Kate was awoken in the morning by the sound of the front door slamming. She rolled over sleepily and could hear someone moving through the house. There were muffled voices and the sound of something soft being dragged on the floor. For a while, Kate simply stared up at the ceiling, absorbing the sounds curiously. She hadn't been aware of anyone planning to come over and it certainly wasn't any of Jamie's late-night friends trying to sneak out of the house in the morning, or at least they were doing a very poor job of it.

Kate raised herself up by one arm and noticed that the TV was still on. She paused for a moment as the events of the last night caught up with her. A dull feeling of apprehension swept through her and she looked around the room quickly even though she knew she wouldn't find him. She felt a sad disappointment that she didn't.

She quickly threw on a thick sweater and some jeans before stepping out into the hallway. At first, she expected there to be a whole group of people moving through the house. The front door was open a crack but everything was relatively quiet. Kate looked into the living room and her eye caught a glint of shiny white and black. She turned to the kitchen and felt her heart do a small flip.

Simon was standing in the corner of the kitchen leaning back against one of the counters. He hadn't spoken or made a noise, but that wasn't what surprised her about him. He'd had his arms folded across his chest and was slowly lowering them as he spotted her. The motion reminded Kate of his increasing human behavior, the kind that took her breath away when he'd stormed into her room as if she'd never been angry with him. Kate shook off the feeling in an effort to clear her head.

"Hey Simon." Her throat was still a bit hoarse from sleep. "What's going on?"

It looked as if he didn't want to tell her. Kate began to move forward again but stopped as Jamie's door swung open at the other end of the hall. Jamie appeared, dragging behind her a large suitcase and what looked like a bag stuffed with clothes. As Kate watched, Jamie made eye-contact with her, then continued straight to the front door.

"Um…" Kate stepped toward her. "Are you going somewhere?"

Jamie stopped and straightened to look at her. Her eyes were lit in a powerful energy. "Wouldn't you like to know."

Kate narrowed her eyes in confusion as Jamie lifted her bag up higher and started to move again. "I guess. That's a lot of stuff. What, are you moving out?"

Jamie opened the front door and set the suitcase and bag outside before heading back into the house. She threw a glare at Kate as she moved by. A bubbling frustration was beginning to grow inside of Kate as she followed her a bit down the hallway.

"Jamie? You want to maybe form some words?"

"Why don't you just fuck off, Katie."

Kate was frozen for a second. She racked her brain quickly to remember any kind of argument they'd had recently or something she might have said. The issue of red ice popped up in her mind, though this seemed a bit too sobering for it to be caused by drugs. Kate shook her head as Jamie returned to the hallway, boxes in hand.

"What the hell is wrong, Jamie?" said Kate. There was more concern in her voice than she'd planned on.

Jamie turned and nodded towards the kitchen. "Maybe you should ask him. Or you maybe you don't need to since you're at the point where you can tell your android to be a fucking dick on your behalf."

Kate was frozen in confusion. She cast a look at Simon who was still watching from the kitchen in silence. She studied his expression for any hint of some answer as to why Jamie was behaving like this but his face was completely blank. She let out a sharp breath as she turned to Jamie again who had dropped the box outside and was moving through the living room again.

"What─" Kate struggled to speak as she followed her again. "I don't get it. Did someone say something to you or are you just pissed off for no reason?"

"Why the fuck do you care?" Jamie closed the bedroom door behind her as she swung the last few bags of things off her shoulder. She watched Kate with narrowed eyes as she moved past her down the hallway. "You should be glad about this. You never wanted me here anyway."

Kate let out a frustrated sigh and followed her to the front door. "What does that mean? I never gave a shit whether you were here or not. I just don't want to be accused of something that I have no clue about."

Jamie spun in the doorway. "Don't even act like you don't know what this is about. That's fucking low, even for you."

"Even for me? You think I would lie about not knowing why you just decided to leave and act like a complete bitch on the way out?"

"Yes." Jamie dropped her bag on a box and stepped towards her, her eyes furious. "Because you're so fucking heartless that to even show a tiny ounce of compassion would straight up kill you. You can't just tell me that you hate everything about me. You'd rather put that on someone else so you can just look like the innocent little sick child that no one has the stomach to tell to fuck off."

It took a while for Jamie's words to sink in. Kate had to struggle to find her voice. "What… the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Are you seriously going to do this right now?" said Jamie. "Could you for once, just for one fucking day, could you not be a sad little victim?"

Kate was nearly shaking in stunned rage. She stared back at Jamie, her jaw clenched. "I've never played the victim. How the fuck can you say that when everything that has come out of your mouth has been about you?"

"This isn't my problem, Katie. You've always been the problem. You've always been the one to hold everyone up, to make people feel like shit, and when you're not busy just being an asshole to people, you're making them take care of you when your epilepsy fucks up."

A belligerent shock flowed through her. "Don't you even try to tell me that I want people to take care of me for that. Don't you even fucking go there."

"What, did I imagine having to check in on you every day like you're an infant? Does everyone just pretend that you're the center of the universe? It's easy to justify being a selfish bitch when everyone is handing you money, tuition, and even fucking androids."

"I never tell people to take care of me." Kate stepped closer to her. "I've never asked you once to do anything for me. I hate people. I hate people more when they think they need to pamper me like some saint. I don't want to be someone's twenty-four seven job, but I bet you sure as hell would. If someone threw themselves down at your feet, you'd be more than happy to walk all over them and then criticize them for their shitty work. That's all you ever get off on. It's a shame you didn't wind up with your own slave when─"

Kate felt the blood drain from her face. Her breath was frozen in her throat and it felt as though her heart had stopped.

Matt stepped carefully up to the porch, looking between them as though he was afraid to get caught in the crossfire. He paused on the steps, resting a hand on his knee and breathing out slowly.

It took Kate's brain a moment to register that he was even there. She stared at him for a moment, then finally noticed the parked taxi on the curb with all of its doors thrown open. She looked back and forth between them, the reality of the situation taking much longer than it should have to sink in. A sickening feeling began to rise in her stomach. She took a step back and held onto the doorframe for support.

Jamie let out an angry breath as she turned and picked up a few items. As she moved down the steps past Matt, he gave her a reassuring nod, then returned his attention to Kate. His face was set in a resolute determination that made Kate feel even more sick. He stepped up towards her, dropping his shoulders and putting his hands in his pockets.

"Kate…" he said in a soft voice. "Come on, don't let it end like this with her."

"What the fuck is this?" Kate put a hand to her mouth, then dropped it as she looked between him and the car. "Did you plan this with her or something?"

Matt gestured with his hand in an attempt to calm her. "I'm just here to help."

"Why are you helping her leave, Matt?" said Kate. Her voice was unstable. "Where's she going?"

Matt's expression dropped a bit. "Look, Kate. You know I can't just leave her on the street─"

"Yes. Yes, you can." Kate held onto the doorframe tighter as Matt stepped towards her.

"I wouldn't do that to you, and I won't do that to her," he said. Kate shook her head.

"You would if you had any common sense. Don't you even know her at all? You think this is in any way okay?"

Matt's expression was frozen as he stared at her. "It's not your call to make."

Kate motioned with her hands. "What─ how can you say─ you don't think this is going to affect─" Her heart hammered faster as she looked at him, his face unchanging.

"Affect what?" he said.

She gazed at him desperately, her mind frantically racing for some kind of solid foothold. Everything she thought to be true was being wrenched out from underneath her. She wasn't sure anything she would say would make any sense. This was wrong on so many levels and the fact that neither of them could see it…

Jamie returned to the porch and picked up a few more things, throwing a frustrated look at them. As Jamie left, Kate took a step forward from the door. "Matt, I─"

"What?" Matt gave a tense smile that didn't meet his eyes. "You're upset? You want to talk about this? You don't like what's going on? What, Kate?" He waited for a moment as Kate struggled to speak again. He ran a frustrated hand over his face. "I don't know why this is such a shock to you. You've barely made any kind of effort to even be remotely interested in anything. And now that I'm here, you think you've been betrayed."

Kate pointed to the taxi. "How else am I supposed to take this? You're letting my roommate, my slut of a roommate into your house and I'm not supposed to take that as betrayal?"

"What the hell am I betraying?" said Matt. "I can't exactly betray anything if there's nothing there in the first place."

Kate shook her head. "Matt, what are you saying?"

He let out a heavy sigh. "What I've been trying to say but you just won't listen. I've always loved you, Kate. I don't know how I could have made that more obvious. I've loved you for so long that I forgot what it's like to not feel like shit all the time because you don't know how to not constantly string me along."

His words sank in like a hot blade. Kate simply stared at him, all of her effort focused on absorbing what he'd just said. She could hardly believe how bluntly he'd dropped it on her. "How… why are you telling me this now?"

He put his forehead in his hand for a moment. "Because I didn't think you could get this vicious. It's one thing to be a bitch to everyone you know but to do this to Jamie… to accuse her of being on drugs and then stab her in the back like that. Human beings don't do that to people they love. You can't bait people into caring about you and then turn around and shit all over them."

"I haven't been baiting anyone," said Kate. She gripped the doorframe desperately as if she were falling over a cliff. "I never asked anyone for anything. I know I'm independent but I do care about you. Matt I… I…"

The world seemed to be crashing down on her as she tried to force out her words. Even as she struggled, she knew it was useless. Matt was staring at her, shaking his head.

"You can't even make yourself say it," he said. "After all this time, you still can't. I never closed the door on you, Kate. All you had to do was say yes, and we could have made this work a long time ago."

Kate's breath quickened as she felt a tingling panic. "I─ I wanted─ I wanted to─"

"You wanted to wait," said Matt. "Yeah, I know you did. I waited. I've been waiting for almost two years. That's how much I respect you. For two years, I've been there for you. How much longer do you want me to keep waiting? Until I'm so emotionally drained that I can't take it anymore and you'll just give up on me?"

Kate swallowed, struggling to keep control of herself. "You said you'd always be there for me… that I could always talk to you about anything."

"But you never have. I mean never. You've never reached out to me. You've never let me in. I have to corner you just to get you to talk to me. I literally have to spell everything out so you know that I'm actually serious about this. Jesus Christ, I can't fucking throw myself at you enough than I already have. I'm so exhausted from just trying to just be with you. I shouldn't have to work that hard. Not when there's other options out there."

Kate looked into his eyes, a sickening realization sweeping across her. She tried to speak and found her voice stuck in her throat. She didn't want to say it. If she did, it would make it true. She drew in a deep breath, forcing it out. "You're fucking Jamie."

Matt stared at her for a moment. He made a sharp noise off to the side, then solidified his gaze when Kate didn't move. "Are you going to be mad after everything I just said?"

She couldn't say anything. The sickening feeling was twisting her stomach in a knot. She watched him with her hand clenched onto the doorframe, begging for it not to be true. He had to tell her it wasn't. She wouldn't be able to handle it. Everything was falling apart. Her entire world. It was all happening so fast. If they would just give her a minute to catch up with it all she could save it. She could put it all back together the way it should be.

Matt's face was in a cold glare now. He motioned towards her.

"You've got no one to blame for this but yourself," he said. "You're so afraid to take any kind of risk if it interrupts your perfect schedule. Normal people take risks like that, Kate. If you can't learn to do that…" He turned sideways, staring off into the distance. "... you're going to be alone for a very long time."

He threw her another glance, then turned and moved down the steps towards the street. Jamie was waiting for him and she closed the trunk of the taxi, moving around to the side. Matt didn't look back as he entered the car and slammed the door closed, Jamie following through the other door. Jamie turned back and gave a last look of anger and pity through the rear window. The car pulled forward silently, then moved down the road and disappeared around the corner.

Kate held onto the side of the door, her muscles aching from the strain. She felt like she wasn't alive, as if everything in her life had been taken all at once. It didn't need to happen. There was no reason for it. It could all have just been a nightmare. Jamie was still in her room getting high off whatever drug looked good, and Matt would be waiting for her at the college with his dumb grin. That was how it was supposed to be.

But it wasn't. They were all gone.

Kate took a step backward into the house. She could feel herself shaking but couldn't tell if it was from the cold or her nerves. She barely felt like the same person. Everyone knew her worst secret. Her weaknesses were exposed. She was a cold, pathetic sick person that no one wanted to deal with. And she'd finally managed to push them all away.

There was almost no reason to exist anymore. She would never be able to restore what she'd had with Matt. It had been a miracle in the first place that she had any friends at all. She was so good at wanting to get away from them that the idea of having anyone else seemed impossible. This was what she did. She avoided people and took care of herself.

Kate turned and slowly moved down the hallway, wrapping her arms around herself as she stared at the floor. Her mind was going back and forth between wishing it was all a nightmare to accepting this new horrible life. She floated in between, not wanting to land on either one. It was easier to just stay here in limbo. Being alive but not actually living. If she gave it enough time, maybe it would all simply go away.

She moved into her room and closed the door behind her. The four walls feigned safety, as if she knew she were actually at sea. She crawled into her bed, drawing up the covers in an attempt to summon back the last time she was in them when none of this was happening. But it just seemed to invite reality into the places where she felt most secure. Nothing was the same. Not anymore.

She closed her eyes as she began to shake. She'd never felt such hatred. Such a burning shame to be who she was. She'd worked so hard for it only to drive herself into a corner. If she had spent half of that energy looking for what she truly wanted, she might have been happy. She might even be safe in her happiness. Even if it meant being exposed in front of everyone.

There was no one left to be exposed to. She was alone. Everything she knew, everything she'd been hoping for was gone. Matt was right. She was terrible at taking risks. And even as she looked back at everything she'd let slip away, she hoped she'd never have to take another risk again.