I'll Be Your Strength

Part 8

Amy ran into the room wearing a thick black coat and a woollen scarf and said her goodbyes to everyone, saying her boyfriend, George was taking her out for lunch. Jay’s heart sank as he acknowledged that she was taken, he made a quick glance at Max, who knew about his feelings for Amy and his facial expressions mirrored his own. He put on a fake smile for Amy’s sake, hugged her goodbye before swiftly leaving the room to get some fresh air and collect his thoughts.

“Why have I been so stupid? Why did I expect a beautiful girl like Amy to like a person like me?” Questions like these were shooting through Jay’s mind, while he tried to understand what had just happened. He felt so angry; he couldn’t believe he has expected anything more than friendship between them. Then before he realised it, his hand took a mind of its own, and he found himself punching the frozen bark of an Evergreen tree. He couldn’t control himself. A tear then rolled down his cheek and he fell to the floor, at the stump of the tree. Luckily, Max had realised that Jay had left the room and came to find him. He was automatically drawn to the damaged mark on the tree and followed the trail to a very broken Jay who was curled up on the ground.

“How are you doing mate? I am so sorry!” apologetically said Max, taking a seat next to him, in attempt to comfort him. But Jay wasn’t in the mood to talk; he wasn’t able to get any words out. It was like there was something stuck in his throat, preventing him from speaking. There was too much running around in his mind that meant he wasn’t able to put together a coherent response.

However after several minutes and many attempts he finally forced out, “I just thought we were both on the same page in our relationship you know…but obviously not”. It came out very shaky but coherent enough to understand.

“I know mate. Put it this way, a girl would be very lucky to have a guy like you!” replied Max before realising how that must have sounded to Jay. “Oh my goodness that sounded better in my head” he added, laughing. That did the trick; Jay was now grinning too and began to pull himself together.

“I am sorry, I feel like such a wimp right now. I mean I can’t go through life, getting angry every time a girl I like doesn’t like me back” As Jay was saying this, he began to get to his feet and return to the house. Max smiled at this response and patted him on the back, following him back to the busy living room.