Chapter 11RyanI hadn’t been able to concentrate all day. My shift started 40 minutes after my last class. I couldn’t be late, so I couldn’t stop by Julia’s first. I walked in to see Grey flirting whilst serving a couple of girls. “Knock it off dude. They’re not interested.” I laughed. “Hey Ryan! What’s up man?” He came off and pulled me in for a bear hug. “Help me!” He begged under his breath. I laughed out loud as he turned round to give his full attention to the girls at the counter. “Nah man, sorry, I’m out the game for a while. He stopped, turning back to me with a quizzical look on his face. “What?” he asked, slowly. “Don’t worry, get back to your girls.” I answered, nodding in their direction. “I’m gonna go and check in with the boss.” I said, leaving him alone. “Alright man, we’ll talk

Chapter 13JuliaI was due to start at the University of Texas just after Christmas. I was utterly heartbroken by what Ryan did. I never thought he would cheat on me, and now that he had; I felt like I was going to die. The need to vomit was so overwhelming sometimes. I just needed a clean break. A place where I can start again.The day I was supposed to go to his mom’s house with him for Christmas, I called my mom. I told her what had happened and that I was scared of seeing him when he came back after Christmas. I suggested moving back home and doing college next year, I was only 17, I wasn’t supposed to technically be in college for another year anyway. But my mom wouldn’t hear of it. They had already paid for my tuition. I decided to look into transferring schools, being closer to home. I would miss Emmy so much, but every time I even thought about Ryan, my heart would shatter. I told my mom that I wanted t

Chapter 15RyanIt had been well over a year since my heart was fucking obliterated. I missed Julia. I was tired of feeling like this, like I was suffocating. The only way to explain the heartache was that I felt like somebody was sitting on my chest. I couldn’t get enough oxygen into my lungs, and I was gasping for breath. I was gulping just enough air to keep me alive, but it wasn’t enough to breathe comfortably. That was the only way to describe how I felt. I needed to move on, needed to leave Julia and our past behind me. I couldn’t keep doing this. Julia was gone; she was not coming back.I wanted to reach out when Emmy told me about her parents; but I decided against it. The last person on the fucking planet she would want to talk to is me. And it isn’t like I hadn’t tried. At first, I called every night. Every night it would ring and ring until the voicemail came on. I would leave a message t

Chapter 17RyanEverything had been going well recently. I knew it would fuck up sooner or later- but for the time being, I was going to enjoy it. I had been living in North Carolina for a few months now. Still hadn’t “accidentally” ran in to Julia though. I didn’t even know if she was living here or she decided to stay wherever she went for college. I hated not knowing but I wouldn’t look for her. I hadn’t changed my number- she could contact me if she really wanted to.My mom found a job of her own, she was working at the reception of a local motel. It was good for her; she was able to save up a bit of money and move into a 1 bed apartment near mine. It had been two weeks since she moved, and I was on my way home from work when I got a call. “Yeah?” I answered. “Mr. Cobain, hello. My name is Dominic, and I am calling to offer you a job.” Who the fuck was this? “

Chapter 19Ryan/BuzzI had been working with Dom and the rest of the team for a few weeks now. Dom was owed $45,000. The other 3 were owed $60,000 between them, and then the techs (me and the other guy at $10,000 each time). I had an extra $30K in my account. The last one was going to be done tonight. I couldn’t believe we had managed to get away with it. Dom had also sent an anonymous cheque to Jackson’s ex for $20,000 in unpaid maintenance. He wrote a note telling her where it came from and it wouldn’t be tracked by the police. It was hers to keep. She didn’t know who it came from, but we didn’t care about that. We were just grateful we did something.We were setting up when I started to feel something in the pit of my stomach. Something wasn’t sitting right with me. I was able to hack into the accounts without any problems tonight. I told Dom, but he wasn’t concerned. He made out it w