A small part of her knew it couldn't last forever.

From the very first moment she met him, she knew they were from different worlds, different lives, and that the chances of those spheres overlapping for longer than an instant were astronomically small.

She knew she only had him for a finite amount of time, and she planned on enjoying every moment of it.

.

.

Point Mouette was a welcome break, a bonding experience like no other. They were close then, closer than ever before, closer than they ever would be again.

She relished in the time with him, even as she came to realize that the tide was turning.

They were both just approaching the starting lines of their lives, one foot on the mark and waiting for the gunshot that would propel them out into the real world. Different worlds.

He had his own friends now, his own cousins, his own existence to find, and so did she.

And yet she still held on with the tightest of grasps, watching her days left with him slide though her fingers and trying desperately not to think about it.

.

.

When they met next, a little more than a year later, it had already changed. They were still friends, but somehow the closeness had faded away, and had been replaced by the quiet of two people who have very little to talk about.

.

.

And it only got worse.

.

.

As her head filled with equations and economics, and the issues with the world they lived in, his began to overflow with sonatas and concertos and the beauty that bathed every instant of time.

She couldn't meet him that summer, she had an internship.

He couldn't meet her the next, he was going on tour.

They were pursuing what they loved, and it was killing their friendship.

.

.

When Alec emailed her a photo of his son and a girl, wrapped around each other and smiling, with a caption that read "Speak Now…" she couldn't even find it in herself to be jealous.

She had never wanted his love, only his friendship, and deep-down she had always known that was temporary.

.

.

But that sliver of time, that millisecond in the year of their lives, was the most cherished, the most remembered, and the most loved.

She had enjoyed their time together, and was grateful their worlds had collided, even if it was just a glancing blow.

(End.)

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