UNBREAKABLE ↠ BRANDON ARREAGA

THIRTY - THE ONES WHO BEGIN TO FALL APART

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today, i present you with a longer chapter than usual, which can hopefully make up for what's about to come

word count: [4052]

The second month had been very long. I had found myself missing home more and more. I had even begun to regret my decision, which sucked because I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life. It had just felt like everything was changing around me, and I wasn't physically there to stop it from happening.

At around the two-month mark, Brandon had started to end our calls early.

"So, I tried this dish earlier today. The guy that was showing me around the place warned me that it was really spicy, apparently, but he downed it so easily. I thought that it wouldn't be too bad." I had been so excited to share my day with him. "I swear, I ate only like one bite and I was sweating. I was so conflicted though because it was so good. I didn't know if I wanted to continue eating or throw it all up."

The Brandon I know would have said something along the lines of, "Baby, you cause your own pain. I don't know why you do this to yourself."

But this Brandon had been different.

He had looked preoccupied, so my excitement dwindled down quickly. Something had looked wrong. "How was your day?" I had offered, hoping that he'd stop being closed off.

Instead, he had said, "I got to go for soundcheck. Bye."

I had barely managed a goodbye before he ended the call.

I had spent a majority of that day staring at my phone in shock and in confusion.

It had stared with excuses like that, which I didn't really find weird at first because I had known that he had a job to do too, obviously. I really should've questioned it more though because he had usually tried to talk to me for as long as he could. Normally, he'd be on call with me and then hang up when someone called for him, usually sounding quite angry.

Then, he had started to just leave out the excuse in general and just leave.

"I saw this artwork on the streets the other day. It reminded me of you because it was so fami-"

"Sorry. I have to go," he had said quickly. It had all been out of nowhere, but it had all been so rushed.

That's when I had known, or rather, that's when I couldn't deny that something was wrong anymore.

The next time, I hadn't bothered to call Brandon first. I had called Austin instead because I knew that he wouldn't just hang up on me out of nowhere. I just remembered thinking that it would be nice to feel wanted again.

"How's the girlfriend?" I had asked him when he picked up.

He had gone public with his girlfriend about a week ago. He had said that they wanted to just get over with it. They hadn't wanted it to be the thing that hung over their heads. So, they had stopped sneaking around and enjoyed being together in public.