When Brooke pulled up into the pick-up lane at the airport, Jeff was waiting, his hood pulled over his curly hair. When he looked up and noticed her, he smiled hesitantly.

"Hey", he said, sliding into the passenger seat.

"Hey", Brooke said softly. She wanted to give him a hug but would that be weird? Her question was answered when Jeff leaned across the gear shift and wrapped his arms around her. She tensed up when he muttered, "I missed you", into her hair but she replied with, "Me too"

They were silent as Brooke pulled out of the airport parking lot and onto the freeway. Finally she broke the silence, tentatively asking, “So, uh, how are you feeling?"

“Shitty", Jeff muttered.

Brooke turned to him, concerned but he cut her off before she could say anything.

"I'm fine, like with the concussion. It's just..I miss you a lot"

She didn't say anything so he went on,"I didn't realize how much I needed you until you were gone, you know?"

"I really don't want to talk about this", Brooke sighed, not taking her eyes of the road.

"But-“

"Look, I feel like shit too. This wasn't an easy decision for me and I..I need time to like, figure this out, okay?"

"I hate my life right now”, Jeff said quietly.

She reached over and flipped on the radio, turning the music up so she wouldn’t have to answer. She knew deep down that the only reason that he was being so sweet was because he wanted her back and she knew that she couldn’t just give in.

They sat in silence until Brooke pulled into the driveway of their condo. She climbed out of the car and opened the trunk to grab Jeff’s bag. Then she walked over and opened the passenger door, only to see Jeff leaning over, his head in his hands.

“Are you okay?”, she asked, the worry evident in her voice. No matter how bad things were between them, she would always worry about him. Dating or not, he was still so important to her and him being hurt made her feel awful.

“Just dizzy”, he answered, trying to stand up. She grabbed his arm with the hand that wasn’t holding his bag and walked with him up the condo’s stairs, through the front door and into the living room, helping him settle down on the couch.

“I’m going to grab some of my stuff, okay? From upstairs”, she explained. Jeff nodded miserably.

She folded up a bunch of her jeans, stuffing them into her largest suitcase. She cleared her things from the nightstand and grabbed her movies from beside the TV. Soon the room was empty of everything of hers.

When she walked down the stairs , she stopped when she heard Jeff talking.

“I don’t even know what to do anymore”

She peeked her head around the corner. He was curled up in the corner of the couch, holding his cell phone to his ear. She ducked behind the wall before he could see. Even though eavesdropping was wrong, she was curious to hear what he was saying.

”Brooke broke up with me”, she heard him choke out.

He was quiet for a minute, listening, before sighing, “Because I’m a shitty person”

“There’s nothing I can do. She moved out, Mom. She doesn’t want anything to do with me”

She heard him blow his nose, “My head hurts like hell right now and all I want is to have her back and as soon as she grabs her stuff she’s going to leave and I’ll never see her again”

“Nothing I say will change her mind. She hates me”, he whined. Brooke’s eyes widened. Did he actually think that? No matter what happened, she could never hate him.

After a minute or two of him listening to whatever his mom was saying, Jeff sighed, “Okay. I love you Mom”

She waited a moment before walking out into the living room. Jeff was staring blankly at a wall, his eyes glassy. She sat down next to him.

“If you’re okay, I’m going to go”, she said quietly.

Jeff didn’t look at her, “I’m okay”

“Okay”, she said awkwardly, grabbing her suitcase and making her way to the door. Jeff didn’t say anything.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brooke closed her economics textbook. She hadn’t bothered studying in forever and now she had a ton of work to catch up on. It was hard though, because her mind was constantly on Jeff.

Was she a bad person for leaving him alone when he had a concussion? She couldn’t just move back in and act like breakup never happened but ignoring him for weeks when he was in this state? After all they’d been through?

She stood up and grabbed her keys, calling out to Erica where she was going. She climbed into her car and drove the twenty minutes to her old condo. She knocked lightly, suddenly worried. What if he wasn’t home? Or worse-what if he saw her car and didn’t answer?

He did eventually open the door but he didn’t look happy to see her. His curly hair was messy and he was frowning, an expression that looked wrong on his usual cheerful face.

“Hey”, she said awkwardly. He stepped aside to let her in.

“Hey”, he said, his voice cold.

She tentatively stepped closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. He kept his arms by his sides.

“Jeff-“

“You can’t just do that”, he whispered, taking a step back from her.

She sank into one of the kitchen stools, ”Do what?”

“You can’t just break up with me out of the blue, ignore me for weeks and then come here and try and hug me like its okay”

“I want to talk”, she said bravely.

He sat down on the stool next to her, “About time”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to leave you hanging like that”, she apologized.

Jeff shrugged, “I get it, I guess. You needed time to think and I’ve done that a lot of that too”

“Yeah?”

“I kinda realized how naïve I was. You were right, our relationship has been really shitty lately and I guess it took me till now to see that”

“We can still fix things though”, Brooke practically whispered.

“You want to fix things?”

“Of course I do”