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Major studied the short, polite, cold form letter email response from his latest resume.

"No again, huh?" Ravi asked.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." Major frowned at the gym bag next to the door. "I guess that's it—I guess I'm a personal trainer now. Hey, at least I had something to fall back on, right?"

"Right." Ravi sipped his coffee, keeping any further thoughts to himself. They had already been through the cheerleader phase, the tough love phase, the ice cream and romantic movies phase—and what a weird night that had been—and had now entered the "life sucks, what're you gonna do?" silent phase.

Major slapped the computer closed. "I suppose I should hit the gym. Wouldn't want the pecs to sag. Nothing's worse than a hypocritical trainer."

His roommate nodded, taking another conversation-deadening sip of coffee.

Before Major could say anything further, give vent to any of the complaints constricting his chest and making it hard to breathe, there was a knock on the door, and then it opened. Major winced. Liv. She had taken to dropping by before her shift to drive over with Ravi, and Major hadn't had the heart to say anything to her. Her brother and her mother had completely frozen her out after her inability to give him blood at the hospital. With Peyton still missing and Major unable to get past his knowledge of what she was and what she had done, that left Ravi as her sole source of comfort. And since Ravi was still nursing a pretty deep hurt at Peyton having abandoned him when she ran out on Liv, the two of them had been good for each other. But Major was about at the end of his rope with her constant presence. Liv wasn't the only one who had lost everything she had ever cared about or wanted to be, and most of his woes were her fault to begin with. He was trying to be polite for her sake, but it was a greater strain all the time.

She marched into the kitchen with a cheerful smile. "Good morning! The sun is shining, the grass is green, and it's a beautiful day. So draw a smile on that gloomy face!"

"Let me guess," Major said, "kindergarten teacher?"

"Art therapist."

The word therapist hit him in a particularly vulnerable spot after this morning's email. "You mind taking your glitter and rainbows somewhere else? You're harshing my downer."

"Oh, does someone need their frown turned upside down?"

"Liv," Ravi said warningly.

Major could see her trying to fight the influence of the brain, and the fact that this was their reality now pissed him off even further, beyond his capacity to restrain himself. "Look, Liv, you have to stop doing this. You can't just come around here and fling your daily dose of crazy around and pretend it's normal. This is not normal, it's not okay, and I really don't want to deal with it."

The smile faded in a childlike slow bewilderment from her face, and she stepped back from him. "Oh. I'm sorry. I thought—after the hospital, and you were—"

"I know what you thought. I've known Evan since he was in grade school; I care about him, too. Of course I would be there for you then. But now—Liv, I can't have you here. I can't live with this reminder every day of what you are, of what you almost turned me into, of what this has all cost me. You have to stop coming here."

"Major—" Her eyes had filled with tears, and he hated what he was doing to her. He wanted to think about what this had all been like for her, he wanted to feel for her, but his career was over, his hopes for his own life destroyed, and that all came from that night at the boat party. That the initial scratch hadn't been her fault didn't matter. The way she had handled it, how she had shut him out and lied to him and broken his heart, that was on her, and he couldn't get past that. "I'm sorry," she said, her eyes wide with that earnest-Liv look he wished didn't still have the power to make his heart turn over. "I'm so sorry! If I had it to do over again—but I was so afraid of what would happen to you, that you would get hurt or—"

"Or die? Well, congratulations, you took care of that. Like you took care of everything else. All on your own, no consultation needed. You let me know when the god brains you ate wear off."

"I wasn't trying to play god! I was trying to protect you!"

At some point, Ravi had disappeared from the kitchen, not wanting to be a part of this conversation. Major couldn't blame him—he didn't want to be a part of it, either. "I know what you think you were doing. But at the end, all you did was treat me like a child, and ruin my life into the bargain." He looked down at her, knowing that he was still in love with her, and that his anger came from the deep hurt and the equally deep love that were still fighting each other in his heart. "Liv, maybe … maybe someday I can get past this. I'll try. But you have to give me time, and space, and let me figure out what my life is going to be on my own."

She blinked back the tears, clearing her throat. "I'll—I'll try. And if you need to talk …"

"I'll let you know," he said, politely but firmly, hoping she understood that if he ever did need to talk, it wouldn't be anytime soon.

"Okay." Liv hesitated in the doorway, clearly wanting to try again, not wanting to give up. But Ravi appeared behind her, his hand closing gently on her shoulder.

"We're going to be late. Clive wanted to interview the boyfriend today, remember?"

"What? Oh. Yes. Of course, I—" She froze for what seemed like an endless time, before gasping for breath like something had struck her. "Ravi! I saw him. They were arguing about the affair she was having. There's another boyfriend!"

"We should tell Clive. You can call him from the car." Over Liv's shoulder, Ravi met Major's eyes. "See you later."

"Yeah." Major watched as Liv followed Ravi to the door. She gave him a last glance, clearly hoping for some kind of signal, so he turned away, his back to the door, and got down a cereal bowl, making an extra clatter on the counter as he set it down. He heard the door close behind them both and let go of a breath he hadn't known he was holding, leaning his forehead against the cabinet door. Tears prickled at the back of his eyes. He wished for nothing more than to chase her down, to hold her close, to talk to her about everything and let her make it all right, the way she used to. But those times were gone now, and he was going to have to pull up his big boy Underoos and figure it all out himself now.