Parappa stared at the wooden table, unable to keep eye contact with Sunny on the other side. He twiddled his thumbs, his arms resting on the table. He could only hear the clock ticking from the wall on his right mixed with his predictions of what would happen after he said what he wanted...
"After all these months, and you're quitting on me?!"
"Are you out of your mind?!"
"Are you having an affair with PJ?!"
"Parappa..." Sunny's soft voice broke his concentration. After being lost in thought, Parappa finally looked at her. Her expression had gone from jovial to solemn previously. He had said the discussion was serious. "Is there something you're not telling me?"
I had to do this at some point. I don't want to do it, but enough is enough, Parappa thought. After a deep inhale, he spoke, "Sunny, I have liked you for a long time. When we started dating, I thought it was the best thing that could happen to me. But, after a while, I realized that it wasn't exactly true..."
Sunny's expression darkened, contrary to her usually bright countenance. She looked as though she wanted to speak, but stared at Parappa and continued to listen intently. Parappa rubbed his nape before moving on, his breathing uneven.
"I think I liked you for...the wrong reasons. See, when I began liking you, I didn't really know who you were, but..." Sunny's countenance was not helping him at all, what with her looking ready to cry. Again, he was unable to even look at her, lest he may have broken down himself. "What I'm trying to say is, I was...just not ready. And after seven months of dating...I guess it only confirmed my unpreparedness..."
Sunny couldn't bear much more of it. She closed her watering eyes and scrunched up her face. "So, are you breaking up with me?" she asked, her voice wobbly. Parappa clenched his fists in distress.
"Y-yeah..." Parappa's voice was brittle, weak. He never expected that word to come out of his mouth in that context. Seven months ago to that day, he thought he was with the love of his life, and that nothing could break their emotional bonds. And in just a few short paragraphs, all of that had just ended. Taking another deep breath, Parappa wrapped his finger around his collar. "I'm s-sorry..."
She sniveled before getting up from her seat. Sunny wanted to leave then, but she said, "So that explains why you were late for our dates in the past few days, and why you forgot about our monthly anniversary today..."
Parappa didn't appreciate the accusations, frowning at them. Earnestly, he remarked, "Now, Sunny-"
"Don't 'now, Sunny' me!" the flower snapped angrily, slamming her fists on the table as tears streaked down her face. Parappa saw her eyes sparkling at that point, his heart skipping a beat from the surprise. "If you weren't ready for us being a thing, you could have said something sooner!" After more snivels, she finally walked out of Parappa's kitchen. Parappa, paralyzed with consternation, watched her walk away from him both physically and emotionally. Sunny gave Parappa one more stare of longing and resentment before slamming the door. The impact shook a few of the pictures on the nearby wall, causing one of them to fall, the glass frame shattering. Parappa took notice of the fallen image and walked over to it.
He picked up the frame, careful not to cut himself, and looked at the picture. It depicted him and Sunny kissing each other, in a time where neither of them were aware the present day would come. A crack had appeared right between the two former lovers, perfectly depicting their relationship state at that point. The rapdog sighed and began cleaning the glass from the carpet.
I had to do it, Parappa thought as he unwrapped his vacuum cord. If I didn't do it now, I can't imagine how it would have been later...
Oddly enough, he felt a sort of satisfaction for his actions in the past few moments. It did take courage to do something he felt was right, even at the expense of others' feelings. He felt less weight to bear on his shoulders since he had announced his decision. There was obviously the adverse heartbreak that came with the breakup, but Parappa tried not to let this bother him too much. Regardless, after a few hours of listening to King Kong Mushi while lying on his bed, he couldn't distract himself from the events that had transpired in moments past.
. . .In the midst of the hip hop goodness coming from his gramophone, Parappa heard his cell phone vibrate, the noise waking him up from his nap. He picked up the phone, turned off the gramophone on the other end of the room, and answered the phone. "Hello?"
"Hey." It was PJ. "I heard about what happened. Sorry to hear that..." In most cases, PJ wouldn't have shown concern for anything involving Sunny and Parappa, but with something as pertinent to the friend group as a break up, and to one of his best friends, the bear felt obligated to be involved somehow.
The rapdog sat on his bed. "Yeah," he said simply, not knowing what else to say.
"What made you call it quits?"
"It wasn't calling it quits," Parappa spat defensively. "It was...making adjustments with how we would...treat each other."
"If it was just that simple, you wouldn't have broken up with her," PJ said bluntly, indifferent to the sensitivity of the occurrence. Parappa sighed in exasperation.
"You wouldn't get it, PJ. You don't even LIKE girls to begin with!"
"And look where it's gotten me. No breakups, no worries, no regrets." The bear's attitude had lost all implications of sympathy. All Parappa could do was roll his eyes. Same old PJ, he thought. "Oh, hey, listen, if you're looking for something to do, I made a new beat for our next show. Come over if you want."
Well, that was one good thing. It would be an effective way to get his mind off of Sunny, it would get him some rap practice, and he'd spend time with someone who he knew didn't hate him. Speaking of which, his mind shifted to how MilkCan would react. Sunny and Katy were pretty close, so there was no doubt she told Katy the first chance she had. And from there, it would spread to the other members of MilkCan. He briefly considered their reactions to the relationship fiasco, but didn't let those thoughts alter his decision-making process. After all, people did stuff like this so that both members of the relationship would benefit somehow, right? He wasn't supposed to think too much about others' reactions, right?
"Hello? Parappa? Are your thoughts being spoken through exposition again?" PJ asked over the other line. Parappa snapped out of it and decided to let his thoughts be within quotation marks.
"Uh, sorry about that. Yeah, I'll be over there in a minute," Parappa assured. He hung up and grabbed his orange beanie from one corner of his bed. He glanced at his bathroom mirror to see any glaring flaws to his appearance. He shrugged and left for the door, looking at the spot in the wall where the fallen picture was. He remembered what happened to it and shook his head at the thought before leaving.
