Take Two: A second chance romance

Chapter 4: Jayden

4 years. I can’t believe she has been gone for 4 years. To this day I am still trying to work out what happened that day. When I messaged her that day, she told me that I had told her to meet at the coffee shop in town. I was there that day with Angie. I had gone there to get a coffee before I headed back to college for my next class. Studying and teaching was exhausting. I asked Angie if she knew anything about what happened to Lexi, but she said no.

That day in the coffee shop Angie did kiss me, she had told me she had feelings for me and wanted me. I told her I would never leave Alexis as I loved her and only her. Angie tried using the fact that our families had been friends for generations now, due to our parents and grandparents being best friends, and we would make a great couple and that our families would be so happy if that happened. I had pushed her off me as quickly as I could, but Lexi must have seen it before I pushed her away.

What I didn’t understand was whatever photos she was going on about. I hope one day I can see her again and find out what happened that day. I do understand why she ran away after she thought I was cheating on her. Her parents had died in a car accident on their way home from the couple’s therapy. I had heard Jax tell my older brother Micah that they were getting therapy as his dad had found out that his mum was cheating on him with her boss. After that happened, she always told me how much she hated cheaters. I met Lexi in elementary school when we were ten. When I was 13, I really started to like her more than a friend. When we were 15, I finally got the guts to ask her out. She was skeptical at first, as I was the captain of the football team and thinking that I would just be like the rest of the “jocks” and be a massive player. She was worried that as I got older, and I would end up dumping her like yesterday’s news. After a lot of chasing and pleading, I was finally able to wear her down and get her to agree to be my girlfriend.

From that day on, we were inseparable. She became my world. She came to every game I played to support me. When I became quarterback for the Firefly warriors, she was ecstatic for me. When we graduated, and it was her 18th birthday, I proposed to her that night. When she said yes, I was the happiest person in the world. Then it all fell apart 2 years later.

As I am standing here watching the seniors play their game against a neighboring school, I can’t help but think if Lexi would be happy that I got a job as the assistant coach at our old high school last year. I look at the bleachers and remember when she used to be there for every game I played. I miss her so damn much.

After she left, I went and saw her brothers, and they were understandably pissed at me. I asked them if they knew what happened to Lexi, but they said the same thing she did. They said they saw the messages and photos and that Lex was devastated about me cheating on her. Angie has become insufferable over the last 4 years, constantly going on about us getting together since Lexi left, but I refuse her every damn time. She has even gotten my mom to start pestering me about it, as well as her mom. I don’t care what anyone says I am going to find Lexi, even if it takes me forever.

After a long day of work, I decide to go to the bar with Jake and Jordan. It’s been awhile since we have caught up. I walked into Ryder’s tavern, one of the best bars around here. Ryder’s dad, Dustin, started the tavern when he was a bit older than Ryder. Ryder is twenty-five and took the tavern over when he was twenty-three. He has done really well with it and has made it one of the best bars to come to. I heard through the grapevine that he is getting married to Jessa-Leigh. I walked to the booth in the back corner where Jake and Jordan were sitting. I slid into the left side of the booth, facing my friends.

“Look who finally turned up” laughs Jake.

“Yeah, I finally got here. I had to deal with my mother again. She’s seriously starting to piss me off,” I said.

“Is she still going on about you marrying that w***e Angie?” Jordan asks.

“Yeah, she is. I refuse to bow to their wishes, so she’s getting annoyed. I told her that Angie and I might be friends, but that’s all we will ever be. I won’t marry someone I don’t love. If I have any luck, Lexi will come back here, and I will hopefully get a chance to fix whatever happened between us.” I explained.

“What did happen? You never did tell us. All you said was that she left town after she said you cheated on her.” Jake asks.

“The day she left, she said that she had gotten a message from me telling her to meet me at the coffee shop. She said she had messaged to ask where I was as she wanted to tell me something. Which I never did find out what she wanted to tell me. The thing is, I never asked her to meet me at the coffee shop though, which I can’t understand why she thought I did. I was waiting to go to my next class. I asked Angie if she had any idea why Lexi thought that, as she saw me in the coffee shop that day, and I had left my phone on the table while I went to get my coffee, but she had no idea why either. When Lexi got there, she saw Angie kissing me. Just before that happened, Angie decided to dump all this bullshit on me that she loved me and had feelings for me. Then out of nowhere she kissed me. I pushed her off of me as quickly as I could, but I’m guessing that Lexi never saw that. When I messaged her when I got home after class and found out she wasn’t there, she told me what she thought about my cheating ways, my mistress and wished me a good life and that she had photos as well. To this day, I don’t know what photos she’s talking about. I was always with her. She left town that day. Her family wouldn’t tell me anything, she blocked my number and shut down all her social media as well, and I haven’t seen her since. I miss her so f*****g much.” I explained the pain slashing through my chest at the thought of her.

My friends looked at me shocked. Wrapping their heads around what I had just said to them.

“f**k man, that’s some f****d up s**t. I hate to say this, but do you think that Angie is possibly behind this? It just seems too coincidental that all that happened just as Lexi got to the shop. Do you remember that Angie bullied Lexi relentlessly through high school? She has hated Lexi for as long as I can remember.” Jordan says.

Jake nods his head in agreement. He agrees with that theory as well. Thinking about it now from their point of view. It seems a little coincidental that all of this happened when Angie was around. Especially since she told me she “loves” me and that I should leave Lexi for her. The more I think about it, the more it seems it could be true. In a way, I hope she didn’t f**k with my relationship. If I find out she did, she won’t like the repercussions that come her way.

“f**k! I had never looked at it that way before. But Lexi said there were photos and so did Jax. Jax was ready to cave my head in for them. How could there be photos if I never cheated?” I said, while hoping someone that’s been a family friend since we were born didn’t cause me to lose the one person who meant everything to me.

“I have a theory for that one, and I honestly hope it isn’t true, but it was the only time that you have been away from Lexi for a long period of time. Remember when Lexi was doing her movie night with her sister, and it turned into a sleepover because Jessa really wanted her sister that night as she was really upset over something?” Jake explains.

“Yeah I remember. We decided to go to the baseball game with Micah, Jax and Aaron that night and have a boy’s night. We all drank heaps, except Micah and Jax, so we ended up crashing at my parents’ house as Micah was living there while his house was getting some repairs done. Jax and Aaron left after we got back. Mom, Angie’s mom, and Angie were there, and Angie’s dad was out the back with her dad. I went straight to bed and passed out. I didn’t wake up till the next morning with a killer hangover. That was a week before Lexi left,” I replied. Dread is starting to fill my stomach.

“Jay, who’s to say she didn’t sneak in while you were passed out and take some photos to make it look like you slept together. I will say though, if she has set this up to get Lexi to leave you, that is a seriously f****d up thing to do.” Jordan says.

Downing my beer, I got up and threw a few notes on the table for the tip for the waitress and looked at my two best friends and said,

“I am going to find out if she took any photos that I didn’t consent to. I am going to find all the evidence I can about this, and Angie had better hope that she didn’t f**k me over because I will have her begging for mercy by the time I finish with her.” I snapped, storming out of the bar with thoughts and scenarios running through my mind.

Angie better hope I don’t find evidence she was involved because she won’t like the consequences coming her way. If anyone else helped her, they would pay as well.