Page 12 of Rules for Rule Breaking
There was a nagging voice in the back of his head telling him he’d handled the night entirely wrong. It wasn’t lost on him that the voice sounded a lot like Winter Park. He finally gave in to its taunting and texted Jacqueline Charlotte Turner.
Bobby:Hey, Jack. What was that earlier?
He saw the three bouncing dots of death appear and then go away. His breath caught when they reappeared, but then they were gone again. He shook his head at his impatience. He then slid downthe bottom of his bed onto the floor and flicked his PlayStation on so he could therapy-play Mortal Kombat.
After nearly an hour of this, Jacqueline finally replied.
Jacqueline:I’m sorry. I was just tired and maybe slightly inebriated.
Are we still dating?Bobby typed out, then erased.
Bobby:Are we okay?
Jacqueline:Where is this line of questioning coming from?
Bobby:Could you answer me, please?
She replied instantly.
Jacqueline:Bobby, I really like you but...
Bobby started to sweat. Who ended a text message on a “but”? The bouncing dots were taunting him. He gripped his phone tightly and didn’t even care that he was losing his game, which was still playing in the background. It offered a nice upbeat soundtrack to his impending heartbreak.
Jacqueline:I don’t think we have a single thing in common anymore.
Bobby and Jacqueline originally belonged to a bigger group offriends when they were in junior high, but friendship at that age when everyone is discovering themselves and building their personalities is strange. You would go away for winter break or summer vacation one year, and when you came back, it was a toss-up whether you would resume those friendships or never speak to one another again. A few cycles of this happened until Bobby and Jacqueline were the only two left. They sat next to each other in math class, and Bobby would hold the door open for her every single day and walk her to her next class even though his was in the opposite wing. In sophomore year of high school, she asked him out, and they’d been together ever since.
Although he didn’t want to, Bobby couldn’t help but agree. They really didn’t have anything in common. They probably never had. She’d spent her evening at a party, and he’d spent his at a senior center. Still, that didn’t mean they couldn’t be together. At least to him.
Bobby:So you have been avoiding me.
Jacqueline:I don’t think that accurately depicts the situation.
Jacqueline:And why didn’t you make these feelings known earlier? We just saw each other. That’s the problem with you, Bobby. You indebt people to you by acting so nice, like everything is perfect all the time. I’ve been trying to get you to argue with me for months, and this is the first time you’ve said anything at all.
Bobby:You’ve been mistreating me on purpose to see what I’d do? That’s cruel, Jack.
Jacqueline:Look how long it took you to say something. Honestly, I thought things would fizzle out and we wouldn’t have to suffer a formal breakup.
Sitting on the floor made his back ache, but Bobby was rooted to the spot. He considered requesting a probationary period so she could reassess the relationship and revisit the conversation at a later time, but Jacqueline was probably still drunk and wouldn’t care. A million terrible things to say raced through his head. He wanted to say all of them to Jacqueline Charlotte Turner, but what he settled on was:
Bobby:Thank you for letting me know. Enjoy your summer.
That was brief,he thought to himself. He’d never been broken up with before, but that seemed excruciatingly short-winded. Most breakups were novels, but this one was a tweet.
He untucked the sheets and blanket from the bottom of his bed and crawled into the center, where he settled into a little ball and cried. He didn’t like to admit it, and people rarely saw it, but it didn’t take very much to get a tear or two out of Bobby Bae. A birthday card was enough, as was any video online that had to do with injured animals or people reuniting after having been separated for almost any reason, and he could no longer watch singing competition shows because the sob stories of the contestants made him dojust that. Most embarrassingly, he couldn’t watchStar Warswithout breaking into a full-out ugly cry every time Luke looked out over the Tatooine desert at the two suns with his theme song playing in the background. As soon as the horns dropped out and the string section swelled, Bobby Bae would completely lose it.
Bobby stayed like that for a little while, wiping his tears with the back of his hand. He opened up his phone and looked at his text exchange with Jacqueline.She’s kind of an asshole,Bobby thought.Who breaks up with someone over text?
He kicked off his blanket and looked at his awards wall. He always wanted to be the best at everything, and that included being the best boyfriend. And Jacqueline had seemed to genuinely like him—at least at first. She could be pushy at times, but she was one of the smartest people he knew. They made sense together. They looked great together in the yearbook.
Bobby smacked himself internally for being so boringly superficial. He wasn’t even sure that he had ever liked her back. Maybehewas the asshole.
“Bae Dae-seong, Bae Dae-seong, Bae Dae-seong. Robert Dae-seong Bae Jr.,” he whispered to himself, thankful that another wave of what hit him earlier didn’t get him again. “You need to stop pretending you’re good, Bobby Bae.”
He covered himself back up, and before he went to sleep, he sent one more text. To Winter this time.
Bobby:Jacqueline and I broke up. If you still want to break some rules, I’m in.
