story time! so 2 nights ago i finished the drafts of both this chapter and the next one. then i transferred the text to a new document, for editing purposes, and my old shitty laptop crashed. as a result, the entirety of this chapter and the next one was lost.

this is the rewrite of that draft, unedited for time constraints.

it's not as good.

title taken from: "Fools Rush In" by Peggy Sue

The high didn't last until the morning, as Jim had hoped it would.

He awoke with a distinct feeling of guilt deep in his gut, distracting his thoughts while he recalled the night before, until he was unable to ignore the reason for much longer.

He had to break up with Karen. Today. Karen, his girlfriend. Karen, who lived in the same building as him. Karen, who attended the same Art class as his -

Shit.

Things were gonna get messy.

After a late night of staying up with Kelly, gossiping, Pam ended up sleeping in quite late the following day.

Her phone showed 10:14am, the image flashing against her closed eyes when she yawned. Her roommate was still clocked out - all she could see was the faint shape under the blankets, but Pam guessed she was completely unconscious.

Though she certainly wouldn't admit it if Kelly had been awake to hear it, she was secretly disappointed. She had actually sort of enjoyed the talk last night - the giggling and hugging and going over the previous events in excruciating detail. There really wasn't much she and Kelly had in common, so it was always nice to find something to bond over.

And it was especially nice being allowed the opportunity to relive the moment over and over, being able to analyse and go over every little thing that happened, and have an outsider back up her conclusions and challenge her perceptions on the rest.

She still wasn't entirely sure where she stood with Jim, but things appeared to be becoming a whole lot clearer.

It was with this happy thought that she washed, dressed, brushed her teeth, and headed out for the morning. She hoped the cafeteria would still be serving some breakfast-type foods, but no matter: if they weren't, she could always take the short walk into the nearby town. After all, her first class of the day didn't start until noon.

It was uncharacteristically warm for mid-March. The sunny weather appeared to reflect her good mood. This day seemed like the type of day where nothing could possibly go wrong…

Until it did.

She pushed the doors to the cafeteria open, and saw a larger amount of people there than she originally expected to. And there, sat at a table right in the centre, was Jim and Karen Filipelli.

Her entire body seemed to freeze up all at once. All she could do was watch the scene play out.

Karen was sipping from a disposable coffee cup, watching her companion expectantly. Her non-occupied hand slid across the table, and for a sick second Pam thought perhaps Jim might take it, but he quickly moved his own hand away.

Was that good, or bad?

Jim ruffled and pulled at his hair - a telltale sign that he was nervous. Karen picked up on it, and placed her cup down, clasping her hands over the table. She said something to him that made him hang his head. Pam could only guess, but it looked like the other girl was confronting him about something.

Oh, God… Were they breaking up?

Jim spoke without raising his head, and Karen's face seemed to crumple.

They were.

Somehow it felt wrong to watch after this realisation. Pam backed slowly away from the open doorway, and speed-walked the rest of the way until she got outside again.

It seemed she would have to walk to the town for breakfast, after all.

The comfort food Pam had chosen - a sweet cherry scone - done little to calm her thoughts. She chewed pensively in the small window table she had taken, watching the occasional passer-bys make their way across, but all she could think about was the scene that played out in the cafeteria.

Realistically, she knew she should probably be happy about the development. Her boyfr- Jim, who at present was not her anything, had broken up with his old girlfriend, meaning he was… What? Open, to a new relationship? With her?

She was really overthinking this.

All that mattered, really was that they had broken up. Jim would reach out when he thought the time was right, and Pam would just have to try to avoid Karen for a little while, the poor girl.