I ..don’t know
Content : hesitation can ruin everything in a blink of an eye.
Jaafar Jackson x reader.
The question wasn't supposed to start a fight.
It had started with dinner.
The TV hummed quietly in the background while you sat across from Jaafar, stealing fries from his plate as he pretended not to notice. It was comfortable…easy, the kind of silence that only came after years of loving someone.
Until your phone buzzed, you smiled at the notification.
"It's from Layla."
Jaafar hummed, taking another bite.
"She finally got engaged."
He looked up, smiling. "Seriously?"
"Mhm." You turned your phone around so he could see the picture. Layla stood beaming, one hand covering her mouth while her fiancé knelt in front of her.
Jaafar smiled genuinely. "Good for them."
"They've only been together for like….two years?."
"Mhm."
You stared at the picture for another moment before locking your phone. "They look really happy."
"They do."
A beat of silence passed, you twirled your fork between your fingers, trying to sound casual.
"...Where do you see us in a few years?"
Jaafar frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"
"I ..don't know." You shrugged. "Do you ever think about... us? The future?"
He leaned back in his chair. "Sometimes."
"What do you think about?"
"I ..don't know."
You laughed softly. "You don't know?"
"I haven't really thought about it."
Your smile faltered. "Not even a little?"
"I've been busy."
"But... we've been together for almost three years."
"I know."
"So... have you ever thought about us getting married..?"
The room fell quiet, Jaafar looked down at his plate, his fingers tapped against the table.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
"I don't know." It wasn't loud nor cruel.
It was just...I don't know.
Something inside your chest sank. "...You …don't know?"
"I mean—" He sighed.
"Can we not do this tonight?"
Your brows knitted together. "Do what?"
"I'm exhausted."
"I'm just asking you a question."
"And I'm telling you I don't have an answer."
"You don't have one..." You laughed quietly, though there wasn't anything funny about it.
"I've had one for a long time."
His eyes lifted to yours.
"I've always known I'd marry you."
He looked away first and that hurt more than anything.
You swallowed around the lump in your throat.
"It isn't about you."
"Then tell me what it's about."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't even know myself."
"But you're okay with letting me sit here thinking maybe you don't see a future with me?"
"I never said that."
"You didn't have to."
Your voice cracked despite your best effort to keep it steady.
He pushed his chair back with a sigh.
"Why does everything have to be about marriage?"
"It's not!" You stood too.
"It's about knowing we're moving in the same direction."
"I am moving."
"But you're not taking me with you."
The words landed between you, heavy and honest.
Jaafar pinched the bridge of his nose. "Nah, I can't do this right now."
Your heart dropped as he grabbed his keys from the counter.
"I need some air."
You stared at him silently holding your tears.
"I just need to clear my head." He mumbles again.
You smiled sadly, tears already gathering. "You just don't want to have this conversation."
He froze with his hand on the doorknob. "I love you."
His voice was quiet. "So much."
You nodded. "I know." Another tear slipped free.
"But sometimes..." You looked at him with a broken smile.
"...love isn't the part I'm worried about."
He stood there for another second.
Then left.
The click of the front door echoed through the apartment.
The silence afterward was deafening.
An hour later, you sat curled up on the bedroom floor with your back against the bed, phone in your hand.
Your best friend had texted three times.
What happened?
Are you okay?
Call me.
You couldn't.
If you called, you'd sob before she even answered.
So you pressed the microphone instead.
"Hey..."
Your voice came out shaky.
"I just... I need to get this out before I convince myself I'm being dramatic."
You laughed weakly.
"It wasn't even about ..marriage."
A sniffle.
"I don't care if he proposes next year or five years from now."
You wiped your eyes.
"I just wanted to know that when he imagined his future..."
Your voice broke.
"...I was in it."
Silence.
"I keep replaying the way he said, 'I don't know.'"
You closed your eyes.
"And maybe he really doesn't."
"Maybe he's scared because of how his last relationship went."
"Maybe I'm asking too much."
Another shaky breath. "But..."
You pressed the heel of your hand against your mouth, trying to stop yourself from crying.
"I've never questioned spending the rest of my life with him."
"So hearing him question it..."
A tear rolled down your cheek.
"...made me question whether he's ever looked at me the way I've always looked at him."
You laughed bitterly.
"I feel so stupid."
"I know he loves me."
"I've never doubted that."
"But I don't want someone who's certain he loves me..."
Your whisper barely reached the microphone.
"...I want someone who's certain he wants a future with me."
A long silence followed.
Then, almost too quietly to hear “I don’t want to lose him..”
You hit send.
And locked your phone without checking anything else.
Jaafar was sitting alone in his car outside a convenience store when his phone buzzed.
He expected a text message.
Instead, a voice note, from you…?
He put one earbud in and pressed play.
By the time your first tearful laugh reached him, his stomach dropped because he realized you sent it to him by mistake instead of your bestfriend..
He listened to every second, didn’t move or breathe.
When it ended, he stared at the dark windshield for a long time.
Then he replayed it, three times.
Each time, another sentence lodged itself deeper in his chest.
"I just wanted to know that when he imagined his future... I was in it."
"I've never questioned spending the rest of my life with him."
"I don't want to lose him."
He rested his forehead against the steering wheel.
"...God."
It finally clicked.
Tonight had never been about rings, or weddings, or timelines.
It was about reassurance and he'd given you uncertainty instead.
Because the truth, that he'd been too ashamed to say, was that he did imagine a future with you.
Constantly.
He just also imagined every possible way he could fail you, because he promised and failed before after 10 big years.
What if he couldn't provide enough?
What if he wasn't ready, and after 10 years he realizes that it’s the wrong decision AGAIN?
What if he became the kind of husband his own father had been?
Fear had made him silent and his silence had sounded exactly like doubt and it broke the only constant thing in his life at the moment.
You.
A/N : HEAR ME OUT….I DONT KNOW.














