Smash!

•S E V E N T E E N•

Jamie's POV

A whole week. Seven days. One hundred and sixty eight hours. Ten thousand and eighty minutes.

With Riley gone I never knew how slow time ticks by. I'm waiting for him to emerge in the nearest doorway, or magically be next to me when I wake up in bed. With each minute dragging by, I come to the realization that he won't. Thus creating the vicious cycle that repeats itself every sixty seconds; anticipating and hoping for painfully long thirty seconds, then realizing he won't come back for ten more seconds, and in the last twenty seconds trying not to miss him, though I feel completely miserable. Then the next minute starts, and it happens all over again of every minute of every day.

It's as if Riley was never here, not a trace of him left. His blue car isn't parked outside the apartment building, the little amount of belongings he had wasn't where he left them in my apartment. All the space he was taking up just feels empty; the lonely nights walking after closing instead of Riley waiting for me then driving me home, the counter he use to eat every meal on, the shelves where he started to stack his clothes next to mine like a pair, the other side of the bed, the spot next me.

God, I miss him.

"... J-Jame- Jamie?" My scoundrel of boss recently has done a one hundred and eighty. He's suddenly so considerate, and apprehensive.

"Yes, Mr. Miller?"

"C-can- c-could you please clean out the ovens?" He nervously utters, fidgeting with his hands covered in rings. Lately he's been so on edge, resembling a scared cat every time I look at him. "Unless it'll bother you!"

"It's fine," I need the distraction, "cleaning out the ovens is satisfying." Nothing like a good old productive scrub. With a relieving sigh Mr. Miller tells me not to work to hard, an odd new habit he's picked up, and restlessly wonders to the store front.

-----

Dull, everything is dull and bleak without Riley. As I drag my sore feet home from work, it feels a bit colder tonight, and less colorful, as if I'm seeing everything in hues of black and grey.

Lowering onto the ice cold bus bench I don't fight the shiver that bumps down my spine. It feels like I'm sitting on a block of ice. With trembling hands I pull out my gloves- no, one glove. After a search through all my pockets I realize exactly where the second one is.

With Riley.

An odd choke noise sounds off, then I realize the sound came from me. Throat closing up, I clutch the lonely glove to my constricting chest, and sob hard. Hot tears sting my green eyes. My lungs burn with every wail, every breath shuddering and sharp.

I'm falling apart on a bus bench like an unstable wreck. It's hurt to feel this be lonely. An unbearable, all consuming pain that is so soul crushing I'm giving out from all the weight. It hurts to feel this incomplete.

One day this stranger smashed into my life, became everything I didn't have, then just left me.

I can't stand feeling like this, so vulnerable and incomplete. I refuse to feel this bad about a boy. I refuse. I'm an independent, self efficient person, and I refuse to stop working for some emotionally damaged guy, who didn't even have the decency to tell me his last name.

As the bus nears I rub the tears away a little bit to hard. From this moment on I not going to cry over Riley ever again. Squaring my shoulders, I force a blank expression, and climb up into the public transportation.

Grimacing at sloppy, wet noises, I get nauseous at the only two other occupants on the bus. At the very back of the bus, a pretty girl with smudged makeup, half dressed in wrinkled party clothes grinds on a tattoo guy's lap. They messily makeout, filling the bus with moans, and other cringe worthy noises. The unpleasant sight gives me a stomach ache, even worse they remind how Riley left.

Hurriedly hopping off the bus I decide I rather wait for the next bus.

-------

Pushing my broken door open with a tap of my foot I stare into my empty apartment. Without a doorknob I left it unlocked, and half hoped Riley would be here by the time I came back. My heart sinks as I slowly step inside. No one is here. No one to greet me, to make me laugh, to eat with, or fall asleep next to.

For the first time I don't find my apartment as a comfort, but a empty reminder that I'm all alone.

A thud on the door makes me straighten up, and try to force Riley out of my mind. I deny myself the hope that it's Riley. It's the super of the building to repair the doorknob. With realistic foresight I don't feel much better, but I force myself to be less moody as I open the door.

"Hi, Jess." The elderly African American man who owns the building sweetly smiles at me. Mr. Williams has owned the building since the first televised presidential debate. Mr. Williams can't keep up with the maintenance of building or his many grand children.

"It's Jamie." I mumble.

"What did you say?" He asks to loudly.

"Fix! Doorknob!" Giving up on correcting him, I just pat on the door to signal him of the broken knob.

"Let me just get my tool box." He shouts over his shoulder as he goes down the stairs. I doubt he'll come back. If he does manage to find his way back up I'll make him a cup of his favorite tea. Busying myself with a kettle and a tea bag, I'm surprised at the thud on the door. The super is back? And so quickly? Mr. Williams must have remembered where he last put his tool box. The door creaks to loudly as I open it. While the  super is here I should ask him to oil the hinges.

My freckled face slacks, and I nearly stumble into the wall. Leaning all his weight against the doorway, Riley looms over me, glaring down at me from his black hoodie with a bruised face. One of his brown eyes is black and blue, the other swollen shut. His nose is covered in crusty, dried up blood, and his split lip parts in attempt to speak.

"... J-J-Jamie..." At the sound of deep voice uttering my name I fill up with so much warm emotions my green eyes fall shut. When I open them, he is still standing there, proving this is real.

A/N:

Do you guys want the next chapter to be either Riley's POV, explaining where he was? Or Jamie's POV and their confrontation?

Also, there was a sneak peak in this chapter, anyone can guess what it was?