"Wait, is it on?"

"Uh, yeah. Did you think the big red light meant it was off?"

"Well, sorry, I'm not really used to using these."

"It's not that complicated, though."

"Okay, so just, do whatever it is that you do, then..."

The bedroom door swung open, and Keely leaned forward to turn off the video she had been watching. Via, though, had already caught a glimpse of the screen, and recognized what was on it. "Oh, Keely, you're not watching that again..."

"I wasn't watching anything," Keely quickly denied.

"I saw it. I saw you and I know what it was."

"And so what if I was watching it? Let's say you're right – which you're not – and that I was watching that video again. What does that mean? Is that so bad?"

Via sighed. "Keely, there's a difference between reliving the past and living in the past: a big one. I'm just... I'm afraid you're just clinging onto things that you've lost forever."

"I am not," Keely said as she crossed the room and placed her hands on her desk. Via slowly walked over and gently put a hand on her shoulder. Keely looked up at the mirror, focusing on Via's reflection. "I just..."

"I know, honey, it's tough. I wish I could tell you that I understand, but I know that I don't. I'll probably never know what you and Phil had. I'd consider myself lucky to ever have something like it."

Keely, to her own surprise, felt a little better at the fact that Via didn't feel it was necessary to lie to her.

"But I'm just... I'm worried that you're not going to get over this - over him. I mean, honestly, it's been—"

"I know how long it's been," Keely muttered, cutting her off. "I know exactly how long it's been..."

"...and you're still hanging onto these.... these memories... It can't be good for you, Keely..."

"You don't even know, Via," Keely said, shaking her head. "You couldn't possibly know what we had."

"Be that as it may, I still know an unhealthy obsession when I see one. I'm not saying you need to forget about him, I'm just suggesting that maybe you need to move on."

"You can't be seriously telling me to do that," she sighed, pacing back and forth. "You know how much—"

"I'm aware. You've made me painfully aware." Via paused as she saw Keely bite her bottom lip. "Look, I'm sorry, but... it's been so long, Darling. I know you're trying, but part of me knows you just don't want to let go of him..."

More like can't let go...

"Of course I want to let go, Vee! Do you think I like being miserable?"

"I didn't mean to imply—"

"Because I don't! It kills me every day, Vee... and I'm trying to move on, I really am, but it's just that..."

"You don't want to."

"I can't!"

"Yes you can! You just don't want to!"

Keely shook her head. She didn't have to put up with this. She didn't have to listen to this garbage. "Just go."

"No, Keely, listen, I—"

"I'd really like you to leave right now. And not come back."

Via sighed and rolled her head back. "You know what, fine. I suppose if you want me to leave, I'll leave. But just remember that I'm trying to help you, here."

Keely sat back down on her bed as the door closed after her friend left. She looked up at the blank TV screen and hesitantly reached over.

It's okay. I'm just... reminiscing. That's all. There's nothing wrong with that.

She pressed the play button again.

I'm allowed to be happy. Isn't that one of our natural-born rights? So I should just do whatever I need to make myself happy.

Even if it kills me every time I watch it? Is the empty pit in my stomach worth the fluttery feeling I'll get for a while?

She sighed as the video ended. Of course it was worth it. She would try and convince herself otherwise, knowing that she was clinging onto an empty dream, that Via was right, that she was trying to live in her past, and that she'd never be able to recapture it, but the memories were all that she had left anymore.

She set the video back to the start and watched it again. It all seemed so... off...

The grass wasn't as green as she'd remembered it. The sky wasn't as blue, her clothes weren't as vibrant, his laughter wasn't as joyful: it was all wrong, somehow. Somehow it didn't fit. It seemed so much more watered down than her memory of the day.

It couldn't be that my memories are actually... better than it actually was, can it?

Of course not.... that's silly....

"It's so windy out here!" the Keely on the screen exclaimed over the whipping of the wind over the microphone. "....can you hear me?"

"I hear ya fine, Keel. We're good to go."

She shook her head and turned the video off, unable to get past the fact that there was something wrong with it somehow.

I think what's wrong with it is that it's not real anymore. Just a twisted fading memory.

She sprang up and headed downstairs, quickly announced, "I'm goin' to the park, Mom," and was out the front door before Mandy could tell her to be back for dinner.

She barely even remembered her slow, undisturbed walk to the park once she got there. The grass was still green, for now, though as it was already autumn the colors were beginning to fade. A gentle breeze blew, hardly noticeable to her. The trees only moved slightly from the wind. The kids across the park laughed as they swung across monkey bars and skated down slides. Still, she felt it was empty, and she knew exactly why.

She was alone. Nobody there to hold her hand, nobody there to walk home with her, nobody there to record her antics at a local park. Every time she would try and replace him with someone else, she'd find herself comparing the two, and she'd always end up regretting getting together with someone else.

Maybe that's why everything seemed so much more gray. There was nobody else there to brighten it up.

She looked at her phone and discovered that her aimless wandering around the park had killed nearly an hour. She turned on her heel and headed home. Dinner still wouldn't be for another hour, but she didn't have much better to do.

Maybe he'll come back tomorrow. Maybe a week from now.

And maybe Tia will make it into MIT. And maybe Seth will marry her.

No... I can't believe that... he will come back... sometime...

Troubled, she picked up a copy of Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw and started reading lines.

Today's discussion: Facebook is lame.

okay maybe that is not a discussion but it had to be said