Chapter 6: The Breakup

It hadn’t been easy. It wasn’t easy. Penellope had never expected it to be easy. But she did expect the hard part to be over quickly. Like any break up; she thought it would involve a conversation and some crying. Maybe some bickering or banter. Considering the circumstances of her relationship, she had understood that part would probably be somewhat messier than normal. But she didn’t expect things to drag out as long as they had. The messages. The calls. And even the threats. It was clear this wasn’t ending quickly, or quietly.

***

It had been late when Penellope had gotten back from her special place, the place she retreated to, to think when life was hard. The place her father would take her to as a child. Ofcourse her phone was flooded with messages and calls. But she didn’t care. She pushed every thought of Jason to the bottom of her mind and thought about the guy she’d met in the lift a few days earlier. He had been handsome, in an odd kind of way. Shy and unconfident. Slightly unkempt. And the best thing about him was, well, he felt safe. But she knew she couldn’t dwell on the thought of him for too long. After all, she’d only met him once and he hadn’t returned her book yet. That meant that he probably wasn’t too interested in her. It didn’t matter. There were other things she could think about. Like how Harry must have felt all alone and isolated when he’d lived all those years with the Dursleys, only to discover true friendship when Hagrid took him to Hogwarts. Or how Frodo must have felt having Samwise by his side throughout his whole journey to Middle-Earth. Gosh, was she a dreamer.

Sally was awake when Pip had gotten home. Sally had been laying on the couch, with a thick blanket covering her, watching trashy Netflix shows.

‘Jason was here waiting for you earlier,’ Sally had said without looking up from the TV, ‘I hate it how he always just shows up whenever he feels like it, so I hope you don’t mind but I kinda told him to – ’ but Sally stopped talking as soon as she looked up from the TV and over at Pip, who stood in the shadows of the living room with a red face and tears streaming down her cheeks.

‘to… I told him to get lost.’

‘I don’t mind,’ Pip had said through thick sobs.

Sally had sat up and pulled her blanket over to make room for Pip on the couch.

‘Come here Pip. Has something happened between you two?’

‘Umm… I just… I can’t…’ but before Pip could finish her sentence, she was choking on tears again.

Sally had been on her feet in a heartbeat and had wrapped her arms around Pip in a comforting hug.

‘Sit down hun,’ Sally had said rubbing her shoulders gently, ‘sit down. I’ll make you a cup of hot chocolate and you can tell me everything!’

Pip nodded as she sniffled chaotically.

***

Pip lay on her bed with a book in her hand. Six of Crows had caught her by surprise. She’d been told it was good. She never thought it would be this good. But her immersion kept being broken by the thought that her phone might go off again, that she might receive an unwanted message. No. She’d changed her number. He couldn’t contact her anymore. She put her book down. Not that it was a book that should have been put down, perfectly written in her opinion, and completely enthralling – it was his fault. Not the authors.

She began to cast her mind back upon that night, when she’d come home in tears at ten thirty.

‘What a jerk!’ Sally said.

Pip sat on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate in her hands, and a warm blanket over her lap. She’d gotten changed into her PJs, and Sally sat next to her, with an arm around her shoulder. The tears had died down a bit, but Pip still let out the occasional sob.

‘I mean, I knew he was nasty work. But I guess I didn’t realise the full extent of it. I’m sorry I ever encouraged you to ask him out.’

Pip had shaken her head.

‘Not your fault Sal!’

‘You’ve got to break up with him. You know that, right?’

Pip nodded.

‘Do it somewhere in public. Somewhere safe. Heck, even just send him a message if you want. Usually I’d never break up with anyone over message, I mean most people deserve a decent conversation and explanation. But he isn’t most people. You don’t owe him anything.’

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‘No, I don’t.’

Sally pulled her into another tight hug.

‘It will be okay Pip!’

Pip tried to pick up her book again. She was halfway through the chapter, and every time she put down her book (for whatever reason had distracted her this time), the magic of losing herself in the fantasy world wore off a little more. Almost as soon as she began reading the page, her phone buzzed loudly and her heart leapt out of her chest. She rolled over and swiped it up. The message was simply a Telstra promotion ‘upgrade to a 200GB plan this month for a chance to win’ blah blah blah. She didn’t care. She hated being afraid every time her phone went off. Her psychologist told her that this was normal because things were so fresh. It would wear off over time. Time heals everything.

In the end she broke up with Jason in person. Not for him, but for herself. She wanted to show herself that she could stand up to him. But she did take Sally’s advice and do it in a public place. She met up with him at a café. He was waiting there before her, sitting on a single table with his arms folded, and his nose held high. The sight of him so tense, almost gave her cold feet. But she pushed through her nerves and joined him on the opposite chair.

‘Why. Have. You. Been. Ignoring. My. Messages. And. Calls?’ he said as she sat across from him. Every word had been drawn out and pronounced with an intense deep rumble.

‘Because I don’t want to. We can’t do this anymore Jason. I can’t do this.’

‘What do you mean?’

Pip looked around; worried that the two of them might be drawing the attention of people around them. But so far, they had seemed to go unnoticed. Elizabeth Steet on a Saturday afternoon was bustling. People were just too busy to care.

‘I’m breaking up with you Jason. It’s over.’

‘Don’t be stupid!’

‘I’m serious,’ Pip said firmly even though she was quivering on the inside.

Jason scrunched his fist.

‘After all I’ve done for you. And the way that you’ve been treating me these last few days - ’ Jason pounded his fist on the table hard enough to be aggressive, but not so hard that it would cause anyone to look their way, ‘and here I was expecting an apology, but instead you give me this!’

‘Excuse me?! The way I’ve treated you?’

‘You’ve literally not replied to a single message that I’ve sent! Nor have you answered my calls! Do you know how anxious you’ve made me!’

‘Don’t put this on me,’ Pip whispered in a low, but firm voice, ‘I’ve no obligation to reply to your messages – and maybe you should consider that I need some time to myself every now and then, instead of being at your beckoning twenty-four seven!’

‘You know that any girl would kill to be with me. And there’s nobody out there in their right mind who’d ever want to be with you!’

‘Well then they can have you! You should be happy Mr. Good looking! You can have any girl you like now. Except for me.’

Pip couldn’t believe herself. Normally she was shy and introverted – this was probably the most she’d ever stuck up for herself in her entire life.

‘Stop being a smart ass you filthy little slut.’

Pip gasped. Her first inclination was to slap him. But seeing his eyes narrow. Seeing how aggressive he was becoming, she finally felt her nerves finally run dry. Instead she picked up her handbag and walked out of the café.

‘Have a nice life,’ she said as she walked away. But she didn’t really mean it. In that moment, the sweet-hearted Pip wished that Jason’s life would be miserable.

The thing she loved most about Bardugo’s writing was how Kaz was always one step ahead of everyone else. Unlike most heroes in Western media, Kaz fought with his brains rather that brawn. He had no brawn. He could barely walk. Pip turned the page and quickly finished the chapter before she realised that it was actually getting quite late. She slid her bookmark in place, closed her book, placed it on her bedside table, shut off the lamp, and lay down to sleep. With the full moon shining beautiful pale light in through her window, and the city beginning to quiet down, she really should have quickly fallen into a deep slumber. But she couldn’t. Instead her mind kept turning.

Pip had thought that would be it. That it would be over. Finally. But it wasn’t. He kept messaging her to start with. Message after message. Half of them were insults towards her, the other half were praises about himself. Pip had asked Sally what to do, and Sally told her to just ignore them and block his number. She did exactly that. But soon messages began coming in from a different number. One time he actually came to her house. Luckily Pip hadn’t been home. But Mia and Sally had been. Apparently both of them confronted him and told him to give the spare set of keys back and not come around ever again or they’d call the police. Well it turns out they actually had to call the police, and the police confiscated the keys from him. The police said that Mia and Sally could file for a restraining order – but Sally and Mia didn’t really want to make that call without Pip being around.

When Pip found out, she actually messaged Jason back (to the new number he’d began messaging her from).

‘Last thing I’ll ever say to you. If you come around again, or try to contact me, I’m going to take actually get the police involved. For real. And take you to court or do whatever I have to do.’

Jason seemed to take the warning seriously. She supposed he was preying on some other girl now. The thought made Pip feel quite bad. She wouldn’t wish Jason upon any other girl but there was little she could do to help that now.

Apart from that, the only real drama was the new guy that Sally began seeing. Well, it wasn’t really drama – actually Pip and Mia both thought he was a nice guy – but it really was a topic that the three of them began gossiping about. Pip had dug around a little bit at work and found out what people had said about him. He was a jokester, immature and silly – but also a really nice. Well he must have been on his best behaviour around Sally, because when they were together he was nothing if not a gentlemen. Thomas was his name.