𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚 ❥ 𝒂 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚

𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆

june 16th, 2023
betty

I stared down at my phone scrolling through the line of unanswered texts to James. Are you okay, you never called me back yesterday, was the most recent one. Underneath the blue text it said Read 9:51. It was now 12:45. He was still ignoring me. It had been like this for a week. I thought he was just stressed because of finals, but once school ended he was still ignoring me. He leaves tomorrow, it's now or never, I told myself, forcing my body off my bed. The house was empty except for me and my younger sister, Dorothea—Dot for short. Our parents both worked non-stop, so it was usually just us. I walked past Dot's room and knocked on the side of her open door. She glanced up from the book she was reading.

"I'm heading out, do you need anything?" I asked, fidgeting with the keychains clipped onto my car keys.

She thought for a second, "I'm good."

"Well, wish me luck," I sighed, faking a smile, "I'm going to talk to James."

"He's still ignoring you?" She sent me an empathetic, disappointed look. I nodded quietly gave her a quick goodbye.

The entire drive down to James' house, I felt an invisible force pushing down on my shoulders, telling me to not go. I knew this wouldn't end well, James wasn't the best with emotions, but it was worth a shot, right? As I pulled up to his house, I could barely force myself to park the car. Maybe if I just drove around the block a few times, I'd change my mind. So, I did. But after five times around the block, I still needed to talk to James.

I stopped the car and walked up to his front door. I stopped myself before I rang the doorbell. I can do this, I told myself, inching my index finger toward the doorbell. Taking a deep breath, I pressed the doorbell and waited for the door to open. I heard footsteps approaching the front door and nearly jumped into the bushes next to me. I glanced down at my dirty, not-so-white Converses, hoping to not have to look James in the eyes.

"Betty!" A soft, motherly voice exclaimed. I looked up to see James' kind and sweet mom, Mary. I loved James' mom. My mother wasn't around much; always traveling for work or on vacation to god knows where with her friends. I always saw Mary as sort of my other mother—not in the Coraline sort of way, of course.

"Mrs. Alcott," I smiled, a real smile. I was always gals to see her, "Is James home?"

"Call me Mary, dear," She told me softly, gesturing me inside, "He upstairs playing video games."

So he isn't busy, I muttered under my breath. "Thanks, Mary," I smiled as I walked up the familiar stairway.

I knocked loudly on James' bedroom door, making sure he could hear me over his screaming. He shouted a loud and annoyed come in, Mom! and I slowly opened the door. There he was: his dark brown hair messy yet perfect, his blue eyes glued to the screen in front of him; he was completely unbothered and perfectly fine.

"What the hell," I said a little too loud. James turned around, stunned as he slowly let his black and blue headphones fall off his head and hang around his neck. I sighed, throwing my hands up in frustration. We were both to stunned to speak; I just stared into his ocean blue eyes which were a lot more icy and cold than usual. Finally, I needed to break the awkward silence, it just hurt to much. "So this is why you were too busy to text me back all week?"

"Bet-"

"I don't wanna hear it James," I admitted, feeling my eyes fill with hot tears, "I don't want to hear another lame excuse on why you can't be a good boyfriend."

"What does that mean?" He asked, his voice breaking.

"Do better?" I laughed a laugh of pain and sorrow.

"I'm doing my best, I'm just stressed," He looked down at his shoes, frowning and nervous.

"Too stressed to text your girlfriend back?" I shouted. I didn't mean to shout, I was just high in emotions and couldn't stop myself. I saw James jumped, surprised that I had yelled; he had never heard me angry before.

"Oh c'mon Betty-" He stood up to text me as tears streamed down my red cheeks, but I pushed him away.

"No," I cried, my voice cracking, "Don't- I can't do this if you are like this."

"Like what?"

"Off and on!" I could barely breathe, everything was slipping away and I hated it. I loved him, I loved him, I loved him, but he didn't seem to care half the time, "One day you and I are watching our favorite show, joking, laughing, kissing, and the next day you decide to ignore me for a week!"

"You have no idea what I'm going through!" He shouted. I could hear his voice breaking as he took short, shaky breaths.

"You don't tell me, James, if you want me to know, tell me!"

He went silent and I let out a sob. I wiped the tears off my cheeks and took a deep breath, "As far as I know, you just felt like ignoring me for a week. I'm leaving."

I turned around and almost broke down when he didn't grab my arm and apologize for everything. If only this were a movie...

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Thanks,

em