The Unknown Heartbreak of The Rebound Girl

He Becomes My Person

My gut was screaming at me to walk to other way, begging me to listen to reason. He's just going to hurt you, don't get involved, set boundaries. As you probably already guessed, I did not, my savior complex was much louder. I can fix him, make him whole again. I knew better, but I still chose to believe he was different. I convinced myself I was just stereotyping him, putting him into a box he didn't belong in. 

After breaking up with his girlfriend of two years for the second and final time, Zach began to message me. Sounds familiar right? I saw it too and wanted nothing to do with it, but he didn't give up. He kept messaging, trying to hang out and finally, I caved. We could be friends, that's it, I told myself. We would be absolutely nothing more. 

It started off small, I invited him to a party. It was a large enough setting that I didn't really have to interact with him. He ended up being one of the last people there, lying under the table with drunk me as we watched the party dwindle. As he was leaving he thanked me for inviting him and smiled his perfect smile. 

He was now physically in my life, no longer an unread notification I could simply ignore. We went from group settings of drinking and partying to smaller groups, to just the two of us. The first time we sat, just us, for dinner was at Olive Garden. I felt like I was going to vomit I was so nervous. A guy walking by our table bumped Zach's chair. 

"Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt your date." Date. The word stumbled in my head. No, we weren't on a date. We were just friends, nothing more. I laughed it off, trying not to make things awkward. Smile. 

More dinners came and went and suddenly we didn't have to go out, we just liked being in each other's company. We could just hangout and that was good enough. I had a bad day and he gave me flowers and listened to me rant for hours while walking in a park. That park became our place. Any time we needed something to do we would go and walk, talking for several hours each time.

Another bad day came and I was struggling, he invited me over to his place and cooked dinner for me. I hadn't had this before. This was new territory, no one had offered to make dinner for me. I was so used to constantly having to give to others that to have someone else give was new. 

He quickly became my person. Any time something funny, sad, weird, or exciting happened he was the one I wanted to tell. If a cool event was happening he was the one I wanted to take. 

This is when I knew I had messed up. At this point if he left I would be heartbroken, fuck.