They were over and he knew it. They were over and she didn't. The little things- the transitional touches when turning a corner, the frequency of smiles, the speed of walking, all were altered. He picked up on mammorisms and the change in habitual tendencies of their relationship. It was the the kinds of things that your best friend wouldn't understand and would not pick up on. If you were to describe them, your friend would say you were overreacting and being paranoid, but he felt it so deeply that being around her at all was a challenge in itself. Standing next to her was a tease. Any where away from her was a place of halfhearted denial. He knew what was true and consciencely chose to live a lie. In this way, he convinced his mind that he was being true to himself. Being away was a sovereign from the misery of watching their relationship crumble, without having to be there to watch it happen.
He had always been close with Ashley from physics class. When they were younger, he had always looked up to her. Although they were the same age, she seemed mature, and had only dated guys in grades above her. This, as it usually goes, had made him want her more since she appeared to be so untouchable. Because she was so far out of his league at the time, he didn't notice when she began to become more in his range of possible girls to date. As time went on, and the older boys had gone away to college, she made the decision to lower her standards. He, at this point, was already with Jessica, so Ashley never really came to mind. In a parallel universe, a shift of earth's poles, or maybe simple karma, the situation had been reversed. Mike was the one who was off limits, while Ashley was alone and considered her new options.

Jessica was surprised when Mike turned down her offer to get frozen yogurt after school. Even though the weather was starting to cool, it was still part of the pattern the two of them had created during the routine school week. She walked home like usual, thinking while she observed the neighborhood scenery that often went ignored. Life had always been easy; there had never before been a reason to rate and rationalize how events in her life were going. She had always driven through her life as if she were running on a track. There was never a reason to look back or time to think when you were supposed to move forward. However, for a reason she couldn't break down into worded thoughts, Jessica felt as if all her organs had settled in the bottom of her stomach and were colliding into eachother. With this uneasiness came a heightened sense of awareness, and thoughts became detailed with more edge to them, instead of the rounded, unfocused mindset she usually posessed. This wasn't like being upset over a bad test grade, or because of a scraped knee. This was a hopeless, worthless feeling, as if the sun beating down her was there just to burn her scalp, and the trees next to the sidewalk were there to shield any blue in the sky. It was the first time that Jessica had ever felt rejected.