"Hey, wanna go...what are you doing?" a note of panic arose in his voice as he walked into the room and saw her throwing everything she could fit into a suitcase. Clothes, photos, that bear he had given when she was three...

"What does it look like Zac?" her tone was measured and clipped.

"L-leaving? Why? Forever?" his mind searched for something that went wrong, something he might've missed, and came up with nothing.

"I can't take it anymore" she slammed her suitcase shut and flipped the locks closed. "Endlessly going from one airport to another, never stopping or taking time to rest, the screaming girls who endlessly proclaimed their love for you, I just can't do it"

She turned to him and he saw the tears flowing down her face.

"I'm sorry Zac, I didn't want it to end this way. It's either me or the music. You choose"

"So if I choose you, I can't have music, and if I choose music, I can't have you. That's not fair" he pleaded with her.

"I'm sorry Zac, I'm so sorry" her voice cracked. "But I can't take it anymore, I can't keep going around, never having a life. Choose"

"Then I'm sorry, but I can't give up my music. If you can't accept that, then you don't accept me" a single, solitary tear escaped and trickled down his face.

She nodded slowly, the tears coming faster. 'She's so beautiful....so beautiful' Zac thought. 'Why hadn't I noticed how beautiful she was before?'

She wrapped her fingers around the brown handle, and walked over to him. She gave him a soft kiss on the cheek and flung her free arm around his neck for a few, brief seconds.

"See ya 'round" she whispered. "Give everyone my love, and tell them....tell them that I'm sorry"

She opened the door, looked at him once more, and then walked out. And with that Jessica Hanson was gone from his life.