#exs

Heyy sorry I just seen this but of course!!

(also beware I did write this at 4 AM so it’s probably not the best but let me know if I should turn this into a series)

Long time no see 

Jordan X influencer/youtube reader



“Hey guys, welcome back to my channel.”

I smiled at the camera, holding it out in front of me as I walked across the parking lot.

“Today I am taking you guys along with me for a very exciting day of doing a bunch of things I don’t want to do.”

I turned the camera around to show the parking lot before flipping it back toward me.

“I have to go to the post office, I need to drop off a couple packages, I need to go pick up a few things from Target, and I also need to go to the gym.”

I paused.

“Which is probably not going to happen.”

I laughed.

“But I am going to say that I’m going to go, so that maybe I feel bad enough later that I actually do.”

I kept walking toward my car.

“I also need to get coffee because I didn’t have any this morning and I don’t know why I thought I could just start my day like that.”

I opened my car door and looked back at the camera.

“So, let’s go.”

—

I got coffee first.

Obviously.

I wasn’t going to make it through the rest of the day without it.

I filmed a little bit in the car, mostly talking about things that probably wouldn’t make it into the actual video. I talked about a package I was waiting for, a restaurant I wanted to try, and how I needed to stop buying clothes when I had nowhere to put them.

Then I immediately drove past a store and said, “Wait, I actually need to go in there.”

I did not go in there.

I kept driving.

That was personal growth.

The post office took approximately five minutes.

The packages were already labeled, so I walked in, dropped them off, and left.

Honestly, the most efficient thing I had done all day.

Then I had to go to the bank.

Then I had to stop somewhere else to pick something up.

Then I had to go back to my car because I had forgotten something.

By the time I was done, I had already decided that I had done enough for the day.

I had been out for maybe two hours.

But still.

I had been productive.

That counted.

I got back in my car and turned the camera on.

“Okay, so I have done a lot of things.”

I paused.

“Not really.”

I thought about it.

“I’ve done enough things.”

I nodded.

“That’s what matters.”

I took a sip of my coffee.

“Now I’m going to Target.”

—

I didn’t actually need that much from Target.

I had a list.

A very short list.

Shampoo.

Face wash.

Laundry detergent.

Maybe some new sheets.

That was it.

I repeated that to myself as I walked through the entrance.

I was only getting the things on my list.

Nothing else.

I grabbed a cart.

Which was already a bad sign.

I always told myself I didn’t need a cart.

Then I would be carrying seven things in my arms, drop something, and end up having to walk back to the entrance to get one.

So, for once, I was being smart.

I walked through the beauty section first.

I got the shampoo.

I got the face wash.

I picked up a lip gloss.

I put it back.

I picked it up again.

I put it back again.

I walked away.

Then I turned around and got it.

Whatever.

I deserved it.

I ended up in the home section looking at sheets, which was where things started to get a little out of control.

I had absolutely no reason to be looking at throw pillows.

None.

I already had enough pillows.

Probably too many.

But I picked one up anyway.

It was a cream color, and I held it up to the camera.

“Okay,” I said quietly. “Be honest.”

I looked at it.

Then looked at the camera.

“Do I need this?”

Obviously, the camera did not answer.

“Don’t answer that.”

I put it in my cart.

I was standing there comparing two different sets of sheets when I heard someone say my name.

“Y/N?”

I stopped.

I didn’t even really think about it at first.

I just froze for a second.

Then I turned around.

And there was Jordan.

I stared at him.

He was standing a few feet away from me with Peyton.

For one second, I genuinely didn’t know what to say.

Not because I hadn’t seen him in a long time.

I mean, I had.

I had seen him online.

I had seen him in people’s videos.

I had seen pictures.

I knew what he was doing.

It wasn’t like he had disappeared from the planet.

But seeing him in front of me was different.

Especially in Target.

Of all places.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi.”

There was a pause.

I looked at Peyton.

“Hi.”

“Hi,” he said, looking between me and Jordan.

I could tell he was trying very hard to act normal.

Which was making the entire thing feel less normal.

Jordan looked at the camera in my hand.

“Are you filming?”

“Yeah.”

He nodded.

“Are we in the video?”

I glanced at the camera.

“Probably.”

“Probably?”

“I mean, I can’t just cut out the most interesting thing that’s happened all day.”

Peyton laughed.

Jordan looked at him.

“Don’t encourage her.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You laughed.”

“Because it was funny.”

I smiled.

And just like that, it was a little less weird.

Not completely normal.

But less weird.

“So,” Jordan said.

“So,” I replied.

“How have you been?”

“Good.”

“Good.”

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

I looked at him.

He looked at me.

I almost laughed.

It was ridiculous.

We had dated for almost a year.

We had spent entire days together without running out of things to talk about.

We had spent hours in his apartment doing absolutely nothing. Ordering food, putting on a movie, getting distracted halfway through it, and somehow ending up talking until two in the morning.

I remembered the stupid things.

The inside jokes that made no sense to anyone else.

The way he would send me pictures of things he knew I would hate just to annoy me.

The way I would steal his clothes and then act like he was crazy for asking where they went.

The way he would make me laugh when I was in the worst mood.

The way I had once been so mad at him that I refused to talk to him for an entire afternoon, only to end up sitting next to him at dinner like nothing had happened.

But I remembered the other parts too.

The missed calls.

The canceled plans.

The days where one of us was traveling and the other was working and we kept saying, We’ll see each other soon.

Soon had started meaning anything.

A week.

Two weeks.

Maybe longer.

There had been nights where we were both too tired to talk but still stayed on FaceTime because neither of us wanted to be the one to hang up.

There had been conversations that started with, “I miss you,” and ended with both of us feeling worse because neither of us knew when we were actually going to see each other again.

And then there had been the scandal.

The completely fake one.

The one that had made the internet decide something had happened before either of us had even had a chance to explain it.

I remembered sitting on my bed, scrolling through posts about my own relationship.

I remembered the sick feeling in my stomach.

I remembered calling Jordan.

I remembered him answering almost immediately.

I remembered the conversation.

The explanations.

The reassurance.

The fact that I believed him.

And I remembered that, even after we figured out the entire thing was fake, neither of us had really gone back to normal.

Not because of the scandal itself.

Just because it had been one more thing.

One more stressful situation.

One more thing to deal with when we were already struggling to find time for each other.

Eventually, we had sat down and talked.

Really talked.

And there had been no villain.

No one to blame.

No huge betrayal.

Just two people who cared about each other and had slowly realized that caring about each other wasn’t making the relationship easy anymore.

I had cried.

He had too.

I remembered that part.

I remembered him saying that he didn’t want us to become people who resented each other.

And I remembered knowing that he was right.

I remembered hugging him before I left.

I remembered thinking that it was probably the last time I was ever going to hug him like that.

And now he was standing in front of me in Target.

Holding a shopping cart.

Probably full of snacks.

“Y/N?”

I blinked.

I had completely forgotten that I was standing in the middle of the aisle.

Jordan was looking at me.

“You okay?”

I looked at him.

“Yeah.”

I smiled slightly.

“Sorry. Yeah.”

“You kind of just zoned out.”

“I know.”

I glanced down at my cart.

“I was thinking.”

“About?”

I looked at him.

Then I smiled.

“Nothing.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Okay.”

I could tell he didn’t believe me.

But he didn’t ask again.

“So what are you doing here?” I asked.

Jordan looked down at his cart.

“Shopping.”

I looked at him.

“Wow.”

“I know.”

“That’s crazy.”

“I figured you would be impressed.”

“I am.”

Peyton shook his head.

“You two are weird.”

I ignored him and looked at what was in Jordan’s cart.

There were snacks.

An energy drink.

Some candy.

And socks.

I looked back at him.

“What are you buying?”

“Nothing.”

I glanced at the cart.

“You have a whole cart.”

“Essentials.”

I laughed.

“Those are not essentials.”

“They are to me.”

I shook my head.

“You haven’t changed.”

I didn’t really mean anything by it.

It was just something that came out.

But Jordan smiled a little.

“Neither have you.”

I looked away.

“Okay.”

I suddenly became very interested in the sheets in front of me.

It was such a small thing.

It didn’t mean anything.

I knew that.

But it still made me feel a little weird.

Not bad.

Just weird.

Like hearing someone you used to know really well say something that reminded you that, despite everything, they still did know you.

Or at least, they knew the version of you from before.

I glanced back at him.

“I should probably go.”

“Yeah.”

I immediately looked at him.

“Not because of you.”

He smiled.

“I know.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

There was another pause.

Then I smiled.

“Have fun shopping.”

“You too.”

I started pushing my cart away.

I made it maybe five feet before I heard Peyton say something to Jordan that I couldn’t hear.

Jordan laughed.

I looked back before I could stop myself.

He was still standing there.

I immediately turned around again.

Nope.

Absolutely not.

I continued shopping.

—

I finished the rest of my Target trip pretty quickly.

I got the things I had actually gone there for.

I also bought the pillow.

And the lip gloss.

And some snacks.

So, technically, I had not stuck to my list at all.

But I had gotten the shampoo.

That was something.

I got back to my car and set the camera on the dashboard.

I sat there for a second before turning it on.

“Okay.”

I looked at the camera.

“I ran into Jordan.”

I immediately started laughing.

“Of course I did.”

I shook my head.

“Of course I ran into my ex-boyfriend at Target.”

I looked out the windshield.

“Like, what are the chances?”

I laughed again.

“It was fine, though.”

I took a sip of my coffee.

“It’s not weird. I mean, it is a little weird because I haven’t seen him in a while, but we’re good.”

I looked back at the camera.

“We ended on good terms.”

I paused.

“And I know people always want some huge dramatic reason for people to break up, but there really wasn’t one.”

I shrugged.

“We were both busy. We weren’t seeing each other that much. And I think we both just got to a point where we were kind of trying to make time for each other instead of actually having time for each other.”

I looked down at my lap.

“And that’s not really anyone’s fault.”

I wasn’t even sure why I was saying all of this.

It wasn’t like I had planned on talking about Jordan in the vlog.

I had literally just run into him.

But I guess once I started talking about it, I couldn’t really stop.

“And then there was the whole thing online, which was fake, by the way.”

I pointed at the camera.

“Completely fake.”

I shook my head.

“That was just annoying.”

I paused.

“Anyway.”

I clapped my hands together.

“I’m not going to make this a whole thing.”

I smiled.

“Let’s go home.”

—

I didn’t really think about the interaction for the rest of the day.

At least, that’s what I told myself.

I went home.

I put all of my Target stuff away.

I filmed a little bit more for the vlog.

I answered emails.

I ordered food.

I watched half of a show while scrolling on my phone.

Normal stuff.

But every once in a while, I thought about it.

Not in a dramatic way.

I wasn’t sitting there staring out a window listening to sad music.

I would just randomly remember something.

The way Jordan had said hi.

The fact that he still laughed at the same things.

The way we had both told Peyton to shut up at the exact same time.

It was weird how quickly someone could feel familiar again.

I hadn’t really thought about that before.

I had spent so much time thinking about what it would be like to see him again.

I had assumed it would be awful.

Or uncomfortable.

Or that I would suddenly feel all of the things I had spent months not feeling.

But it wasn’t like that.

It was just…

Jordan.

Standing in Target.

Buying snacks and socks.

That was it.

I opened my laptop to start editing the vlog.

When I got to the Target part, I paused.

I watched the footage.

Then I watched it again.

I could cut it out.

I probably should.

I knew what the comments were going to be like.

I knew people would make it a bigger deal than it was.

I knew people would analyze the way we looked at each other.

I knew people would make edits.

But, honestly, it was a funny interaction.

And it happened.

So I left it in.

—

The next morning, I uploaded the video.

I didn’t think anything of it at first.

I went about my day.

Then my phone started going off.

Once.

Twice.

Then constantly.

I picked it up.

The first comment I saw was:

COMMENTS

@jordanupdates: WAIT WAS THAT JORDAN?????

@y/nfan4ever: Y/N RUNNING INTO HER EX AT TARGET IS SO FUNNY TO ME

@internetgirlie: THE WAY THEY’RE BOTH ACTING LIKE THIS IS COMPLETELY NORMAL???

@jordanandyn: “you haven’t changed” “neither have you” HELLO???

@peytongirl: PEYTON LOOKS LIKE HE WANTS TO LEAVE SO BAD 😭

@vlogwatcher: WHY DID THIS FEEL LIKE A SCENE FROM A MOVIE

@literallyjustme: not her going to Target for shampoo and running into her ex boyfriend

@y/nfan: THE CHEMISTRY??? I’M SORRY???

@targetemployee: imagine working at Target and watching this happen in the pillow aisle

@jordanfan22: this is actually so iconic because they seem genuinely fine??

@y/nupdates: THE FACT THAT THEY WERE BOTH LIKE “SHUT UP” TO PEYTON AT THE SAME TIME 😭

@popculturegirl: nobody talk to me

@randomperson: I know this is probably completely normal but I am choosing to make it dramatic

I stared at the screen.

Then I laughed.

People were so dramatic.

It was literally just a conversation in Target.

Then someone clipped it.

Then someone posted the clip on TikTok.

Then someone made an edit.

I found out about that one because my friend sent it to me.

girl?????

I opened it.

It was set to some dramatic song.

The clip started with me turning around.

Then Jordan saying hi.

Then us laughing.

Then the whole “you haven’t changed” thing.

I watched the edit.

I sat there for a second.

Then I locked my phone.

“Absolutely not.”

I put my phone down.

A few seconds later, I picked it back up.

I watched the edit again.

I hated that it was kind of good.

I put my phone down again.

Then it buzzed.

I looked at the screen.

Jordan.

I stared at his name for a second.

Then I opened the message.

Jordan: hey

I looked at it.

Just “hey.”

And for some reason, that one word made the entire Target interaction feel slightly different.

I stared at the screen.

My brain immediately started doing something I really didn’t want it to do.

I remembered the last time he had texted me.

Not the last random text.

The last time he had texted me when we were together.

The way I used to see his name appear on my phone and automatically smile.

The way I used to know what he was going to say before I even opened the message.

The way our conversations had gone from what are you doing? to talking for three hours about absolutely nothing.

I remembered the first time he had texted me after we broke up.

It had been something completely normal.

Something about a mutual friend.

And I had stared at that message for almost ten minutes because I didn’t know what I was supposed to say anymore.

I remembered thinking that it was so strange how someone could go from being the person you texted constantly to someone you had to think about before replying to.

And now there was another message.

Jordan: hey

One word.

Completely harmless.

Probably.

I shouldn’t have smiled.

I did.

I typed back.

Y/N: hey

I stared at the message for a second.

Then I sent it.

The three dots appeared almost immediately.

I watched the screen.