Breaking Jeff’s Heart

(From Bree’s’ point of view)

The other night was pretty intense between Keegan and I. I could still feel the warmth of his hand on mine. I hated that he had this hold on me, but he did and he knew it. I decided to give Jeff a real shot. He hasn’t dated another girl in my face, hasn’t ignored me or yelled at me. I had to say, Jeff was checking all of my boxes lately. Every morning I wake up to a sweet text that says something like, “Hey sweetie, I hope you have a beautiful day,” or “Just missed you.” He literally was a dream and I was letting Keegan ruin it for me.

I had to do things daily to keep myself from falling into the Keegan trap again. I would start by no longer texting Jada. I mean, that’s her boyfriend and it wasn’t right anyways for me to want to check up on him through her. The next thing would be to not let him touch me, or kiss me or anything. Note to self that this task would be extremely difficult. I also would not text him or call him. If I wanted to, I would text Casey or Jeff instead. Making Keegan finally a part of my past would be hard, but I was willing to protect my heart if he wasn’t willing to give me his.

I sat down and looked at myself in the mirror. I pulled my hair back with my kitten ears headband and started to wash my face with my lemon-cucumber mixture that my mom had made for me. She was always trying new things so I was her guinea pig. As I began to pat my face dry from the rinse, I heard my phone buzz. You have got to be kidding me. It was Keegan texting me. It’s like he knew I was detoxing myself from him or something. I opened my text messages and saw that he had sent a funny GIF. It was almost like old times. He would send me something and I would reply right back with one. I started to text back as I giggled at the GIF. But I hesitated. Am I doing this again? Falling into the Keegan trap? Absolutely not! I deleted what I was saying and instead I sent a thumbs up reaction and put my phone down so I could finish washing my face. How dare he. That smug jerk knew I was in a relationship and he was too. Why would he keep trying to hurt Jeff and Jada? It’s bad enough we kissed once, but it’s getting out of hand.

I texted Jeff to see if he was busy. I wanted him to come and hang out with me, so that I could start building back our relationship stronger. He said he could come, but Sterling had to drop him.

Jeff came within a half hour and we decided we would watch a movie in my basement. My mom made an entire movie theater down there. It’s literally the coolest. She was headed out on a “date.” She claims it isn’t a date, but she looked so beautiful and smelled so amazing. It had to be a date. But whatever she wants to call it, good for her for getting back out there. I had been hearing her talk on the phone at night and laughing and smiling so sweetly at her phone when she got text messages. Whomever it was, I hoped they would treat my mom like the goddess she was.

Jeff and I chose to watch Harry Potter, the first one. I would tell you it was a stone or a child or whatever the subtitle was, but I had no idea. Jeff was huge into Harry Potter. I personally would rather watch a movie about football, We Are Marshall or Remember the Titans. But I let him pick because I truly haven’t been the best girlfriend to him.

As we watched the trailers, I could feel him staring at me. I sat back from him a little and asked him, “What’s up?”

He shook his head, perhaps not even realizing he was staring at me. “Oh, man, just something that’s been on my mind, Brees,” he started, looking down at his popcorn bucket. “It just seems like this Keegan kid is always around you or always trying to be alone with you. Do you sense that or am I tripping?” he asked.

I nodded solemnly and took his hands in mine. “Jeff, you have been the kindest boyfriend in the world to me and I should have never started a relationship with you knowing I still had feelings for someone else,” I said.

“So you do have feelings for him,” he stated.

I nodded, looking down at his watch to avoid eye contact. “It’s not that I want to be with him though, Jeff. I just have liked him since I was 12 and I never had anyone to compare him to. But now I want you. You have made me really happy,” I said leaning in to kiss him. He pulled away however.

“Brees, be honest. Have you and he done anything since we started dating?” he asked. His eyes looked so sad. My heart was breaking because I knew I was breaking his.