When Love Hurts Read Online Free Page A

popular myself. People just knew me as the girl with the long hair or Jaylen’s friend, but I was never mistaken as his girlfriend.
    It’s mostly because we never acted like boyfriend and girlfriend for people to assume we were. We acted more like family, and I swore people probably thought I was his cousin twice removed or something. Jaylen and I always got along, and we always understood each other. From the outside looking in it would make sense that we would go together, but, I don’t know—it just never happened. It’s not that I don’t think he is handsome, because Jaylen’s the most attractive person I know. Everyone has their taste of what they like, and Jaylen has everything I would want in a partner. He’s tall, smart, motivated, strong-muscled, but not too ripped that veins show on his neck, and has my favorite sexy face.
    I smile for half a second. No one knows this but me and him, but Jaylen was my first time. I was thirteen years old, and Jaylen was fifteen and self-centered back then, but I didn’t care. I wanted to know what sex was like, and I didn’t trust anybody else but him.  
    It was the summer before my eighth-grade year, and I excused myself from the girls I was playing jump rope with to find Jaylen sitting on his porch. He knew what I wanted, but we couldn’t do it in the house. We went behind his house and behind the garden Jaylen’s mother kept in the backyard. We ducked down low past the open window, where his mother was preparing Southern fried chicken, corn, and mashed potatoes—a dinner I was always informally invited to if my grandmother had plans. We went behind the old red shed, which held a rusted sports car from Jaylen’s dad’s younger days, and other useless junk. It was there that we both had our first kiss. It was there that Jaylen saw me without my shirt on. I had no breasts at all, but Jaylen didn’t care. He told me he thought I was pretty, with my chubby cheeks and skinny body. His body was also forming out with deep abs and strong, thin arms that wrapped around me, and held me close as he lifted me up on his father’s car.  
    Our sex was interrupted by both a shout from a girl indicating it was my turn to jump rope and Jaylen’s mom calling him to eat, but we were somehow satisfied.
    I’ve never had sex with Jaylen since that day, and the “what ifs” are now playing in my head. I rub my hand against Jaylen’s face in the photo, and then look away trying to get the thought of how I lost my virginity out of my head. I never really thought about the possibilities of me and him being together, but it seemed that whenever I was single he was taken, and vice versa. Even now Jaylen has started a relationship with Angela, whom he met four months ago, and it’s already serious. I sigh and look away.  
    I leave the room and grab the vacuum to take it back to the laundry room, when my phone starts ringing. I walk over to my room and am about to answer, until I see Chris’s name on the caller ID screen. I swallow hard and listen to it ring. This wouldn’t be the first time he’d come here to get me. When I left him after finding out about him cheating on me, I came here, and he probably thinks this time is no different. I look toward the door of the room and think about the front door. Did Jaylen lock it? I know I didn’t. My heart starts racing, and my head starts throbbing.
    Finally, the phone stops ringing, but it starts again three seconds later. I drop my phone back on the bed and decide to go peek out the front window. Even if Chris knows there’s a high chance I’m here, there’s no way to actually prove it until he sees me, but that’s not going to happen.
    I walk out of my room and peek out the window behind the couch. The window view looks out to the street, like Chris’s apartment. There are hardly any cars on the street, and none of the cars belongs to Chris. Not even the blue Accord I saw him in last night is outside. I close the blinds and take