Jessica's Fate

Chapter 40

~A~

I stared at my phone. I couldn't help it, I just had to keep looking at the pictures of Jessica and feeling miserable.

Well, the miserable part was the outcome after I scrolled through my pictures but yeah.

I screwed up.

She probably was the best thing that would ever happen to me. Why the hell was I so stupid in deciding to not even seriously talk to her about a plan for the future? I could have at least introduced her to the rest of my family.

She trusted me enough to introduce me to hers.

Without even knowing that we were all Academy and I was aware of just who they were.

And what they could do to me for breaking up with her.

Maybe I wasn't that stupid after all.

Misguided?

And lovesick over the girl I'd shoved out of my life without another thought to what I was actually doing to her. It was almost time for our group conversation, I thought as I looked at the clock. It felt like we'd been waiting for ages to get all the details about our upcoming mission. I'd probably seriously jumped the gun with dumping Jess because at that time, I didn't even know when I'd be leaving or just what all the mission would entail.

I opened my group chat. ~I'm an idiot. ~

King: Tell us something we don't already know.

Loki: Yeah. We know that. But you're also miserable. Was it worth it?

Cap: You've got a lot of learning to do. How the hell did you interpret what we said to mean dump her?

Web: I was under the impression you really liked her. Dumping her without talking about long distance was not Academy.

I rolled my eyes. ~I know. I already said I was an idiot. ~

Four: Well. I guess you can still claim teenaged angst for your choices.

King: good point. He does have that to fall back on. In fact, most of us can. For a while.

Loki: No need to rub it in.

Cap: I think they were talking about me.

Web: Or me.

I huffed a sigh. Trust my brothers to turn this into an age thing. ~I have to get her back. ~

King: Even though you're leaving soon?

Four: Or because you're leaving soon? I don't know that you want to do that until you really know what's going on.

I frowned at the phone. ~Hmm. I don't know. I just... I really should get her back. I should go see her, even if she slams the door in my face. ~

Cap: Take her favorite coffee?

King: Get her favorite flowers.

Web: Make her a mix tape. Mix CD. An iTunes gift card?

Loki: Grovel. On your knees.

Four: Just admit you're an idiot with teenaged angst and you clearly aren't man enough for her yet.

I squinted at the phone. ~Yeah, not taking your advice. You're the youngest of us all, just what do you know about it? ~

Web: No time to debate that. I just got the assignments. I'm not sure you have time to actually try to get her back.

King: What's up? Share the assignments.

Web: I'll email them. Read them over and meet up at the pizza place in 2 hours. We have more planning to do.

We all signed off with a smilie face or other emoji and I pulled out my laptop to access my email and review the assignment details I'd just been given. My face fell and I felt my heart sink as I read the email.

Yeah, I definitely didn't have time to grovel sufficiently to win Jess back right now. Maybe I could grovel in 4 years. My assignment was to leave for college within the next 36 hours. I would be taking core classes and architecture classes full time. My secondary assignment was to live in the dorms and do recon on a new drug that was making its way around the dorms on campus and no one had really been able to figure out what it was or how it was distributed. I was going to be a year-round student so I wasn't going to be carrying a full load of classes during every term as the assignment required me to be in year-round classes.

I guess I should be glad that they weren't requiring me to fail any classes to keep up the charade but it was going to take a lot more of my time than I thought initially. So, it was probably a good thing that I was an idiot at this point. There's no way I could have had a long-distance relationship that would involve my girlfriend ALWAYS coming to visit me because from what I could see in this assignment is that my butt was going to be required to be on campus, 24/7.

I thumbed through my phone again, finding a picture of us at the beach and I sighed softly before I got off my bed and changed to go meet the guys.