If you perform an action enough time over the course of enough years, it begins to create its own atmosphere. Something you only feel while doing that specific thing. After six years, the walk to her house had accrued such an atmosphere, although now was the last time he would ever feel it.

As the six years that had come and gone since their meeting, she had drastically changed. She had matured faster than he had, and had decided how she would explore life while he was still cooped up with his books in his room. She had decided that she wanted to truly live, and this had made him envious. His desperation to catch up to her lead to some incredibly poor decisions and phases in his life, caused by his desire to be cool and mature enough to win her attention. Alas, his efforts were to no avail. As they were growing up there would occasionally exist periods where their relationship was more intimate, and those times used to serve his hopes that one day they would fully commit to it. However, those times came and went at her whimsy. She would always initiate but never reciprocate. Along the course of their lives he had at times resented her for it, believing that he was being led on by her lack of commitment towards him, and while that possibly had a note of truth to it, he no longer felt as entitled as he once did.

   Earlier that day, he had been unable to leave his bed, chained down by thoughts of her, and thoughts of what would never be. For the better part of the day he had remained in his prison of blankets and bedsheets, not feeling capable of so much as raising a hand. He could not ignore his responsibilities forever though, and eventually he was dragged from his resting place. The day goes on. He contemplates possible solutions to his current situation, and he comes to a conclusion. A conclusion so sudden it shocks him  that he didn’t come to it much earlier. Just as she had matured, so had he. And while they were perfectly compatible in the past, fading youth and differing personalities had driven them in separate directions. As her personality had developed, by attempting to impress her he had denied his own personality from doing the same. He now realize that maybe with his books was where he really belonged, and maybe he was tied to feelings of the past, to ghosts of his past desires, and the only thing he knew is that he needed to be rid of them. He sent her a message to meet him outside her house, which lay a mere block away from his own. He went up to his room to retrieve a bracelet. This bracelet he had worn for as many years as he had known her. Everyday it hung on his right wrist, he would often forget to remove it before slumber. Through all of the changes he had been through, this bracelet had been with him through it all, and to detach himself from his past, he needed to be rid of it. And so it had come to this. A walk in the cool October night, towards a house he had been to many times, yet a place where he doubted he would ever tread again. He rested himself against a corner of the building where during one such a night, she had told him that she wanted to end their time as more than friends. He wondered if she’ll notice his choice. After a few minutes slowly ticked by, she came out of the house to greet him. He stood his back straight, removed the bracelet from his right wrist and handed it over to her.