Is Love All or Nothing? Ch. 18

Thank you Tigersman for editing this chapter. I know everyone wants to know what's going to happen next to here to the rest of the story.

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"Oh my God!" Melissa exclaimed not believing her ears.

"I hate him. How could he do this to me?" Jackie said, her face still red and tears streaming down her face.

"There is no way he would."

"I fucking caught them sleeping in his bed!" Jackie yelled interrupting Melissa. "There is a way he would because he did!"

Melissa sat back in her couch, hands on her forehead, blown away by the news that Keith was in bed with another woman... and that woman was Lauren! Nothing about this was making any sense at all. Why would Keith cheat on Jackie? Why would he do so with Andy's ex?

"This can't be fucking happening."

Jackie was hoping visiting Melissa and telling her everything that had just happened would somehow ease the pain. Instead it seemed to make it only worse as the reality was seeping in more and more that Keith did indeed cheat on her...she was cheated on again by someone she loved. He was her everything. She was seeing a future with marriage, children, their own house, living together until death do them part...and it was gone in an instant.

"I fucking hate him," Jackie said, her hands covering her face in shame. "I fucking hate his guts and I hope he dies! I want to kill him! I want him dead!"

Melissa grabbed Jackie and brought her into her arms, holding her tight as Jackie sobbed. She held her best friend not saying a word because none could be said to help the situation. Nothing could be done and time would not heal this wound that cut so very, very deep. They sat there on the couch for a couple hours, not moving, Jackie continuing to sob and Melissa just holding her, occasionally rubbing her back trying in vain to comfort her.

Jackie stopped sobbing and Melissa looked down to see her asleep. She gently adjusted as to not wake her and let her sleep on the couch. Melissa then went into her bedroom, closed the door and called Luke. After a few rings he picked up and she told him everything that Jackie had just told her.

"Please tell me you're joking," Luke begged. "There is no way Keith would ever cheat on Jackie."

"I'm not joking," Melissa replied, starting to accept the reality herself.

"Shit. Why would he...shit."

"I know Luke. Nothing is making any sense, but the facts are there." There was a long silence between them as neither knew what to say next. "I wonder if Andy knows yet."

"If Jackie was screaming as loud as she said she was, I'm sure he was woken up and knows by now."

Melissa sat against her bed after hearing that. "Why is this happening?"

"I don't know sweetie," Luke said, trying to comfort his fiancé. "This is not what you want to hear, but we need to give them space and if we do talk to Andy or Keith we can't let Jackie know."

"You can talk to them if you want," Melissa replied, "I can't do anything to make Jackie question our friendship at this point. She's in a really bad place and I'm scared for her."

"You don't think she'll hurt herself or anything...do you?"

Melissa let out a long sigh. "I don't know. She doesn't have the energy right now but I will keep an eye on her for the next few days."

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BUZZ BUZZ

Keith slowly woke up from the buzzing sound coming from the front door.

BUZZ BUZZ

He looked at his phone and saw he had several missed texts and calls and then looked at the time 8:41 pm. 'Who in the hell would be buzzing my door this late?' he thought to himself.

BUZZ BUZZ

Whoever the person was they were persistent and not giving up. They kept buzzing the door for one minute, two, three, four, five minutes. Finally Keith caved, got dressed in athletic shorts and t-shirt, and let the person in ready to give him a piece of his mind. He was in no mood with how his day had started and was ready to go off without worrying about the consequences.

He opened his door to find Jillian walking towards him. "What the fuck are you doing here?" he asked, not expecting to see her of all people.

"I came by to see how you were doing," she replied happily.

"I'm doing fine, thanks. Now leave me alone."

"You don't look like you're doing fine. Did something happen?" she asked sounding all too cheery.

"Fuck off."

"Well I can't blame you for being in the mood you're in after you were just caught in bed with Lauren."

"What the hell did you just say?" Keith asked caught off guard.

"You were caught in bed with Lauren, right?"

Keith was stunned that she knew that already. "How in the hell do you know that?"

"Because revenge is a dish best served cold and nothing is better than the revenge I've finally gotten on you."

Keith's eyes raged with anger. "What the fuck did you do?"

An evil grin came across Jillian's face. "Only setup a perfect situation for you to lose your girlfriend and have her hate you forever into eternity." She could see the rage building in Keith but also knew he would do nothing about it. "You all were so gullible, especially Andy. I can't believe Lauren played you all so well."

"Lauren fucking played us?"

"Yep. The whole time she was my spy in your group, telling me everything I wanted to know and boy did she tell me more than enough when Jackie told her that she had been cheated on before."

"But the guy that was stalking her."

"Family is always one of the strongest bonds. My brother agreed to play the role to help sucker Andy in. I did have to make it up to him though after Andy did a number on him, but he wanted to see you suffer as well. He will be so happy with the news that everything has now gone to shit for you."

Keith couldn't believe it. Everything that had happened, everything was all a setup by Jillian. "Who is Lauren? She your sister or cousin?" he asked, desperate for answers.

"She's my best friend and was more than willing to help me out with this. Sure it meant she couldn't date any guys that are far above Andy, but she is very much happy with the results."

"So you're saying that night at the bar when she bitch slapped you."

"Was all staged, well except for how hard she hit me. She apologized later but insisted she needed to make it look good for everyone that night."

All the pieces were finally getting put into place and Jillian was telling him everything...and his phone was on his night stand. He wished he had it with him so he could have recorded this conversation and let Jackie know this was all a setup by Jillian. He knew he couldn't go back into his apartment and get it at this point, but he might as well get all the answers he could while he had the chance.

"So what happened last night? Last thing I remember was talking with Lauren and feeling tired."

"She drugged you and let me in to help get you undressed, got you into bed, open and drain some beer bottles to make it look like you drank too much and she couldn't refuse you. All that was left to do after that was send your girlfriend, well no ex-girlfriend a text telling her to come over and that you needed to talk to her. Don't know if we would have set you up any better." Jillian was very pleased with herself.

"You went through all that just to fuck me over and ruin my relationship with Jackie? Don't you give a shit about what you are putting her through?"

"She's just collateral damage," Jillian said, not caring at all. "I'm sure things with Andy won't be the same either."

Keith couldn't believe the lengths Jillian went to and how much she didn't care about who got hurt in the process. "You are an evil bitch."

"An evil bitch who just ruined your life and you can't prove any of this." Jillian took one step towards Keith. "Now everything is complete and you know the whole truth. Have fun letting your Asperger's dwell on knowing full well you were setup and you can't prove shit to anyone. I can see you wrestling how to get your ex-girlfriend to even give you one second and trying your hardest to convince her this was all a setup. Knowing you're going to be driven mad about it is another reward unto itself." She backed up and turned her body ready to leave him. "Bye Keith. I know we'll never see each other again."

Keith stood there as she walked out of the building and was just furious that Jillian was behind everything...and that she was right at the same time. Even if he could somehow convince Andy that Jillian was behind everything, would he be able to convince Jackie?

He walked back into his apartment and locked the door. Much to his dismay his mind did try to figure out ways he could get Jackie to believe him and if she did believe him, would things go back to normal. He wanted his fantasies to be true, but he knew that is what they were, fantasies.

Throughout the rest of the night he tried his best to not think about what Jillian told him, but his mind just kept wandering to what she said. No matter what he tried to do, watch TV, play video games, look up random videos on YouTube, he would eventually start thinking about how he should have known Lauren was really Jillian's friend, wish he could have seen the signs, but there were none. Everyone was perfectly played and he could not think of how to explain everything well enough without someone poking holes into the story. Even trying to go to bed proved pointless as he just tossed and turned, his mind still racing. No matter what he did, he could not stop thinking about what he could have done or what he could do to change the situation. Frustration came over him as he repeatedly hit his mattress, trying to at least exhaust come energy and get him tired enough to sleep, but that only sank the reality in harder of everything as he started to cry into his pillow. His cries turned to sobbing, and he started to give up hope. Slowly he started to believe this was his fate, that he would be single and alone.

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Jackie sat by herself as she usually did during her lunch at her job. It's not that she didn't like the people she worked with, but she enjoyed having some time to think in the organized chaos of working in a distribution center. There was always noise everywhere and during her break and lunch she liked to be by herself to collect her thoughts and stay sane through some of the busier period. Sometimes people would join her and enjoy a pleasant conversation. On this day everyone stayed away as they could tell she wanted to be alone. Her demeanor told everyone she was not in a good mood and needed her space.

She appreciated the space everyone gave her, but wished she could just scream out in frustration, slamming the table with her fists to get rid of the hurt and rage still deep within her. Never had she felt so betrayed by someone so close. Next thing she knew the first bell rang for people to get back to work. She looked at her half eaten sandwich and realized she had no appetite to finish the rest of it. This was only Monday and she felt as drained as if she had been working through the whole week already. She got up to leave, threw the sandwich in the trash and went about the rest of her work day.

'How am I going to get through this,' she thought, driving her reach truck doing things she needed to do. She had to keep her mind on her surroundings, making sure to follow safety guidelines but her mind just kept drifting. She couldn't have been happier when she saw it was time to go home and parked her reach truck.

On her way out the door one of her co-workers came up to her and walked beside her.

"Hey, is everything ok?"

Jackie took a deep breath before answering, "No, nothing is ok James."

James took a closer look at her face. "What happened? Did something happen to Keith?"

Just hearing his name brought up hurt as she struggled to hold back the tears. "I broke up with Keith," she said so only James could hear.

James was shocked at that piece of news. "What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it. I'm sorry but I'm just not ready."

James nodded his head in understanding and let Jackie walk ahead of him. She was grateful that he didn't press the issue as she would have most likely lost it in front of everyone. Once she got to her car she quickly started the engine and headed home.

She couldn't wait to just get home, lie face down on her bed and cry into her pillow. Her day was much harder than she thought and wanted it to be over. She had sick time if she wanted to call in, but she didn't want to use that time needlessly.

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"God dammit! Where is it?" Keith said frustrated looking for a document he needed. He opened every drawer in his desk, looked all over his office and couldn't find it. "Where did I put it?"

One of his co-workers heard him from down the hall and walked in seeing him scrambling around.

"What are you looking for?"

Keith didn't turn to look at his co-worker. "I can't find the invoice from the order we received this morning."

"Where did you last put it?"

"If I knew that Anna, I wouldn't be looking for it," he said harshly.

"I'm just trying to help," Anna defended. "No need to take your anger out on me."

"If you really want to," Keith stopped himself before raising his voice too loud. He took a deep breath and sat in his chair. "I'm sorry."

Anna walked to him noticing he seemed not like his usual self. "Is something else going on? You seem more agitated today."

Keith rubbed his forehead contemplating what to tell Anna. Like most of his co-workers, she didn't know he has Asperger's Syndrome so she had no clue how much of mess his mind was at that moment. No one knew either that he and Jackie weren't together anymore. He had hoped he would not have to tell anyone but now was maybe the best time before he did something he would regret.

"Jackie broke up with me."

Anna was stunned. "Please tell me you're kidding."

Keith shook his head. "I wish I was."

"What happened?" She sat on his desk where there were no papers scattered about.

"I wish I could explain it in a way that seemed plausible and believable."

Anna was confused by the statement. "That makes no sense. I know you would never cheat on her."

"You're right," he agreed, "but she believes I did. I was setup."

That confused Anna even more. "How were you setup to look like you were cheating?"

"Like I said, I don't think you would believe if I did tell you."

"Try me," she suggested.

Keith began to tell her the story of what had happened that night and how he woke up the next morning in bed with Lauren and Jackie looking at them. It took Anna a moment to process that part of the story, but nodded for him to continue. He then told her how Jillian came to his place to brag about how the whole thing was a setup to get back at him for the letter he had left at her place.

"Holy shit," Anna said when Keith had finished.

"Yep," Keith nodded, "told you that you wouldn't believe it."

"Actually," she began, "I do believe you." He looked up at her confused. "I mean it seems outrageous for someone to go to that extent, but it is either true what you are telling me or that you knowingly cheated on Jackie. Like I said before as well, you would never cheat on her."

Keith was relieved to know Anna believed him but it didn't make him feel much better. "If only I could convince Jackie of that, but it doesn't help she's now been cheated on two guys now, at least in her mind I'm the second guy."

"I'm sorry Keith. Have you tried contacting her?"

"No," he hated to admit. "She made it clear she never wanted to hear from me again."

"But that shouldn't stop you."

"You didn't see the look on her face. Her heart is broken and she wants nothing to do with me."

"But she doesn't know."

"Anna stop," Keith interrupted. "I know you want to help but please trust me, she doesn't want to hear from me and the last thing I need is more drama right now."

Anna wanted to push but knew Keith well enough that if he made his mind up about something, there was no changing it. "I'm sorry Keith," she said as she stood up and walked out of Keith's office.

Keith sat there trying to calm himself down but in the process started to cry. It had felt good that someone believed him, but he felt even worse when the one person he wanted to believe him would never. There was nothing he wanted more at that moment than to go the Jackie's apartment and demand that he tell her that everything was a setup, everything was all planned out by Jillian to get her revenge. He started running through situations in his head of how best to convince Jackie that was the case, but he had to stop himself from continuing those thoughts. It was a fruitless endeavor that would only cause him more grief.

He looked off to the side and saw a paper standing against his trash can between it and his desk. He picked it up and saw it was the invoice he had been looking for. While happy that he had finally found it, he wanted something else instead.

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The week dragged on for Jackie and Friday could not have come soon enough. Every day she came home she immediately went to her bed to cry on her pillow. She did the same on Friday but didn't cry for nearly as long. While the pain was still there, the need to cry was slowly fading away. She wasn't just going to stay in her bed all day. Tonight was going to be different, the first night where she wouldn't let her sadness keep her down.

She took a nice, hot shower, put on jeans, tank top and a sweatshirt, grabbed her keys, wallet and headed out to her car. A short drive later she found herself an open seat at the bar at Brownstead. A few minutes later a female bartender approaches her.

"What will you have tonight?"

"Cosmo," Jackie said flatly. A few minutes later the bartender brought her the Cosmo. "Bring me another one." Jackie downed the drink fast.

"Give me your keys first." Jackie was about to object but the bartender cut her off. "You think Andy didn't tell me what happened?" Jackie was bothered Andy let the cat out of the bag, but understood why he told the bartenders. She gave her keys to the bartender. "I'm just looking out for you sweetie."

"I know."

"Do you want some mozzarella sticks?"

Jackie smiled at the offer. "Double order."

A minute later the bartender gave Jackie her second Cosmo, but this time she drank it more slowly. Tonight was not the night to get insanely drunk. Melissa would help her out with that another day and most likely at Luke's place. That is what they did last time she was cheated on and was sure that would happen that weekend. While she didn't like getting drunk, getting drunk with her best friend always led to memorable nights and Luke always made sure to take a few videos of their antics. Some of the videos she hoped would never surface again and others she couldn't help but laugh at herself.

The plate of mozzarella sticks arrived and she quickly scarfeddown the first one. Out of the corner of her eye she sees the person next to her try to take one. She slaps the hand away of the woman.

"If you want some get your own," Jackie scolds.

"You got more than enough on your plate to share."

"Maybe if you buy me a drink, I'll split them with you."

The bartender approaches the woman. "What can I get for you?"

"Rum and coke and another Cosmo for my friend here."

The bartender nods and goes to make the drinks.

"You really think I'm that easy? You're still not getting one of my mozzarella sticks."

"Guess you don't want your next drink paid for as well," the woman said with a smirk.

"Are you trying to pick me up or something?"

The woman laughed at the question. "No, I can just tell you have had one of those weeks and I really like mozzarella sticks."