• tab "Just a second." I held up my finger and flipped open the phone, putting it to my ear.
    tab "Hello?"
    tab "Heeey, Jack!" I glanced back up at Susan. This...was awkward.
    tab "Hey, Sarah!" I forced out happily. "What's up?"
    tab "You know, I feel kind of stupid now," she said with a laugh. "I forgot to tell you where to meet up!"
    tab "Meet up?"
    tab "You know...For the Christmas Eve party." I scratched my head, embarassed that I forgot.
    tab "Oh...yeah. Yeah, you never did tell me where we were meeting up." I glanced back up at Susan. Her eyebrows were raised so high up, it would've almost been funny. Funny if I didn't know what was going on with her. I give her a small, "encouraging" smile, which quickly faded away as I continued to conversation,
    tab "Oh, it's really big! At the Holiday Mark Hotel! We'll all sleep over until Christmas, and there'll be food, and dancing, and mistle toe..."
    tab "Mistle toe?!" Regretful words. Maybe I shouldn't have said them so loud, seeing Susan was right there.
    tab "Mistle toe," I went on, quieter. "Got it. And that's...Holiday Mark Hotel?"
    tab "Yep! The one near the large, 12 Oaks mall!"
    tab "All right. I got it noted!" I said it with a forced laugh. Everything happy seemed forced now. That was a bad sign.
    tab "Ok! Love ya!"
    tab "Love you too."
    tab "Bye!"
    tab "Bye..." I hung up, and looked back at Susan. Her face looked hurt. And then...and then I saw something coming from her eye.
    tab A tear. She just looked at me with that teary eye, and I could almost see all the sorrow she'd been through. All the sorrow and regret...it was all there. And all the hope that was built up on me...crushed. Gone. Vanished.
    tab "Look...look, I'm sorry..." I rubbed my fore finger against my forehead, trying to think of what to say. There really was nothing. "I told you this wasn't going to work out..." She didn't even look at me as she spun and began to walk towards the door.
    tab "Wait!" I ran for her, tried to stop her, tried to convince her to just listen. She didn't, until she finally turned around and said, not sternly, not angrily, but with utter sadness and sincerity,
    tab "Jack...Have you ever...have you ever felt like you just lost it all? Like there was nothing left in you?"
    tab "Susan...I said I was sorry."
    tab "Oh your sorry...Ok..." She wiped her eye and went on, "I've heard that said so many times. But sorry...sorry doesn't heal anything." Suddenly, I got angry. Really angry.
    tab "Well, what do you want from me?!" I began to flail my arms around in the air as I spoke the words. "You want me to dump my girlfriend so I can marry you? Is that your little selfless plan?"
    tab "Jack, I don't think you understand..."
    tab "Oh, I understand," I hissed. "I heard every moping syllable you had to say to me. Every little self pitying word! And now what do you want me to do? Comfort you? Tell you everything is all right?" At that moment, a taxi pulled up, and Susan opened the door. Before she stepped in, she turned around, and said one last thing,
    tab "Good bye, Jack. Merry Christmas." And I watched as the taxi drove off. I just stood there, not sure what to feel. Not sure whether I did the right thing, or the wrong thing.
    tab Not everything was so black and white as they were in the love stories, as I had figured out. And even though I told myself over and over again that I had done the right thing, something was still wrong.
    tab But what was I supposed to do? What was really the right thing to do? I kept wondering it as I walked home, not even bothering to hail a taxi.
    tab "Yeah..." I muttered to myself. "Merry Christmas."