DISCLAIMER: I do not own MR.

"I'm not sure if I can handle this anymore."

Nudge, Ella, and Angel looked up from the table. There was at least two and a half weeks left before vacation ended, and the four of us decided to meet up and trade photos. Or at least the three of them were swapping pictures. I, on the other hand, was obliged to narrate every single moment I spent with Iggy, Fang, and Tess.

"What can't you handle anymore?" Nudge asked, holding a thick stack of the shots Ella took during her trip to Spain.

"Being with Iggy."

"Since when were you able to handle any actual romantic involvement with Iggy?" Ella asked.

"I don't know. I guess that it was more of a pity party. But it's making me feel so guilty. Especially when we kissed."

The girls squealed a little when they first heard the story, but now it was filled with nothing but silence. Silence and contemplating looks.

"I can't believe we let you do something that stupid." Angel said.

"I can't believe I let myself do something stupid either. But you know our original plan, meaning I was actually supposed to say something to Fang before Iggy made any serious moves. I guess none of us expected that. And I'm stupid for not stopping."

"Oh, the three of us were stupid for not stopping you, too." Ella added.

"So, are you planning to end things with him?" Nudge asked. "It is, after all, a summer romance. What happens in the summer, stays in the summer." She added in a non-comforting way.

"Except for heartbreak, apparently."

"There's a point in that." Angel said. "It might just turn to first-day blues, but as far as I'm concerned, Max has been Iggy's first. And almost everyone knows the chances of completely getting over first loves."

Great. My stomach twisted in knots, and, if possible, it made me feel guiltier than guiltiest. And though that would make Fang madder, he was the least of my concerns at the moment.

After all, no decent person doesn't feel guilty about breaking someone's heart.

"But you are going to have to break it to him sooner or later." Ella added. "Unless you suddenly realized that Iggy's the right guy."

"I don't know. I highly doubt it, that he's the right guy. In a way, he's literally too nice for me. Too much of a gentleman. Plus, I'm not sure I can handle having a relationship wherein the first few months were spent lying to him; that doesn't sound good anywhere."

"True," Nudge chimed in. "That would make it sound like those soap operas where the boy takes a bet to date a girl and suddenly falls in love with her, a hundred percent. And then the girl would find out about the bet. And that would pretty much break her heart."

"Yeah. Sometimes I feel like the whole world would be better if I was single."

"So do you have a plan?" Ella asked.

"Right now, all I'm hoping to do is to let him down in the sincerest way possible. No friend-zone mentions or anything related to that. I just need a time and place."

Of course, friend-zone mentions wouldn't be very useful, as proven in many sitcoms and real-life situations. Charles Colton once said, "Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship - never."

I stood up from my seat. "I'll meet you guys later."

"Where are you going?" Nudge asked.

"I just need to think things through clearly. I don't think a rushed out heartbreaking moment would benefit the both of us. That'll just make me feel worse."

"Just text us." Angel said, giving a small smile.

I nodded, and I fast-walked out of the café, leaving thoughts about breakups for a split second. My best option, the best person I could talk to about this, even if he had no idea I was doing this for someone else instead of Iggy, was unfortunately a thousand miles away with a huge time zone difference.

I only had one available option. And even if I have to reveal more than half the truth to him, which anyone sane enough would never recommend to me, I seriously hoped he was there.

I headed straight to the clearing, praying that Fang was where I wished he was.

There was no indication that a mysterious, dark-haired guy, who looked emo was lurking in the shadows when I arrived. It had been a month or two since I last went here, but that was the usual intervals. And this was the third time I came on my own.

The first one ended up in him arriving and giving me a kiss before he left.

The second one ended up in him actually being there before I arrived, and giving me a kiss before we both left.

I had to admit that there was this part of me that secretly desired for Fang to arrive and kiss me again. But that was a little too cliché, and I'm pretty sure that he'd been avoiding me a bit more a couple of days after we got back from the beach. Every time I caught him glancing in my general direction (and probably Iggy's, too), he looked like he was either having trouble seeing either one of us, or he was bitter and single (though very highly unlikely on both parts) and was mad at "us" for being so "in love with each other", or he wanted to eat me, and was thinking of a way on how he'd do that without pissing Iggy off (because no one wants to eat their best friend, and no one wants to piss their best friend off by eating the current person they like).

I turned out looking a little too desperate for someone who wasn't my boyfriend, someone who probably had already put me in the friend zone. But I'm still wishing for him to come.

So what was I supposed to do now? The main reason I went there was to look for Fang. But then, since the clearing is where either one of us come to think, I should at least sit down for fifteen minutes and reflect on the girls' words, right? I started scaling the tree (yes, the very one where the so-called "midnight kiss" [or on a weirder term, the "first kiss of the day" as coined by Nudge] took place.

For the next twenty minutes, I zoned out and did a run-through of everything that happened, starting out from Cyrano de Bergerac, and skimming on a couple of memories from Aladdin. From what I remember, Iggy wasn't the type to give not-so-subtle clues. In fact, he wasn't even the type to give clues in general, which inspired a question: When did Iggy start to like me anyway? I didn't even look that hot in Aladdin, no matter how much body glitter Tess tried to put on me. Actually, Iggy was less mysterious but way more secretive than Fang.

I therefore conclude that I still have no freaking idea how to shake Iggy off in a gentle way.

I gave up trying to decipher more thoughts and went down the tree. I did a three-sixty, just to make sure that Fang wasn't actually hiding behind one of the trunks, contemplating on his own. When I was sure he wasn't there, I walked the path out of the clearing and back into the park.

Then I saw him sitting on the swings.

Clad in his usual emo palette of colors, Fang was staring ahead, making no move to raise himself higher into the air, though his hands were gripping the metal chains so tightly like he was a thousand feet up.

"How long have you been here?" I asked, sitting on the swing beside his and forcing it up a little.

"Ten minutes or so." He replied without moving or turning his head to acknowledge me. "How long have you been here?"

"I was at the clearing for the past half hour. Thinking again."

"About what?"

"About ending things with Iggy."

That brought him back from the real world. He turned to look at me with a half-shocked look on his face. "Why?" He asked.

"I guess I'll never be able to love him as much as he loves me."

"He'll probably never love anyone else as much as he loves you."

"I'm more old, alone, done for."

"Details."

"It'll probably better if I remain single for the rest of my life. Plus, a guy like Iggy is too nice for a girl like me.

"So you suddenly realized that you two weren't meant for each other?"

I nodded reluctantly.

"Do I want to know why else?"

"It's better if Iggy knows first. Promise me one thing though."

"What?"

"Help Iggy move on, and maybe get over it, too."

He nodded, and I got up and left him by himself on the swings, so he could do a little thinking, too.

The third time I went to the clearing on my own, Fang arrived after me and gave me a short questionnaire before I left.

Three days later.

It took the rest of the afternoon to think of a plan, it took the rest of the next morning to debate with myself and go against asking the girls what I should do, and it took the rest of the night to fight the urge to consult dad on how breaking up should be done. One does not simply do things that would hurt any other person to upset a unique one, as they all have different things they dislike.

Also, let's not forget that break ups were never meant to end good.

So how do you break up with a nice guy? One so nice, that you can't seem to notice his flaws? How do you part ways with someone who's always been everyone else's dream guy, when you want to ride against the current?

Who knew WikiHow had so many tips?

During my quite uninspired search, the internet kept on repeating one thing: Break it to him gently. It also told me other things to do, you know. Like to tell him personally, or still try to be friends with him, or to answer all his questions without seeming to be in a hurry, but then make sure it gets done by the end of the day.

Now all I need was a twist of fate, something that put me off for a while, just to avoid seeing a heartbroken face. Iggy was always outside in the summer (mostly to experiment with stuff that I don't really know), and that morning I decided to head out for some fresh air uptown, several blocks from where Iggy lived.

Somehow, we always managed to come across each other.

"Max, is that you?" Iggy called out as I was making my way to one of the shops he frequented.

I turned around, not in fake surprise, since I was actually expecting to see him in the shop instead. "Hey." I smiled.

"You going there?" He asked, pointing to the store.

"Yeah, just wanted to hang around."

"You wanna take a walk instead?"

I'd feel guilty if Iggy actually sped this up, since I was hoping that hanging around the store first would delay things. But I still had to be nice. He was after all, very nice to me.

"Sure. Lead the way." I said, and I followed Iggy to one of the tiny parks seen every mile or two. We sat down on the bench, and I was still trying to think of how to start. Iggy meanwhile, held my hand and kissed my cheek swiftly.

"Iggy…"

He blushed. "Sorry."

"No. It's me. I'm sorry."

He looked confused, and I went on. "I'm sorry that I'm not good enough for you."

"Max, if you weren't good enough, then I wouldn't have asked you out in the first place."

"Well, maybe I was good enough back then. But how about now?"

"You still are good enough."

"But I don't feel the same way."

He suddenly turned in my direction, a shocked, sad, grieving, upset, distressed, alarmed look of realization on his face.

"Are you breaking up with me?" He asked. I felt a lump in my throat once I heard how shaky his voice was at that moment.

"Max. Are. You. Breaking. Up. With. Me?" He asked again. I just looked at my shoes, and blinked once, what I hoped Iggy would understand as a universal signal for yes. I turned my head at him, and I could see that he did get it, his eyes almost tearing up. This was totally way harder that it seemed.

"Why?"

"I don't belong with you. You deserve better. And I feel like I'd be putting a leash on you if it would stay like this forever."

"Would it?"

"No."

"Then WHY?"

"You'll find out Iggy. You'll find out one day when you're thrice as happy as you are now."

"That'll be the day." He stood up, and walked farther, deeper into the park. "I'll be back in a minute." He said.

But there was something in his voice that said he was never going back. I watched as he got smaller and smaller, until I could barely see him, and stood up to leave on my own.

Iggy

We're over. We're over.

I would love to pinch myself or dunk my head in the nearby fountain, just to make me wake up and realize that I ate too much chocolate in one night. I would definitely want to hit my head hard on one of the thick tree trunks in the forest, but I felt numb.

And just from that feeling, the sensation of being frozen - or was dead a better word? - I knew that this was real. That this was no dream, that Max had just been sitting in front of me minutes ago, telling me that she just wasn't sure if she was good enough for me. That I was probably out of her league. That she somehow knew that I would meet someone better than she was.

But she had all of her facts wrong. I always felt like I wasn't good enough for her. I knew from the start that she definitely wasn't the type to dare date someone like me. I always had that part of my brain that always said that someday, this would be over and that she would end up with someone better than I was, though my the rest of my head argued and reasoned until it started to turn pessimistic.

I tried. I asked her out, and she said yes. I was happy, and I was seriously hoping that my newfound relationship would be more than a summer romance. I promised to refuse accepting presents from anyone else for the next sixty years just so she would be the one I'd marry. I gave her all the space she needed, especially whenever she had an uncomfortable look on her face. She was the one who started and ended this. Yet I refuse to believe that it was her fault.

I guess that's just how love works, right?

I didn't even look at her when I stood up and said that I'd be back in a minute. I didn't look back to see if she knew that it was highly unlikely I'd ever return. And even if I did, I doubt that we'd keep on talking. It didn't matter if she walked away now; I walked away, too.

The fact that there were few people in the park consoled me and allowed me to spend the few minutes of silence I really needed. Most of them had probably gone off to spend their last days of freedom at the mall or the carnival or the amusement park and cross off things from their bucket list that they knew couldn't be done while they were at school. Like I did when we went to the beach. I wanted something romantic when I watched the sunset with Max, even if there was less romance when I invited Fang and Tess, just so it wouldn't feel any awkward. I wanted something dreamier, like her leaning on my shoulder or kissing me, and not just a squeeze on the hand and a large grin, similar to the one she gave that time. Was that a sign that she was feeling less about me? Or did she even feel anything about me?

I didn't want to think about that.

It was still quite early in the afternoon. I had the rest of the day and the night to waste, grieving about whatever spark we once had between us. I had enough time to buy a couple of Haagen-Dazs or probably an extra cheesy pepperoni pizza. And I could probably also look for a new DVD just to keep my mind off things. And maybe buy a couple of notebooks and -

My phone rang, snapping me out of my reverie, and I pulled it out to see who was calling. It was Tess.

"Yeah?" I asked, trying to hide my emotions first, even if I knew my hold wouldn't last that long.

"Hey, Ig, I'm at your place. I'm pretty sure I left my copy of The Chamber of Secrets there. Either that, or I accidentally put it in your bag when we were packing up to leave the beach. Do you know where it is?"

My feelings were now flooding out. "I think I saw it somewhere. I'll be there in ten."

"Is everything okay? You sound really weird."

I laughed, but it sounded pretty sarcastic. Bitter and sarcastic. "Well, if you consider Max breaking up with me okay, then yes."

Tess gasped, and then there were a few seconds of silence. "What? Really?"

"I'll be there in ten." I repeated, right before pressing END.

Fang

"Where's Iggy?" I asked, walking up to Tess who looked a bit too worried as she sat on the couch.

I've seen Iggy in depressed-mode before. And once I got a message from Tess, saying that he and Max just broke up, I knew that it would happen again. The guy was one not to look at when he wasn't in his usually cheerful and positive mood.

"Upstairs. When he came in, he just went straight into his room and shut the door. No, 'Hi mom' or anything. It's just really scary to see him like that." She replied, and we immediately began to go up to his room. The door was shut, but I knew Iggy was not the type of person to lock doors. I looked at Tess, who nodded, and I opened the door.

"I thought you said it was worse than this." I told her, extending out my arm to emphasize her exaggeration. The room had Iggy's usual style: Exactly half of the room looking like a junkyard and the other half perpetually spotless.

"Well I wasn't talking about the room." She said jutting her chin out in Iggy's direction. He was lying really still, head resting on hands, staring straight at the ceiling. The small desk beside him was occupied by his iPod and a tiny speaker, playing some really sad and slow song.

"He's just like that guy in The Art of Getting By." Tess added. "Next thing you know he's going to stay like that for the next two weeks."

"I'll handle this." I said, giving her my "this is a man-to-man moment" look. Even if the last time I gave him a "stop being such a wimp and get out there" talk was that time his grandmother (the one who taught him how to cook like a five-star chef) decided to move to Italy when he was thirteen. Although Tess did get the message and left.

"Yo," I said, sitting on the floor beside Iggy's bed and leaned back on the small desk. There were no signs of consumed Ben & Jerry's or Haagen-Dazs. There were also no traces of bacon, his ultimate comfort food. A sign that he was really depressed in a teenager-with-hormones kind of way and not in the I-have-a-mental-illness kind.

"The worst part was how she let me down very gently," He said in a low voice. "Like she was expecting this."

"Maybe she just knew before that you two weren't really meant for each other." I replied, trying not to say anything about the talk I had with Max at the swings. Except that pretty much everything I was saying to comfort Iggy was almost the same things Max told me.

"But for how long?"

"Maybe after she realized you were too nice for her."

"So she's trying to friend-zone me now?"

"No… I guess… Maybe she's one of the girls who think not having a relationship with anyone will help the world be a better place."

"But she certainly did not help me."

"Elaborate."

"The first breakup always hurts the most."

"First love never dies, but true love can bury it alive."

Iggy looked at me, like he was daring to believe I actually said something romance-quotes worthy, a small sign that he was slowly coming back from the land of the dead and heartbroken. But then he went back to staring at the ceiling.

"Gee, that totally helps." He replied, his voice filled with bitterness and sarcasm.

"Just trying to be a guy helping his best friend stop being such an inconsolable wimp and start cooking stuff and making corny jokes again."

"Very funny." He answered in the same tone as earlier.

"Well what do you want?"

"Do you like her?"

"Iggy, we already talked about that the last time. Great minds think alike, remember?"

"No. I mean, do you think you'd ask her out now that we're not together in real life? Do you like her enough to ask her out?"

"Why would you ask that? I sort of answered that question, too."

"Look, I'm not going to be an idiot and tell you you're not allowed to date my ex because it's the rules of feminism or whatever. If you like her like that, then just say so. I'll be fine with it."

Silence. Would I really tell him less than twenty-four hours after the breakup? Iggy saying shorter statements than mine was usually a sign of a horrible time.

"Maybe in a few months." He added quietly.

"I don't know." I finally replied

But I did know.

"If I did, I'd definitely tell you." I added.

But I'm not sure that if I'll ever get the guts to tell him.

Both of them.

Part 3 is now officially over.

I know I said I'd never do long (for me it is) chapters like these, but I couldn't help myself. This isn't the reason why I missed a week though, since I just decided to take a little rest since (a) Chapter 29 was already done, and (b) School was almost starting again.

In the meantime, this is your green light to start answering my questions:

1) What do you want to happen in Part 4? SERIOUSLY? (Because even if I have it all planned out, I'm a girl; I might change my mind.)

2) What song do you currently like (even though the choices are endless)? It has something to do with a certain prom playlist (though there's no theme yet). If you have a hard time answering that, maybe this'll do better:

2) What song is currently your current cause of LSS? (LSS - Last Song Syndrome - the disorder of getting the song you most recently heard getting stuck in your head and playing over and over again.)

Review! =D (Please. With a cherry on top. Or if you don't like cherries, any topping of your choice. Like Nutella…)