June 12, 2009
2:30 p.m.
Evalynne's House


I walked over to the vase on my dresser. Inside was the rose Ash had picked for me the day of Kristy's concert. I took the pair of scissors I was holding in my hands and cut the stem in half. Then I tossed both halves of the flower in my garbage can.

Kristy was right, if Ash could move on, so could I. And I was going to. I was going to forget all about him. So I had to get rid of anything that reminded me of him, starting with that rose.

Then I took the note he had left me when he went on a walk the morning he picked the rose, and ripped it to shreds. I threw the ripped up pieces in the trash can, next to my dead flower. I had already closed my window and pulled down my blinds.

The only thing left was our tree. But I didn't know if I could even look at that tree without breaking down.

The doorbell rang and I walked downstairs to answer it. To my surprise, Kelly was standing at my door. "Uh, hi, Kelly," I said.

"Hi, can I come in?" she asked.

"Uh, sure," I replied, confused.

She walked inside and we sat down at my kitchen table. "We need to talk." she told me.

"About what?"

"Julianne and Ash, they can't be together." she said.

"Why do you say that?" I asked her.

"Because she's completely ignoring me. Ever since yesterday evening, she's been ignoring my calls and texts."

"It's only been one day, Kelly." I reminded her.

"Yeah, and she's spent it all with Ash. And I know her well. This is how it's going to be until they break up."

I swallowed hard. Julianne and Ash had spent all of their time together. "Wow, he must really like her."

"Yeah, and he's stealing her away from me." She crossed her arms and glared out the window at Ash's house.

"Are you jealous or something?"

"No! I'm just angry!" she cried.

"You're totally jealous," I told her.

She shook her head, "I wouldn't be talking if I were you. You're jealous too, aren't you?" she demanded.

"Maybe," I replied, knowing that I was completely jealous.

"Ok, so will you help me break them up?"

"No, if they want to be together then I'm just going to let them."

"So you don't want to try to get Ash back?"

"No, I'm better off without him. And if Julianne is truly your best friend, she'll come around. Just talk to her about it. But if you try to split her and Ash up, that just means that you aren't a true friend."

"Wow, I never thought about it like that." she said. "I guess you're right."

"Yeah, I know from experience." I told her, thinking back to the fight between Kristy and I.

"Well thanks, I'll try talking to her. You know, you're not so bad, Evalynne." she replied.

"Thanks, either are you, Kelly."

She smiled and stood up to leave. "Bye," Then she walked out the door.

It was strange how Kelly and I had just befriended each other, if you could call it that. But without Julianne at her side, Kelly was actually a pretty nice person. She just needed to lose The Wicked Witch of Westchester.

Just like how I needed to lose Ash.

Later that night, I sat at the dinner table, barely touching my food. "Is everything alright?" Mom asked me.

"Yep, everything's fine." I lied.

"Well if you need to talk about anything, I'm here for you." she said.

"Ok, Mom," I replied. She sat there staring at me for a moment. "What, do I have food stuck in my teeth or something? Because your staring is creeping me out."

She smiled softly, "No, honey, I just sense that there's something wrong. And I'm waiting for you to tell me what it is."

"Well nothing's wrong, so I have nothing to tell you."

"Is it about Ash?" she pressed on.

"Mom, I have absolutely no reason to be upset about Ash. He was just a small and useless part in my life that has ended." I told her.

"You broke up with Ash?" Dad asked. "Why'd you do that?"

I groaned. "I really don't feel like talking about this right now, ok?"

"You can't keep your emotions bottled up, Evalynne." Mom said.

"She's right, you should talk to us about it." added Dad.

"You want to know what happened, you want me to talk? Fine, I'll talk! I broke up with Ash and then caught him with Julianne Wiggins at Sadie's. They were on a date because they're boyfriend and girlfriend now. He lied to me by telling me that he loved me and he broke my heart! And I'm trying to forget about him, but I just can't stop thinking about him! But it's my own fault because I was stupid enough to fall for him."

Mom shook her head, "He doesn't deserve you anyways."

Dad had a furious look on my face. "Nobody breaks my little girl's heart and gets away with it!" he cried.

"Richard, settle down." Mom told him. "Don't get all upset about this. This is between Evalynne and Ash, not you."

"Yeah, dad, and you don't have to worry anyways. I'm not mad." I told him.

Mom looked at me quizically, "So you're saying that you're completely fine with this break-up?"

"Yeah," I said, knowing it was a lie.

"I don't believe that." she told me.

"Whatever, I don't really care if you believe me or not." I stood up and headed for the stairs.

"Aren't you going to finish your dinner?" Mom asked.

"I'm not hungry," I replied and then stormed upstairs.

When I got to my room I saw a new text awaiting me. It was from Kristy and she said: 'Call me when you get this'. So I dialed in her number and she picked up on the first ring. "Hey, Kristy," I said.

"I have good news! My cousin, Cole is coming to visit this Friday and he's staying for a whole week!" she cried.

"Um, ok," I replied, not getting how this was such good news.

"You can fake-date him to make Ash jealous!"

"What?" I demanded. "No way! Besides, I'm totally over Ash."

"I'm not saying you have to get back together with him. Just make him jealous and then when he comes crawling back to you, turn him down. It'll make you feel so much better!"

I thought this over for a moment, it would make me feel better. And I guess I had nothing to lose. "Ok, fine, I'll do it."

"Cool! Cole and I will come over the day he gets here!"

"Ok, see you in two days then."

"Ok, bye," Both of us hung up and I sighed. Ash had hurt me, so I would hurt him back. And when he got jealous, I wouldn't care. I wouldn't take him back just so that I could have my heart broken again.

He would get what he deserves. He would find out what it's like when the person you love the most doesn't love you back. He would find out what it's like to be played the way I was.

And most importantly, he would find out that playing me as a fool was the dumbest thing he ever did.