Lonely Together II (Sequel)

Chapter 40

Two days had passed, and Justin and I were stuck to our same old habits. It was hard, I'll admit; living under the same roof as your ex-boyfriend. Although Justin and I had been "friends" for quite awhile now, I can't help but miss him all the time, even if he's in the room.

When I look further into my future, the only thing I see was him. It scares me, honestly. I had to force myself to picture a future without him, and it seemed impossible. No matter where life may take us, I hope I never lose his presence in my life.

I stood at the edge of my bed in Justin's apartment with a tank top and a pair of jeans on. I gazed over my extremely messy room, feeling like I had a thousand pounds of weight on my shoulders. Since when was I like this? So stressed all the time, and for nothing?

I picked up a laundry basket out of my closet and started to toss clothes from all over the room in it. If I was going to be stressed, I might as well stress myself out some more by doing my laundry.

I grabbed a heap of clothes off the wooden floor and shoved it into the laundry basket. Picking up a pair of jeans, I began to fling it into the basket as well until I heard the heart wrenching clink of the golden ring that had been sitting in the back pocket of my jeans.

I stared at the ring that sat on the floor a few feet away from me. And I thought I was stressed before.

Was he even looking for this? Did he know it was missing? Did he know whose it was?

I gazed in at the ring in envy. I hated the fact that I didn't even know who it belonged to, or what purpose it had in Justin's life. I hated even thinking about the ring.

Walking over to it, I picked it up off of the floor and placed it onto the table beside my bed. I convinced myself that the next chance I got, I was going to put the ring back into Justin's jacket pocket. It truly was none of my business and I shouldn't have taken it in the first place.

I swiftly lifted the laundry basket off the floor and walked out of my room. I opened the door that was right by my room and held the washer and dryer. I dumped my laundry in as I heard Justin emerge from his room.

"Wow, you're up," Justin taunted as he walked towards the kitchen.

I rolled my eyes with a slight smile. "Don't act so surprised."

He took a coffee mug out of a cabinet and turned on the coffee maker. "Not going to lie, I am."

I shut the door after I started the washer and stepped into the kitchen. Justin's phone rang loudly.

"Hey, Kevin, what's up?"

I stood silently while grabbing a glass out of the cupboard. Filling it with water, I listened intently.

"Right, I completely forgot," Justin eyed me while taking a deep breath. "We'll be there. You bet. Bye."

I took a sip of my water. "What'd he have to say?"

He sighed. "Kevin was just confirming our dinner plans for tonight," he put his hands on his hips. "I forgot we agreed to that," he chuckled.

"What," I raised my eyebrows. "You don't want to go?"

"It's not that I don't want to, I like Kevin. He's the one who set me up with this place," he gestured around him. "It's just-" he sighed, hanging his head. "I haven't really told him that we..." he faded off, looking around the room at anything but me.

"Broke up?" I cringed as I said it. Hey, someone had to. I could tell Justin was uncomfortable, and he had every right to be. It was weird, living with your ex boyfriend. I don't blame Kevin for assuming we're still together.