A Little Bit of Everything and Everyone

Stargazing (Jc Caylen pt. 2)

"Avery, I don't think this is going to work out," Alex says through the phone, I hear tears in his voice.

"What? What do you mean?" I ask, even though I know what's coming. Tears flood my eyes.

"Us. I can't do the distance thing Avery, I'm so sorry," he says.

"Be honest with me Alex, is there someone else?" I question. I hadn't heard from him or Kaitlynn since moving to Los Angeles.

"No, it's just the distance thing baby, it's too hard," he says, but he's lying, I've always been able to tell when he was lying.

"It's Kaitlynn isn't it?" I whisper. Alex is silent.

"Baby," he says, but I cut him off.

"Don't call me that. Fine. We're done Alex. I don't want to talk to you again. Go have fun with Kaitlynn." I press end on the call and look up at the stars from the rooftop. My phone dings a moment later with a text from Kaitlynn.

K: call me

Me: why?

My phone starts ringing a little later and Kaitlynn's number lights up the screen. I ignore it and she calls two more times but then my phone is silent and the only sound are the cars passing and the crickets.

"HEY NEIGHBOR!!!" I hear from next door. Jc is standing in a window and waves at me. I do a small wave back.

"How's it going??" he calls.

"Okay I guess," I say. Jc must be able to hear the sadness in my voice.

"I'll be over in two seconds," he says before disappearing from sight. Tears fall from my eyes and I wrap my arms around myself. I can't believe my boyfriend would cheat on me with my best friend. Ugh.

"Hey," says a voice from behind me. I turn around and Jc smiles at me.

"Hi," I say back softly. Jc comes to sit next to me and we dangle our feet off the edge of the roof, leaning back on our hands to look at the stars. Neither of us says anything and except for my occasional sniffling and the sounds of the city, it's silent.

"Aren't you freezing?" Jc asks after a minute. I shrug. He pulls his hoodie off and wraps it around my shoulders.

"Ya wanna talk about it?" he asks.

"My boyfriend broke up with me," I tell him.

"Yikes, because of the distance thing?"

"Well, that's what he said at first, but turns out him and my best friend are together now."

"Awe, I'm sorry Avery," Jc tells me. He wraps his arm around my shoulders and my tears fall.

"You know, you're way better than him. He doesn't deserve you Avery. You're amazing and beautiful and deserve the world. I know you thought he was perfect, but you're the perfect one. And if he thinks that some ho is better than you, he must be insane." I smile a little.

"It just hurts. We were together for such a long time. And Kaitlynn and I have been friends for years. I can't believe they would do this to me. I guess all the 'I love yous' were just a joke. At least to him," I say. I angrily wipe my tears from my eyes and stare at my dangling feet, bare next to Jc's dark red Vans.

"Do you do this a lot?" Jc asks after a second.

"What? Get cheated on? No not very often," I say sarcastically.

"No smart ass, I meant stargaze. Do you look at the stars a lot?" he says with a smile. I look from my feet to the sky again.

"Yeah. I did a lot back home. We had a huge open backyard and I would always be out there at night. On weekends in the summer I'd sleep out there. I love looking at the stars."

"No way, me too. I knew we were meant to be best friends," he says.

"It's pretty insane that we have so much in common." We are silent for a minute as we look up.

"You can head home now, I think I'll be okay," I tell Jc.

"Oh, I don't mind staying here. I like stargazing with you Avery. Plus I would be a pretty shitty friend if I left you alone tonight. But do you mind if we move to the couch? This rooftop is hurting my ass," Jc says. I laugh.

"Yeah that's fine. Hang on a second though, I'm going to go change quickly and get a blanket, it is kinda cold out here," I tell him. I disappear into my room, changing out of my jeans and into sweats and an old Pittsburgh Steelers t-shirt of my dad's. Jc is laying on the couch when I get back up there. He sits up when I come back out and I take seat next to him.

Jc wraps the blanket around our shoulders as we lean back and rest our heads on the back of the couch, looking up at the stars. Suddenly, breaking up with Alex is the last thing on my mind. I can pretend I'm back home in my backyard, staring at the sky. The stars are just as beautiful here.