From the moment that he’d decided not to chase after her, MJ had not regretted a decision more since starting at Daleton. He rarely had time for remorse; he was the type who would apologise for any misgivings immediately and with far too much vigour, or preferred to simply live in the now otherwise. That was a philosophy he had learned over his vacation backpacking last summer; nevertheless, old habits died hard. He had not seen Liv since the morning she’s run out on him with no explanation, and he’d been trying to piece together the puzzle ever since. The only common conclusion all his theories led to was that he’d come on too strong the night prior and scared her off. It was the only explanation as to why she’d clearly been avoiding him since.
In all honesty, he had expected her to call a few hours after she left. Text, even. Those hours had slid past morning straight into the afternoon, and then the sun was setting, and a day had passed and he’d still heard no word. He’d been the first to cave, shooting off a message where he didn’t try to conceal his concern:
It was only after he’d pressed send that he wondered if that was coming on too strong too. Was this her way of saying that she needed space to breathe, that she’d had second thoughts about… them? He couldn’t help but feel dismayed. It had all been going so well that he hadn’t thought to ask to define what it was between them. In one fell swoop, it had slipped through his fingers entirely, and he had no clue how to go about fixing it without exacerbating the problem.
He’d decided against heading up to Bronwyn. Cornering Liv on her own territory did not seem like the right foot to set off on; instead, he’d hoped to run into her on campus — by chance, naturally, so he didn’t seem like a complete stalker. Despite his hopes, he’d gone from seeing her around every now and then to never seeing her at all. MJ had even resorted in attempting to slyly glean answers from Seneca (a plan that she’d naturally seen right through). The answer he did get had been something along the lines of Liv needing space to breathe; the vagueness of the answer left him frustrated, but he understood it was Seneca’s duty to her friend to keep tight lipped. Still, it confirmed his worst suspicions. She needed time away from him. He’d pushed her too fast and too soon.
After that, MJ’s vivacity faded. He was quieter in class, even more so outside of it. Even Zach’s visit did not seem to help — they spent the majority of the time they had holed up in MJ’s room, playing video games and ordering in when they were hungry. It was hardly different from what they’d spent their time together doing whilst they’d been at school and all the summers in-between, but MJ had lapsed into that state of morose, sullen teenager that his best friend absolutely despised. Once he’d finally come clean to the other boy about why he’d been so down, Zach’s response only served to result in further frustration. He’d barely heard him out before he’d started to talk about Cara of all people; MJ had uncharacteristically cut him off before he’d had the chance to finish, skulking out of his room in a worse mood than before and leaving Zach to shrug and continue their game alone.
MJ’s guilt was at peak level after what he’d done to upset Liv; the added emotions that came with Cara Jennings would only serve to add further detriment. The sole reason MJ’s mind hadn’t trailed back to his ex-girlfriend as often as he would’ve thought was that he’d been resolute in his new mantra to stick to living in the present and leaving the past where it belonged. He’d done far better than he would have anticipated a few months ago. However, he’d have to admit that although he rarely thought of the pair of them in relation to another (as different as they were), Liv’s presence had helped to cushion the blow. She was not a rebound; rather, the past few weeks of pining for her had demonstrated just how genuine his feelings were.
Eventually, once he’d finished feeling sorry for himself, MJ had resolved that the only way to solve this problem was to speak to her himself. It may not have been what she wanted, but surely she’d give him the chance to apologise. All MJ wanted to do was talk — and okay, hopefully do enough to win back her friendship at the very least. His action plan had been to visit her dorm, perhaps take her out to talk over coffee. Granted, maybe that would feel too much like a date. MJ had still been figuring out the finer details when he’d heard one of the girls in his class talking about ‘Ally’s swim meet’. Wherever swimming was at Daleton, Liv was sure to be. He’d tapped her shoulder to ask for the details, and by the time that Liv had kicked off her block the next morning, MJ had been sat in the bleachers, bleary-eyed at the early hour but ready to watch.
There wasn’t much he knew about swimming (well, except that he could swim, but not like this). Nevertheless, he could tell something was wrong. He’d never seen Liv perform before, but he knew somehow that she was usually much better. His suspicions were confirmed once the race was over and she stormed away, an unusual display of anger from the blonde. He decided to wait outside of the lobby, guessing that she wouldn’t stick around like the others had. Less than ten minutes later, Liv appeared carrying her belongings, her eyes red from what MJ doubted was merely chlorine.
"Hey," he offered a smile before clearing his throat. "Wanna go for a walk?"
