Heartbreak Warfare

by K. B. Webb

  I just let someone else’s opinion get in my head.

  As soon as those words leave Ryan’s mouth, I know who sent those pictures.

  “It was Molly wasn’t it?”

  He shakes his head and looks at the ground, “Yea it was.”

  After all the shit that went down between Ryan and Molly a few weeks ago, their relationship has been basically nonexistent. We see her when Ryan sing at Ricky’s on the weekend or if we go get a drink and hang out with Dani and Lucas, but she never speaks to either of us. Lucas told me that his brother, Molly’s boyfriend, has not been taking losing Ryan well at all, but that is Molly’s fault. All she would have to do is apologize and Ryan would forgive her and everything could go back to normal, but no, she can’t do that. Instead of apologizing, she has to be a fucking creeper and send pictures of me to my boyfriend and try and convince him that I’m cheating.

  “Get up,” Ryan looks at me like I’ve grown an extra head.

  “Why?”

  “Because this shit has gone on for too long. There is no fucking reason for Molly to hate me like she does, and there is no reason for her to try and ruin our relationship. She knows who Charlie is. She had to know that he was with Holly and that we weren’t doing anything more than just talking. Hell, we never even sat down! So we’re going to her house right now. Time to end this shit once and for all.”

  “Jasmine, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

  “Fine, I’ll go by myself then. I’m sure Dani knows where she lives.”

  Ryan huffs out a breath and moves to grab his keys and phone, “No, I’ll go with you. Come on.”

  I grab my purse and we walk out of the apartment and head to his truck.

  The ride to Molly’s house is quiet. I know Ryan doesn’t want me to do this, but I won’t let her try to sabotage my relationship. If she has a problem with me, she needs to take it up with me, not try to turn my boyfriend against me.

  We pull in Molly’s driveway, and I see Wynee’s car is already here.

  “Jasmine, I really don’t think this is a good idea. I know you think you can fix things between Molly and I, but I don’t know if you can. She obviously still has issues with us being together.”

  “Well then, she can take those issues up with me.”

  When I see Molly and Wynee walk outside, I jump out of the truck. Ryan is hot on my heels as I walk up to them.

  “Molly!” She rises from her chair as soon as she sees me.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing here Jasmine?”

  “Oh, you know exactly why I’m here Molly. You and I have some shit that we need to work out.”

  “Hey Ry,” Wynee steps around Molly, “it’s about time for Lyric to wake up. Why don’t you come inside with me and see her.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea Wynee.”

  “What Ryan, think I’ll kick your girlfriends ass?”

  “Not at all because I know Jasmine could fuck you up if she wanted to, but she wouldn’t do that. Unlike you, Jasmine has some class.”

  “Ryan, go inside with Wynee. This is a conversation that needs to happen between just Molly and I.”

  He hesitates, but with a little more coercing from Wynee, he walks inside.

  “Look Jasmine, if you came here to try to makes me feel sorry for what I did today, that’s not going to happen. Ryan has a right to know if you’re doing shady shit behind his back.” She turns and walks back to the table under her carport, sitting down.

  I sit across from her, “I totally agree with you, but there was nothing shady going on. I’ve only met Charlie one other time beside today. We’re just friends, hell we’re barely that.”

  “Right, so I’m sure you just randomly hug guys you’re just friends with all the time.”

  “Well, when they tell me that they’ve been sober for 2 months and their girlfriend is pregnant, yea, I guess I do.”

  “Holly’s pregnant?”

  “Yep. About 2 months. Charlie told me when I saw him today. I was happy for him because the last time I saw him they we on the verge of breaking up.”

  “Well, so you weren’t flirting with Charlie. It doesn’t change the other reasons I don’t like you.”

  “What other reasons, you thinking I slept with Colt and that I’m trying to steal Ryan away from you?”

  “You did sleep with Colt. I know you did.”

  “Molly,” for the first time since we started talking, she actually looks at me, “I don’t know what to say to convince you that I didn’t sleep with Colt, because I didn’t. I don’t even know why you would think that. I only met him a hand full of time.”

  “He called you buttercup. He only gave nicknames to the girls he had sex with.”

  “You know why he called me buttercup?”

  “Yes I do, because you were sleeping with him.”

  Well, this doesn’t seem to be going the way I had planned. “No, because the night he met me I was a drunk crying mess over some guy whose name I can’t even remember now. I was sitting outside, by myself when Colt saw me. He sat down beside me and just stayed there while I cried. He never asked what was wrong, just sat next to me while I balled my eyes out. When I finally calmed down, he said ‘cheer up buttercup.’ That’s why he called me buttercup. I never, ever did anything physical with him what so ever. I knew y’all were together. We all did. I don’t know what went on in yall’s relationship, but I do know that every time I saw him at a party you were with him and he looked at you like the fucking sun rose and set with you. It was obvious to everyone that he loved you Molly.”

  She laughs, “That sounds like some shit Colt would say. He had this way of making people feel better just by being around them.” She takes a drag from her cigarette and wipes a tear away. “I miss him so damn much. I will always love Colt, but I know that I’m not in love with him anymore. I know that’s not the reason I miss him. I love Logan. I am head over heels in love with Logan. But, well Colt was my best friend for so long. He was such a huge part of my life and it hurts like hell to know that he is gone and he’s never coming back.”

  “I know how that feels. It’s hard to be happy sometimes when the person you celebrated everything with isn’t around anymore.”

  “That’s why I cling to Ryan and Wynee. They are all I really have left from the life I had before Colt died. I lost a big part of myself the day he died, and for a while I lost Ryan too. And then I got him back and he moved in here and I had him with me all the time. I felt complete for the first time in a long time, and I don’t want to lose that.”

  “I promise I understand. After my parents died, it was just me and my brother Jason. He dated a lot but never had a real relationship. When he started dating his fiancé Todd, I hated him. I saw him as the guy who was going to take Jason away from me. My brother can be a raging douche bag, but he’s my raging douche bag and I wasn’t ready to share him with anyone. It took me a long time to finally see that Todd didn’t want to steal Jason away from me, but once I realized it, Todd and I became so close. Hell, now sometimes I swear I love him more than I love Jason. I realized I wasn’t losing a brother, but gaining one. Molly, I don’t want to steal Ryan away from you. That has never been my intention. If you would have taken the time to get to know me, you would have known that, but you didn’t. I’m sorry that yall’s relationship has been strained, but I never told Ryan that it had to be like this. All I asked was that he stand up for me when it came to you because I stood up to my brother when it came to Ryan.”

  “I shouldn’t have asked him to choose. I don’t know why I did that. I knew it wouldn’t work out well, but I did it anyway.”

  “I know why you did it. You’ve always been a major part of Ryan’s life, and the idea of someone coming in and taking that role away from you is fucking scary. But like I said, I’m not trying to take him away from you. I want y’all to be close again because I know he misses you. But Molly, I love Ryan more than you could ever understand. I know we hav
en’t been together long, but I have every intention of spending the rest of my life with him, and if you want to be a part of the rest of Ryan’s life, you’re going to have to accept that.”

  She puts her cigarette out and turns to face me, “You really love him?”

  “I am really, really in love with him.”

  “And you aren’t going to hurt him?”

  “I would rather die than hurt him.”

  We sit in silence for a minute while Molly stares off at nothing at all.

  “I’m sorry Jasmine. I should have talked to you from day one and all of this could have been avoided.”

  “Well, all that matters now is how we handle things from here on out. I’m willing to start over if you are. I think we both owe it to Ryan. We’ve put him through a lot in the last few weeks.”

  “Yea, we have. Well, I have. I would really like to start over.”

  “Well then,” I stand up and move so that I am directly in front of her, sticking my hand out, “I’m Jasmine Slade, Ryan’s girlfriend.”

  Molly laughs but stands up and takes my hand, “I’m Molly Scott, Ryan’s best friend. It’s great to meet you.” Then she does something that surprises the hell out of me, she pulls me in and hugs me tightly. “Ryan deserves someone to really love him, and I am so happy he found that. I am sorry it took me so long to get over my own bullshit and see how great you are for him.”

  “And Ryan deserves to have a best friend who always has his best interest at heart and I am so happy you give that to him.” We break apart just as Wynee and Ryan walk outside. He’s holding Lyric, Molly’s daughter. She’s snuggled into his chest and sucking on her thumb.

  “Hey baby girl,” Lyric reaches out for Molly when she hears her voice. Molly takes her and turns to face me, “Lyric, this is your Aunt Jasmine.” Molly looks at me, “is that name OK with you?”

  I smile at Lyric who is eyeing me shyly while hiding her face in her mommy’s hair, “You can call me Aunt Jazzy. Some of my very favorite people called me Jazzy. Is that ok with you?”

  She smiles a toothy grin and reaches out and pulls on my hair, “Pwetty.”

  “Well you my dear are beautiful, just like your mommy.”

  We spend a few more minutes at Molly’s until Ryan announces that we have to get home because he has big plans for us tonight. I have no clue what he’s talking about, but I go along with it anyway.

  When we get in the truck, Ryan doesn’t ask me what Molly and I talk about, instead he holds my hand kissing it every few minutes and telling me how much he loves me.

  When we pull into the parking lot of our complex, he sits for a second before he turns the truck off. “Thank you.”

  I smile at him, “For what?”

  “You know for what smart ass. Thank you for whatever you said to Molly. I know that couldn’t have been easy for you.”

  “Well baby, you know I would do anything for you.”

  “I know you would, and I would do anything for you. I love you Jasmine.”

  “I love you most Ryan Davis.”

  Todd has said love you most to me a handful of times, but that is the first time I have said those words to another person since my parents died. I feel like it should make me sad in some way saying it to someone who isn’t my mother or father, but instead my heart swells with love. I do love Ryan. I love him the most.

  Jasmine lies down next to me on our bed as I flip channels trying to find something to watch.

  “Ya know,” Jasmine rolls to her side so that she’s facing me, “I think you and I are invincible.”

  “Invincible huh? What would make you think that?”

  “Well,” she scoots so that she is sitting up in our bed, pulling the sheet with her to cover her tits, “I mean we have only been together for two months and we’ve already dealt with a lot of shit: me punching a chick in your living room, you getting fired, my almost getting disowned by my brother, and Molly trying to tear us apart. If we lived through that, I’m pretty sure we can handle anything.”

  “You realize there will be a lot more shit we have to deal with, right?”

  “Yea I do, but we’ll make it through whatever it is. It’s you and me against the world baby.”

  I grab her by the waist and pull her down so that she’s lying flat on her back before crawling on top of her. She’s laughing and smiling. She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. She’s right, we have survived so much shit already that I know there is nothing that could tear us apart. I don’t know if I believe in soul mates, but if there were such a thing, Jasmine would without a doubt be mine. She makes me want to be a better person. She makes me laugh like no one ever has, and puts up with all of my bullshit. But my favorite thing about Jasmine, well that’s the fact that I know my brother would have loved her. Colt must have seen something in Jasmine the night he met her, because I see it too. I truly believe he is smiling down on us because he knows that I have found the right girl for me, and I know that he had something to do with getting her here.

  “Whatcha thinking about?”

  I prop myself up and look in her eyes, “Marry me. I know we haven’t been together long and I know it sounds fucking crazy, but marry me anyway.”

  She looks shocked and for a moment and I am terrified of what she’s going to say next, but then she smiles. Really smiles at me, “you want me to marry you?”

  “More than anything baby.”

  She starts laughing, “This is fucking crazy, you know that right?”

  “Well our whole relationship has pretty much been fucking crazy so why try to change things now.”

  “Yes. Yes I will marry you!”

  “No shit? You’ll really marry me?”

  “Yes…” She has a look of worry on her face all of a sudden. “Are you freaking out now because you thought I would say no and now that I’ve said yes you’ve change your mind? Because I can change my answer. I can say no if I need to.”

  I laugh at her. Leave it Jasmine to turn a marriage proposal into a debate on if I want to really get married.

  “Calm down baby. I do want to marry you, I just didn’t think you would say yes. I just assumed you would say I was fucking crazy and say no.”

  “You really want to marry me? Like spend every day of the rest of your life with me marry me?”

  “I do. Hell I would marry you tomorrow if I could.”

  She smiles and bites her lip, “Who says you can’t marry me tomorrow? We can go to Arkansas. A girl I used to hang out with in college did it. You can married in a day there and it’s like $80.”

  “So you don’t want a wedding? Isn’t that what every girl wants, to spend a year planning something and wearing a huge white dress and all that fancy shit.”

  “Ryan, if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not like every other girl.”

  I laugh at her because I have figured that out already. I have known from the day I met her that she was not like every other girl. That’s why I want to marry her. Jasmine is uniquely Jasmine, and I love that.

  I tell Jasmine I need to run some errands before her birthday dinner so I rush and get ready leaving her at home to do the same.

  As soon as I get in my truck I call my mom. I’m pretty worried she’s gonna be pist off at me. First of all, I’m getting married to a girl she’s never met, a girl I’ve been dating for 2 months, and second I’m doing it tomorrow.

  “Hey sweetie, how’s your day?”

  “Fucking amazing mom.”

  She laughs but I know she hates it when I cuss, “Ryan, watch your mouth! Now, why is this day so amazing?”

  “Well mom, I just asked Jasmine to marry me and she said yes.”

  “Oh honey..”

  I cut her off before she can start to name all the reasons this won’t work. I understand everyone’s concerns, I really do, but Jasmine and I know what is best for us.

  “Mom, I know what you’re going to say, alright. I know you think it’s too soon, I know you haven’t met her, I
know all of this, but this is what we want and I really believe we can make it work. We’re actually getting married tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow! Honey I was going to say congratulations. You’re a grown man, I can’t make your decisions for you. I do wish I could be there though.”

  “Then come mom. We haven’t actually talked about who we wanted to invite, but I know she will want her brother and his fiancé there and I want you and dad there too.”

  She takes a deep breath, “Ryan, you are sure this is what you want?”

  “Mom I have never been surer of anything in my whole life.”

  “Ok, well your dad and I will be there. You just tell us where to be and we will be there.”

  She talks to me for a few minutes about the importance of understanding that marriage is a lifelong commitment, for better or worse, and that when you promise your life to someone you keep that promise. I tell her there is no one I would rather make that promise to than Jasmine.

  I pull in Jason and Todd’s driveway right after I hang up with my mom.

  I knock on their door and Todd answers.

  “Hey Ry,” he sticks his head out the door and looks around, “where’s Jasmine?”

  “At home getting ready for dinner. I’m actually here to talk to Jason about something. Is he here?”

  “Yea, he’s in his office. If you don’t mind me asking what do you want to talk to him about?” He steps to the side and lets me in the house. My palms start sweating and I swallow hard. If Jason says no Jasmine won’t go through with this. She needs her brother’s approval, so I do too.

  “Well, um, I wanted to talk to him about marrying Jasmine.” I prepare for Todd to tell me I have lost my fucking mind, but he doesn’t. Instead he starts cheering and clapping and hugs me.

  “I am so happy about this! Our Jazzy has needed a man like you for a long time and I am so happy she finally found you!”

  “Well, let’s just hope Jason feels the same way.” I feel a little less nervous knowing I have Todd’s approval, but I still have to have Jason’s.

  “I think you will be surprised,” he starts walking up the stairs, “come on.”