"What are you doing up here?"

Via was sitting on the short wall surrounding the rooftop of the building they were staying in, her right leg resting on the ledge, her left foot planted firmly on the roof. She glanced over as Owen walked slowly over to her.

"...what are you doing up here?" she asked as she ground out her cigarette.

"Keely said you told her you were going up here."

She looked back out towards the horizon. Some of the sky was still lit, even though the sun had set before Owen had even come up. "So why were you looking for me?"

"Just wanted to talk, I guess..."

"About Tia..."

"No," Owen quickly denied. He sighed, then shrugged uselessly. "I mean... yeah..."

"What's bothering you?"

"What's bothering me is that she seemed... bothered by it..."

"Well, you only broke up, what, seven hours ago..."

"But I thought she wanted to stop seeing me..."

"Would she have really given you that ultimatum if that was the case?"

"So you're saying I made the wrong decision."

"No, I'm saying she didn't necessarily want to break up with you in the first place, that's all."

He bit his lip as he looked over at her, scratching the back of his neck.

"As long as you did what you think is right, then there's nothing else you can do. You can't help the way she feels."

"Then why do I feel bad? I know it wasn't going to work out, so why do I feel like this?"

"...synthetic happiness," she said after a brief silence.

"What's that? Drugs? You're probably talkin' about drugs."

"I'm not talking about drugs, Owen. I'm talking about the mind's ability to be content with the situation it's in, rather than yearning for something it wants. There have been studies on it. There's no noticeable difference between happiness in people five years after they win the lottery and five years after they lose the use of their legs."

"Really?"

"Really. Their minds are content with what they have rather than preoccupied with what they want. Synthetic happiness."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"You're not at all happy with what you've got. You want to be with someone. You're a bit needy. You're sociable. You have a need to be around people. You don't care much for solitude, do you?"

"Not really, no..."

"The problem with this need for connection you've got is that it can end up pushing you towards a relationship that's not good for you. Or for the girl," she added, as she stood up on the roof and leaned forward on the ledge, resting her elbows on the concrete.

"Oh... that... that doesn't sound good." He slowly walked forward and stood a few feet behind her, unwilling to walk up near the edge of the building, even with the protective rail.

"Well, don't worry, it's not just you. Plenty of people find themselves in situations where they're unhappy. Some of us just try to delude ourselves into thinking it's good for us. Eventually we'll all figure it out... that we're not doing ourselves any favors by fooling ourselves... that we're not meant to be where we are... that we've got to make a change in our lives, even if it means hurting the people we care about."

He didn't say anything in response. He couldn't begin to unpack what he might say in response.

"But. You said you're having second thoughts now that you two are separated. That's to be expected."

"Oh, it is?"

"Yes. 'Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire'..."

"Great passions, huh?"

"I think the notion that we all have to find somebody to love is kind of a foolish one."

"You don't want to fall in love?"

"Didn't say that, I just said that we, as a society, place too much importance on falling in love. I am still a teenage girl: you do realize this, yes?"

"I noticed..." he replied, trying to hide the smirk on his face.

"Some of us are doomed to walk this world alone, I reckon. Or suffer through a lifetime with somebody we don't want to spend a lifetime with, which seems to be the most popular alternative."

"I take it you'd rather live alone."

"If it was that or live with someone I didn't want to be with? I don't see why not..."

A brief gust of wind blew her hair over her shoulder. He piped up after a brief silence. "What would you do if you liked someone that you don't... what if you felt something for someone, and you didn't know why you liked him? Would you tell him?"

She slowly looked over her shoulder at him. "I don't know," she answered honestly. "Given that I'm a girl and you're a bloke, there's different expectations there, though."

"Forget about society and gender differences and all that for a second, just... tell me what you'd do."

She shrugged. "I don't think I'd hide my feelings for him. I might even tell him, if it was bothering me that much. I don't know, though. I can't say for certain."

"Why not?"

"We can never truly know who we are..."

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "You don't think so?"

"The way we see ourselves is too different from the way other people see us. That's the problem. We only see things the way we see them. We can have fairly good ideas of who we are, but it's hard to say what we'd do in any given situation..." She turned around and stepped towards him.

"Really?"

"Situations dictate who we are, not just personalities. You can never know when you might do something incredibly stupid."

He bit his lip, then leaned in and kissed her. To his surprise, she didn't pull away: that is, until his hand slid onto her bruised side. She gasped sharply as their lips broke apart.

"Oh.... s-sorry," he stuttered, grimacing as she held her hand gingerly to her side.

She shook her head. "Don't bother apologizing."

"Do you mean that in a good way or in a bad way?"

"Do you think you pulled a stupid move when you broke up with Tia?"

"...I guess not."

"Because you didn't want to be in the relationship anymore, yes?"

"Well, yeah."

"You don't want to be tied down, do you? By a relationship?"

"I... It just wasn't working...."

"Why'd you kiss me?"

He looked up at the quickly darkening sky as he searched for an answer. "Just did something incredibly stupid, I guess."

"Is that so..."

"I don't... I don't know!..."

"I'm used to hearing that from boys. It's okay."

"Was there something wrong with doing that? Why are you acting like this? You've always been a little detached, but this seems extreme even for you!"

She rolled her eyes and sighed.

"What? Why can't you just tell me?"

"Fine. You want to know?"

"Uh.... yeah," he said, nodding his head.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm moving away."

"Wh... what? When?"

"I thought about a month after we get back. But now it'll probably have to be sooner."

"...why?"

"You're not that thick, are you? You can't possibly be that thick."

"What?"

She shut her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. "It's because of you, you git!"

"Me?!"

"It's very likely that I'll never see you again once I move away. And then you go and–.... Why did you kiss me." Her tone was flat and straightforward.

"Because I like you, okay?"

"There it is, theeeerrrre it is. That's exactly what I figured. So yes, there was something wrong with you doing that, Owen, because nothing can happen between us."

"Well why the hell not?"

"I just told you, Owen... I'm going to be over five thousand miles away from you."

"So?"

"So?!"

"So it'll end. Probably soon. So will every other relationship in the world. Life's just... a chain of moments strung together. That's all. Chains break; you know that. You're the one that's always pointing it out!"

"Very poetic, Owen, but that's not what this is about, and you know it."

"Then what is it about?"

She bit her lip and looked up at him. He furrowed his brow: she looked insecure, almost vulnerable.

She sighed and shook her head. "It's windy up here. I'm going back inside. See you around."

She quickly turned and walked to the door to the stairwell. The sound of it shutting reverberated off the tar surfacing of the roof. He stood there, his hands in his pockets, looking curiously over at where she had disappeared into the building.

He shook his head and slowly headed back inside once the wind started getting to him.