Young King

3

Two weeks passed since Andrea broke up with me. I felt lost. I still didn't understand why we'd broken up. I did love her, I still do. And I was happy whenever I was with her. So what was the problem?

I also didn't understand the whole speech about feeling like I was on fire. I'd never felt that with anyone. I didn't even know if I would feel that with anyone. Sounded like some Teen Wolf, soulmate bullshit to me, but whatever. It was over.

Nick apparently didn't have any answers for me either. Just said that if it wasn't meant to be then it wasn't meant to be. I shouldn't get to caught up in everything else. It wasn't as comforting as he wanted it to be. Especially since the day before she dumped me he was saying we'd be fine.

But that was Nick. He was a little too "go with the flow". I guess there was a certain blissful ignorance in that, though. Made going through life a little easier. Nick hadn't had an easy childhood, from what he'd told me. Even though he grew up with money, his father had been very demanding, cold, and distant. After mother had died in childbirth when Nick was only four, things got even worse.

Nick and his baby sister, Mila, had mostly been raised by their older brother Mekinos, who went by Meki. Nick made it a point to tell me if I ever meet Meki and call him by his first name, Holden, or by his full middle name, Mekinos, I'd get tossed into the nearest river.

"It's Meki. Call him Meki, or I swear to god he'll kill you." Nick had said.

Meki was supposed to take over some family business that had been passed on in Nick's family since their great-great- grandparents lived in Siberia. But something had snapped in Meki in his last year of high school. Nick didn't go into details but it resulted in a hospitalization and Meki leaving home. He hadn't been back since.

So this nonchalant mindset of Nick's was defiantly learned, and maybe the key to surving massive amounts of emotional pain.

I crashed on the couch as the television blared, a bag of chips that I was fully prepared to eat until nothing was left. And I did. It was dark outside and I was just about to start another bag when the front door opened. My mom entered our meager little apartment with dark circles under her eyes.

"Hey, baby. How was your day?" She asked as she passed me to walk to the kitchen.

"Fine." I answer dumbly.

The fridge door opened and closed behind me and I felt the couch dip as she sat down next to me. I turned my head to see her staring at me conernedly. "You good?"

"Yeah, my game is better than it has been in a while. And coach says a scout is comin' to our game next week."

She shakes her head, nodding towards the chip bags. "I meant, are you good? You've been mopin' around the past few days like someone stole your candy."

I sigh and look down at my hands, "Andrea broke up with me."

She frowns, "I wondered why she hasn't been around. What happened?"

I shrugged, "She said I didn't love her in the right way. There was no fire, or something."

Moms hummed beside me, nodding like she knew exactly what Andrea was talking about. Great, so I was the only person who didn't understand what she was talking about.

"So, do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Feel that fire when you're with her."

"I don't even know what this 'fire' thing means." I argue irritably.

"Then I think breaking up was the right decision on her part."

I double take, "You do? You think it was right for my oldest friend, who I love, to dump me because of some weird girly soulmate fantasy?"

"Hey. Don't start with that shit." My mother warned. "Emotional intelligence ain't just for women. And it's high time you learned that. Andrea broke up with you because you weren't in love with her. And I don't think you ever were."

"And how would you know what I did and didn't feel in my relationship?" I challenged boldly.

I could tell her patience with me was wearing thin. "Because when you're in love you feel sick. You feel like your heart is bein' ripped out of your chest and you can't help but follow the person who's causing it. If you were in love you couldn't be able to breathe without her. And I know you, kid. I'd know if you were fallin' for someone."

I shake my head, rising to my feet. "Whatever." I mumble before shutting my door behind me. Letting the anger, bitterness, and regret wash over me.