This is the last of the truly depressing chapters, I promise. (Well, probably. Maybe...)

Winter came a bit sooner than expected, blanketing the town of Bluebell and forcing him to sport a rather knobbly woolen sweater his mother had made him the year before. The snow was up past his knees and it wasn't uncommon now for Cam to now greet him with a snowball to the face.

It had been thirteen days. Thirteen days since he had last spoken to Lillian, thirteen days since he had seen her; zero since he had stopped thinking about her. But how couldn't he? They had spent almost every moment together the past few months, it was hard to imagine a time without her presence in the village- lately he had taken to glancing up at every stray movement, hoping to see her trudging through the snow towards him.

"I don't know why you don't just go see her." Cam remarked, watching as he jerked his head over his shoulder at the sound of the bell tinkling above the cafe door. "It's pretty obvious that you miss her."

He turned back to his warm cup of milk, catching Laney's eye as she stirred cookie batter behind the counter. He dropped his gaze quickly. "I told you already, she doesn't want anything to do with me. Besides, I don't even miss her that much."

Cam snorted. "Liar. I'm serious though, you should go check up on her. I haven't heard from her in a while, maybe you should go and see if she's okay."

Cam's words planted a nervous twitch in his stomach and were the main reason why less than an hour later he was outside her chicken coop. He was right, as far as he knew nobody had seen or heard very much from her... He was just there to check up on her, nothing more... Make sure she was okay...

"Hi." He said rather suddenly, the chicken coop door slapping him on the back as it snapped shut.

She looked rather stricken as they stood across from each other, his knees wobbling slightly in the silence. A lump seemed to have formed in his throat; how had he never noticed how beautiful she was? It was the obvious to him now, after not having seen her for so long- her cheeks were a lovely rosy pink from the cold, the ends of her hair curling slightly against the brown trim of her coat. He wanted so badly to reach for her, to feel her body pressed against his...

"What are you doing here?" She seemed more surprised than anything, a slight bite to her tone as she straightened up from tending to her chickens.

He swallowed thickly. "I, uh, just wanted to check on you. Cam mentioned he hadn't seen you for a while and-"

"It's not your job to check on me, Ash." She said rather sharply. "If Cam is worried about me, he can come down here himself, okay? I just... I thought it would be best if I kept my distance for a while."

He felt another pang strike through his chest, his boots pawing the ground awkwardly. "Yeah, no. I'm sorry, I should have known. I just wanted to talk to you, actually." He paused, hoping to catch her eye, but she had gone back to tending her chickens. He pressed forward, letting the words come tumbling out of his mouth. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for how dinner went. I guess Mom and Cheryl have been... Missing me, as of late. I mean, I'm all they have. Cheryl doesn't really have any other kids around her to play with, and Mom relies on me a lot around the farm... I think maybe you were right, I think I did get a little carried away with everything that was happening."

He could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he glanced up to meet her gaze, his chest aching as he saw the expression on her face. He balled his fists to his sides, willing himself not to seek comfort in her, not to reach out the few feet between them and hold her...

"I see." It was worse, so much worse, hearing her dangerously level tone than anything else he had expected. He wanted her to scream at him, to hit him, to do anything other than look at him with a mixture of hurt and pity.

"I just want you to know that this is my problem." He seemed to have picked up her habit of nervous talking- it was funny, after only having a few precious weeks of being together, that that piece of her had stuck with him. "I just... I don't want to be like him. My father, I mean."

"I know who you mean." She said quietly, tossing feed amongst her flock of chickens. "How could I not know who you mean?"

He watched her tend to her animals for a moment before he risked a few steps forward. "You're going to hate me for saying this. But... I don't know. I thought maybe what we had was... Different."

She let out a hiss of breath and hung her head, as if what he had said caused her physical pain. "Don't Ash. Leave it alone."

"What are you so fucking afraid of?" He yelled, sending the flock of birds scattering about the coop. "I know you felt it, just say it, please! Just let me hear it once-"

"Stop!" She hissed, running a hand through her hair. "How many times do I have to tell you- it can't work. I'm not good for you, you deserve someone-"

"I don't care!" He bellowed. "I don't care, Lillian. Stop trying to convince yourself of something we both know isn't true."

"You're mother-"

"Will get over it." He said as steadily as he could. He watched her shake her head, but he could see her resolve crumbling; risking a few steps more, he began to speak again. "Lillian, I care about you so much. I've never felt... I don't know what I'm going to do without you-"

He could tell he said the wrong thing; Lillian cheeks flooded with crimson and she began to yell once more. "Stop saying things like that, Ash. This isn't... I'm not going to let you, okay? You need to focus on your family... You need to hate me."

"Lillian, don't be ridiculous, I could never-"

He flinched before it happened; the egg she had thrown smashed against the side of his face, sending a large amount of yolk dripping down the tip of his nose and onto his sweater. She looked surprised she had even thrown it, and in that moment he knew he could never hate her; he felt a strange mix of both resentment and affection for the girl in front of him, and realized all to late that he was in too deep to turn back.

He had been on the verge of rushing forward to embrace her, but was cut short when she spoke, the waver in her voice hurting far more than anything else she had done to him thus far. "Look, you need to get over what happened between us... I've talked it over with Rutger, and come spring time I'm going to be moving over to the other village." He wanted to open his mouth to object but found himself incapable of words. "I just... it will be easier, you know? And then we're both free to move on... You can marry Laney and I'll-"

"No." He said thickly. "Please don't-"

"-find someone else." She finished. It felt as if his insides had been frozen. She had turned her back on her and was staring at the chicken coop wall, her voice breaking slightly as she spoke again. "Please just leave, Ash."

He turned rather numbly towards the door. As the last bit of yolk dripped onto his sweater, he registered the fact that things were, completely, over.

Bring on the tearful reviews and hateful comments.