The Lifeguard Hates You (Completed)

July Chapter 10

Jay comes back with a swollen-probably-going-to-be-black-tomorrow eye and I don't ask him what happened because he looks like he's about ready to explode on anyone who even looks at him the wrong way. Shawn tells me later that Jay got into it with Bryce and got decked out. I ask him what it was about but Shawn doesn't know. I gather up my courage and ask Jay but he refuses to answer.

I conclude, then, that it must have been about Rory.

I text Rory and get no response. Abnormal for her. Something's wrong. And I plan to get to the bottom of it.

So after dinner I storm over to the cabin that used to belong to Rory and Jay and now houses Jay and our new Rory-replacement. I go to knock on the door only to have the door thrown open in my face and the new replacement run out.

The guy that arrived this morning while Jay was at Fablehaven had been nice. Mike or something. He was average looking, well built, nice to stare at, and gay. Not horribly flamboyant gay, but clearly not straight. So to see him sobbing as he tore out of the cabin was surprising. I step into the cabin and find Jay in what used to be Rory's room just looking around.

I come to stand beside him and follow his eyes. Mike had been unpacking, he had moved the bed, changed the bookshelves around. He had tried to make the place... his own.

"He moved everything," Jay growls. "Rory wouldn't have liked..."

"Rory's not here anymore, Jay," I remind him and Jay turns his face away from me. "And you got into with Bryce today, why?"

"Couldn't help it."

"What were you arguing about?" I press. Jay says nothing "Jay, Bryce didn't just up and punch you for no reason..."

"Rory. He caught me and Rory talking and he flipped out. I guess because he doesn't trust me or something. Anyway, I taunted him the way he had taunted me before and he decked me," he then turns to me with a dark glare "There, happy now?"

I sigh and throw myself down to the exposed mattress. "No, Jay, it does not make me happy," I tell him. Jay scowls and looks away from me. "One last question. Why now?"

Jay turns to me with surprise on his face. He blinks his eyes at me and then pauses, looking down to his shoes as he thinks.

"I don't know. I've been asking myself that for a while now," he whispers after a while. "I honestly never thought I'd miss her."

"So this is just a case of you only want her now that's she gone?" I ask hoping that he sees how unfair that is for Rory. "And what happens if you convince her to come back, are things going to go back to the way they were?"

Jay turns to look at me once again and I can see that he had been hoping that was how it was going to be.

"Jay, be reasonable. Poor Rory needs to get over you. You doing this... pretending to like her so she'll come back, will crush her," I say standing and putting a hand to his arm. Both of them are folded across his chest.

"I don't know if I'm faking it," he whispered. "I just know that it hurts every time I think about her or see her."

I roll my eyes at him and start with: "Jay..." but he cuts me off.

"I know. I know how it looks. And I know what I did. I know it's my fault, and that I'm probably doing all of this because I don't like change. But I know I miss her, maybe not romantically but I miss her being here. You and Shawn are great, but you're not there for me the way Rory was..."

"You mean unfalteringly pathetic?" I mutter to myself cutting him off and Jay winces.

"Yes... I guess I did think she was pathetic. And I didn't appreciate her while I had her, nor did I think I'd miss her being around. I always thought she was annoying and I wanted her to leave me alone, but I never actually thought she would. Out of everyone I thought she would be the one to stay, no matter what I did to her," he tells me and I nod because all of us had thought that.

"But she didn't stay, she's gone Jay, and while I don't like it either, taking it out on her replacement isn't going to make her come back," I remind him.

"I'm not doing it to make her come back, I'm doing it so there will be a spot for her when she decides to come back," Jay argues.

"Jay... I really don't think Rory's going to..."

But Jay cuts me off again. "Yes she is! She doesn't belong at Polished Elite, they're not going to appreciate her the way our patrons did. They're already complaining about her. Her work ethic is straight out of the book and they want people who will forget the rules and cater to their every whim. And I refused to believe that Bryce likes her, not really. And when she figures that out she's going to have to have somewhere to go."

I watch Jay storm away from me, over into his room where he slams the door shut and I realize that he's in denial and I don't know what to do to help get him back into reality.