Leaving (Lauren Cimorelli Fanfic)

Breaking Us

2 weeks later...

Jaiden's POV

These past two weeks have been really weird with me and Lauren. It's not particularly bad but it's definitely not as good as it was before. I think my concerns heightened when I got a text from Dawson that I wish I didn't read. At first it was small talk with us just catching up. But then he started asking questions about Lauren.

D- Dawson
J- Jaiden

D- So what's going on with you and Lauren?
J- We're together if that's what you mean. Why?
D- Well she's been spending a lot of time with Noah. It just seems a little weird. Just friends don't normally hang out that often. At least not if one of them is in a relationship like Lauren is.
J- I trust Lauren. I'm sure that she is just friends with him and it's probably nothing.
D- Well you can trust Lauren but do you trust the guy she's hanging out with? Because that could be a bigger problem than her.
J- I don't really know him that well.
Does he seem sketchy or like he is trying to hit on her?
D- I don't know for sure or anything.
J- Don't know what for sure?
D- I don't know. He just looks at her a certain way. He looks at her like he wants to be with her. But he also looks at her like he just wants to win her over then dump her. I asked Megan and she said that he is smug and kind of a jerk.
J- You aren't reading into anything right? You're sure about this?
D- As sure as I can be with out confronting the guy or Lauren directly.
J- Alright. Thanks for looking out for her man.
D- I know you told me to look out for Lauren when you left and to make sure she was okay, but I'm trying look out for you too. If I was you, I would talk to her about this guy.

I don't know what I'm supposed to think about Noah or what he is trying to get out of this "friendship" with Lauren. But Dawson isn't the type of guy to make something out of nothing. He is super straight forward and direct if he thinks something is wrong. I can't keep ignoring the fact that things are different between us.

Lately I'm always the one trying to talk and be fully invested in the relationship. I feel like these past couple of weeks she just doesn't care about putting anything into our relationship.

I picked up my phone and decided to call her.

Lauren's POV

Since I got back from tour I've been spending a lot of time with Noah. He just makes me feel better to be around. I don't feel so lonely when I'm around him. And we are getting closer which is nice too because I feel like I can trust him when I tell him things.

I'm hanging out with him right now because he invited me to go bowling. Being here reminded me of the first time I met Jaiden when he pretty much hated me. I laughed to myself at the thought of where we started and how we are dating now.

I sat next to Noah as we started our second game and he looked over at me and smiled. At that moment I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket and I pulled it out to look at the caller id.

I looked at it for a second to see Jai's name before ignoring the call and returning it back to my pocket. It's not that I didn't want to talk to him at all but I was hanging out with Noah so I didn't want to talk at that moment.

Noah laughed slightly as he saw me ignore the call.

Noah- "Wow ignoring your boyfriends call for me? I like it." He said in an arrogant tone.
Lauren- "Don't sound so full of yourself. I just didn't want to be rude haha."
Noah- "So how long are you going to be with that guy?"
Lauren- "Hopefully for a really long time."
Noah- "That's not what I'm hoping." He said under his breath.
Lauren- "What?" I said kind of shocked at his remark.
Noah- "Nothing." He said quickly covering up his words as he got up to start the game.

As we were bowling I couldn't help but feel the guilt creep into my mind. I know I didn't do anything wrong necessarily, but something about this feels wrong. I'm out with a guy by myself without any other friends around. A guy who constantly hits on me and sometimes makes rude comments about my boyfriend. But what is bad about it is that it didn't bug me. I almost liked that he hit on me.

Noah is known to be a player and as terrible as it sounds I'm drawn to him.

I know this isn't right. I'm with Jaiden. The only guy who I should be thinking about is Jaiden. He is sweet and genuine. He is the boy that you would want to marry because he is so giving with his heart and time.

But then this "bad boy" was put in front of me and I can't help but think about him. I don't know if the reason I'm thinking about him because Jaiden is gone.

I feel terrible because I know that things with Noah could turn out to be nothing. Or that he could be using me.

But I feel like I'm falling out of this relationship with Jaiden. I pulled out my phone and looked at the lock screen to see a picture of Jaiden and I. It was one that I took in the car after we had been play fighting in the mud. Jaiden had mud splattered on his face and some in his hair but I still saw the sweet smile on his face. His was smile was contagious, so just looking at his dimples that showed in the picture made me smile.

Jaiden is such an incredible guy. What am I doing? Why am I even thinking about Noah. I started to think about all the incredible things Jaiden has done for me just to make me feel special and important. Jaiden calls me princess but then also treats me like I am one. He makes me feel like I deserve the best and nothing less.

Yet the naive and ignorant part of my mind still strays to the bad boy persona that Noah gives off.

Distance is breaking us. After I said I wouldn't let it, I did. It's pulling us apart. But as I sat there blaming the distance I realized that wasn't it. Because Jaiden is still putting in a huge effort to make this work. It's me. I'm the reason we are deliberately falling apart.

A/N
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