Take What I Can Get | ✓

[9] Let Him Go

There was a knock on her bedroom window. Her room was so silent that the sound echoed loud enough to make Kaylee instantly get up from bed and head to her window. Only to find out that, on the other side of the glass, was none other than Jonah Geller.

Climbing into her room, Jonah said, "Hey. You didn't come to school today. Is everything okay?"

There was a smile on his face, but it was different than the others. This one was a forced one, the type one would pull in order to hide their anxieties and fake their composure. This was Kaylee's smile, not Jonah's. And it did not suit him at all.

"Yeah —" Kaylee's eyes were looking everywhere except at Jonah, her hands a fidgeting mess at her sides. "Yeah, I'm okay."

From the corner of her eye, Kaylee could see Jonah's hand reaching out to her. She wanted to do the same too, and intertwine her fingers along with his because it was almost like instinct. But then she remembered what Delilah had told her — about how she was leading him on and how it would hurt him more in the end — that she kept her hands in her sides and stood still.

Kaylee looked up at him, with a bit of sadness hinted in her eyes, and smiled. "Let's take a walk outside. Just you and me."

—

"You missed two pop quizzes today — one from Calculus and another from English Lit. — and they added four more assignments due at the end of the week. So we have a total of...nine projects, I think? Anyway, you can borrow my notes if you need them."

"Yeah, thanks." Kaylee smiled softly, looking down at her shoes. A part of her wanted to fall back and pretend, once again, that everything was still alright. But then, she remembered — this was Jonah. And if she really did care for him, she should break her heart and let him go. So, she closed her eyes and held in her breathe before grabbing the end of Jonah's sleeve and stopping their tracks.

When Kaylee looked back up at him, Jonah's smile fell. "What? Is something wrong?"

Rip the bandage off quick.

"Jonah —" And for once, facing all the heartbreak, Kaylee said, "I think we should break up."

Jonah blinked. "What?"

"We should break up," Kaylee repeated, the words stinging on her tongue. Do the right thing, she thought. Even if it hurts. "It's the end of senior year anyway. I mean, after graduation, we'll be moving our seperate ways —"

"There's Skype," Jonah pleaded. There was that look in his eye, a mixture of both desperation and sadness. It really didn't suit him, and Kaylee didn't know what was worse — that he was heartbroken or that she was the one breaking his heart. "I'll call you everyday. We can make this work —"

"It won't work."

But I wish it did.

"Don't say that." His voice cracked and his eyes began to shatter. "Kaylee, we can't give up —"

"I'm not giving up, Jonah. We're just not compatible."

But I wish we were.

"How could you say that? I thought —" Then he fell silent, with his voice getting caught up in his throat, as the shards from his glass eyes began to bruise his checks and fall to the ground.

"Jonah, think about it," Kaylee said, although she wished she didn't have to say it. "The only reason we're together is because we're used to each other. I know how you're like and you know how I'm like. That's why we've never befriended other people —"

"We're friends with Delilah —"

"Only because she introduced herself to us back in the ninth grade, and even then it took us months before we warmed up to her. Jonah, you—" Kaylee took a deep breath. Don't break, don't break, don't break. "You only like me because I'm your comfort zone."

Jonah shook his head. "That's not true."

But it is.

That was when Kaylee really understood why the universe had not meant for her and Jonah Geller to last. And perhaps she had always known, but had pushed their truths away that it became unfamiliar. Realising didn't stop the pain from hurting less though.

And so, staring back into Jonah's broken eyes, Kaylee bit her lip and nodded.

This was where Kaylee Oh and Jonah Geller's story ends.

When everything they built finally crashed down, it was Jonah who first left. He looked at Kaylee, for the last time tonight, and took a step back. And another. And another. Until he held his breath, turned around, and ran away without looking back.

Now Kaylee was alone, like the world had written her to be, with the fragments of what they were scattered on the ground. So she bent down, held the pieces close to her heart, and cried for their ending that had to be.