"How could I have let this happen?!" Gage asked himself as he sat in his apartment.

"I knew she wouldn't wait forever, so why did I wait? Now she's in love, I can see it in her eyes. I never told her, . . . how I really feel! Then Chris had to come along, I wish he was gone!"

Gage was angry, with himself and also with Chris. Why did he have to come along and wreck everything? He tried to calm himself down as he thought,

"Try to be happy, or at least pretend to be happy. Syd is happy, that's what's most important. And if Chris is wait make her happy, then so be it. Her happiness is more important than my wishes. But I swear! If he ever leaves I'll come straight with Sydney, no more secrets. I tell her the truth right away, I won't miss my opportunity next time."

The difficult part was that there might not be a next time. Syd seemed to be in love, and Chris seemed to be obsessed with her! Gage knew if Chris got the chance later in life, he would ask Syd to marry her.

Gage walked over to his large couch, sat in it, and placed his head in his hands. He let the silent tears fall from his eyes with no shame, because for the first time in his life he had something worth crying over. He was happy for Sydney, he really was. She was happy, that was what mattered. But it still didn't change the fact he had lost something, his only chance to be with Syd.

Gage felt like someone had died, it was a horrible feeling of loss. It was like Syd had died and he had lost her forever. But he knew she was in a better place, so he had to force himself to be strong.

"Why was I so stupid?!" Gage asked aloud as his tears continued to drop.

"I knew that sooner or later Syd would get involved in a relationship. I also knew that one of those relationships might include 'the one' for her. But did I try to make a move? No! I was so stupid! And now I'm paying for that stupidity, nice going Gage."

Gage wiped his eyes and smiled slightly as he remembered Walker and Alex's wedding day. Syd had looked beautiful, so very beautiful. When she had opened up to him, he felt a connection. And when she kissed him, . . . wow. It was like the forth of July, only better. It was like everything in his life was finally perfect, just like Syd. Then she asked if he wanted a beer, he had been too shocked to say anything besides, 'yeah'. Why hadn't he confronted her while he had the chance?! When he had tried to talk about it, he got a kick in the face. He should have known better to talk to her while fighting. He should have waited for the right moment and approached her differently, less intimidatingly. Why didn't he . . .

"Stop!" Gage thought, "Thinking about regrets won't help anything. This is only making me feel worse!"

He got up from the couch and stretched, in need of some movement to get his mind off things. As he walked into the kitchen he saw a photograph on a table that made him smile. It was a picture of Syd and him at one of C.D.'s parties. They were both laughing, smiling, goofing off . . . it was a great picture of them.

Gage abruptly turned his head away from the picture, not wanting to arouse anymore memories that only made him regret anymore. He decided to go for some exercise to keep himself occupied. He was about to head to the gym when he changed his mind, that would be like asking for a long trip down memory lane. He eventually decided to go on a jog. Twenties minutes later he was out the door running as fast as he could. Hoping that after his run he would be so tired he would go straight to sleep, not having to think any more about Sydney.

Gage refused to look at his surroundings, instead he just focused on running. Thankful for the distraction from his thoughts. After quite a few miles he stopped to check his watch, it was getting dark. It read 7 o'clock.

"I should probably start heading back now." Gage thought.

He then looked up and accidentally looked at his surroundings. His mouth opened in shock as he saw where he stood. Somewhere in his subconscious mind, something had been leading him to Syd's place. For a few yards ahead of him stood Syd's apartment building. Gage tried to focus on something else, but it was too late, he began to think of Sydney.

"Maybe I should drop by and say hello." Gage thought.

He then corrected himself and thought,

"No. That would be rude, it's late. She might be busy, or with Chris."

Gage continued to come up with excuses to ignore the real reason he didn't want to go in, he didn't know if he could handle it.

He sighed as he began to jog back to his apartment, he could no longer avoid his thoughts.

"It's crazy how in only a few short weeks your whole life can change," Gage thought, "it seems only yesterday that Chris was still stationed in California. Why'd he ever have to come here?!"

Then a curious thought entered his mind,

"Wait a minute, why did he come here? Chris never did tell us much about himself or his life back in California. I wonder what ever made him want to move from marvelous California to Texas? Hmm, seems kind of strange. I'll have to ask him tomorrow."

When Gage arrived at his apartment he was still thinking about Chris, why did he come here? Gage tried not to let his imagine get carried away, there really wasn't anything suspicious about Chris. Maybe he just needed a change. But Gage couldn't shake this nagging feeling that something didn't fit. It reminded him of what Walker told him, to always trust your instincts. Walker always trusted his, even when no one believed him. And he always ended up being right.

His last thought before going falling asleep was,

"Why is Chris here?!"