we don't talk anymore.

we don't talk a n y m o r e we don't talk anymore, like we used to do we don't love anymore affiliated with theloveclubhq. penned & loved by maggie.

[cbxgcxl]

JACK.

jack chuckled and smiled to himself as he heard abigail’s response at the other end of the line, then as she said she’d be there in 10 minutes, he told her he’d be waiting.. and 10 minutes passed, and he cold hear a car honk from in front of his home. getting one of his crutches, the man stepped outside, walking down towards her car, opening the door, seeing the woman sitting behind the wheel, looking amazing as per usual.. “oh wow.. hey.. you look amazing..” he said while carefully placing the crutch into the car first, then following with the rest of his body, getting him into the passenger seat. 

abigail had just thrown on a blouse and some jeans before leaving the house this morning. she hadn’t put on any makeup or done her hair, so it took her by surprise when jack told her she looked amazing. she took note that he thought so even like this. “well, thank you. you’re not too bad yourself,” she replied with a smile. she began the drive home, and said, “sorry again if i worried you earlier. i just need to get everything sorted out, and with the holidays and everything coming up... i just need to know what to tell the kids, my dad, my family, all of that.”

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JOHNNY.

Johnny stood at her door, hands shoved in his pockets, rocking on his heels slowly. His attention turned to the door when she opened it, smiling at her and placing a hand on her side when she kissed his cheek. “Hi Abs, yeah let’s go.” he ushered her to the truck, holding the door open for her before moving around and getting in himself. Soon they were driving down the road to the restaurant.

the car ride to the restaurant was quiet, but the silence was filled by music, so it wasn’t awkward. they both obviously stuff had on their minds and sometimes silence was better. when they finally got to the restaurant, she got out and took him by the hand. she wanted to take advantage of the time she had to be with him, however short.

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JACK.

jack had sat up after hearing her speak, feet hanging over the edge of his seat he listened to her voice, reassuring him that nothing was the matter, and she just had things she wanted to talk to him about that wasn’t– bad.. “oh yeah no, i get it.. “ he said, pushing himself off the couch, getting one of his crutches and began walking towards the door, before stopping as he heard her offer to come get him.. “– you’re really asking if id like to see you or a random taxi driver?”

abigail laughed. “of course. sorry. silly question. be there in ten minutes.” she hung up the phone after a final goodbye and slipped on her sandals, heading out to the car. the drive to jack’s house was simple. she’d driven him there a couple of times, but had never been inside. she preferred her house. it was a familiar space, and she needed familiarity with everything new in her life. she parked in front of his house and honked the horn a few times, awaiting his appearance.

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JOHNNY.

“I’ll pick you up, be there in about an hour.” he replied before showering. He had rehearsed in his head what he would say, maybe not to soften the blow for her but for himself since this would be the first time he admitted it out loud. ‘I have a son I never knew about, i hooked up with his mom, my best friend, and left her to be with my pregnant on again off again girlfriend so I could be a decent dad. But we both know I left them too.” he shook his head, looking in the mirror after the shower. He’d figure out what to say in the moment. He changed and climbed into his pickup before heading to Abigail’s house. He hoped out of the truck and made his way to her door, knocking three times and waiting.

abigail looked at herself in the mirror. she looked nice, but not knock-em-dead nice. not break-your-heart nice. just... soften-the-blow nice. she heard the knocks on her door as she put her earring in, and thanked her babysitter on her way out and assured them she’d be home in just a few hours. “hey, johnny,” she exhaled, walking out the door. she gave him a kiss on the cheek, trying not to let her nerves show. “shall we?”

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JOHNNY.

johnny was sure that his life was done with the surprises but he was wrong, the last week had brought more surprises to his life then the last five years had. he was doing his best to work through it all but he couldn’t help but smile seeing the text from abigail “yeah, i have some things i need to tell you too. dinner sounds good, how about that mexican restaurant downtown?” he sent the message and got up, wondering into his bathroom to shower. 

some things i need to tell you too. abigail worried that nothing huge was going to happen, nothing that would alter her perfectly laid out plans. “mexican is great! meet you there or you pick me up?” she silently wished for him to say ‘meet you there’ in case things went south, but knew that because johnny was, well, johnny, he’d pick her up.

[cbxgcxl]

JACK.

jack had had a rough while since coming home.. mostly just with himself, readjusting to life. where meeting abigail again had been his only positive.. the thing in his mind that kept him going.. made him get up.. despite knowing she maybe felt a little different.. it was then that he heard his phone go off, reaching for it, the man laid back down on his couch, seeing it was abigail he picked it up.. “hello–?” he said at first, before hearing her voice telling him they needed to talk..” those four words were never good, and he felt kinda scared.. but swallowing hard he nodded to himself.. “yeah uhm.. sure! of course.. i’ll grab a cab right away.. is everything okay..?”

abigail realized she’d made the situation sound much more... dire than it really was. “no, yes. everything’s fine. sorry, i didn’t mean to worry you. we just have some stuff we need to figure out together and it’s a little time-sensitive, you know?” she felt bad, making him drop everything to come over, but she needed something to tell the kids and johnny. and she wanted jack to be involved in the decisions. “i could come pick you up, actually, if you’d like.”

[cbxgcxl]

@jfcjohnnyking

johnny and the kids had gotten along splendidly, which was awful for abigail because now she had to talk to him about jack, and that conversation would probably seal the couple’s fate as no-longer-a-couple. she sent him a text, saying, “hey, i need to tell you something. dinner? tonight? you pick the place.” she sighed as she sent it, her heart dropping into her stomach.

[cbxgcxl]

@jscktravc

“we need to talk,” abigail said into the phone. on the other end of the call was jack. some of the magic of his return had worn off (although it all still felt extremely magical and unreal to abigail) and she now had to deal with the aftermath. she had to tell her kids. she had to figure out how to proceed with johnny. she needed to know where she and jack stood on these issues. if they were going to be together, they needed to start working together now. “could you meet me at my house in the next hour?”

[cbxgcxl]

do you believe in love?

“of course i do! i love my kids more than anything in the world. jack was the love of my life way back when. i have so much love for those i surround myself with daily. i have so many reasons to believe in love.”

[cbxgcxl]

Would you rather go without junk food for a year or go without TV for a year?

"i pretty much already go without junk food! i like to eat as clean as possible.”

[cbxgcxl]

ROBBIE.

“exactly.” robbie replied, nodding his head. “i don’t think going out justifies whether it’s a date or not. i’m not saying everything is a date but if a person puts effort into what you’re doing, it’s a date.” he added. “see, exactly.”

abigail nodded. “so, did you really overhear this or is it something going on in your personal life?” she held up a hand. “not to be nosy or anything. it’s just that most of the time when i say i overheard something, it’s because i need an opinion about it.”

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SCARLETT.

“I used to have this whole list of people to buy Christmas presents for,” Scarlett began, her voice soft as she spoke. “I mean, theoretically I can still buy then and just mail them over, but it’s just not the same. What usually happens around here during the holidays?” she wondered.

“well, my family has our own little traditions,” abigail responded to the woman. “on christmas eve, we each open one present. my kids usually give me something handmade and cute, and i let them open one of their less exciting presents from me. then we bake cookies for santa, and in the morning they wake me up at about seven and we open the rest of our presents. sometimes there are town events around christmastime, sometimes not. it’s a guessing game, really.”

[cbxgcxl]

“i have been binge watching the marvelous mrs. maisel recently,” abigail said, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear as she spoke. “and i finished it, but then it came back today, so now i’ve been watching more of it... i might be a little obsessed. don’t tell my kids, they’ll watch to binge watch their shows and i’m trying to discourage that.”

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ROBBIE.

“i wasn’t really trying to be nosey but i heard a couple earlier at the bakery discussing what they thought classified as a date and one of them thought that napping together and hanging out at home with the other was a date while the other half was sure you had to go out for it to be a date.” robbie paused and looked up at he opened up a box of left over cupcakes and offered it to the other. “i think that anything could classify as a date though. but i also don’t think it matters. i think it’s just nice to spend time with that certain someone.” he finished with shrug.

“i think that both of those could be dates,” abigail commented as she took a cupcake. “when i was younger, and i had a boyfriend, we called everything a date. we’d get a really quick lunch in between our college classes and call that a date.”

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JACK.

jack wished he had the words to explain how he felt as the woman’s hand grazed his face, gently wiping away the tears from his cheek. every little thing it made him want from her, and how much he wanted more than just that small touch.. in all these years, jack himself had never been with anyone else.. there had been abigail, and no one else.. cause after they’d met, he’d never wanted someone else.. he knew that, he’d be with her, or die alone.. a thought he was ok with.. but besides hearing her tell him not to blame himself for not being present, he still did.. he always would.. cause he’d had the option to stay.. then later the option to go back home… all things he didn’t do.. which he now knew was all big big mistakes.. but what hurt the most, was the thing she proceeded to tell him next.. his kids thought he was dead.. that he’d died in the war, and were no without a dad.. that thought stung the most, forget everything else.. knowing that he didn’t just have one child.. but two that believed they didn’t have a dad, killed him on the inside.. and it took a long deep breath to make him not cry again.. cause deep down he knew she was right in telling the children what she did.. so he nodded and powered through it.. “– no it uhm– makes sense.. and i guess you weren’t wrong in doing and saying i was..” he muttered before exhaling hard.. “– as long as they’re happy, then that’s all i could ask for.. even if i wont get to be there like that..” he said, only assuming it would be wrong to bring himself into the kids life after everything.. especially now that abigail admitted to seeing someone, and that someone having met the kids.. meaning that for all he knew, he’d taken on the father role for him.. or who even knew at that point.. on top of everything he really hadn’t expected the next things that left the woman’s lips slowly he reached out, taking her hands in his , and held on tight before looking at her, leaning in to kiss her forehead.. “– you’ve no idea how long i dreamed about something like that to happen.. “

as jack’s lips pressed to her forehead, abigail closed her eyes. then she spoke, and she felt transported to ten years ago, and she couldn’t help herself. she lifted her head and pressed her lips to his, her hand moving to his shoulder. it was a passionate kiss, but not an overly... messy one. it was a kiss of longing and pent up emotion. a few tears streamed down her face and she pulled away. “i’m...” she was going to apologize, but realized she had nothing to apologize for. they were soulmates. this was what was supposed to happen.

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JOHNNY.

Johnny gave her a wide smile “well I’m glad, it doesn’t feel like i am. just want tonight to go as well as it possibly can.” he gave a small nod “had to make a good first impression.” he climbed into the drivers seat and soon was pulling out of the driveway and down the road.

while johnny drove, abigail reached over and gently put her hand on top of his. she looked into the backseat to see how the kids were doing and gave them both a smile. “how was school today you guys? i feel like i didn’t get to see you when you got home.” they both answered with various ‘it was good’ replies before turning back to their phones and she turned to johnny. “very talkative tonight, these two,” she said, sarcasm lacing her words.

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JACK.

eventually his knee decided to lay how he waned it to, hoping she didnn’t notice it or had noticed, period.. instead he turned his face to look at her as she spoke up again.. saying she’d much rather show him what he’d missed out on, which at first  he was worried it would be something bad but instead instead she got up, disappeared for a moment before returning with a book, explaining what it was before opening it, and in it his eyes instantly landed on the small bodies of two babies then one picture of what he could only assume was each baby alone on the side.. his eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly, but swallowed hard and just listened. and it was a lot… he didn’t know there were two– and their names were dennis and ally.. the man swallowed hard, taking a deep breath as he felt something at the bottom of his throat building up.. then as he listened to abigail say how the boy was just like him, the waterworks turned itself on, and the lump in his throat released. small drops of tears rolled down his cheek as he smiled.. “– wow..” he said under his breath before reaching up to wipe some of the tears away.. “– i didn’t know…” he said quietly to himself, before a new album showed up but those kids were a lot bigger.. hearing abigail explain how they were all rather recent photos, and he couldn’t help but watch them while listening to her talk, part of him really hurt knowing he’d been gone, missed 10 years of their lives.. and now that he saw them, the woman was right.. dennis looked just like him, while, ally the little girl couldn’t have been any more like her mother.. both spitting images of each other.. all these thoughts almost made him forget to listen to what she had to say after that, but as he mentally returned, what he did catch was her saying she was dating someone.. he’d always thought to himself that he had wanted that for her.. but hearing it come from her was a lot different.. “– im just glad everything’s good.. though im sorry for leaving.. ” he said, sending yet a few drops running from his eyes as he tried to force a small smile…

“how could you know?” abigail said, her hand reaching up to wipe away a tear from his cheek. “i mean, i wrote you letters, but i was never sure if you got any of them. but i never stopped writing them. just because i never got a reply didn’t mean you were dead. that’s what i told myself.” she shifted positions on the couch, folding into a criss-cross position. “and it’s not your fault you left. you had to... jack, i don’t blame you for anything.” she knew that was what he needed to hear, and it was the truth. she knew his leaving wasn’t his fault, and nothing that happened subsequently was his fault either. “i should tell you... the kids don’t think you’re alive. i told them you died in the war... it was the easiest pill for them to swallow, you know? i didn’t want them to think you left them or anything like that... and just because i held onto hope didn’t mean they should. i didn’t want them to get hurt.” this hurt for her to tell him. more than anything, she wished she could turn back time and tell her kids that maybe their dad was still out there. then, she realized she needed to be honest. “i also, uh, wasn’t entirely honest before... nothing really has been serious, dating-wise, except for this one guy that i’m sort of with right now. his name is johnny, we’ve been together a couple months, and he’s met the kids. he’s the only man who’s met the kids and...” she took a moment to inhale and exhale. “jack. i love you. i have never stopped loving you. you are my soulmate... but if you don’t want to get back what we used to have, i can’t sit around and wait for you.”