Wounded Hearts Will Conquer

Chapter 22 - Conquer It All

Chapter 22
Bailey
Conquer It All

A/N - Ah the feeling of completing a novel... (: I'm sad to see my characters go, especially Evan who was my favorite to write about! I hope you guys like the ending. Also, thank you to anyone who has read, commented, voted...anything relating to this really. Even the smallest support keeps me going. For any of you interested, I have a novel up called "Miles Away" that my attention will now fully be on now that this is over. I would love if you could check it out! Thanks again dears (:

Giving up on Evan wasn’t something I wanted to do; it was something that I needed to do.

Evan had been my rock to a certain point, and was once someone I could see actually taking all of the pain away. But his one, but serious, flaw was that he continued to hurt me in some way or another. I’d tried my hardest to give him the chances he thought he deserved, and the chance for my heart to heal, just like Lanie told me too. But after receiving the picture from Leslie and the numerous stabs at the heart on my end, I just couldn’t put up with the misery anymore.

There came a time in anyone’s life when they had the choice between doing what they wanted and doing what they thought was right. I wasn’t fond of my decision in the end. I walked away from that conversation with my nails permanently implanted into the palms of my skin and my face soaked in my own tears. My heart didn’t want it, but my mind knew it was what was right. There was room for someone else in my life now, and I was finding myself crossing my fingers that he wouldn’t be the one to crush my heart all over again.

I’d spent two whole months getting to know Jackson before I even let him kiss me on the lips after a date. He let me in so easily, unlike a certain firefighter’s son had. He made me laugh and smile in the moments I found myself needing it the most. Jackson’s arms suddenly felt like a place I was meant to fit in. It was a safe haven of sorts, a place I could fall to when I needed to be caught.

What made matters even better when having a boyfriend like Jackson was that he knew the girl that Lanie was. It was almost effortless when I spoke to him about her; my feelings, my tears, my smiles, all suddenly became as easy to talk about as breathing had come to me. He understood the sadness I felt when it came to her loss and knew some of the funny things about my lost sister that he laughed along with. I almost found myself wondering what took me so long to find a boy like him, and even more why I wasted my time on a boy who did nothing but hurt me.

I wasn’t saying that I was promptly over Evan; I was quite far from it. No matter how much Jackson etched his way into my heart, I still found that the hole Jackson was meant to fill was still empty. Jackson was digging his own burrow, and Evan’s seemed to be forever left empty. I didn’t know what it was about him, that he was forever stuck in the confinements of my heart and mind.

But I did know that I was going to try my hardest to let Jackson be the only one my heart was stuck on.

As I walked the pathway up to Jackson’s house, I folded my arms across my chest, bringing the jacket closer against my body. The late November weather was making its way to the neighborhood soon, and I was relishing in the fact that I was going to able to spend holidays without the sadness of missing Lanie at the dinner table. I’d have someone to calm me down, someone to grab my hand and squeeze, releasing the pressure from the sadness with a simple gesture. I was getting quite used to the idea of having someone to rely on from now on.

Jackson and I had made plans a few days earlier in the week to help my parents pick up a few favors for the Thanksgiving dinner they were holding for our big family in a week. He told me that he’d be happy to help, and our relationship was becoming so comfortable that I found myself just letting myself through the door. He lived alone, being the simple age of 21 and going to the college around the corner.