Breaking Good (COMPLETE✔️)

chapter || 1 || hurt or be hurt

(song: "Pity Party" - Melanie Martinez)

"Chuck, are you seriously breaking up with me right now?" I shouted.

     The sun set as I stood in front of a messy gas station located on the north side of Las Vegas while Chuck, my boyfriend, sat comfortably in his black Jeep with the windows rolled down and the doors locked. He finished the last drag of his cigarette and flicked it out the window.

     "You are an impulsive, psychotic bitch, Jenn. I used to find that really sexy, but not anymore," he said with an exhale of smoke.

     I took off one of my black discount-store heels so I could throw it at him through the open window. I aimed for his eye, but all I managed to do was hit the passenger seat beside him.

     "So what?" I gestured to the questionably safe neighborhood surrounding us. "You're just going to leave me here? You didn't even have the decency to break up with me over a text like most people do these days!"

     Chuck rolled up his window halfway. I guess he thought I might try to throw my other heel at him. "Jenn, you are the only girl who would say she'd prefer a break-up over a text message. This is me trying to be a decent guy."

     "Yeah, 'cause you're so decent, abandoning me in the middle of a gas station!" I screamed and pressed my barefoot on the remains of a discarded old coffee cup.

     "You got a phone. Call somebody." He told me apathetically before he rolled his window up completely and peeled out of the parking lot.

      Just perfect. My boyfriend dumped me. I left was one shoe short, wearing a tight dress at a gas station located in a high-crime part of Las Vegas during nightfall.

     Seriously, could life get any worse?

     The low buzzing sounds of the flickering fluorescent lights above me followed Chuck's abandonment and made me horribly aware of just how alone I was.

     Did he really think he could break up with me and get away with it?

     Who was he to call me impulsive and psychotic? It was me who put up with his crazy-ass and loved him despite it for the past year.

     I tugged up the zipper on my uncomfortable skin-tight, black mini-dress. It was the dress my boyfriend—no—ex-boyfriend Chuck had loved most. That little black number accentuated my figure in all the right places. Any mother would scream at their daughter for wearing it, but there would be no one to scold me for dressing inappropriately or for staying out too late.

     I had no family to rely on to get me back home safely. My father wasn't even an option, he would be too drunk on a Friday night to even know I'd left.

     I took off my other shoe; it was pointless to wear one heel. I tossed it into the green-plastic trash bin just beside the large ice cooler. I dug my phone out of my purse and went back inside the gas station. It felt unsafe to be standing alone in a dark parking lot. That was the stuff horror movies were made of.

     "Back again, did you forget something?" The greasy-looking gas-store clerk called out towards me while he mopped up some spilled blue-iced soda from the slush machine that had gone rogue.

     "Yeah, I forgot to not date assholes," I told him.

     He didn't seem to get the joke because he didn't laugh or give a polite smile.

     I looked at my phone. 9:10. There was a notification on my phone that stated: 9:30 – Party @ Patrick Henry's.

     Ugh.

     I never went to Patrick Henry's parties. He was the school's favorite golden boy, a real Mr. Perfect type. He got along with everyone in the school. He managed to be annoyingly good at everything too, it really irritated me.

     People that were too good had to be fake.

     He wasn't one of those types to be picky about who he invited to parties either. He invited me to every party of his despite the fact he knew I didn't like him at all. His girlfriend—a gorgeous Argentinian girl—always insisted that he be nice to the less fortunate. I guess she was referring to me.

     Still, though, I stood there all dressed up with nowhere to go, so yeah. I think a party felt like exactly what I needed.

     I texted my best friend, Selena.

【Me: Chuck dumped me need a ride. 】

【Selena: What? Are you ok?? Where are you???】

【Me: I'll send you the address. Btw wear something for a party and bring me a pair of heels. I threw one of mine at Chuck. 】

【Selena: You mean Patrick's party? I thought you said no one could even pay you to go to one of his parties?】

【Me: Yeah well. Guess I need a change. 】

【Selena: Okay. Let me tell Jon and I'll be there.】

     I smiled at the screen. I loved Selena. She was the total polar opposite of me, but somehow we made it work. However, I hated her controlling boyfriend, Jonathan.

     I appeased the store-clerk and bought some more breath mints and bottled water. I placed my earbuds in and zoned out to the music on the stoop just outside the gas-stop door until Selena arrived.

     Selena closed the door to her car and ran towards me. She looked amazing—mainly because she was wearing one of my outfits and not her usual gypsy-shirts and mom jeans. She poked out her lower lip at me and opened her arms wide.

     "Come here!"

     I opened my arms in return and hugged onto her like a lifeline.

     "I'm seriously never going to fall in love again. It's official. Date it and stamp it. It's never happening again."

     "Chuck was a terrible boyfriend, Jenn. Not only was he a disgusting human being, but he also cheated on you. Not just once, but twice, he cheated. He goes after any girl that has a head of hair. Consider this a good thing."

     I shook my head stubbornly. "I don't care. I don't want another boyfriend. I just want a string of meaningless encounters with hot guys from this day forward."

     Selena patted my head. She was trying to be supportive, but at the same time, she seemed amused by the situation. "There, there, I know you don't mean that."

     But I did mean it. I was hurt.

     "Let's get to this party before the gas clerk calls the police on us for loitering. He's been giving me the stink-eye for the past fifteen mins."

     I hoped Patrick Henry and his perfect-little-girlfriend were prepared for me.

     If it wasn't a party before I arrived, it was about to be one.