popping balloons

s i x .

spencer.

"spencer, can...can we talk?"

he turned around to face the sound of the pleasant voice. there stood brittany, his girlfriend, in all her perfect glory. 

blonde hair, beautiful blue eyes, porcelain skin, and a heart made of gold.

it helped that she was the school's cheer captain.

she was stereotypically flawless.

the default image for every male's wet dreams.

so why, why didn't - why couldn't - his heart race when he heard her voice like it usually did. why didn't he turn around and wrap his arms around her petite, gentle frame and kiss her temple? 

why - dare he say it - didn't he love her anymore?

he tried his best to ignore his thoughts. to drown them in a wave of memories of times they had together. memories of tight hugs, and heated kisses, and surprise visits. 

memories of two long years together.

it wasn't working though.

"yeah?" he asked, turning his back on his group of friends. he caught her look of discomfort as he did so.

"i - i meant alone, spencer."

she wanted privacy.

red flag.

he didn't bother hiding the frown as he complied and they both moved to a more abandoned part of the cafeteria.

he stood and waited as she played with her hair.

she was nervous.

another red flag.

"look, if you're just going to stand there - "

"something's wrong," she started. "i don't know when it happened, or why for that matter, but you're not the same. you don't - you don't kiss or hug me unless i start it and when i do you act like it's fucking painful. It's hard even being around you cause you look at me like i'm fucking dying!"

i don't think i've ever heard her curse before.

it wasn't that she was dying, just what he felt for her was.

it seemed as if all of her thoughts were bottled up and suffocated and now were being being released all at once. 

she searched his eyes looking for something - anything, really - telling her to hold on. telling her that this was just a phase, and that he would be back to normal soon enough.

finding nothing, she sighed.

"i can't do this anymore."

her voice sounded so broken that when she turned and left him there, he believed it was best that he didn't follow her.

holy shit, are people even still interested in this? i apologize for abandoning this and i don't even remember why i did. hopefully i'll get back in the gist of this story soon. btw, this is still mostly a writing exercise so it's not gonna be perfect.

dedicated to Toasted Bagels because she is a fantastic writer.