Better Off

Disclaimer:
I know it's sappy. Don't make fun of me, OK.

Jordan walked quietly over to Rider and sat down.

“So what are you going to do?”

Ryder took a heavy breath, “move on, I guess.”

“You’re giving up? So her dads not that crazy about you, that doesn’t mean it’s over!”

“I don’t know, Jordan. I mean, maybe he’s right.” There was a pause as Ryder stared at the wall across the room. He looked like he was summoning up his courage, and it scared Jordan. He wasn’t sure if he had ever seen Ryder have to gather up courage before. He usually had it in surplus.

Finally, Ryder spoke again, “She’s… fragile. Not weak, just fragile, and I don’t want her to get hurt. I guess that I thought that I could help, like protect her or something, but…” He sighed. “Look. I’m not stupid. I’ve noticed the way you’ve been watching me when I’m with her, keeping an eye on me so I don’t do something stupid. So I don’t act like the jerk I am. And I don’t blame you. That was probably the right thing to do.

“I’m not as… careful, with people, as most people are. Probably not as careful as I should be. I guess I always figured that, if people got upset, it was their thing, you know, as long as I didn’t mean to mess them up. I just kind of did my own thing, just as long as I wasn’t really breaking the law or being too stupid. Actually, I guess I did that type of thing a few times too, but, you know, I wasn’t stealing cars or anything, so I guess I thought I was good. I never really realized why people are always so worried about maybe hurting people till I met her. She’s so…good. I mean like, nice and stuff, she deserves for people to be nice to her, to not mess her up. I wanted to be nice to her. But I’m so not used to acting like that, to being so careful and everything. I was just so scared that I’d slip up one day.

“I don’t want her to get hurt. Ever. I guess that’s not possible, but if she has to get hurt, I don’t want to be the one that hurt her. So, whether or not her dad did it because of that or not, he did the right thing. I don’t know if I could have done it on my own or I might have already, so it’s a good thing he did. Before it was too late, and we split up anyway.”

There was a hot, uncomfortable silence. Now it was Jordan’s turn to take a deep breath. “What about her?...”

Ryder sniffed. “Are you kidding? She’ll be fine. No, she’ll be great. I mean, you know her. She’s amazing. She’ll find someone else in no time, someone who can really treat her like she deserves, and she’ll move on. And forget all about me. She’ll be great.”