Henry Mills/Jared Gilmore Imagines

Distance

It started two days ago.

He started getting, distant and cold. He shuddered away your touch and kiss. He barely made eye contact with you, let alone speak actual sentences to you. Your encounters would go something like this:

You'd walk into Granny's with a smile plastered to your face, and you'd greet your boyfriend with a kiss on the cheek. He'd turn his head away from you and you'd slide into the seat across from him, with a weary smile.

"Hey," you'd say.

He'd take a bite of the food he had in front of him, barely mustering a small, "Hey"

"So...." you'd drag on, "They're having movie night at the school tomorrow. Wanna go?"

"I have plans" he'd say.

"What plans?"

"Operation Lion," he says.

"That's new," you'd say, "What's it about?"

"Secret stuff. You'll find out soon enough," he'd say. Then he'd claim he's got homework, slams down a twenty on the table and leave.

And then you'd leave.

See?

Distant and cold. Secretive.

It's scary.

It worries you. He only does this when he's scared or stressed out. Having dated for almost a year, you know his every little quirk. The smile he hides when he's trying to surprise you. The tears he suppresses behind a smile when he's trying to be strong. The anger he has demonstrates when he furrows his brow and talks calmly in complex sentences.

But now, you feel like you don't know him anymore. The only feeling he shows is stress and ignorance.

He doesn't even look at you some days.

So, one day, your friend, Paige (the Mad Hatter's daughter) encouraged you to confront him about it. Paige had little doubt that he was doing anything wrong or something that's you'd disapprove of; she knew he loved you more than anything in the world and had no reason to do anything against you.

But you had other ideas. He's never acted like this before. Not for this long without telling you for what reason.

-

You found him sleeping with another girl a week later.

It was Violet. The one that's always been pining after Henry. The one that constantly tries to get his attention by wearing clothes and accessories that made her look like a Barbie doll. The girl you always feared would come in first before you.

Even though your face was calm, you've never been more heartbroken. Your heart feels like it's been yanked from its chest and put through a paper shredding machine.

You remembered walking in on them in Henry's room and seeing his pleading eyes held guilt and sorrow. But your eyes traced the floor upon his glance, and you shut the door without saying anything besides, "Sorry. Carry on,"

-

The tears didn't come until you got home. While walking to your house you held a blank expression staring off into space, wondering; wondering what you should've done better or what you did wrong.

But instead, you just drowned your sorrows in ice cream and cookies.

-

Henry didn't speak to you for another two weeks, so you had assumed that the two of you were broken up.

He tried to make contact with you a few times, but you pretty much ignored his messages.

The next time you saw Henry was at the grocery store. You were picking out cereals to buy and he was there. You were thinking about how only weeks ago, he would've hugged you from behind and kissed you on the cheek, calling you cute names and confessing his love. Since he didn't notice you, and you let your glare linger on him.

After you found them together; Violet and Henry, you hoped that he was under some sort of love potion or he was being forced, or there some sort of alternate dimension Henry, but you found out that, unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Suddenly, you hear him speak up, "Hey,"

You can hear the smile in his voice.

You give him a sympathetic smile and awkward finger guns, "Hey,"

Then you grab the Lucky Charms.

He tries to say something, and begins rambling, "Lucky Charms are the best. How do you eat them? Just marshmallows? Or both? Or do you separate them and-"

"Do you have a point to engaging in this conversation?" You ask, rudely.

He seems taken aback by your words. You've always been so kind to everyone. Even those who have wronged you terribly. But not with him. Not to the person who you opened up completely to and were completely vulnerable with, who took advantage of your innocence.

"Yeah..." he trails, "I probably should've said this a lot sooner, but I'm sorry,"

"Yeah, I would hope you are," you respond, pretending to scan the ingredients on the box.

"Well, what I did was pretty stupid considering that I still loved you," he said, glancing up.

"Yeah, well you showed it strangely," you say, placing it in your basket, then gulped "How long........was that happening?"

"That was the second time," he said, his eyes trained on you. You kept your eyes tracing the rows of cereals. He was waiting. For you to say something, anything that might mend the tear between your lives.

You bit your lip, "Why?"

"I guess I thought you were this perfect girl. Too perfect. So perfect I didn't deserve you. I never thought that I would good enough for you,"

"If you really thought that and cared enough, you probably should've tried harder," you say as you continue walking down the aisle.

"I still think you're perfect," he says, with a small voice.

You freeze.

How dare he. How dare he say all that and confess his love to you. After all you've suffered trying to get over him, how dare he lay this upon you, now.

You continue walking.

Henry catches your arm and you sigh and spin around, cutting him off before he can say a word, you assert "Listen, I know you're expecting me to come to some kind of big revelation where I realize I'm still in love with you and I take you back. And I usually give second chances. But not for this. If there's something I've learned from my parents, is that cheaters never change,"

"But-"

"What?" you ask, your words like ice on your tongue, "What could you possibly say that could change the way I think about you?"

"Nothing," he said, "Absolutely nothing,"

Sooooooo

This is a weird imagine I know. Most of the time they end up together in the end, and that was my initial plan. But it felt.....too Hollywoodish.