An Imagined Illusion
It's hopeless, a cruel illusion that will certainly soon be shattered. He will run away with her heart and her love whether he intends to or not. Since Claire, that is his way. If a relationship gets too hot for him, he turns tail and flees or dumps bucketfuls of water upon it.
He would have done it with Peyton too if she hadn't broken up with him first. The reservations she made clear in her break up letter were things he had thought about and criticised inside his mind all too often.
But that's all in the past.
He's here now, in another particularly nerve wracking moment, ready to give in.
That's got to be why he called her to meet with him, right? He's done with her and wants this relationship over.
Stella tries not to feel the sting of those words and tries not to hope that she is wrong. Hoping has never helped anyone. Reality is far more solid and difficult to bend to one's will than a dream or an illusion, imagined.
fin.