"Sam," I said when she paused in her scream to draw breath. I reached out for her, thinking that I could bring her some comfort, but drew back when she glared at me and harshly reminded me that I had caused her this pain.

"What the fuck?" She hissed, distrustful purple eyes glaring at me. "What the actual fuck?"

"Please," I murmured, but I had no idea what I was begging her for.

Please don't leave; please let me explain more. Please, understand that I love you more than anything; understand that I was too selfish; understand that I never meant to hurt you this much; understand that it will never happen again if you just give me one last, undeserved chance.

"Change back," Sam demanded. She flopped back into the armchair, a sudden change from how rigid she'd been a moment before. I would have taken it as a good sign, that she was calming down even, were it not for the fact that she had covered her eyes so that she wouldn't have to look at me.

I did as she asked and changed back into my human form. That done, I took my seat on the couch again and watched her with eager eyes, trying to fathom what was going through her head. My entire being seemed to depend on what decision she would make next; what I would be able to read in her eyes if she ever looked at me again.

I folded my hands across my lap and waited, and waited … I couldn't see her face, hidden as it was under her arm and hands, but I could see the bottom of her jaw line tense and I didn't think that was a good sign. Though, there probably weren't any good signs left for me. My mind had just started to drift to a fond memory of Sam, one where she was laughing and smiling without a care in the world, when all of a sudden she bolted upright in her seat, her hands falling away from her face.

"Paullina!" She cried, though that was the last thing I had expected her to say. I cocked my head to the side and waited for some kind of clarification. "You were with Paullina while I was with … him."

I had no defense, for any of it. "I told you I made a lot of really fuckin' stupid decisions. The moment I realized that I wanted you I should have left her, because she never could have meant half as much to me as you do."

Sam stared at me. One second I thought she was going to kiss me; the next, I thought I was about to get slapped. Neither happened. Instead, she stood up. "I have to go," she told me.

She turned to go and I just couldn't let her.

"Sam," I called and reached out, my fingers brushing against her bare forearm.

Sam jumped at the contact, turning to glower at me. "Don't touch me," she growled.

"We're not done talking," I said as I pulled my arm away from her. I had hoped that it would be an incentive to stay, but Sam shot me down.

"I can't talk right now. I can't even think." She was trembling as she pulled on her coat, the same one she had worn the last time I took her flying; the one she was wearing when saw my ice sculpture.

"When can I come see you?" I tried again, hoping to convince her to stay. We couldn't just be over. I knew that she was well within her right to never speak to me again, but that didn't mean I was going to go down without a fight. I believed that we were meant to be together; I had thrown a wrench into the mix but I honestly believed that we could fight through it.

"You can't! What would ever make you think that I would want to talk to you?"

"Because," I explained, aware that I sounded like a child, "Because we love each other."

"I don't love you!" Sam screeched. "I don't even know you. You were just using me –"

"I WAS NOT USING YOU!" I shouted.

She could hate me; she could yell and scream at me; she could knee me in the dick but what she couldn't do was think that I had used her. No matter my mistakes, no matter how much I had fucked up, I honestly loved Sam. Not once had I dreamed of using her. If I had been using her, I never would have told her the truth; I never would have felt so conflicted about our relationship. I loved her; I was in love with her.

"I would never dream of such a thing," I added in my defense.

"Then explain it to me," Sam dared me. "Explain why you never told me who you were. Explain why you were always so cruel to me. Explain why you were with two girls at the same time. And for the love of everything, why the fuck would you break my heart right after I gave everything to you?"

That just proved that we needed to talk more: I had a hell of a lot more to say and she had a hell of a lot more to hear.

"You need to let me explain more," I said calmly.

Sam shook her head at me, looking completely disgusted as she did so. "I've heard enough. I know you lied to me. I know you pretended to be someone you're not. I know you didn't give a fuck about my feelings. I know I'm done with you."

With every word that left her lips, I felt the ring of finality more and more clearly.

"I'm telling you the truth now," I said, aware of how weak it sounded. "I was more real with you than I think I've been with anyone else; despite the change in appearance, I was never anyone else."

I drew toward her, needing to prove that we were the same person. I tilted her head up to look at me, my two fingers tucked underneath of her chin. Her broken, beautiful eyes looked deeply into mine and I hoped that she wasn't going to beat me for what I was about to do. I tilted my head to the side and lightly pressed my lips to hers. To my shock and to my pleasure, she kissed me back, her mouth moving as I knew it would. She leaned into me; I had to refrain from wrapping my arms around her and holding her to me. If she was kissing me, it had to mean something positive … didn't it?

But just as quickly as it was over, Sam was roughly shoving me from her. Though I could have resisted her feeble shove, I went with the motion, my shoulder hitting the hallway wall. She turned her back to me and put her hand to the doorknob.

"I never cared about anything but your feelings," I blurted, realizing that this might be my last chance to tell her anything. "I know my timing is shit and I should have told you months ago, but I couldn't let this go any further without being honest with you. And I need it to go further. I know you need time, and I respect that because I was the one who fucked up. I would be an idiot to think that you could forgive me just like that, I know you won't. But you can't just be done with me, Sam. I can't handle that."

Sam didn't even hesitate. She didn't even give me one moment to hope that my plea had worked on her.

"I am done," She said, voice strong and confident. "How could I ever …" She began, but suddenly stopped.

I instantly wondered what she was going to say. How could she ever what? But Sam never finished her sentence; never told me exactly what she was going to say.

"Goodbye."

Before I could even process that she was leaving, she was gone. I sprinted to my front door, throwing myself against it and peeking out the window. I watched her walk to her car, and wondered if I should go after her. No, I decided, I'll give her some time to calm down; to come to terms with what was said.

I watched her get into her car. Before she pulled away however, Sam turned back for one last look at Fenton Works and at me. Her gaze made me wonder if she would turn the car off after all and come back to me. I wondered if she would let me explain everything. But she didn't come back. She set her jaw, faced forward, and drove off down the dark street.

I turned around as soon as her bright red brake lights had disappeared from my sight. I leaned against my heavy front door and slid down it until I fell onto my ass. I brought my knees up to my chest and began to sob into them. I cried like I had never cried before. Tears rushed down my face in a torrent. I hadn't wept like this at my grandmother's funeral; hadn't wept like this when I had found my childhood cat run over in the street in front of the house; hadn't wept like this when the portal's energy had ground its way through me, literally killing half of me.

The death of part of me couldn't even rival the pain I felt from Sam's absence. Having Sam gone was more painful than dying. I had hurt another human being beyond imagination. I could easily say that my heart was broken, and it was, but I knew that I had shattered hers. From early on in our relationship, I had been, in some way, anticipating the pain that was sure to come. Sam had no such preparation.

In Sam's mind, we would end when she outgrew me; when she had to move on with her life and I stayed seventeen forever. I think I'd known, though I'd resisted it, that I would someday tell her the truth. I think that's why I had hated Tucker and Jazz so much when they had broached the topic of telling her; I didn't want to consider telling her because I had already decided, in some deep dark part of me, that I was going to.

I only wished that I had told her sooner. There's a saying that goes something like 'time is a cruel teacher' and indeed it is. I'd had plenty of years, plenty of opportunities to learn, but I had never taken a single one of them.

When I was a loser, when I'd been mocked and ridiculed, I had the opportunity to let it make me a stronger, better person. I had the opportunity to learn how to care for people equally; to realize that happiness is what you make it. Rather, I'd let myself remain a selfish bastard, lusting after the high life that turned out to be nothing like what I thought it would be. When I reached that goal of being popular, I had the opportunity to come to my senses, much like Tucker recently had, and realize that it wasn't who you pretended to be; it was who you really were under all the false pretenses that mattered.

If I had learned all of the lessons that had presented themselves to me, I would have broken up with Paullina long before Sam had arrived; I would have entered our relationship the right way – as a human – and then later told her the truth that I was half ghost. If I had done any of those things, she would be in my arms right now. I would never have hurt her the way that I did and she would have no reason to leave me, to hate me.

But I didn't do any of those things and I would have to spend the rest of my life atoning from it.

Bear with me, there's a point to this paragraph. Okay, so I don't know how many people realize this but all of my titles have also been song titles. I'm having a little contest, if readers are interested (sorry, no material goods will be given :/). The first reviewer to tell me who sang Reflections, Wonderwall, and Invincible will be written into Invincible as a minor character. The kicker, however, is it has to be the version of the song that I was listening to when I thought of the chapter title. So, even if so-and-so sang Wonderwall but I was thinking of the version by so-so then you haven't won. Got it?

I just thought I'd do something fun.

Also, next chapter I will be giving out the release date for Invincible!

I don't own anything recognizable. Thanks to my betas: Forever Sky.

~TLL~