Chapter One
Jez looked up into the face of the boy she loved. He had just said something, but she couldn’t remember what, couldn’t comprehend it. When she looked at him, she saw eyes filled with sorrow, because she didn’t sense the hint of annoyance and heartlessness that he was trying to hide with his fake sadness. She saw the same sweet boy that she fell in love with, because she never looked hard enough to see that it was all an act.

“Jez?” he said, his voice filled with fake concern. “Did you hear me? I said I wanna break up.”
Jezabel blinked, the words Alex said finally making sense in her mind. He wanted to break up with her. He no longer wanted to date her. He was leaving her. No matter how many times she arranged and rearranged the words in her head, Jezabel just couldn’t grasp them.

“Wh-What?” she managed to squeak.

“Don’t take it personally, Jez. It’s not you, it’s me,” he put his hand on her shoulder to make it look like he felt bad, like he was being sympathetic. “I just don’t feel the same way about you as I did at first. I’m sorry.” With those words, he turned around and started walking away, leaving Jez alone on the front steps of her house. She could feel tears trying to escape from under her eyelids.

“Alex?” she tried calling him back, but her voice only came out in barely a whisper. “But I love you,” she said as the hot salty tears finally spilled over. She watched with tears in her eyes as Alex walked down the road away from her. She didn’t take her eyes off of him until he disappeared, too far away for her to see through her blurry, wet eyes. When she could no longer see him, her legs gave out and she landed on her butt on the step above the one she was standing on. She put her arms on her knees and buried her face in her arms and just cried.

Jez had no idea exactly how long she sat on her front steps crying. All she knew was that when she finally lifted her head, she was surrounded by darkness. Cold, silent darkness was all around her, covering her, like a blanket. She pushed herself up off of the step, turned around, and walked into the house. It was dark in there. She found the light switch on the wall to her left and flicked it on. When the front hallway burst with light, she staggered back and her hand flew up to cover her eyes. The sudden brightness had sent a shock of pain through her already aching head. She groaned loudly and started walking slowly to the bathroom, not turning on anymore lights until she reached it.

Once she was in the bathroom, Jez cautiously turned on the light, making sure her eyes were squinted so it wouldn’t hurt her head as bad. She closed the door behind her and walked over to the mirror mounted on the wall. She flinched when she saw herself. She was a wreck. Her usually perfect blonde hair was all tangled and sticking up at all kinds of different angles. Her blue eyes were bloodshot, red and puffy, and her mascara was smeared. She had goopy snot running out of her nose and smudged all over her top lip. The sight of herself caused jez to start crying again. She opened the mirror to reveal bottles of pills, cold medicines, toothbrushes, and deodorants. She grabbed the pill bottle labeled “Ibuprofen” and popped two small tablets into her mouth. She turned on the faucet and scooped a handful of cold water into her dry mouth with her hand to swallow the pills with.

After taking the Ibuprofen, she turned off the bathroom light and trudged up the stairs and into her bedroom. She didn’t even bother turning on the light when she got in there, she just walked straight to her bed and climbed under the covers. Jez cried herself to sleep and slept soundly all through the night.
To be continued…