One Deep Breath

Chapter Six

"Glad to see I don't need to organize a search party" Rachel called from the bathroom as she heard me enter our room.

"Did I miss out on anything good while I was gone from the group?"

"Nah. Leah went home with Brett the bartender so it was just me and Ash on the way home," Rachel said as she plopped herself down into bed. "But I think the better question is how'd your ride go?" She wiggled her eyebrows at Jolie expectantly.

"It was... nice."

"Seriously. That's all I get?" Rachel huffed which caused Jolie to laugh.

"There's not much to tell. Not yet anyway. Can we talk about it tomorrow? My brain is shutting down."

With a nod from her roommate Jolie got ready to crash for the night. As she lay in her bed about to pass out, she noted that the ever present weight on her chest seemed to have dissolved, which was especially odd considering everything that happened with Landon earlier. She didn't feel like her breathing was constricted at all as she slipped into unconsciousness, and she didn't wake up once throughout the night like she usually did.

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The next day went by fairly easily. Rachel was too hungover to ask any questions about Jolie's adventure with Jesse, and Landon had enough sense to give her some space. Jolie spent the morning sleeping in and the afternoon in the library working on a few different assignments she had due the following week.

After an hour or so of attempting to start an essay for her Creative Writing elective, Jolie's thoughts shifted back to the night before. She replayed the moment before they got into his car in her mind, where she could have sworn he wanted to kiss her. She thought through about a thousand different ways the night could have ended before she realized what a shitty girlfriend she was being to Landon.

Landon. That fucker. Why am I so concerned about his feelings when he's never put mine before his own?

She grabbed her phone, thinking maybe she should call him so she could get over her anger and stop fantasizing about Jesse. Scrolling down to the L's in her contact list she noticed Jesse's entry.

It read Jesse Bennett – Hot Guy from Four.

Jolie smiled to herself before recognizing the last name, quickly associating it with the company he said he worked for last night.

Does he own it? Maybe it's a family business?

She thought through all the options and found herself wanting to know way more about Jesse. What did he do there? Was he from around here? He sure seemed to know his way around the city. Was he rich? Or was it just his family's money. He was in the VIP section, and the suit he wore at Starbucks certainly looked expensive. He didn't come off as arrogant or uppity in the least, though.

Then she guiltily remembered Landon. Her ears grew hot as she flipped back and forth between guilt for liking Jesse so much and anger towards Landon for messing with her mind again so quickly after promising her he'd be different this go around.

She decided to call him. Wandering outside, she clicked the call button.

He answered on the first ring.

"Jo, I'm so glad you called me," Landon greeted her.

"Yeah well I almost didn't."

"I know babe, but you're overreacting. It was nothing. We were all just drinking, you know, celebrating final semester. She's nobody, I swear. I was just being drunk and dumb. I'm sorry. Don't be mad."

"Well why couldn't you just tell me that last night?"

"I don't know. You know how it is when I'm out with my friends, Jo. I was just having some fun. It was harmless, I already deleted it off my account."

Jolie rolled her eyes and remained silent on the line, hoping he could picture her sitting there in disdain. She knew she was being a brat, considering she spent the night mesmerized by another man, but this stupid picture of him with another girl was making her irrationally angry.

"Babe..."

"Landon, stop. It's not just last night. It's everything. We both know you've been way shadier than this before, but you promised me this time would be different. You're not off to a promising start."

"Really Jolie? You want to pick a fight with me over this? This was nothing! You're being a bitch for no reason this time!"

"Yeah? A bitch? Nice, Lan. Real nice. I'm so over all this," Jolie spat at him through the phone. "I'm gonna go. Go ahead and do whatever you want. I'll do the same."

"Fuck this, Jolie. Call me when you're over it."

He hung up on her, which left her fuming.

She knew what he did last night wasn't terribly awful; it certainly didn't compare to some of his past mistakes, like when she found a ridiculous amount of incriminating messages between him and somebody named Sam on his phone, or worse, the time she got a message on her Facebook from some girl that went to school with Landon in Ohio detailing a few drunken hook-ups she had had with him that she felt "obligated" to tell Jolie about once she had found out about her

Jolie wasn't an idiot. She turned a blind eye to the things that didn't add up in his stories because it was simply easier. And to his credit he wasn't particularly shady until after they had agreed it would be "easier" to lose their title so that they could both "relax" and "just enjoy" their college years (Landon's words).

It's not like she was an angel herself, she'd flirted and had some of her own fun, but at the end of the day she always went home to her own bed and kept her extracurricular relationships relatively PG. It was always Landon that she wanted to call and talk to, when things were good or when things were bad. Plus he had been the one that saved her in high school when her world was a disaster; he had been her main support system during a time when she felt as though she didn't have anyone else to lean on.

He truly had been her best friend for a long time, until Rachel had slowly transitioned into that role. Now Jolie felt like they were turning into two completely different people, both desperately trying to salvage their bond and maintain their relationship, just never at the same time.

She felt emotionally drained all of sudden, so she went back inside to gather her belongings and headed back to her dorm.