My Imaginary Ex (COMPLETE)

Chapter 4

College, seven years ago

"You sounded great," Zack said half-heartedly, handing me my school bag and jacket.

"I'm surprised you heard us at all. You look terrible."

Zack had offered to drive me home after choir practice, and was sitting by himself in the middle of the auditorium's third row the whole time. By my junior year, I had joined the choir.

Singing is the worst talent for a shy girl to have. Really. I discovered I could carry a tune in the shower, but it took years for me to get the nerve to perform for my family. The World Environment Day thing in high school was the only time I agreed to sing in school. I figured, what the hell, it was senior year anyway. If I was horrible, I only had a year to endure the teasing.

But I wasn't horrible, and Zack convinced me to try out for the college choir.

We were practicing for a Christmas performance, and I could see him from my spot on stage. He looked miserable, sitting there staring into space.

As we walked to his car, he gave me the summary: he and Lena were having problems, and she brought up the idea that maybe they should break up.

"But you've been together for two years," I said. "What new problems could you possibly have?"

"They're old ones, actually."

"Well you did start your relationship with her with a lie." I was trying to make a joke when I said that by the way. "Aren't you ever going to tell her that I'm not your ex?"

He did not laugh at my joke. "The problems are all about the truth. And I'm never telling her about us."

"But it's hard having to remember what I told her. I don't even remember most of it myself. How do you do it?"

This, he laughed at. "I say, I'm not one to dwell on the past."

"So you haven't added anything new to the canon?" Zack was a bit of a comic book and fan fiction geek. "Canon" was his term, which he suddenly used to describe the collection of details about our fake relationship.

"No. I haven't told as many stories as you have, Jas. Most of the canon came from you."

"Great. I did all the work and you just reaped the rewards."

"You are a true friend."

He lived ten minutes away from my house. I watched him miss his own highway exit, in favor of the next one, which would lead us to my village first.

"So, how do we fix this problem with Lena?"

"What do you mean 'we'?" he asked. "This is my problem."

"Well, I'm your friend, right? And I'm a girl. Maybe there's a way I can reach out to Lena that you can't."

Zack adamantly refused any help. I couldn't imagine what his problem with Lena could be; he never complained about her. Never mentioned fighting with her. I'd sometimes see him in a bad mood, which usually meant he was thinking something through. But he never said anything bad about her.

He's really mature and thoughtful that way. I thought. He DID forgive me for dumping him at prom—wait, that didn't actually happen.

Sometimes I forgot too.

* * *

"Problem? Did Zack talk to you about our 'problem'?"

Perhaps I had caught Lena at a bad time. She wasn't as relaxed as she usually was. She didn't look like she was in a hurry to go somewhere, but she sure looked annoyed at me.