Never Change

223 days

"Please don't go," I begged, clutching his arm and pulling him into me. He sighed and ran a hand through his already tossled brown hair; I was making this so much harder on him. "Pais, this is a huge opportunity and I can't pass it up. I know you don't want to do the distance thing, but I can't lose you." He leaned back into the sand on his elbows. I took in a slow, shaky breath. "Can you promise me something?"
"Anything," I spoke softly, looking back into his brown eyes. "If we are going to end this right now, I need to know that you'll still love me when I finish tour. I know it's selfish, but I need you to wait for me. And when I get off tour, I want you to meet me right here. No matter what. Can you promise me that Paisley."
"Yeah Jack, I can promise you that."

That was 223 days ago, and I had just heard the news about Macgon breaking up. I looked over at the guy laying in bed next to me before swinging my feet off of the bed. I tiptoed around the room, gathering my belongings and continuing to the door. As I grabbed the doorknob I heard the bed move, "I don't even get a goodbye kiss?" a husky voice questioned. I slowly turned around, biting my lip. "What exactly happened between us last night?"I questioned as I took a step back into the room.

"We didn't hook up, but you did get shit faced at the party. You were all over me, telling me about some guy named Jack. I figured he was probably your boyfriend so I wanted to get you out of there before you got taken advantage of." The guy, who I now remembered was named Dominic, spoke. "Well, thank you for that. Uh, I-I'm gonna get going." I coughed.

"My number is in your phone, call me if you need anything. And hey, don't do anything I wouldn't do Hastings." He chuckled. I rolled my eyes and flipped him off before shutting the door.

I stepped into my beach house and grabbed my laptop off of the kitchen island. The first flight to Omaha was at 8 p.m., it was currently 11 in the morning so I would have more than enough time to pack. I booked the flight and printed the ticket out before heading to my room. I began throwing random articles of clothing into my suitcase, not caring what I packed. All I cared about was seeing him again.

Once my suitcase was full I called my mom, telling her that I was coming home. She didn't question it, she knew. Up until about 7 months ago my life had revolved around Jack Gilinsky for 3 years. He was my best friend and showed me what true love was. I had spoken to him maybe twice over the past 223 days, and even then it was just a text conversation. After he left I started taking classes online and graduated early. Then I moved to California with my best friend.

I knew we had both changed, but i hoped that our love towards each other had not. We had both remained single through the last 7 months, which was promising considering that Jack could have any girl he wanted.

I smiled up at Lacie as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and shuffled into the kitchen. "Was that a suitcase I saw outside your room?" she questioned, smirking. "Uh, yeah it was." I smiled. "I'm going back to Omaha for a couple days."

"Jack?" she questioned, cracking an egg into a frying pan. I simply smiled as a response, dropping my head to avoid eye contact. "Well goodluck with that one cutie." She laughed. I scoffed in disbelief at her fake encouragement. "I'm kidding, everything will go great. Cause you two love each other and Johnson said he was completely miserable for the first few months of tour." I shrugged as I swirled my straw around in my smoothie. Lacie was dating Jack Johnson, and unlike Gilinsky and I they had not chosen to take a break while the Jacks did Magcon. I guess it was just easier for her to trust Johnson than it was for me to trust Jack G.

"Are you flying home with me?" I questioned, changing the subject slightly. "Of course, I've had the flight booked since Jack told me about the split." I nodded and finished my smoothie before rinsing out the glass.

I spent the majority of the day formulating what i was going to say to Jack. My head was just a jumble of words by the time Lacie came to my room and told me it was time to go. We took an Uber to the airport and got there just as our flight was being called to board. I fell asleep shortly after the flight took off and slept throughout the whole thing.

Lacie's brother picked us up from the airport and drove us home. We were next door neighbors so I walked over to my house to greet my parents. When I walked through the door I heard a familiar voice and laughter.

Jack's parents sat on the couch with my parents, laughing and drinking beer and wine. They turned to me after i dropped my bag on the hardwood floor. "Oh sweetie, you're home." My mom squealed, jumping up and running over to me. She pulled me into a tight hug before kissing my forehead. When she pulled away I saw Jack's mother standing next to us, a smile on her face. "Welcome home Paisley, I can only hope this has something to do with a promise you made 7 months ago," she laughed, pulling me into a hug aswell. "Yeah Kathy, it has everything to do with that." I smiled turning and hugging my dad and then Mr. Gilinsky. "He hasn't stopped talking about you since the day he left." He whispered in my ear.

This gave me hope.