Suzie’s House 552 : Breakup

Justin didn’t really care about the copyrights issues, or even the second music video. He would gladly do whatever the rest wanted to do. It looked like Lisa was determined to make a spoof of their advertisements. He thought that might backfire, but again. It wasn’t really on his mind.

What was on his mind was Kate.

She hadn’t been returning his phone calls for a while now. When they did talk, she’d rather hang out with her girl friends than with him. They hadn’t been on a date in a long time. She hated his household, but got uncomfortable when he went to visit her. All in all, he had to admit that their relationship… wasn’t.

The more he thought about it, the more he wondered if they’d ever really had a relationship. Although she’d smiled at him at first, she had never really seemed all that excited to see him. If one of them was to reach out to the other, it was always him.

Now he was tired. Tired of trying. Tired of getting refused for even the simplest thing. Tired of caring.

He suspected his love had never been all that strong either. He found her appealing just because she seemed to the the opposite of him. Where he grew up a weirdo, she grew up totally normal. So normal her family could be a sitcom.

He could too, he guessed. But where her family was Friends, his was Big Bang Theory. It was the difference between mainstream and counter culture. Ultimately they just didn’t relate.

So, after school, the day after she turned away the entire band so she could hang out with her friends in her room, he went for a visit.

“Hey.” He said when her mother let him into the living room.

“Oh. Uh… Justin. Now isn’t a good time to….” She tried to push him back outside.

“Now is the only time.” He took her by the wrist and pulled her onto the front stoop with him. When the door closed behind them, he turned toward her and said, “Do you really like me?”

“I… um… of course I do.”

“Just not enough.” He glowered at his sneakers. Why did she always make it hard for him?

“Enough? I don’t get it.”

“I want a girlfriend who love me above and beyond everything else. One who wants to spend as much time with me as I want to spend with her. I want someone I can talk to about anything at any time. Don’t you?”

“Yes! Of course I do.”

“Is that what we have? Really?”

She wouldn’t answer him. She wouldn’t even look him in the eye. Like staring at the stoop would make a difference. Finally, she came up with something to say.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

He counted to ten, but still lost it.

“You haven’t stopped hurting me since the minute you said ‘yes’ to me. If you’d just turned me down clean, I could have gotten over it. Instead, you put me off and avoid me. Every single time you do that, it hurts. Do you get that? It hurts.”

“Well I’m getting hurt too! I wanted a boyfriend I could show off. Someone who would impress my friends. Someone who would shower me with bouquets and chocolate, remember every holiday, and buy me jewelry. Not someone who expects me to perform drum jams for his parents!”

“I’m not a trophy.” He tried not to wince about the drum jam. It wasn’t like he’d meant for that to happen.

“I never said you were.”

“Then quit taking me down from the shelf to dust me off only when you’re in the mood. Either be my girlfriend for real, or let me go.”

“Then go! If that’s what you really want. Then just go.”

“All right. Then. I will.” He turned away, swiveled back like he had something to say even though there wasn’t a single thing in his head, then shuffled up her walk way to the sidewalk. At the end of the walk way, he turned back to her. “So… are we still on from band practice Tuesday?”

“I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.”

Belatedly he thought maybe he should have asked the other guys in the band before he broke up with her.

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