mosaic broken hearts;;

❝ No, I said ‘allo’, but that’s close enough. ❞ 

Jax laughed, “’Allo? What the fuck is that supposed to be? Aloe vera! In America we say ‘sup’, bro. You should know, you been here long enough.” He knew Gabe always used his accent to pick up girls, and who could blame him? Girls loved accents, but it didn’t mean Jax would let him. “C’mon mate, let’s go get a pint - or a whole gallon, ‘kay?”

❝ No one can blame you for walking away. ❞ 

It was like a final blow, and she was surprised that she doubted it was the last one from him. Gabe always seemed to know where to hit her the hardest, and she turned from him, tears coming down her cheeks in heavy ribbons, her makeup smearing and she bit out a pained noise. “Stop,” she said feebly, not wanting to hear it. She didn’t think badly of him - she couldn’t. To her, their relationship was just bad timing. She had wanted a lot: she wanted kids, order, and essentially the life her parents had had when she was growing up and he had been nineteen and in college. Gabe hadn’t been ready for Annie, and she had known that when they dated and never doubted it. “I had to leave Gabe, and I know you don’t - that you can’t understand.” Brushing her sleeve along her cheeks, she looked at him. “I couldn’t do it anymore. I tried and I tried to not be bothered by no labels, and you with Brandy, but...” Shaking her head, she let out a breath, “I’m so sorry.”

❝ It’s very rude to stare! ❞ 

Dawson gave her a lopsided grin, pulling her in between his legs, kissing her face. “Is it really, wasn’t aware. I never really got that Southern charm thing,” he teased. “But I’m only admiring your Unicorn Snuggie, Chlo. The rainbow bits really brings out the blue color in your eyes, highlights your hair.” He kissed her lips, tugging her into her bed with him, trying not to laugh at her. She looked so cute, he couldn’t even help it. “C’mon, lets watch that show you love so much.”

❝ I do believe in you. ❞ 

Mason let out a heavy breath, looking at his apartment. It was disgustingly covered in beer cans and he knew Annie would have a stroke if she ever saw the state of this place. “Do you really?” He asked Marley slowly, “bit of a leap of faith, don’t you think?” He ran a hand down his face, shaking his head. “What are you even doing here, Marles? You should be out dancing with that tour, not here. Especially not here with me. You should be doing your dream, you have your chance. Why are you throwing this away?”

 “Got a long list of ex-lovers, they’ll tell you I’m insane.”

Jax quirked an eyebrow, not even pretending to be surprised. She was insane, but if she was a lunatic, what was he even for loving her? Being with her was like venturing into Wonderland. Everything he once knew wasn’t true anymore with her, it was all backwards and a chaotic mess of fighting, screaming, petty revenge schemes and yet Jax found himself loving it. He loved fighting and revenge, he loved it even more when they made up and never held back with one another. “I don’t care ‘bout them,” he growled, shoving her onto the bed, “I’m sure they couldn’t handle your bullshit - no one can.” He began unclasping her bra, his lips kneading one spot on her neck incessantly and she’d have a hickey soon if she didn’t stop - something he was sure she’d be pissed about because no leotard would hide his mark. “And if you keep talking about them, I certainly won’t help you forget about them,” he whispered into her ear.

“All you had to do was stay.” 

Tears sprung into Minnie’s eyes. She’d been a coward, unable to handle this new life of her’s. This wasn’t supposed to be her life, and she still couldn’t accept the turn in the road that happened a little over a year ago when she crawled into bed with Trey. Minnie was supposed to be in Columbia getting her writing degree. She was supposed to travel the world, report on things and maybe quit her job and use the money to travel and write about things in a book or a blog - instead, she’d gotten pregnant and made a hard choice: either abort, or decide what to do with the child. Minnie couldn’t give up Noelle, but she tried. She wasn’t fit to be a mother. She was too selfish, too afraid and young, and she was too sad to do it. Looking at Trey, her heart was somewhere in the soles of her shoes and she looked away, tears falling down her face in ribbons. “I know,” she whispered, sniffling. “I messed up. I shouldn’t have done it - I couldn’t stay. I don’t want to stay.” Minnie didn’t bother whipping her face, she didn’t care if she looked like an emotional wreck with red eyes and smearing makeup, all she cared about was if she could even go back to being Noelle’s mother or if she’d truly lost her daughter for good. “I can’t leave her - I want to. She needs a better mother, a better family.” Minnie let out a sob, “I can’t forgive myself no matter what I do, she’s going to be ruined by us and I hate it!”

“You ended it.” 

Annie turned from him, her heart aching from the pain of his voice and the frown on his face. She looked at her hands, trying to focus on something so she wouldn’t cry. She couldn’t cry about this to him, especially when he never understood why they had ended up in shambles. Gabe had taken her words at face value and accepted her forced smiles when she had been around him and Brandy, and Annie had always wished she could be different. If she’d been selfish (if you could even call it that), maybe she could have told Gabe how she felt about the pain she’d get at the end of a date when she knew that after she shut the door he’d be going to Brandy’s bed. Maybe if she told him that there had been times when she cried herself to sleep because she knew loving him hurt more than losing him he’d have understood why she handed him a box full of his things and said goodbye. But he was Gabe, and he was oblivious and she was Annie, and she was too kind to assert herself and fight for love, because before this, she never knew love could be a deadly battle. “I did end it,” she agreed in a quiet voice, “and you have Brandy. In the end, it all works out for everyone.”

“I wish you would come back.” 

If she said she hadn’t thought about San Fransisco since she left, she’d be lying. She couldn’t forget the life she made in that city, anymore than she could run from the ghosts she made over the past few years. New York was her fresh start. It hadn’t been hard for Molly to convince her to move there with her. Molly wanted to be an artist, and while Annie had been content with being a music teacher, she knew she needed a change. In the past two years that’s what her life had been: a new look, a new sound, and then when things ended with John she’d done the one thing she swore up and down she could never do: cut her long, blonde hair. Going back meant facing things she didn’t want to: where she lost her virginity, where she learned love was a sticky game, where she learned about the unexpected people having your back as well as being the ones to unapologetically stab you and act like they were the ones bleeding out. But here he was, standing in the hallway of her new apartment, infringing in her new life to remind her that she couldn’t run from her ghosts forever and she frowned, looking at the hardwood floor. “I can’t. I have my life here, and I’m sorry that you came out here to hear this. I never do anything for me, Gabe, but I need this. I need a new start, and...” She swallowed thickly, “You’ll all be fine without me, anyway. You survived before you met me, and you’ll do the same afterwards.”

“Still got scars on my back from your knife.” 

Marisol rolled her eyes. Lila was so dramatic, and crossing her arms over her chest, she smirked up at the taller girl. “Funny, I don’t recall us ever being friends. In fact, I remember that it was you who began this whole thing when you found out Jax and I fucked long before we ever met you. But can you really blame him for doing what he’s doing, Lila? Isn’t it you who dumped him, and for what again? Oh yeah, Daddy’s money.” Marisol’s eyes were twinkling and she circled Lila, “seems to me like I’m not the whore in this situation, you are. Don’t be too jealous, babe, I’m sure with all that money you could buy something to strap on Frank that’s as big as Jax.”

“I want you for worse or for better.” 

Dawson had opened the door, still in his pajamas, surprised to look down and see Chloe standing there. Ever since Georgia Rose had come she’d driven a wedge between him and Chloe, and he couldn’t even be angry at the girl. He’d left as a married man and she’d deserved answers, as did Chloe. The problem was that Chloe hadn’t wanted to hear him out and shut him out, a Robert’s family trait he decided. Looking down at her, realizing she was ready to hear him out he picked her up by the waist, spinning her and kissing her lips sloppily. “I promise to tell you everything, and I promise I was telling you the truth: I’d never hurt you Chloe. I want you, and no one else but you!”

“Baby, I know places we won’t be found.”

Ariana’s face reddened and her fists clenched with anger. She was reduced to someone’s dirty secret and it made her sick to her stomach. Ariana was a lot of things, and proud was one of them. Sure, she didn’t want the school to know she liked Max, partially because she was a girl, but mostly because she was a girl who acted more like a disgusting pig of a boy with her sloppy hair and smelly gym bag - it would have been an embarrassment more on her end than on Max’s, yet who was the one proposing they should run around like two thieves in the night? Max. The one with no reputation to lose. “Honestly, screw this. I kissed you because I wanted to know if it was true about you being a lesbian, and turns out the rumors are true. I don’t like you, I just want what’s rightfully mine, so congratulations, you played yourself. Now stay away from me and my rink and leave me the fuck alone.

“The best people in life are free.”