My assignment from Ally.

“I’m done!” I yelled. “I don’t want to deal with this anymore,” I added before storming out of the house.

I hated him. I was seriously done this time. I didn’t want to deal with any of this, this relationship stuff. It wasn’t for me. I wasn’t made for relationships. I’m just good at giving relationship advice. Who said I had to be in a relationship? They’re complete crap if you ask me. I mean, sure they were fun. The kissing, the holding hands, the cuddling, it was nice. But the fun could only last so long, eventually they wanted more and I wasn’t willing to give it to them. I don’t get attached. I don’t care. This is why my relationships rarely lasted beyond two months. Other than the fact that I also got bored.

I was out of his neighborhood now. My feet leading me to a place I didn’t know. If I was honest with myself I had no idea what I was doing. I was too far from my house to actually consider walking home. I didn’t want to go back and say “Hey, I hate you, we’re over but can you take me home?” I had too much pride for that. I was also too stubborn. He would gladly give me the ride home if I asked but the entire time I’d hear pleas about how we should be together. How we were right for each other. That he needed me. I know his argument. He wasn’t going to talk him way into getting me to stay this time.

I found myself in a park. The sun was almost completely set and there was a baseball game going on. I walked over to a field behind the diamond so I could observe. I smiled as I watched the kids, who were no older than nine, play. It made me miss when I played baseball with my brother on his little league team.

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out without really thinking about it.

“Come back, please?” it was from him.

I turned my phone off and put it back in my pocket. I didn’t want to deal with him. I left for a reason. What made him think a simple text would get me to come back? I hoped he knew me better than that.

I lay on my back, staring at the now night sky. I was done. I was out. I was free. I couldn’t tell for sure if I was happy about this or not. I figured I just wasn’t used to it. I’ve never had a relationship last eleven months. I was a different experience for me. I wasn’t used to being free. I just need to readjust. I’d be better by tomorrow.

“Nicole,” a small voice said to my right.

I was up like a firecracker. I almost snapped my neck from how fast I turned it to look at him.

“What do you want?” I asked. My voice controlled in the sense that I wasn’t yelling and screaming at him.

“To make sure you were okay,” he said.

“I’m fine, obviously. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself,” I said, venomously.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what? Ending this? Because I want to!” I all but screamed at him. “I’m not a relationship person. I don’t do them and I don’t do well in them. I honestly have no idea how you managed to get me to stay in this for eleven months but I’m fricking done. I don’t want to deal with this relationship crap anymore.”

“This is all just crap to you? Does it matter that in those eleven months that you consider crap that you’ve turned me into a better person?” he asked, his voice was low.

“It matters. You don’t need me to be your girlfriend to stay that better person though. It’s not like once you lose me you go back to being the horrible person you thought you were.”

He was looking at the ground, refusing to meet my eye. This wasn’t good. I’m hurting him, something I’ve all but pinky promised I wouldn’t do.

“If that’s what you want. You want this?”

“Yes,” I said, my voice was barely above a whisper now.

I couldn’t believe it. He was going to actually let me go.

“You want me to walk away, get back in my truck, leave and never look back?”

The “yes” was right on the tip of my tongue. But everything changed. I pictured him leaving, without me, never to come back and my stomach clenched. My breathing got caught in my throat. My chest was tight. Whatever this feeling was, I didn’t like it.

“No,” I said before I even thought about it.

He looked up at me, his beautiful green eyes piercing my plain brown eyes.

“I want you to kiss me,” I said.

He didn’t even hesitate. In two steps he was in front of me, grabbing my face, pulling me into a kiss that almost knocked me off my feet.

I may not be a relationship person, but wherever I went, whatever I did, however I felt, it always led back to him.

And there was nothing I could do to stop it.