Chapter 48

Jason's pov :
Patience was evaporating from me, "why the fuck you still want to compare yourself with George? It's your false belief, nothing else! George didn't hide anything, he just tried to assure us that he was okay."
"George didn't hide that he was in a relationship, and he didn't simply follow whatever a girl ordered him to do. If you want to compare, let me compare everything! Your girlfriend was staring at us like we were the reason behind her insecurities. She is an insecure kid who doesn't want anyone to know about her relationship because she is scared of the mess which a relationship includes beneath it. You know what, you both are a match made in heaven. You both are childish, insecure, and filled with narcissism," Theo just messed up everything.
Alex started laughing sarcastically, "so finally you accept that in your mind, I'm an immature kid. Maybe God has given me what I deserved, I don't want to live with the burden of this friendship anymore where I'm nothing," he took two steps back, and smirked. His squinted eyes and clenched jaw were replaced with the smirk and he just walked away.
"You can never recognize your value in others' lives unless you want to decide your worth by yourself," George yelled with so much rage in his eyes.
"If he doesn't want to listen to us, why are you yelling, George?" I sighed and placed my hands on my head.
Theo patted my shoulders, "it's over, Jay! And I'm feeling so ridiculous to announce that A GIRL WAS THE REASON BEHIND THIS MESS AND THE BREAK UP OF OUR FRIENDSHIP, ALEX!" He screamed over his lungs but Alex didn't turn, he kept walking away, away from us, away from the friendship, away from everyone and everything.
"I sacrificed my feelings for this friendship but in the end, I still couldn't save it," the tears welled up in his eyes.
I couldn't decipher the meaning of his words, "what are you trying to say, Theo?"
He instantly vanished that look, "I don't want the girls to know about this mess, let's keep everything amid us! Just tell them that we aren't friends anymore!"
George protested, "why aren't we friends anymore? Alex left us, we are still friends, right?"
I knew what Theo was trying to say, either it's all or none!
"We have lost our friendship. If we'll be friends, Alex will always feel that he was right, he didn't matter," Theo explained.
"No! It was his choice, what's my fault? I still want you guys in my life, I can't live without this friendship. How can a human be alive without air?"
Men aren't allowed to cry but when someone snatches your life from you, all the courage disappears and the water flows from your eyes like a waterfall.
George was crying like a baby, "I don't want this, I hate Alex."
"You can't hate your friend, George! You just can't," Theo hid his pain and consoled him.
"Why? Tell me, who is wrong? We or he? How could he do this?" George wiped his face and looked at me expecting an answer.
I wasn't in a condition to say anything, it was hard for me to swallow that we were separating like that.
Though I tried, "we can't leave him alone and still be 'we'. If we would think like this, that means he was right, we treated him wrong so he had to leave us and it didn't affect us. I know he is wrong but somewhere we have also made mistakes. That's why he is feeling like that."
George put his hands on his head, "what the fuck! If he didn't trust us, he hid his thoughts and feelings and almost everything from us. How could it be our mistake?"
I looked at Theo, he gave me an apologetic look which I returned to him. George wasn't getting what we were feeling.
"George, you have to understand one thing. If someone is trying to hide something from you it means either they don't trust you or they are too hurt to trust again. Sometimes the reason can be different because sometimes you hide to let others live in relief that you are okay but the truth is that it doesn't even matter if you are okay or not, you care for them to hurt them by the truth. For you, the situation was different so we weren't mad at you. But Alex hid it because he didn't trust us to tell the truth, maybe he doubted if we could understand him or not," Theo tried to explain what I was thinking.
"I'm feeling guilty that he couldn't believe us. When he asked us to leave him alone, maybe we shouldn't have done that," I recalled the memory of his parent's divorce.
George grumbled, "but he said that he wanted to live alone for some time. And when he came back, he was alright, he wasn't behaving like he was hurt by that incident."
"That's the point, George! That's the thing where we were wrong, he was acting like he was okay but he wasn't, he behaved like a clown and we felt he was alright. We thought if we would talk to him about that incident, he would feel hurt but he had so many things in his heart so he wanted to open up and share it," Theo again spoke my mind.
Each word of Theo was making sense to me, I wanted to call Alex and clear all the stuff between us but my heart said it was too late, he was already gone.
"It's confusing, Theo! I'm getting all the things you are saying but I'm not on the side of separation. Just because of his misunderstanding, why are we breaking up our friendship?" George again complained about the situation.
"I'm exhausted with the explanation and attempting to handle everything. I just can't, I need a break. I also need to think about my stuff, for this friendship, I've given up on that thing which is so precious for me in the world. I have to figure it out soon otherwise, it'll be too late and I'll have one more regret," Theo mumbled and tilted his head towards the sky and left the spot.
Everyone had their reasons to leave, I couldn't stop anyone. Maybe maturity is costing us our friendship, our life needs our attention on other things, we want to add value to this bond, and perhaps this break will make everyone realize the importance of our friends in our lives.
After all, hope is the second name of life.
"George, sometimes time demands us to do the things which we don't like but one day, we'll understand that that time taught us an important lesson of our life." I hugged George for maybe the last time.
He patted my back, "you guys are more mature than me. I'm like a kid who badly wants a candy on which his heart is stuck but that kid doesn't know that too many candies will make him suffer from cavities," he giggled and pulled me away from the hug.
"We can't afford that candy for now but one day, we will get that candy, right?" I didn't know what would happen in the future but I wanted the same candy as him.
He stopped laughing, "hope so…, let's go to our girls and give them a better excuse to forget whatever occurred here! I'm sure they will be tensed over this issue,"
I just forgot about Lia and Fiona, how will they react when they know that we are not friends anymore? I'm sure they will try to reunite us but all the attempts will be in vain because everyone wants to move on in life, no one wants to get stuck somewhere.
Four friends were walking in different four directions, everyone's path was different and everyone's destination was also different.
George was walking ahead, and I was following his way. We were hiding our pain by hiding our faces, and I didn't want to see his awful face.
When we entered the cafe, Lia and Fiona were ordering their next coffee. My eyes met Lia's, she gave me a genuine smile.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting!" I looked at two empty mugs, "too much caffeine is not good for your health, right? I didn't expect this from the future doctor," I grinned.
She signalled me to take a seat so I followed her order.
There was a thunder building inside me, I didn't know what I was doing, and why I was doing that, all I knew was I had to hide that thunder otherwise, its explosion would make me lose everything.
"Where are Theo, Alex and his date?" Fiona asked the easiest question but it seemed the most difficult question on this planet.
George looked at me, I closed my eyes and again opened them while smiling, "We'll talk about them later, we are hungry and we need to eat something." George made up an excuse.
I immediately accosted, "there is no need to hide anything because eventually, everyone will get to know the truth."
"What happened, Jay? You are scaring me, please, don't create suspense and tell us whatever you are hiding," Lia asked me in a silvery voice.
Truth can not be hidden for a long time so I chose the truth over false hope.
"Don't ask why and how! Simply just get it straight in your head that we are not friends anymore. George and I are here for our girls, not as friends. However it happened, it doesn't matter. It's a mess now and no one is interested in solving this so it'll be better if we keep our relationship separate from our former friendship. I don't want any discussion further," I announced in a clear and low voice, my face had no expression.
"I am with you, forever." And she hugged me.