Lessons Learned

Lesson 2|Part 2

Just look after her? What does "Just look after her" mean? I don't need anyone to look after me.

Those were my first thoughts when he said those words. At first I got angry. I thought he meant bad, but then another thought appeared in my mind. Maybe he still cared about me. Maybe he wanted someone to protect me because he doesn't want me to get hurt. So yeah I was trying to make up my mind when Colin interrupted my thoughts.

"Who was that? Are you okay?" and he reached for my hand again. I quickly yanked my hand back.

"You seriously gotta stop doing that."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay. I have to go. See you at school tomorrow." I stood up and looked at Colin. I could see his sad and regretful eyes. I thought that I probably hurt him, but there was no turning back now, so I started walking away from him.

Then I stopped and turned around. He was still looking at me. He stood up too and prepared himself to say something, but I didn't let him. Instead I just said:

"He was my ex-boyfriend. We broke up a month ago and this was the first time we saw each other since then."

"Are you sure you're okay?" he said.

I wasn't okay. I wasn't feeling like I could ever be okay. I just wanted to cry, but on my own. I needed to get out of there as soon as possible, so I took a deep breath and said:

"I am. Thank you." and left the mall.

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The next day I woke up at 6.30 and sat in the bed for about twenty minutes. I thought about almost everything: Austin, Colin, Colin's girlfriend, the party I'm supposed to throw for Kiera, the theater thing and how to skip it, everything. And I only got worse when I realized that I had a lot of things to do and problems to face.

Austin was a huge problem for me. I was just beginning to forget him, but he showed up again and now he wouldn't leave my mind. After thinking for a while I decided to tell Kiera about his appearance at the mall. So when I got ready and drove to school, I found Kiera and pushed her to a corner so that nobody would be able to see us.

"What the-"

"Can you please just listen to me?" I begged.

"What's wrong? You don't look okay."

I made sure that no one was there by looking around. Then I turned to Kiera and said:

"Austin showed up at the mall yesterday. He saw me and Colin sitting together. He came up to our table and talked to me and he said some relatively sweet things and-"

Kiera immediately cut me off.

"Okay Vi, first of all it is impossible for Austin to say sweet things, second of all I do not allow you to think for a second that Austin was being nice to you. Don't you remember how he broke your heart?"

"I know, I know. That's why I'm not sure if he meant good. But Kiera he just got me thinking that maybe he still cares about me."

"Violet!" she shouted and caused a few people to look at us. "Don't be silly. He's playing with you." She was starting to get angry which made me want to cry. I don't like it when people get angry at me. And in order not to cry I left Kiera there and entered the classroom.

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During the lunch break Colin came to our table with Jacob. It looked like they were great friends now. He looked at me and smiled. I smiled back at him and we looked at each other for a few seconds. Then he uncomfortably said:

"Violet can I talk to you for a second?" I was just about to respond, but he added. "Alone." I nodded and we went to a corner again. I was all about corners that day.

"Look I'm so sorry about yesterday."

"Oh no no plea-"

"Please just listen to me. I really didn't mean to say or do anything bad and I know you're okay with it, but I just wanted to apologize again. Also about that guy. I want you to let me know if he says anything that bothers you, okay? I don't want him to hurt you. Just let me know and I will do whatever has to be done. I just want you to know that-"

He hold my arm tightly.

"you can tell me anything." and then he went back to the table.

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When I got home the first thing I did was to jump on my bed and try to forget almost everything. I tried to forget all the things that made me sad, I tried to forget about everything that happened yesterday because I had more important things to do. First of all I texted Kiera saying that I was wrong to even think about Austin after everything he'd done to me and asked her if she can forgive me. We didn't really have a huge argument going on, but I really wanted to make it up to her before Saturday because I wanted her birthday to be amazing.

That's another thing I had to worry about. I had about two days left to plan everything and I realized that it's not possible for me to deal with that much stuff on my own, so I decided to ask Jacob for help. I already had a couple things in mind, so it wasn't going to be so hard. Also the shopping was done, but still for the invitations and for morale support I needed Jacob's help.

He agreed to come to my house and we started working by opening some music first. We didn't need to do a lot of things. Jacob was working on the invitations and he said that he could make sure everyone gets them and I was really appreciative. I talked to a lovely lady on phone to make sure that she gets the place ready before we got there. And just like that we were pretty much done. I looked at Jacob and a huge smile appeared on my face as I saw him smile too.

"We're done!" he shouted happily.

"Yeap, pretty much." I said.

"So now we can get to this Austin guy."

I looked the other way uncomfortably as I took a deep breath.

"I'm not gonna talk about that guy a lot because he doesn't even deserve to be talked behind his back." he continued. "But I can assure you that I promise to do whatever Colin promised you. Since I'm your very good friend I will always be there for you. I love Colin and I appreciate his behavior, but if anything happens please come to me first, okay?"

"I'm sure nothing will happen Jacob, but don't worry." I replied not knowing how he knew what Colin said. He shook his head indicating okay and stood up.

"Oh and I prepared an invitation for Colin's girlfriend too. Would that be a problem?" he asked. We didn't even know the girl, why did he want her to come too? God Jacob! I wasn't sure about her coming, but I said:

"Why would it be a problem?" and smiled. He smiled in return and said:

"Okay then. See ya later." and vanished.

After he left the house I got a text from Austin.

It said:

So I guess you can't stop thinking about me. That's actually very flattering, but you gotta let me go baby. I don't love you anymore :)

You son of a ...

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