The Anatomy of a Broken Heart //Completed//

28. Santana

The warehouses were a row of empty buildings on a dilapidated street with no lights at the end of town. They were run down and rotting and used only by squatters and dealers. When we got there, I recognized the Escalade parked inside one of the warehouse loading docks. It belonged to Tommy, one of Jasper's roommates. The cops loved doing raids here so King's guys kept their selling schedules in line with shift changes and I could tell they were eager to get it over with. Tommy and a couple of big bald dudes were standing in the shadows waiting, and once they saw us, they crept out of the dark like a bunch of vampires. It made my skin crawl.

"Hey, after this I need to go to The Diner." I told Jonah as we stepped out of the car and into the cold.

"Your mom?"

I nodded, rolling my eyes and he gave me a sympathetic smile.

"Hey, Jonah." Tommy and Jonah bumped fists while Marlow and I stood in the background.

"What you lookin' for tonight?"

"Give me a dime, and..." Jonah turned to us. "What do you want, Mar?"

She stepped forward, her dress swaying a little in the cold breeze, her hands trembling from either the cold or nerves. "Honestly, I just need something to get me through the night." Her voice shook like her hands did.

"I think I got what you need." Tommy's smile was anything but charming as he opened the passenger door of the Escalade and dug around inside for a minute until finally pulling out a small bag of weed and another, smaller bag with a single blue pill inside.

"It's only ten mg's but it'll get the job done, sweetie. Make sure you crush it nice and fine." He winked at her as he stretched his hand out for her to take the bag. Jonah pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed it to Tommy who tucked it into his pocket.

The ice in the air was biting at my face. I checked the time on my phone, ignoring the calls and texts from Caleb which made my gut wrench guiltily. It was almost eleven. When I looked back up to see if the guys had wrapped it up, a movement in the shadows behind Tommy caught my eye. It had been quick, just a flutter of motion which could have easily been a leaf floating through the night air. But as I stared through the solid black, my eyes adjusted and focused like the lens of a camera finally making out a mass in the shadows. It was tall and thin and moved like water as it retreated further into the darkness and my heart instantly stopped beating in my chest.

Jasper.

"You want anything sweetheart?" Tommy's voice yanked my eyes away from the shadows.

"I'm set, thanks," I told him, my hands clutching the little baggie in my jacket pocket.

"Oh, shit. Santana?" Tommy laughed too loudly for the night. "I didn't recognize you. There's something different." Why was it that guys always seemed to notice something was different but couldn't ever be bothered to notice exactly what it was?

"It's the hair," I shrugged.

Tommy snapped his fingers and pointed, nodding. "Looks good."

I tried smiling at him, but I was too anxious to leave. If it really was Jasper hiding in those shadows, I didn't want him to suddenly come out and look at me, the way he always did, as if nothing had changed. As if he hadn't taken a sledge hammer to my glass world and crushed it into a hundred thousand pieces. But because it's me and because this is my life, I didn't get what I wanted.

Jonah said goodbye to Tommy and I gave back a half wave to his half smile then we made our way back to Jonah's car. Just as we were climbing in, I made the mistake of turning around, just for a split second, to see if Marlow was following us. In that moment, the shadows moved and gave way to a figure stepping out of the loading dock and into the Escalade's headlights. His hair was pushed back, away from his face and he had his jacket collar pulled up around his ears, but there was no mistaking him. It was Jasper and my poor pathetic heart practically jumped right out of my chest at the sight of him. It hurt to look at him-physically hurt to look at the way he avoided looking up at me, though I knew he had heard Tommy say my name.