I need space. Those were the words Jacky said to Ryan the night before they both left for separate colleges. Now, each of them will try to learn who they are without the other. Will their paths lead them back together?
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Ryan
All Ryan wanted to do when he got back to the apartment was sleep. Everything that had happened over the last twelve hours or so was too much to deal with: the excitement of the drag show, the night spent making sure Pete didn't choke on his own vomit, Jacky showing up, breaking up with Charlie.
But when he walked into his room, he saw Pete still asleep on his bed, and his broken phone lying there on his desk, and with a heavy sigh he opened his laptop and searched for phone repair, then headed down by himself. The phone repair took less than an hour somehow. It made the whole crisis of not having a phone for two days, long enough for Jacky to panic and drive all the way here, feel trivial.
There were 47 new texts and several calls to respond to. He headed to the coffee shop where Marina worked, hoping for someone objective to talk to. An unfamiliar face stood behind the counter. After he ordered a large Americano, he found a seat and scrolled through all the messages. Finally, he opened the thread from Monica.
Jacky says you haven't been answering his texts. Are you okay, or just ignoring him?
That text was from Saturday night, timestamped 11:30pm. Which was last night, Ryan reminded himself. Monica had sent a second text two hours later.
If you don't answer this by Sunday night, I'm going to show up at your apartment! 😉
Ryan wrote, Hey Monica, I'm alive – just broke my phone and it took me a while to get it fixed.
Monica texted back immediately: Phew! Then, Jacky seemed really worried, have you texted him back yet??
He wanted to tell Monica that Jacky had driven all night to come and make sure he was okay, but it felt like too long of a story for a text. He texted a cryptic Don't worry about Jacky, I'll call you later and tell you about it, then sat staring at all of Jacky's messages.
There were a lot. Not as many as if, say, Marina had been worried. She tended to send eight texts when one would have sufficed, whereas Jacky didn't like to be seen as needy and therefore texted only when he had a sarcastic comment or funny aside. There were maybe ten texts, starting with, Hey, what time did you want to call tonight? then moved to, If you're busy, I get it, I know you have a lot on your plate with working and school, and finally Did I say something wrong? I really want to make this work.
The last text was, I'm on my way, if you don't want to see me you'd better text me back or call me.
As much as Ryan just wanted to sit alone with Jacky and talk to him, even if only on the phone, Jacky wouldn't be home for three more hours. And Ryan had a lot of schoolwork to do.
Back in the apartment, Sam and Jordyn were on the couch, watching a movie. "Hey," Ryan said. They looked up but didn't greet him. Unsure of what else to say, he headed to his room and started pulling out his textbooks. He glanced over at Pete, who was still motionless in the bed.
