle.

And I need to do something about it.

This has been entirely my fault.

I kissed Ally to take her mind off of what was troubling her; that is it.

I don't have feelings for her, she doesn't have any for me, it was simply horrible timing on Jonathan's part.

And it's just too hard to explain.

But, I need to fix this.

We can't live like this.

Ally leaves to go back to Buffalo for school on Friday.

Four fucking days.

I can't let her leave without doing something about this.

I can't send her back to Buffalo stressed, when she's got so much stress there already.

Ally and Jonathan just spent two weeks apart.

Independent.

Alone.

They wasted two weeks that they can't make up for.

Ally only has so much time here in Chicago, and something has got to change.

And fast.

And that's what I'm doing today.

I'm talking to Jonathan. I'm going to try and explain what happened that night he walked in on Ally and I.

He isn't going to take it well.

He hasn't been willing to talk about it for the past two weeks, obviously.

But I've seen both him and Ally growing desperate.

The two of them are so in love, and occasionally I'll catch them staring at one another when the other isn't watching.

I'm just praying to God that because he's getting so desperate for her, he will be willing to talk.

Jonathan is sitting at the glass dinner table by himself, finishing up his breakfast.