Okay, now we're going back to the beginning to see how exactly Cory and Angela got together. It won't happen immediately, but I think it will be worth the wait. We're now about 10-11 years before their wedding. There will be chapters that skip over weeks/months but I will let you know when that happens.

"Topanga," Cory said, his voice echoing though out her now sparsely filled dorm. "Are you ready to go?" It was the last day to be out of the dorms for the summer. Topanga had been so distracted by her parents' separation she hadn't been able to focus on anything else. He was helping her pack her things and then driving her to Pittsburgh, where she would be spending time with her mom. All of their wedding planning was being put on hold for now and that was okay with him. He would wait until Topanga was ready, no matter how long it took. He would wait forever for her if he had to.

"Topanga," he called out again, a little louder this time. She was lost in her own world. That had been happening a lot lately. She was sitting on the bed with her back to him, but he could see her shoulders shaking. She was crying. That was happening a lot, too. Cory knelt down on the floor beside the bed and took her hand in his. "Is there anything I can do for you?" With his free hand he brushed her hair out of her eyes. He was truly concerned about her. Her parents' separation had sent her on a downward spiral and he didn't know how to pull her back up again. She wasn't eating, Angela said she hadn't been sleeping much, and he had been witness to many of her crying jags.

Topanga took a deep breath and tried to stop her tears. Cory was being so sweet and she was about to break his heart. "Cory, I've been doing a lot of thinking." She paused, fanning her face, hoping that would stop the tears. "God, this is hard."

"What is?"

"You know I love you more than anything, right?"

He frowned at her question. Usually when someone asked that, bad news followed. "Why don't I have a good feeling about where this is going?"

"I grew up thinking my parents had the perfect marriage, the perfect life. They were our age when they got married, they were high school sweethearts." She let out a small sob. "I thought we were destined to follow in their footsteps. I thought they had a perfect love. I thought we had a perfect love."

Cory grasped her hand more tightly than before. "We do, Topanga. Together we're perfect."

She shook her head, "No." She freed her hand from his and stood, walking away from him. "Nothing is perfect, Cory. No one is perfect. People fight, they argue, and they hurt each other."

He spoke cautiously, unsure of how to respond. "And then they discuss things rationally and fix it."

"Sometimes things can't be fixed!"

Topanga knelt down in front of Cory and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her forehead to his. She took a deep breath, breathing in his cologne as his arms instinctively went around her waist. "I can't marry you, Cory," she whispered.

A knife to the gut would've been less painful. "You mean you can't marry me right now, right?"

She held onto him a little tighter. "No, I mean I can't get married, not to you or anyone else, maybe not ever."

Cory pulled his face away from hers and stared into her eyes, surprised to find her not crying. Of all the times to not be crying, she chose now? "What? Why? I don't understand..."

She watched, feeling helpless as the confusion played out across his face. "I don't believe in love anymore." She paused. "I don't know how to be in love anymore," she clarified.

"You don't believe in me? In us?"

"I don't know how to answer that. Whatever answer I give you is going to hurt."

"Look, I know your parents' separation has thrown you for a loop, but that's no reason to toss our plans out the window."

" 'Threw me for a loop,'" she repeated, shocked he would phrase it that way. "How can you be so insensitive?"

In a flash Cory pulled away from Topanga and was on his feet. "Insensitive? How could you call me insensitive? What have you wanted me to do in the last several weeks that I haven't done? I've been at your beck and call! It didn't matter what time it was. Remember last Wednesday," he pointed his finger at her, "you called me crying, saying you needed to talk. I came over. It didn't matter that it was 2 o'clock in the morning or that I had a final at 8. I was there!" He was shouting at this point. "How dare you call me insensitive." He sat on her bed and put his head in his hands.

For the longest time neither of them said anything. Cory didn't know what to say and Topanga was afraid that anything she said would just hurt Cory even more. She didn't want to hurt him. She did love him, that's why she was doing this. She knew someday he would see it her way. After a while, Topanga broke the silence. Someone had to.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called you insensitive. You've been so wonderful to me during this whole thing.'

"So wonderful that you want to leave me?"

"Cory," she sighed, "don't do this. I'm afraid if we stay together we'll just end up hurting each other like my parents. It would kill me to know I did that to you."

"What do you think you're doing to me right now?" Before she could respond, he continued. "And it's not like your parents are the only other couple in the world. What about my parents?"

"What about them?"

"They got married when they were young and they're still in love. They disagree and have fights sometimes, but they decide every day that whatever their issues, they still want to be together and love each other more than anything." He looked to Topanga, who was still kneeling on the floor. She wasn't looking at him, she was staring at her hands in her lap. "Why can't we look to them for inspiration? Why does your parents' marriage ending have to destroy your faith in love altogether where there are other examples of love working?"

"I didn't grow up wanting a marriage like your parents, I grew up wanting to be like my parents." She played with her engagement ring, twisting it back and forth on her finger. "I learned about love from watching my parents. What if I've subconsciously picked up on their cues on how to hurt your partner?"

"That's ridiculous."

"No, it's not. There have been numerous studies on how children repeat patterns and behaviors they get from their parents," she pointed out. "Like how abuse can continue from one generation to the next."

"We're hardly talking about an abusive relationship here, Topanga. We're talking about two people who were once in love that are, very sadly, not anymore." He rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming. "I still do not see why this means we have to end our relationship. You, we can learn from your parents' mistakes and have a better marriage than they did."

Topanga sighed in frustration. She knew Cory wasn't going to let her go without a fight, but they were just going in circles at this point. "Cory..."

"Are you just going to have a counter argument for everything I have to say," he interrupted, feeling defeated. "Are you that determined to break up with me? Is there anything I can do that could change your mind?"

She slowly got up off the floor and sat beside him on the bed. "I highly doubt it." She looked at Cory and found him staring at the floor. She gently lifted his chin and made him look her in the eye. "Cory, I do love you, but I really feel that this is for the best. I always thought I was so strong and self-confident, but what does it say about me when my parents' marriage falling apart has me doubting everything in my life?"

"Topanga, you're the strongest, most beautiful person I know."

Topanga smiled, maybe her first genuine smile in weeks. "Thank you. It's nice to know that at least one of us still believes in me."

"What? How can you not..."

She held her hand up, stopping him. "Please, let me finish. That's why I think breaking up would be good for us. I need to learn to be strong and self-reliant and to know that if all else fails, I can depend on me. I need to grow up before I can marry you or anyone else."

Cory wanted to argue with her, but she was making some sense. He hated it, but it was true. "Can we still hang out sometime? As friends, I mean? We will still be going to the same school and living in the same dorms for the next few years of college. We should make things as pleasant as possible." He hesitated before continuing. "I don't want to lose you completely."

Topanga slowly got up and walked to the desk. She opened a drawer and began putting the contents into a box. She didn't have the heart to face Cory when she told him.

"I won't be attending Pennbrook next year."

"What?"

"A couple weeks ago I contacted Yale. They accepted me once. I wanted to see if they would accept me again."

"You're transferring to Yale?"

"Yes." She didn't turn around to face him, afraid of what his reaction would be.

"When were you going to tell me?"

"I don't know, when it came up, when the time seemed right."

"Will you at least look at me when we're talking?" Cory walked toward her as she turned to face him. "I guess you really do feel like you need a fresh start, huh?"

"More independence than anything else," Topanga corrected. "How am I going to learn to stand on my own and be strong with you, Shawn, Angela, Jack, Rachel, and yes- even Eric- there to catch me? And that doesn't even include Mr. Feeny and your parents."

"You don't have to be all alone to be strong."

"I know, but I really think this is something I need to do. Do you understand that, Cory?"

"I'm trying, but it's going to take time."

She gave a small smile. "Okay."

Cory frowned when he saw her smile. "You're smiling?"

"What?"

"I can't help but notice that ever since you told me you want to break up with me and go off to Yale so you can lead your independent life, you haven't shed one tear," he pointed out with a hint of bitterness in his voice. "Why is that? Ever since you found out about your parents' break up you've been crying non-stop, but now nothing. Why?"

"I wasn't only crying over my parents, Cory."

"You weren't?"

"No," Topanga replied, shaking her head. "I was crying for you, for us. I suppose I made up my mind about our relationship weeks ago and I'm terrified of being out there in the world without you holding my hand. And honestly, what scares me the most is that you might hate me."

"I don't hate you, Topanga. I could never hate you. How can I? I've spent most of my life being in love with you." He paused, debating whether or not to continue, but decided to go ahead. After all, she said all she needed to and held nothing back. "I'm not going to lie, I'm angry and hurt that you didn't trust me enough to talk about this weeks ago. You've gone ahead and decided the entire course of our relationship without giving me any input whatsoever."

"You're right," she admitted quietly. "I should've discussed things with you sooner. Like I said, I was afraid of how you would react. I couldn't stand the thought of you hating me."

"I guess I can understand that. I wouldn't want you to hate me, either." He looked over her shoulder at the clock on the desk. "We only have a little more than an hour to get everything out of here and in the van. You don't have a lot left but we better get busy."

Topanga looked at him, surprised. "You would still drive me all the way to Pittsburgh after I broke up with you? You don't have to. I already called a rental place just in case."

"I said I would drive you and I will. I know you don't like to make that drive alone and you're still not comfortable driving larger vehicles. I'll drive you, I want to."

She was touched that Cory was still thinking of her even though she broke his heart. She wanted to once again argue that she could drive herself, but sensed that the best thing to do would be to be quiet and accept his offer. "Thank you, Cory." She took a deep breath and looked down at her hand. "I guess there's only one thing left to do."

Cory watched as she began to take the ring off. "Topanga, no."

"Cory, this isn't like your jean jacket, which by the way, you are never getting back." They both smiled. "It was your grandmother's engagement ring. As much as I love it, it wouldn't be right to keep it."

He stared at the ring, now in his hand, still not believing this was happening to him. Just a few weeks ago his life was perfect. He was happily engaged, planning a summer wedding, doing well in school, having fun with friends, and helping his dad at the wilderness store to make money. Now he had no fiancee, no wedding to plan, school was done for a few months, all he had his was friends and family. That was all good, but he had been planning for his future with Topanga. He had no contingency plan. What was he supposed to do now?

"Topanga, I'm going to hang onto this for you. We're meant to be together," he insisted. "I'm going to put this back on your finger someday."

"I hope so," she replied truthfully. "If we really are meant to be together, then this is just a bump in the road." Topanga looked down, feeling tears burning in her eyes.

"What?"

"Nothing, it's...we're broken up," she said with a painful realization.

Cory wanted to tell Topanga that the only reason they were broken up was because she had broken them up. He wanted to tell her that she could choose to believe in him, in them, in love, but instead she was walking away. Still, no matter how upset he was right now, he couldn't bring himself to purposely hurt her. So he did what came naturally, he wrapped his arms around her and didn't let go.

"We better get busy," he whispered into her hair. "It's a long drive to Pittsburgh."

to be continued...