8
Lauren
One month.
I had given him one month and today marked one month since Isaac had agreed to my terms.
Smalls sat in a chair behind the front desk, his arms folded and a pissed off expression on his face. Cole came storming through the hallway, his hands balled into fists at his sides as he swiftly ran past me. The tension in the air was so thick, you could have cut it with a knife. Everything in this place was damaged and I had a terrible, sinking feeling that I knew what everyone was so upset about.
“Are you looking for Isaac?” Kat asked as she popped up around the corner.
“Yes,” I said slowly.
Even Kat had a strange tone to her. Normally, she was always pleasantly bitchy but today she seemed cold and distant.
“He’s in his office,” Kat pointed as she looked at me cautiously.
“Ok,” I nodded as I began to walk down the long hallway toward his room.
Another man who I had seen in pictures only emerged from the hallway too. I had heard Isaac, Cole, and Smalls tell stories about their best friend Jagger who had taken off last year to find himself or something like that. He looked like a sexy James Dean with his black leather jacket and smoldering eyes.
“That’s Jagger,” Smalls nodded in the man’s direction as he spoke.
I smiled and offered a slight wave, but the awkward tension floating through the air had me feeling reserved.
Waves of emotions flooded me as I suddenly felt sad here. The black walls glowed from the neon signs and electric paintings that scattered the space did nothing to cheer up my now sour mood.
As I slowly opened the door to the room that Isaac used for his office, I spotted him sitting on his chair, his head in his hands.
“Isaac,” I said as I stepped into the room.
As he looked up, I could see his eyes were red and his face was flushed.
“Your friend Jagger is here,” I stated as if he didn’t already know.
Isaac only nodded his head.
“Cole left looking angry,” I tried again, hoping this time he would face me and answer with words.
Only, Isaac just nodded again.
I was growing tired of his silence. It was clear that something was terribly wrong here and Isaac owed me an explanation or at least a verbal response.
“Isaac, what is wrong?” I asked as I stood in the doorway, afraid to move any further inside.
“Lauren,” he gasped. “I tried...”
I didn’t need for him to finish his sentence to understand what his words meant.
“It’s not over is it?” I asked.
“No,” Isaac stated firmly. He hung his head low in defeat.
“I can’t believe you would do something so stupid!” I cried out as I lunged myself at him. My fists made contact with his chest as I began screaming.
Holding me close, Isaac didn’t say a word. He allowed me to scream and cry and take all of my anger and frustration out against his body. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but damn it, I couldn’t control the anger boiling inside me.
I flipped over the desk where he had his pens and workbooks and laptop sitting. Everything scattered all around us as my anger took over.
Pushing him away, I took a step back and looked at Isaac. Really looked at him. He was broken. I was broken. And now, we were broken together.
“I can’t be with you anymore,” I whimpered as I wiped the tears away from my eyes and gathered my composure. I had to keep my crazy locked away until I was back home. I had to keep myself calm.
“No!” Isaac screamed as he stood, towering next to me. “You can’t say that. We can’t be over.” He stumbled toward me but had to stop and regain his composure. Watching him in this wrecked state was more than I could handle. I knew in that moment I deserved better than this.
“I can say that,” I argued my voice full of rage. “You did this. You broke us.”
“Lauren, this hurts me too,” Isaac yelled back at me.
“Hurts you?” I raged. “How the hell can you say that? You are the reason I am hurting. Don’t speak anymore. You have said enough,” I screamed.
“Is everything alright?” Smalls and kat suddenly appeared in the doorway and their eyes observed the disaster in front of them.
“No, nothing is alright,” I seethed. “Do you all know what he did?” I asked.
Both Smalls and Kat shook their heads yes. “Cole knows too,” Smalls said as he looked over at Isaac.
That made sense as to why he had rushed out of there so fast when I had first arrived.
“I can fix it. I swear, if you will just listen to me. I have my reasons for what I did and I have a plan...” he began, but I had enough of his plans. His voice broke as he spoke and I knew in a few short hours he would pass out from exhaustion and only remember this moment as a bad dream.
“Stop Isaac,” I shouted as I began backing away toward the front door. “I don’t want to hear your reasons. Nothing you can say can erase the damage you caused. I believed you when you told me you would stop. I trusted you. I love you, how could you do this to me?” I yelled as I inched closer to the doorway. Smalls and Isaac moved out of my way as they watched me with sadness and pity in their eyes.
Jumping toward me, Isaac slammed his body against the door, almost knocking me to the ground. “You are not allowed to leave like this,” he yelled, anger and sadness fighting in his voice. “I have a plan to fix this. You just have to let me explain,” he tried again. His violent outburst only solidified that my decision was the right one.
Stepping in between us and holding Isaac back, Smalls took charge of the volatile situation. “Stop Isaac, you aren’t thinking right.”
“I hate you!” I screamed as I pushed him one last time away from the door and away from me. “I hate that you ruined my dreams. I hate that you ruined the plans we had made. I hate that I ever met you.” I screamed before taking off my engagement ring and throwing it at Isaac’s shocked face. His blue eyes looked dead inside as he watched my anger explode in front of him. Now, as I stood outside in the parking lot with my chest pounding rapidly, I wished more than anything that I could wake up from this terrible dream. I closed my eyes, praying when they reopened, I would be in my bed and this would all be a terrible nightmare like before.
Only this time, when my eyes opened again, I was faced with the cold, hard, reality that this was my life.