THE HARDEST
THING
"Hello? Hi AJ, how are you?... Yes, I missed you too, what kind of question
is that?... You are? Really? Oh I can't believe it hun!... Okay,
see you in two hours. Love ya. Bye."
Jane sat on the couch, a huge smile on her face, her eyes shining.
"Mom! Mom, AJ's coming back, he'll stay in Orlando for two whole weeks!"
"That's great, Jane! When does he arrive?"
"In about two hours. I'll meet him at his house."
Two hours later, there she was, all the boys were waiting for her. When
AJ opened the door, she flew into his arms, never wanting to let go. But
then she looked at Nick, his eyes showed pain, she could see he was hurt,
something was bothering him. AJ took his bags out of the car and Jane offered
to take them upstairs. Nick offered to help, AJ didn't see anything wrong
with it because Nick was the one who had introduced him to Jane, because
her and Nick knew each other since school, they were classmates.
Nick and Jane got to AJ's room, put the bags on the floor, near the bed.
All of a sudden, he said, "There's something that I've always wanted to
do". He kissed her with all the passion he had been hiding for so long.
Nick expected her to get away, but was surprised to see that she was kissing
him back. When she realized what she was doing, she stopped, all of a sudden.
"No, Nick, I can't. And I can't let AJ know about this. Please, promise
he won't know."
"Okay, but I want to spend a day alone with you, just to clear things up.
My last wish before letting you go."
"I guess that's fine."
They pretended that nothing had ever happened. The next day, AJ asked her
to go out with him, but she said she couldn't because she was going to
the mall with a friend, but didn't say who. He was okay with it, AJ never
imagined that the friend was Nick.
Instead of the mall, Nick and Jane went to a park, just walking around,
seeing the flowers, the trees, the chisdren playing around.
She knew that she couldn't just forget what Nick meant to her, and neither
could she leave AJ. She didn't want to hurt either of them, but she knew
it would be impossible. She had all planned.
Jane and Nick were at the park. He stopped and kissed her. She returned
the kiss then looked into his baby blue eyes, making sure not to break
down and cry in front of him.
"Nick, I can't do this. I can't make a fool of you anymore. I don't know
why I did this, but I shouldn't. I don't love you, never have, never will.
I'm sorry. Just do me a favor, when I'm gone, listen to this tape and you'll
understand. But don't do anything after you listen to it."
She walked away, knowing this was surely the hardest thing she had ever
done. Then she headed to AJ's house and left a letter to him... nobody
ever heard of her again.
The next day, AJ found the letter and tears fell from his eyes as he read
it:
"Dear AJ,
I'm sorry I couldn't do this facing you. I wouldn't be able to look you
in the eyes and contain myself, I'd cry harder and harder, I didn't want
to leave you ust like this. I never meant to hurt you, and I guess that
I should just go away before you convinced me to stay. I fell in love for
another guy, I didn't want to, but I think it was inside of me for a long
time and I sinply didn't want to admit it. I'm not with him if that makes
you feel better. I'll start a nwe life, without the two of you.
Love, Jane"
And at the same time, there was Nick, listening again and again to the
tape Jane had given him. "The Hardest Thing" by 98°, playing time after
time, showing that he was the one she cared about, he understood that it
was difficult to her, he knew that it was more than the hardest thing that
she had ever done, it was hard for him too. Hard to let the one he loved
go away without explanation. Just the hardest thing...