“Right, I forgot to give this to you.”

“Eh? What is that, Vinnie?”

“Something you forgot at my apartment.”

He handed you a medium-sized box. You took it, not really having a choice, and you opened it. It contained something you actually remembered a little from having seen them on several photos of you from before the accident.

“These are my leather bracelets!”

“Yeah. You forgot them on the table.”

“You were the one who gave them to me, right?”

“Yeah… you yelled at me for hours before you hugged me because you liked them.”

“I see… wow, there are my chains, too… and even my Snap-On knife.”

“Yeah, now hide it, okay? I’m not sure it’s very well seen to just take out a knife like this…”

“You’re right.”

You put it in your pocket before you put your leather bracelets on and attached your chains at the side of your pants, the little ringing sound they made weirdly familiar to you. You kept on staring at the tiny tomahawk that was attached to them. You knew a friend had given it to you, since it was an Assassin’s Creed keychain you were using as a chain decoration, and you liked Assassin’s Creed.

“Now what?” you asked him softly, walking by his side.

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you still talk to me? You’re my ex.”

“You said we could be friends, right?”

“Yeah, but you clearly don’t see me as a friend.”

He laughed a little. “I know. It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“Yeah.”

Silence. You noticed he had kind of dodged your true question.

“So? Why?”

“I told you. We’re friends now, aren’t we?”

“But you don’t see me as a friend. So why?”

“Because I can’t imagine living without you in my life. Whether it’s as lovers, friends, or even enemies if that tickles your fancy.”

“…”

“You guessed it, you’re still in my heart. But there’s no way we’ll go back together, right? So it’s okay if it’s just like this. If I can be your friend, I’ll be all right. Those feelings of mine, I can keep them shut far away in my heart, never to be taken out again. And it’s okay like this. As long as you’re happy.”

“But you’re not happy yourself.”

 “I am…”

“…”

“… if you are. If you’re not, then I’m not. It’s simple.”

You felt the urge to punch his face really hard, right then, but you ended up containing yourself. You breathed deeply and kept on walking by his side.

“And if this current relationship doesn’t make me happy?”

“Then I’ll be sad.”

“You won’t try making me happy?”

“I can’t be your boyfriend, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I wasn’t really asking that, but now that you bring it up, why not?”

“Because I’m poor.”

“So what? If I were to like you, I’d like you, not your money.”

“But no girl deserves a guy who can’t take her out on dates.”

“If I liked you, some time alone with you would probably be plenty enough.”

“But I don’t have any time. I always work. When I don’t work, I have school. When I don’t work and I don’t have school, I try getting some sleep…”

“These are just excuses. If you really liked the girl, you would find time for her.”

You felt weirdly concerned by all of this. You almost felt… hurt. That he was saying this. That he was saying he didn’t have time. Did that mean he didn’t have time for you when you two were together? You stopped walking and turned around, walking in the other direction. Kevin frowned, noticing you were leaving, and he called out your name softly. You didn’t respond and kept on walking. You heard him run after you. He grabbed your hand delicately, his long, delicate fingers sliding between yours.

“Wait…”

“I’m not waiting, Kevin. You don’t have time,” you chuckled bitterly.

You didn’t know why you were so bitter, but you were. Maybe it was your subconscious reacting to Kevin’s words. In any case, using his name instead of his nickname sure made him flinch. He looked at you with sad eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said in a broken voice. “I just… I don’t want to make you suffer again.”

“What was this song already? On good days and bad days… I’ll always be there for you… something like that? What of it? Those bad days you were talking about in the song, you had them. Why didn’t you rely on me? I don’t remember anything and yet I’m sure you didn’t even tell me why you wanted to break up.”

“I would be so less of a man if I kept relying on you… a man must protect his girlfriend. Protect her from everything. Stand proud, and make her happy. Not worry her with his constant problems…”

“Is that it? You decided to break up because of something like that?”

He backed off, letting go of your hand.

“I had my reasons!” he said, his voice breaking. “I didn’t want to do it! Do you really think I would break up suddenly for no reason?!”

Okay. This guy was starting to get on your nerves. He kept so many things secrets, tried to explain himself without telling you everything. That was some bull. You turned and looked at him coldly.

“Fine, then off now. We already- no, lemme rephrase that – YOU already broke up. I used to be your girlfriend. And, probably before that, I used to be your friend. I am not. Not anymore. I’m not the same person, and you’re clearly thinking you can manipulate me by finding excuses without ing telling me anything. You were probably the same back then. Just one more motherer. Like any other guy.”

He flinched, and you pushed him away. He was standing too close.

“Now, I’ll go back to do exactly what I was doing before you ing showed your : take a walk ALONE.”

You turned and walked a bit further before you slightly turned, glaring at him above your shoulder.

“I don’t need an ex-boyfriend to follow me around.”

You stared at your wrists for a moment before you rashly took off your leather bracelets, throwing them on the ground.

“And I don’t need gifts from an ex-boyfriend. I’m glad you weren’t the one to give me those chains, because I like them. Too bad for the leather bracelets,” you hissed, walking away.

You heard Kevin walk to the bracelets, but you didn’t turn to look at him. You were pissed because of his attitude. With the strange feeling that you had felt like this before. You left the place, going back home, staring at the little tomahawk that was on your chains. You were regretting throwing those bracelets on the ground, because they looked very badass… but hey, you had survived without them so far. You could survive without them again.

Just like you had survived without Kevin, and you could totally do it again. You only needed to completely ignore his existence in PE, and everything would be all right…

… until the ninth week would arrive. Ugh. You were already dreading it.

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I'm so sorry about the time this took... I'm so busy these days it's not even funny, and when I'm not busy I'm trying to relax... it'll probably be like this until the end of May. And then I'll work ._. So not much more time either... I'll try, though TT_TT