The drive home was surprisingly quiet for JC and Jen, not that JC minded. It had been a long day, he wanted to get home and go to bed. They hadn’t planned on staying that long, but he wanted to stay as long as Jenna was there, keeping an eye on her.

He’d been caught off guard by what she’d worn for the night, pleasantly surprised. Jenna didn’t seem confident all the time, and tonight she shone bright.  There was a light in her he hadn’t seen before, but it suited her well.

He pulled the Jeep up to the house, letting Jen into the house before he closed the door behind him.

“Did you have fun tonight?” Jen asked.

“Yeah. It’s fun to see Lance and Michael, get out, dance with you, have some fun. I’m sure pictures will be everywhere tomorrow if they aren’t already…”

“Jenna wasn’t what I pictured,” Jen admitted. “I’m glad I got to meet her.”

“Did you have fun tonight?” JC wondered. 

“I did.  But for now, I want you to make me feel beautiful, needed.”

“Yeah?” he asked with a grin.

“Make love to me, Josh.  Like it’s the last time you’ll see me…”

…

JC tenderly kissed her lips.  “I love you, Jen.”

Jen looked him right in the eyes.  “I’m breaking up with you.”

JC’s jaw dropped.  “We just had sex, and you’re breaking up with me?!  What’s going on?  Is there someone else?  Oh god, there’s someone else…” he began to panic.

“There is, but it’s not me.  You’re in love with Jenna.”

“Jen, no, that’s not what this is…  She likes us together.  I like us together…”

“She could’ve picked a better song to sing at karaoke.  The timing of it all was too coincidental.”

“You know Ari sampled us on that song, I sang part of it at Coachella when we first came on.”

“That’s what she said. She tried to say it’s a song she’s done before and I’m reading too much into it.”

“You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.”

“I also saw how comfortable you looked with her dancing out on the floor tonight, then I saw the moment you two had after everything closed down.  You haven’t looked at me like that in a long time, Josh…”

“I love you, Jen, and we just had sex.  What do you mean?”

“You need to explore your feelings for Jenna.  I’m gonna grab my stuff this weekend, give you some space.  If you really mean that you don’t have feelings for her, then we’ll pick up where we left off.  If I don’t hear from you, at least I have one hell of a goodbye memory.”

“Jen, stop.  You’re not thinking.”

“You hid seeing her from me.  Why?”

JC sighed.  “I knew how you felt after I hurt her feelings.  You wanted me to be done with it, to be done with her.  I couldn’t.  She had another seizure, because of me, what I said.  Even if nothing had happened to her, I would’ve still wanted to see her.  But I knew I had to see her again, even if she was asleep, which she was.  I knew her situation wasn’t the greatest, so I did what I could to help her.  I’m paying whatever her insurance won’t cover, though now that she’s working that might change a bit.  I knew you wouldn’t be ok with any of that for a random person I came upon.”

“Wrong, Josh.  You’re an incredibly kind and generous person.  If you had told me, I would have understood.  But instead you hid it, and are refusing to see that you have feelings for her.”

“I admit, I’ve been feeling in a rut, but that’s just in general, not with us.  I mean, we do what we can to change things up, but I guess I was feeling in a rut with us.  That wasn’t the only thing bothering me though.  That’s why I took off on my birthday, I was in a rut and not really wanting to celebrate my birthday.  Justin found me, and told me I needed to talk to Jenna.  I went over, we watched TV, and we fell asleep on her couch, then I took her to bed…”

“I don’t need to know, Josh.”

“No, you do.  I laid on her bed until she fell asleep, falling asleep myself in the process. Nothing sexual happened. I didn’t even wake up turned on.  It’s not that she means nothing to me, but you’ve been my world for so long…”

“As the world turns, so they say,” she sighed. “All I know is that you hid seeing her, paying for her care, and I saw the way you looked at each other. There’s something there, whether either of you want it or not.  Explore your feelings for her, and I hope you’ll come back to me.”

“Jen, don’t leave. You don’t have to do this. You know I love you.”

“You’ve been pulling away from me, JC, admit it.”

“You never call me JC.”

“I am now,” she sighed. 

“What about Bronson?” JC asked. 

“If you want him, keep him.”

“Jen, you don’t…”

“Yes, I do. You need to see if there’s still anything there between us.”

“We just had sex, that didn’t prove anything?”

“If I were to have done this before having sex, would you be able to?”

“I’d probably try even harder,” JC answered honestly.  “I can’t lose you.”

“The fact that you’d try harder to not lose me speaks volumes compared to trying harder just because you love me.”

“Jen…”

Jen got up from the bed, pulling her clothes back on, pulling clothes out of a drawer and grabbing a suitcase from the closet. He watched her, unable to move.  His mind told him to move, but his body had given up. He knew if he tried to stop her, it would make things worse.

She walked to the bedroom door, turning to look at him. “Goodbye, JC.  I hope you call me, but best of luck if you don’t.”

He sat there, naked and surprised by what had unfolded just then. He felt like things were crashing down around him. He slowly got up, pulling on his underwear and jeans, grabbing his phone. 

Please be awake, he pleaded as he began the call. It rang three times before it picked up. 

“C, do you have ANY idea what time it is?!”

“Jen just left me.”

“Left you?”

“Left me. Packed up her clothes and left, Justin.”

“Fuck.  Ummm, lemme get dressed and I’ll be right over.  You gonna call Lance?”

“I was with him all night, I’m sure he’s tired. I’m exhausted, but my brain won’t shut off…”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can. If you need to drink, wait for me. Pour one for me and we’ll start together.  I got you, C.”

“I know, T.  Thanks.”

JC put on a shirt, walking slowly through the house.  He noticed certain things were missing, Jen grabbing them on her way out. It wasn’t everything, not even all her clothes, but enough that he noticed she meant business.  The best he could hope for in the morning was being so drunk he’d sleep like the dead for the next 12 hours. He then realized that meant waking up to even more of her things gone, his guts churning at the thought. 

He made his way to his liquor cabinet, grabbing his bottles of scotch and whiskey. He’d need plenty of both to get him through talking this over. He got two glasses, eyeing them, figuring out whether to pace himself or just fuck it and pour a full glass. He opted for the latter. He was starting to pour the second glass when he heard Justin walk into the room. 

“Starting with whiskey, huh? It’s gonna be a long night,” Justin sighed. 

JC looked at his watch. “Fuck, it’s 4am. I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“No, you’re fine.”

“Did I interrupt… anything?”

“I wouldn’t have answered my phone, C.  We’re good. I brought something just in case,” Justin said, pulling out a bottle of tequila.  He grabbed two shot glasses, pouring one for each of them. 

JC took the shot glass, looking at Justin. “Not sure what we could toast to…”

“To friendship. Next year will be 30 years since we met, C.  Not a lot of people have friends like that, not that are as strong as this.”

“To friendship,” JC said, clinking glasses before knocking back the shot.

Justin took the large glass of whiskey, JC grabbing his, along with the bottle, and sitting down on the couch. 

Justin tipped his whiskey towards JC.  “To your health, happy belated birthday.”  Justin took a sip, watching JC drain his glass in one go. “Oh, ok… that kinda night. Well, I mean, if she left… that makes sense. What did she say? Is there someone else?”

“Yeah, Jenna,” JC sighed. 

“Jen dumped you for Jenna? Did NOT see that coming…”

“No, Jen thinks I’m in love with her.  Told me I need to figure things out.”

“What made her think that?”

“Well, hiding the fact that I saw her the night of my birthday, fell asleep on her couch, then laid next to her on her bed.  I’m paying any medical bills, we’ve been having pizza and binge watching Friends… Then there’s her job.”

“How did she find out?”

“We were at Rocco’s and Heart with Jenna and her best friend, and it came up in conversation. I didn’t tell Jenna I was hiding things from Jen, so she figured it was common knowledge. She sang that Ariana song where she sampled It Makes Me Ill, she was in this sexy short jumpsuit thing covered with fringe.  Jenna had a confidence I'd never seen before.  Then we got over to Heart, I asked her to dance, right as they started playing that new song you’re on, great job by the way.  It felt good dancing with her, she looked and smelled incredible, there was a light in her eyes… Then after the bar closed, we sat at a table, and Michael told me I should slow dance with her. I held her close, and there was this moment.  I didn’t want to let her go.”

“C, sounds like you love her to me… more than that.”

“What?”

“I couldn’t help but notice you’re… well…”

“What?”

“How do I say this gently? You’re hard as fuck, C, I can see it in your jeans.  You love her, you wanna bang her.  Were you like this at the club?”

“Yeah, but I was dancing with Jen, kissing…”

“She was trying to show Jenna you’re hers.”

“She left me, Justin.”

“I agree with Jen.  You love her, and you need to explore things.”

“I don’t, I love Jen. I always will. I don’t feel that way towards Jenna.”

“You’re paying her medical bills, you hid seeing her from Jen… You used ME to get her a job at Silas’s school.  You’re either in love with her, or have blown brain cells and are going crazy over a random stranger…”

“I just want her to be taken care of.  I couldn’t handle the guilt knowing I’d caused her second seizure, I need to make sure she’ll be ok. “

“It’s like you’re obsessed with her, C.”

“I’m not.  I only see her once a week.”

“Do you text every day?”

“Not much, she’s busy with work.”

“JC, just admit you’re in love with her and get it over with already!”

“I’m not in love with her.  I broke her heart once telling her that, I can’t imagine doing that again.”

“You care how she feels.  Sounds like love to me.”

“It’s called being a friend, not an asshole.”

“Well, I’m done talking.  This was short and I’m ready to go home.”

“Justin, I can’t be here when Jen comes back for her stuff.”

“I had just the shot and a couple sips of whiskey.  I’m taking this in a different cup so I’m not just dumping it.  I know you brought out the good shit, I have more respect for my liquor than that.  Come stay at my place tonight, take one of the guest rooms.  Are you gonna tell Jenna?”

“No, cuz there’s nothing there.  Well, not NOTHING, but I’m just protective of her right now.  She’d think it’s her fault.”

“Because it IS, cuz you looooove her…”

“I’m gonna smack the shit out of you once I get to your house.”

“Maybe I deserve it, but there’s bound to be more to this.  I’m gonna have Lance and Michael come over tomorrow, we’ll hash this out with people that were there.  Jess would love to see the twins.”

“So she’s gonna have 4 kids by herself while we all talk?  That sounds fair…” JC said sarcastically.

“Silas is capable of helping.  He’s really good with Phin, it’ll be fine.  If she needs me she can grab me so you can chat with Lance and Michael.  Grab a change of clothes and let’s get back to my place, I’m exhausted.”

JC went back upstairs, trying not to think about everything being gone once he came back, that Jen was really gone.  He hoped in a week’s time or so, she’d be back in the house and things would go back to normal.