Everything comes back to you -J.MARIANO

[1.34]

𝓞n that following weekend, Taryn decided to get breakfast in the diner as she knew Jess was on shift on his own and she had a desperate craving for honey on toast. Luke brought good honey that could only be brought in bulk from his supplier so, with the craving, she really had no other option. So she got dressed, picked up a book to read in case it was busy and Jess didn't have time to talk, and headed out of the door towards the diner.

Upon entry, she found herself rather glad to find the diner relatively quiet compared to other weekend breakfast shifts. She drifted towards her usual seat at the counter and, when Jess didn't immediately appear at her side, she wandered towards the kitchen and put in her order with Caesar. Finally, after she had finished one piece of toast and nearly a full cup of coffee, Jess appeared in front of her with a kitchen cloth draped over his shoulder and a rather disgruntled look on his face. "You look stressed, what's wrong?" she asked whilst turning her book over, holding its pages open with the counter surface.

He sighed deeply, leaning against the counter whilst refusing to directly meet her gaze. "Nothing, just customers." Taryn, sensing that wasn't the truth, decided not to push any further as she knew it wouldn't end well. Instead she leaned forward in her seat and he could taste the honey on her lips. He smirked as she sat back and took another bite from her toast. "Do you need anything?"

"Nope," she responded quickly, ignoring how she had thought about refilling her coffee cup for the past five minutes. That she could do herself, instead of bothering him.

He smiled to himself subtly and tucked a curl behind her ear, "My favorite customer." She smiled and within a second he was gone again as Caesar had angrily pressed the service 'bell' for the fifth time.

-

Two days passed and Jess' funky attitude towards life hadn't changed whatsoever. She usually found that the funky phases would last twenty four hours at the most and she'd often be able to distract him away from it. However on this occasion whatever happened to be on his mind seemed immovable. After school and mid movie, the two of them decided to get takeout from Al's. They quietly sat at the table to eat and a sort of awkward tension surrounded them both. Whilst Taryn  picked at the food on her plate, Jess seemed to be taking the opposite approach with violent stabbing to fill his fork. "Mariano, you're practically boxing your broccoli, what's wrong?"

He hesitated slightly, a mere pause that had her nerves rising. "I can't take you to prom."

Instead of clearly showing her disappointment, she hid it away and chose to try to understand why and how before she reacted. "Oh, why? Did something come up?"

"Believe me Tee, nothing would be more important. It's just..." he sighed and stuck his fork into the container, looking just above the top of her head. "I'm not graduating."

"You what?"

"I didn't... I've been working instead."

"You told me you were passing. That you had some agreement with the teachers because of... I trusted you," she paused, feeling a significant level of frustration rise within her. With the stress of her own future career path, she found it rather easy to go down all the rabbit holes that this could lead to for him. She didn't like what she saw, nor did she particularly enjoy the fact that he had lied to her on multiple occasions. And maybe she was naive to believe him in the first place, but how could she not believe what he said. Trust was a big thing in relationships so she held it in high value. "So you're not graduating. At all, you flunked out. You, of all people, failed? Jess I mean you could pass these classes in your sleep, three study sessions were enough to bump you up two grades and you weren't even trying. I work my ass off for my grades and you wouldn't even have to lift a finger yet you made absolutely no attempt? You've thrown away your education for what, a few extra bucks here and there. Your car? There's more important-"

"Just stop!" He had thought that she would be the one person to not react the way that everyone else had to this, that maybe she'd understand how education just wasn't his top priority. So when she reacted the way he  hadn't wanted her to, he found himself feeling the same surge of annoyance to her that he did everyone else.

"I can't do that Jess,"she responded softly, beginning to anxiously jolt her knee up and down underneath the table.

Jess scoffed, sending her a certain look she greatly loathed being on the receiving end of.  "Why not?"

"Because you've got so much potential and ability and because..." she trailed off and cleared her throat of its sudden nerve filled thickness. This wasn't the time, nor was it the place for what slipped from her lips next. "Because I- I love you and I don't want you to have a hard life because of this."

Words, no matter if they're truthful or lies, cannot be taken back once another hears them. No manner of wishing and praying would dispel them from existence. Once heard, words cannot be backed out of.

Jess looked up from his plate, his gaze softened and filled with a look she recognised this time. But his next move greatly juxtaposed that look and left her mind buffering in confusion. "You're going to walk away from me after that?" she asked with vexation, biting every word as he stood from the table and walked out of his own apartment. She, after a second's hesitation, pulled on her shoes and followed him. She would not let him walk away and have this reaction to such a thing. She needed the final word, to rid herself of the horrible vulnerability she felt watching him walk away.  The second she got outside, rain pelted down atop her head and she yelled across the road at Jess.

"Go inside, water and machinery don't mix."

"They're fine in the rain," she yelled back as he had not stopped walking away. Taryn ran over to him and took his arm, stopping him in his tracks whether he liked it or not. "You're seriously going to walk away from me after that?"

He sighed, averting his gaze completely, "I don't know what you want me to say Tee."

"I don't know... Some bullshit thing back? I didn't even expect you to say it back but at least something?"

"Like what?" he muttered, face dangerously close to hers. 

With that response and the tone of his voice, she sighed and knew this was a lost game. She frowned deeply and whispered, "Oh screw you." With that, Taryn turned away and walked in the direction of her house as she wanted to have absolutely no chance of running into him if not on her terms. She needed time to think and he needed time to cool off. She would give him that, as an attempt to be understanding and they would simply talk about this in the morning.

"Taryn!" he yelled after her and the mere hint of desperation within his voice had her instantly stopping in her tracks. She turned, fat droplets of rain mixing with the tears dripping down her face. "I'm sorry."

She looked him up and down with great pain within her eyes, pain that he hated himself for causing. "I don't believe you."

Taryn walked home as quickly as she possibly could and headed directly to her room without greeting her Dads as she usually did. She kicked off her shoes and changed into her comfiest pajamas, slipping under the covers of her bed without even thinking about anything else she had planned for the evening. Her Dads, having now grown concerned at their daughters lack of appearance at the dinner table, headed upstairs and felt their concern growing at how she shook with tears and desperately clutched her childhood teddy. Without saying a word, her Dad sat next to her at the top of her bed and her Da sat down at her feet. As Da draped her in another blanket, for warmth and comfort, she moved to rest her heavy head atop his leg.

"Do you want us to call Tas honey?" her Dad asked whilst brushing the sodden hair from her face, making sure not to cause any tangles or ruin her curls too much.

"No," she sniffled, hand still tightly woven around the little brown bear she loved the most out of all things she owned. "Not yet. I just want a hug."

Both parents wanted no time before shifting themselves to envelop their daughter in what had to be one of the most healing hugs in the world. It, however, had no effect on the creeping thoughts within her mind. Her love for him had been rejected in one of the worst ways possible and she just didn't know how they were going to carry on after that.