Chapter Nine.

When your scroll rings for you to buzz someone through the gate you almost don't hear it. You've been sitting in the parking space in front of your apartment for the last half hour. Waiting. Waiting for what? Oh yeah, Adam. Waiting for Adam because you messaged him at 3:47am that you needed to talk to him ASAP. Why did you need to talk to him so badly that it couldn't wait? Oh yeah, Weiss. Dear Gods.

The haze was beginning to actually start clearing from your mind. But you're still what you would call drunk. In no position to be making life decisions. That's for sure. Which just makes you more angry on top of all the types of confused that you feel. Glancing at the side mirror on your door you see Adam's car, the one with the broken radio display, pull up in a nearby space. When he moves to get out of the car, something in your brain triggers, and you fling open your own door. This has to be on your terms.

"Hey, what's going on? I tried to call but you didn't answer. Is everything okay?" He moves toward the stairs at the front of your building, as though you would be going inside. He notices that your arms are folded across your chest, all but tucked securely into your sides.

"Get in the car." Even you are surprised by the curtness of your voice. Shaking the disbelief out of your head, you open the passenger side door of his car and sit down inside. The dark cloth seats are clean and the car smells like the body spray of a teenage boy. Well, at least it's clean, you think to yourself.

"Blake, what's going on?" He turns to face you as soon as his door closes. The silence consumes you for a split second. You never thought that you would really get to this situation.

"I just think it's better if we have this conversation here. And not inside." You motion towards the apartment.

"Are you drunk?" He's lightly sniffing the air. Trying to detect what he already knows.

"No, I bathe in whiskey these days. It's better for my skin." You roll your eyes. Still agitated. But it's not at him. Which makes you feel guilty for being snarky. "I mean yeah I was drinking this evening. But that's negligible."

"Did something happen?" There it is, the glint of anger flashing in the depths of his eyes.

"Gods no. Nothing happened. But I realized that I needed to talk to you about things. About…" you draw in a breath you wish you could keep inside and let it suffocate you and then you could die in peace and not have to speak anymore, "about us."

"Oh. Well okay." The anger slowly fades, like when a candle runs down to the end of the wick. You release the breath you've been holding.

"I want to do this in the best way possible. But for what this is, I really don't think there's a best way." The small nods he's giving let you know he knows where you're going with this. "I mean, we've been together for over a year. And I can't say how it feels for you, but for me it just doesn't feel anymore."

"No. I get what you mean." Drawing your eyes up to his face you see that he can't look at you.

"And I'm tired of doing whatever it is that we are doing, or not doing. And having it become increasingly unfair to each other." You wish he would contribute something. But he's just sitting there, nodding his head. Not looking at you.

After ten or so seconds that felt like eternity, he huffs out a breath and looks up at you. You had a lot of expectations about how this would go. Anger. Yelling. Lots of yelling. But not this. He's crying. Wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes in shame. You reach over the center console towards him. For what, you don't know. But he waves you off.

"It's okay Blake." But he must be able to read the look of doubt on your face. "I think we've known for a while that this wasn't going to work out like either of us had hoped. To be honest, I don't even know what I was hoping anymore." He laughs, but it's fake and hollow. Wiping the palm of his hand across his right eye one more time. "I just hope that we can still ya know.. be friends." It's the first time you've felt relieved all evening. But you can't start handing out false promises.

"I need to take some time. Figure some stuff out. But I definitely won't count that out."

"Guess I'll take what I can get." The two of you sit there for a few moments in total silence. Just taking in that you dissolved the remnants of what little relationship you had left. "So, I don't mean to be rude or insensitive about this whole thing, but I have to be at work in a few hours. And I think it just may be best if I left anyways, considering… you know."

"Oh. Oh yes. For sure. I need to go to sleep too." You fumble in your pocket for your keys and scramble to collect your bag. After you exit the car and shut the door you hear the window roll down and turn to face him for the last time this evening, or morning now.

"Hey Blake, can I ask you one more thing? And you don't have to answer if you don't want to." Your tired eyes blink shut and reopen slowly as you give a short nod of approval. "Is there someone else?"

You think for a second, the rest of the evening washing back over you.

"No." A pang hits you in the chest, but you can't identify the feeling. "But I wish there were."

Your head hangs forward as you descend the stairs to the door of your apartment, listening to the sound of car tires grind against pavement and off into the night.

Part of you wants to flop on the couch and die. The other part is screaming inside your head for you to wash your face and brush your teeth. Fortunately for you, the voice was loud enough to win.

Wiping the toothpaste from the corners of your mouth and tossing the towel back onto the hook behind the door, you make your way into your room. Finally. Your bed. Just you and no one else.

Turning your lights to a dark, deep blue you lay down. Ready for sleep to claim you. But it doesn't. Your mind is swirling. Running marathons while your body can barely move. What the hell happened today? First you got stupid crazy drunk. Which is understandable. That happens. Then you remember the feeling you got when you listened to Weiss talk about never having someone treat her decently. Also understandable, right? I mean, Weiss is your friend. You should want your friends to be happy. All the time. That's normal. But standing up in front of your friends and Weiss and asking her out on a date? What the hell was that even? What were you even thinking? And Weiss is a girl. Not that you have anything against it. For Gods' sake, you live with Sun. He's basically what you find at the end of the rainbow. It's just something you had never considered for yourself until now.

Not to mention, you didn't even wait for Weiss to answer. So not only are you acting like a lunatic in front of your friends, but you are also rude. You've been so overloaded by how what you did made you feel you completely forgot to think about how Weiss is feeling. Horrible. That's what you are. Horrible.

Then there's Adam. Which, of all the awful things you've done this evening, that was probably the best choice. Maybe not exactly the right way to do it, but it would've been done regardless. But you owed it to him to end things before something did happen, no matter what or who it was with. But in the street? Damn. Graceless.

For the first time in a long time, you really don't know what you even feel or who you even are. What you do know is that there's one thing that keeps spinning around your mind, entangling within every thought. It has silver hair and deep blue eyes. You don't know what to do anymore, so you let the tears hit the pillow and cry yourself to sleep.

The park is perfect. This is a park, right? Looking around there's a bunch of perfectly manicured grass and pristine walkways. Spotting your favorite spot, you make your way toward the large tree with a bench underneath.

The bench is a medium wood with iron embellishments, worn from time. You take your seat at the left end. You always sit in this exact spot. Or do you?

Looking forward, you see a rolling fog. Odd, seeing as how it's a perfectly clear day. The weather is nice and flowers are blooming. Must be spring. Which is weird. Because it was winter yesterday. But never mind that. The sound of running water tugs at your Faunus ears. Along with a light hum that wasn't there just a moment ago.

"The river is truly amazing. So beautiful." You know that voice. It's calmer than it normally is, but it belongs to Weiss all the same. She's sitting to your right. Was she there this whole time? More importantly, what is she talking about?

"Weiss, where did you come from? And you can't see the river. It's too foggy."

"Is it though?"

A sharp sound begins echoing all around you. What does she mean? And what the hell is this terrible noise? She stands up and begins to walk away from you.

"Wait Weiss! Where are you going?"

"It's time to go."

The sound is getting louder, drumming down on your Faunus ears. Shaking the bench. The ground begins to crumble and fall in on itself. There's a final crack like thunder and everything goes white.

Well, not everything is white. It's just the ceiling of your bedroom as you swing your arm wildly looking for your scroll so that you can turn off your alarm.

Nothing like a weird dream to start off the day. But you'd rather stay with dream Weiss, than face real Weiss. Which is exactly what you will have to do today at work.