Slow Slide to the End

Chapter 7

After their final class for the semester, the gang decided to head out to celebrate. "Meat! Let's go for meat!" cried Sig.

On the drive over, Sky again attempted to get Rain to talk to him. It had been a week since Prapai had tried to talk to Payu. Both Prapai and Sky had been disappointed that Payu had refused to talk about what was happening.

Prapai was convinced that Payu was still deeply in love with Rain considering his panic at the idea that something was wrong with Rain. But, Sky was not so sure. I mean, if Payu still wanted to be with Rain, then wouldn't he be making time for him? Wouldn't he do something after his talk with Prapai? Based on what little input he had from Rain, nothing had changed since Prapai and Payu's talk. Sky thought that if it was this distressing for Rain to be with Payu, then he should ask for a break or even consider breaking up. Sky had decided that after their lunch, he would tell Rain exactly what he thought and guide Rain into taking some action.

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While talking about their plans for break, Sky heard a shallow mumble come from Rain, who was sitting to his right.

"Rain?" Sky asked, looking over at him. Rain lifted his head up to look at Sky.

"Do you think P'Payu is cheating on me?" Rain repeated softly.

The entire table grew quiet and they all looked over at Rain.

"Rain. I don't really know. Do you think he is?" Sky answered. Sky actually thought it was a real possibility that Payu had found someone else and just didn't know how to tell Rain about it. But he also knew that relationships were complicated and it may be something else entirely that was the problem. Sky was afraid that if he was too harsh, Rain would shut down and stop talking.

Rain tilted his head and leaned onto Sky's shoulder. "I don't know. I don't know anything about any of this. I just know that he doesn't love me like he did."

Sig reached his hand across the table and took hold of Rain's. "I'm sure he still loves you Rain but I think we all agree that something is going on. We've noticed things aren't the same between you and we see how sad you are."

Rain looked slowly between his friends and noticed the concern shown on their faces. He knew he was lucky to have these people as friends and he also knew he'd been shutting them out for a while now. He sighed, realizing it was time to open up to them.

"I'm just not sure what to do anymore. At first, I thought I'd just wait it out. You know, that it was temporary. But then, after nothing changed, I tried talking to him. He just kept telling me everything was fine and things would go back to normal soon. But now. Now, I don't know. I stopped asking. And now I don't know where we are. Or how I feel. Or what to do." Rain snuggled his face into Sky's neck as a tear fell down his cheek. Sky tightened his arm around his friend and let him cry.

"Maybe you need to take a break from P'Payu" said Sig quietly, still holding Rain's hand.

"Isn't that basically what they've already been doing?" Ple replied moving to sit on the other side of Rain, resting her hand gently on his shoulder.

"Rain, I'm going to say something I don't think you want to hear. But it's something you need to hear. You need to consider breaking up with P'Payu" Sky said.

Rain's head jerked upwards and his hand pulled from Sig's. "But..."

"No. No buts. You need to think about it. The way you two are right now isn't healthy. You aren't okay. We see the circles under your eyes. We know you don't sleep. We watch you skip meals. You don't smile or laugh. You're not you anymore. We miss you. Don't you miss you?" Sky said while looking into Rain's eyes.