Jack's POV:
I sit on the tan-colored couch of our small apartment, lazily scrolling through Twitter as a crappy reality TV show plays in the background. I get off work an hour earlier than Alex does, so I get home about fifty minutes before him. It was kind of boring when he wasn't home, honestly.
We've only had our apartment for a few months as we graduated high school a little less than a year ago. We've been dating since our sophomore year. People always seem surprised that we've lasted this long since high school relationships generally don't last. I was proud of us for pushing through, but it's not like it's hard being with him. He has anxiety and has his depressed moments, but things have been going smoothly since high school.
The door swings open, pulling me from my thoughts. I feel myself grin when I see Alex walk into the living room, but that smile quickly vanishes when I see his tear-stained cheeks and defeated figure. I jump to my feet to go to him, but he pushes me away from him, avoiding looking me in the eyes.
"Alex, baby, what's wrong?" I ask gently. He keeps his gaze fixated on the ground, shaking his head. He walks toward our bedroom, me following him, but he slams the door behind him. I hear the click of the lock and feel panic rise in my stomach. He never pushes me away like this. Something really bad happened.
"Let me in, please!" I call through the door, knocking on it repeatedly. "At least tell me you're okay, please?" There's no answer, so I decide I should give him space for a little while. "I'm in the living room if you want to talk about it, okay? I love you, Lex." I start to walk away when I hear noise in the other side of the door. It's Alex's voice, but it's so muffled that I can't make out what he said. "I can't hear you, babe, open the door."
Alex swings the door open, looking at me angrily. "You don't fucking love me. If you loved me, you wouldn't have done what you did. I'm leaving."
"What? What did I do?" I ask. I sincerely have no idea what I've done. I've been so loyal, I've always been here for him and I would never in my wildest dreams cheat on him.
"Oh, so now you're going to act stupid? Maybe before you go sucking other people's faces off, you should remember that you have a boyfriend who really fucking cares about you," he yells. It's very unlike Alex to raise his voice like that. His entire body was trembling and he kept wiping his eyes with his sweatshirt.
I never cheated. I'd never hurt Alex and it kind of sucks that he think I'd intentionally do so. "Baby, I n-"
"Don't 'baby' me. Don't lie to me either. You'd better fess up or I'm walking out the goddamn door."
"I never cheated for fuck's sake! Why would you think I'd do that to you? Do you think I'm just some douchebag?"
"I don't know, Jack, are you? Heard it from the girl herself."
I know at that moment who he's talking about. One of the girls who works at my office, Holly, had kissed me unexpectedly. I didn't kiss her back, in fact I actually pushed her away, but it was probably enough for her to have leverage. She wanted me, but I wanted Alex. I can't lose him, I can't...
"Is this about Holly?" I ask.
"Who else would it be about, Jack? She showed me a fucking picture of it, so you can't back out of this one."
What? When did she take a picture? Did one of her friends take it or something? Fuck, this is high school drama. "Show me."
"I don't have it!"
"Alex, I need you to listen to me."
"You're just going to lie! What makes you think that I-"
I kiss him, hard. I hate arguments, and this is by far the worst one we've ever had. It wasn't necessarily smart to kiss him, but I needed to. I needed the comfort, and he did, too.
He pulls away almost immediately, though, glaring at me. "Why the hell did you think it was okay to do that? I can't be mad at you when you kiss me and shit! This is a serious topic and I don't have time for you being all affectionate."
"Please, just listen to me."
He sighs, squeezing his eyes shut. "You have two minutes to prove me wrong."
"Here's the honest truth, and it's up to you whether you believe me or not. She kissed me, I didn't dare kiss her back. I pushed her off of me and demanded for her to leave me alone. She had this smug smile on her face and I was terrified she'd twist the story and tell you, but nothing happened for two months. I'd forgotten about it, but I see she now told you. I'm sure she twisted it and made it seem like I'm the villain in this story, but, fuck, Alex, I hope you know I wouldn't dream of cheating on you. That's something I would never, ever do to you. I love you so fucking much, I can't lose you." My voice breaks as I say the last sentence, tears welling in my eyes as I realize that I could potentially lose the love of my life over this. "Please believe me, I can't live without you," I whisper.
He stays silent, and I can feel my heart breaking more with every passing second. What if he doesn't believe me? What if I lose him forever? It's not fair...
"I can't believe you anymore," he says quietly. My heart drops to the floor; my breath is torn from my lungs. That's it, I lost him.
"Whatever makes you happy," I choke out, breaking down. I was breaking down in front of him, but I didn't even care. It hurt. It hurt like hell. The searing pain in my heart was almost unbearable. "I can leave, you can keep the apartment," I croak out, walking past him into the bedroom that we... used to share. He stands in the doorway, watching me with tears streaming down his red cheeks. My hands are shaky and my vision is blurred with tears, but I start packing some of my things.
"Jack?" I hear a soft voice say. I turn around, looking into the light brown eyes that make me feel so warm inside. "Do you promise me that you love me, and only me? That you don't want anyone else?"
"Alex," I whisper, still crying. "Of course I promise. I swear on everything, I never wanted her to kiss me. I only want you." I feel him throw his arms around me and I quickly hug him back, squeezing him tight. "Please don't leave me," I whisper into his hair.
"I won't, I'm so sorry I doubted you in the first place," he replies. My shoulder becomes damp with his tears, but I don't mind. I wasn't losing him. I still have Alex.
That's all that mattered.
