Chapter Thirty
Morgan
It's been nearly three weeks, and I wasn't in any better mood than I was the day after we broke up. I didn't expect getting over my breakup with Dex would be so hard. Shouldn’t I be getting back to my normal state of mind soon? I still felt just as lost and broken.
This is all so stupid. I’m the one who ended the relationship. So why am I moping around like my heart has been ripped out of my chest? Ugh. I need to stop thinking about him. I am constantly mentally yelling this at myself because I keep thinking about him. Before him, video games were never on my radar, but now I see video game crap everywhere. The office just got a gaming system in the break room. All my co-workers are playing during lunch, and it causes me to think of Dex.
I see ads for the new Call of Battle coming out next month, and I think of Dex. Ruby is still talking to Link, and sometimes, when she talks about Link, though she doesn't talk about him often in front of me, I think of Dex. Whenever a sad break-up song plays on my Spotify, it makes me cry…and think of Dex.
I know he is already over me since the calls and texts stopped weeks ago. In the first few days after we broke up, he would call and text trying to talk to me. I wasn’t in a good place to talk. I deleted all the voice messages without listening to them. I was too worried that just hearing his voice would break my resolve. When he stopped texting and calling, at first I was relieved. I hated being the bitch that just ignored him. But after a couple days of silence, a whole new form of sadness started to fester in my stomach. He stopped reaching out because he was done trying to get me back. While this is what I wanted, it made me realize there’s no going back. He is going to move on. I am going to be just another past memory. I can’t have it both ways. I removed him from my life, it’s not fair to hold on to him. But now, he’s really gone. And I have to do what I set out to do…get over it and move on.
Needless to say, I’ve been a wreck every day when I wake up and every night when I go to bed. Ruby and Gia can’t stand it, either. They’re doing their best to get my mind off Dex, but at some point, it's like they just figured that it was no use. Three weeks into this thing and I’m still a "bump on a log," as Ruby put it.
My daily routine has been as follows: get ready for work, go to work, come home from work, get PJ’s on, read a book or watch TV, go to bed, rinse and repeat. I never want to go out, to eat, to hit the bars, or even go to the grocery store. Gia forced me to go to the grocery store this past weekend by threatening to not buy any milk or cereal.
Another boring, uneventful Friday night has rolled around. It’s not even 7:00 p.m., and I’m already in my PJ’s, curled up on the couch with a mug full of caramel mocha and a new book, when Gia and Ruby come through the door with pizza.
"We brought Mike’s!" Ruby sings, then her face drops to a frown. "Are you already in your pajamas?"
Gia, who is halfway to the table with the pizza stops, turns and looks at me, confirms Ruby's assessment and continues to the table.
"It's her thing now, Rube. I'm surprised she doesn't just go to work in her PJ’s," Gia says from the dining room.
I roll my eyes.
"Well, whatever. You can still eat pizza in your PJ’s. Come on. We thought this might cheer you up. You love Mike’s pizza," Ruby says and walks to the table.
I haven't had Mike's since the break-up, and now I remember the first time I had it on my date with Dex. Even though the smell of the pizza made my mouth water when it was first brought in, my appetite has quickly retreated.
"Ah, yeah. Thanks, but I'm not really hungry. I'll pass tonight. Maybe I'll grab a piece later."
Now it's Gia and Ruby's turn to roll their eyes, and I swear they do it at the same time.
Gia says as if she is offended, "Of course there will be leftovers. Do you think Ruby and I are big enough pigs to eat a whole large pizza ourselves?"
Ruby says a bit more disappointedly, "But we thought this would cheer you up, Mo. Are you really not hungry?"
"Of course, she is hungry. She has barely eaten for three weeks, but she is being stubborn and is going to make this amazing pizza go to waste. Just eat the damn pizza, Morgan. I'd heard of Mike's well before Dex took you there, so it was only a matter of time before we tried it on our own."
Damn it. She’s right. She had told me about the place well before Dex, but we just never made it there.
"Fine. Bring me a piece," I say with a sigh. "And really, I already had a bowl of cereal, so I'm not that hungry." Plus, I was just really annoyed with this line of harassment.
We sit in the living room eating pizza in comfortable silence for all of about two minutes before Ruby says, "So, Gia and I have been talking, and we are going out tomorrow night. Just to a bar. Just for a couple of drinks."
"Umm, no thanks," I say.
"Nope. We voted, and you lost. We are going out," she says with conviction.
"Sounds like a dictatorship to me," I mutter.
"Call it what you want, but this new you, it's not working. We want our fun, happy Morgan back. We are going to start being pushy if we have to. So, to start, we are dragging you out for a couple of drinks," Gia says in a matter-of-fact way.
I look at her. I see the challenge in her eyes, but I don't have the energy to challenge her.
"Fine," I say, and I stand up to take my plate to the sink.
"Well, that was easier than we thought it would be," Ruby says to Gia.