There Is Always, Someone Else

one

The door creaks open into the shared living space, a slightly dishevelled, long-haired woman walks through the doorway and closes it behind her. “Hey,” she whispered as she tiptoed over to the couch where a male with dusty, light brown hair sat, watching an action movie that was being displayed on the TV on the other side of the room, “what are you doing?” She sat down gently next to him, being careful to cross one knee over the other.

 He glanced towards her before patting a space on the couch next to him. “Just watching a movie, you wanna join?”

 She sits down next to her partner, tucking in her legs. “You want to go to the park, together?”

 He pauses for a moment, focusing on the movie, before nodding. “We haven’t been on a date in a while, can we go after I finish the movie?” He doesn’t remove his dark green eyes from the blaring blue light the whole time.

 The response was quick and snappy; “We can go now, the movie isn’t going anywhere.”

 Together, the two arrive at the park. The walk there was silent apart from the tapping on their shoes against the footpath.

 They arrive at a small pond contained in the middle of the park, surrounded by much natural bush and wildlife.

 The two sat on a bench, watching as ducks paddled around in the water ast they searched for the next meal.

 Jay attempts to wrap his arm around his girlfriend, trying to give her a hug but is gently pushed away by Mia as she stares aimlessly out at the water.

 The silence is deadly, airy and dragging out. "The weather's really nice right now…" Jay whispers to Mia as he gently rubs her knee, "and the spring flowers match your sweater…"

 Mia smiled as she looked down at the lilac purple sweater she wore. Of course he would notice something as stupid as that.

 He turns so that he is facing her, clearly noticing that something is up. She doesn't show signs of acknowledging his movement, busy studying individual threads. "Is something wrong, Mi?"

 He heard a sharp inhale come from next to him, he goes to give a reassuring touch but pulls away as he hears a sob come from Mias' throat.

 "What's wrong?" Jay whispers to her, leaning in. Mia responds by only covering her mouth with one sleeve, muffling her sobs and using the other to wipe away tears.

 Jay hugged her, whispering comforting and relaxing words, as she continued to sob until her breathing settled to a consistent and controlled pace.

 She takes a moment before looking into the eyes of her partner. She took a deep breath. 

 "We need to break up."

 Jay gently pulls himself off of her, giving her some space.

 Mia was shocked for a moment, "you're not mad?"

 Jay shook his head, and paused as if waiting for Mia to continue.

 Her tears start up again, out of both confusion and anger due to the calmness. "It's just- why aren't you mad at me? You should be mad at me, I'm a dissapoint. You don't even know why I want to break up- it's so confusing!" She takes a moment to catch her breathe again, giving herself a moment to clam down once more. Her voice was soft, low, remains of tears very clear; "do you even want to know why I want to break up?"

 He smiles lightly at her, "if you don't want to tell me I don't mind. You don't have to tell me everything, you know that."

 She takes in his reassurance, "it's okay. It's just- I think I like someone else and I just need time to myself to be figure it out, you know and I just want to say I'm sorry and that you expected so much more from us-"

 Jay cuts her off by gently wiping her black hair from his face. "Mia… if you don't think we can work out it's okay."

 She looks into his eyes, her dark blue against his forest green. "Are you sure you don't want to stop talking to me?"

 He chuckles lightly. "Why would I ever do that? You're too good of a friend."

 "But I like someone else- are you not mad about that?" 

 "There's nothing wrong with catching feelings, we are still young." Jays gives her a reassuring stroke to the cheek, causing her to smile.

 "I need to go now…" She stands up, as it she's telling herself she has to go. She is swiftly followed by Jay.

 "I'll see you later, okay?"

  She smiles. "Yeah, I'll see you at school." 

 He leans down to give her a final peak on the forehead before leaning back. He turns around and starts to walk towards the pond exit, giving Mia a small wave.

 She returns the wave before watching her ex-partner walk off out of sight, leaving just her, her emotions and the ducks to themselves by the pond.