[JackBarakat] You're The One [Spin-Off | I'm The Only One]

Five.

I know that I should be proud of myself. Really, I should be thrilled that I'm here tonight as an artist, and not just as someone who paid to see the exhibits.

The dress covering my body is gorgeous. It’s a light gray, floor length dress that hugs my waist but nothing else. It’s classy. I look classy.

But, the smile on my face isn't real. It should be real. I'm living my dream right now. My art made it into the gallery. I did this. This is my dream come true.

He’s not here. I haven’t seen him here all night. It’s pathetic to admit but I've been looking. I've been discretely looking for him all over the gallery, but he’s not here.

I know that he got the invitation. He got an invitation every way I could think to get it to him: text message, letter, email, tweet, Facebook message, everything.

“You know that he’s going to show up, right?” Ryan appears next to me, her hand resting on my shoulder, because she now knows. She knows what happened and I feel even more pathetic.

If I was wallowing in self-pity without anyone knowing why, I wouldn’t feel so lame. I'm wallowing because a guy I like doesn’t want me back. I've dealt with that before. I should get over it.

But, I can’t, because for some reason I thought it would be more than a drunken one night stand on his birthday.

He woke up and ran. That’s fine. Whatever. He didn’t have to cut off all contact with me, though, and that’s what hurts.

I think I would have been better if he simply pretended it didn’t happen. At least then I would have had him back in my life. He’s acting like a child.

It’s not like I messaged him about us sleeping together. I didn’t purposely avoid it. It didn’t seem important when I sent him his invitation to the gallery.

Maybe my relationship with Alex is stopping me from moving on to someone better. I never thought that Alex and I would break up, so I never really had to think about the possible consequences of dating him.

The two of us were supposed to spend forever with each other. It was something we promised each other.

Fame changes people and I've come to terms with that. It’s changed all four of them. Hell, Zack is living on the east coast for god sake.

Alex cheated on me, or he didn’t and he said he did. I'm still not really sure what happened to destroy our relationship the first time.

It was my mistake to go back to him after that because I just couldn’t find it in myself to trust anything that came out of his mouth after that.

“I really don’t think I care anymore. I'm just going to accept and come to terms with the fact that my relationship with Jack doesn’t exist anymore. I've lost him once before. Remember when Alex and I broke up the first time? I can do it again.”

I'm lying to myself and to her. I don’t think that I can lose Jack again, especially after we had sex. One night stands are foreign to me, and I don’t think my heart or my mind can get over the fact that I've been tossed aside and forgotten.

She nods her head, going along with the lie, which I know she knows is a lie. “Well, I think you should make yourself approachable so people can come and discuss your work with you.”

Her words make me realize that I've most likely been sulking this entire night. It’s such a turn off and it definitely isn't good for business or my reputation.

Standing up straight, I run my hands over the front of my dress to smooth it out. “You're right.” I nod my head, forcing a smile to turn my lips upward.

“Logan, I think we should talk.” His voice startles me, and I hate that he’s choosing now to talk to me. He wants to talk when I finally got my artwork into this gallery.

Spinning around, I shake my head. “I'm a little busy, right now, Jack. And really, I'm not interested in talking.”

It’s like hearing his voice finally made all the anger that I pushed aside to bubble up. He should have chosen a better time to try to talk to me.

Who does he think he is? He doesn’t get a higher priority than this. I'm finally here. I reached my goal and I saw my dream come true.

I don’t need him.

But, I do.