You should have expected it

Seen it coming

The signs were all there

How did you not see it?

You should have been prepared; always be prepared, and nothing can hurt you; nothing is supposed to hurt you.

Your fingers curl along the phone you had clenched so tightly in your hand. Your eyes taking in the scene in front of you. Unable to look away, unable to stop the pain slithering in your chest. The heat rushing to your face, the salty tears filling your eyes.

Tears you desperately tried to hide, as you stepped back into the crowd of families and friends at the zoo.

You'd gone to surprise him, you thought spending a little time together would be help, would make things better. You would meet your boyfriend's friends from work. It was supposed to be a surprise, a way to spend time together.

What you walked in on explained why Hitoshi had been deliberately stalling you, quick to take you to other places, other rides to look for your boyfriend, after he'd spotted you. You finally caught on to something being off, being wrong, as he kept you from one of the water rides. You'd pushed past him and headed in that direction. Your heart pounding, your mind already spinning with all the what ifs.

You saw how Shinso's gaze skirted away from you, how dare he feel guilty, feel sorry for you! He'd been covering for his best friend, your boyfriend who was currently kissing another girl, some girl who had just started working together with him. How were you supposed to feel knowing she was younger than you? How were you supposed to feel knowing he'd claimed to be so busy at work while you were in school, working to better yourself, to support your family and he was moving on…

When did he stop loving you?

I'll always support you.

Good job babe, I'm so proud of you!

Move in with me; when you're done with school, let me take care of you.

It'll be us together; you don't have to do this alone.

You twisted around intending to leave, but Hitoshi's fingers grabbed your wrist attempting to halt you in your tracks. You jerked your arm back, but his grip only tightened for a moment more. "I'm sorry, you weren't supposed to find out like this."

"Bros before hoes right?" You growled, twisting around to slam your free hand against his chest. Your teeth clenched as you shot him a venomous look, despite the few tears that slipped down your cheeks. "You can both fuck off!" you spat, hating the way your voice caught as you jerked your arm back as he released you, causing you to elbow the older guy who'd been just sliding by.

You recognized him as your boyfriend's boss, but didn't do more than utter a quick, shakey apology, as you walked swiftly away, through the crowd.

You missed the tightening of the man's lips, missed the way his cold dark eyes had so easily assessed the situation. Shota Aizawa had seen you come into the store to visit your boyfriend, he was all too aware of how hard you worked to better yourself. He also knew a little of your background that you chose to share with him, how hard you worked to juggle school, family and work.

You never complained but it couldn't be easy. The stress, the exams, and the work had to be eating you alive. You had a lot on your plate once your parents passed away, to take care of your younger siblings—the pressure to make it had to be a lot.

Shota wasn't sure what pushed him to go after you, to head in that direction but he couldn't leave you like that. He wasn't sure if he was going to find you, but to his surprise he saw you pausing by one of the deserted enclosures, no one else was around. The families all heading for the bigger exhibits.

He slowly approached watching you wipe your eyes on the back of your sleeves, watched your chest heaving as you struggled to breathe through the overwhelming emotion, watched your nails bit into your palm, struggling to regulate your emotions.

His hand settled on your shoulder, watching through the semi mirrored exhibit your eyes flicker to him. It was the only support he could offer you, and his silence as he let you gather yourself was more than you felt you deserved.

"I should have seen it coming…" He flickered his eyes back to you as you spoke, not surprised to find you looking at him.

His fingers squeezed your shoulder and you pressed forward as you dropped your eyes to the ground. Heard you take a quivering breath before elaborating.

"We used to talk all the time…on the phone between my classes, at night, on my way to school and that stopped the last few days…I was too busy to notice –" you trailed off, your fingers tightening as you wrung them together.

"Actually – that's not true…" you forced another slow breath and wiped at another tear that slid down your face. "I noticed, but thought if I ignored it…that it wouldn't change anything…that I could fix it," you gave a humorless laugh, as your gaze flickered to the creature inside the cage.

"I thought that he would love me enough to get through this together, to wait for me…"

"I'm sorry," Shota wasn't sure what else to say. What could he say? Nothing would fix the choices made; nothing would make it any easier…nothing would make the pain go away of knowing how little you mattered to the person you had spent years with, spent years believing you would be together forever.

"I should have known, I was wasting my time, that it was all a lie. That was my fault."

"It's not your fault, for believing in him, believing he would be faithful to you."

Your fingers briefly squeezed his own, before you stood to your full height, giving him a small smile. "Thanks for listening Mr. Aizawa,"

He wasn't sure what had him passing along his business card, his number scrawled on the back. "If you ever want to talk, no matter the time." he offered his hand stretched out toward you. He did this because he wanted to; he wanted to give you a lifeline.

Your fingers curled around the card, and after some hesitation, you needed that kindness, that lifeline.

A/N: I wrote this to try and help me cope with a very similar situation…it's been really hard the last few days and nursing school is very demanding and I lost my best friend, so school and life stressors have become really hard, but it'll get better. Anyway, I hope this can help if anyone is going through something similar.