I woke up the next morning and I immediately noticed that Jo wasn't in my arms anymore. Thankfully, I realized that she was still in bed though. She was sitting at the edge of the bed to my left, right where I was facing when I woke up. She appeared to be staring out the window, but only her back was facing me. She seemed to be in a daze, because she didn't even feel me shift in bed.
"Jo?" her name escaped my lips.
She promptly spun around to face me. Her hands once again gripped the ends of her sweatshirt sleeves; even though I already knew about all the marks on her forearms.
"Are you okay?" I asked her, since she didn't reply to her name right away.
Jo nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine," she turned around again to stare out the window. I sat up in bed, allowing the duvet to fall off my chest. I sat on my knees and stared out the window, trying to figure out what she was staring at.
I remembered all of last night and a small smile crept onto my lips. I began to wonder if this was still the same innocent, scared Jo from last night who actually loved me. Maybe she became the fake, confident Jo who was afraid of absolutely nothing. I wanted the real Jo to stay with me.
I sat behind Jo and slipped my hand into hers, even if her back was still facing me. Jo instantaneously pulled her hand out of mine and turned around. She didn't scoot away from me, though; "I don't want to be affectionate until with you until I break up with Asher. I'm sick of this cheating crap."
I nearly let out a sigh of relief at her comment. This means that she still wants to date me, well, at least be affectionate with me. I couldn't believe that she actually was going to break up with Asher that simply. This whole time she had been so content with staying with him and when I just said a few obvious words. Sometimes the obvious is the hardest thing to grasp for a person. It just takes someone pointing it out to finally grasp it. Jo had been beginning to slip away from Asher for a while now and it took one event to finally set her over the edge.
"When do you want to break up with him?"
"Today," Jo simply answered, "I want to break up with him before he puts me under his stupid spell again. I don't want him to pull me back in again, so I'm going to do this quickly and get away from him. I don't think it will be that simple, but I just need to try first."
I nodded in agreement. I was so happy that Jo was finally realizing how dangerous he was.
Jo looked me in the eyes, "Will you come with me when I break up with him?" she asked. I was surprised, so I didn't reply immediately. Jo continued, "I know it will be weird for you to come along when I'm breaking up with him, but I just feel safer when-"
"I would love to," I interrupted, giving her a small smile. Jo looked at her lap and I saw the corners of her lips turn. I slowly lifted her chin up with my index finger, "I want to see your beautiful smile."
Jo blushed. I don't think I have ever seen her blush... at least I can't remember now. It was extremely adorable. I hadn't ever seen such a cute sight before and I wanted her cheeks to always remain tinted pink.
"Thanks," she whispered.
"For what?"
"Just always being there... You stayed with me even though you had Emily, who was absolutely perfect. I'm the one who is messed up, yet you'd rather stay with me for some reason."
