Breakdown

<p><I>"You called yesterday…To basically say…"

<p></I>"Hello?" Taylor picked up the phone, writing down something on a notebook.
<p>"Hello, Taylor?" the voice of his girlfriend, Marie, whispered.
<p>"Marie? Hey baby, how are you?" Taylor grinned.
<p>"Umm, good, Taylor… I called to tell you something."
<p>"Yes?" Taylor waited.

<p><I>"That you care for me but… That you're just not in love…"

</I><p>"I… I really don't think this relationship thing between you and me is going to work out." Marie spat out quickly.

<I><p>"Immediately I pretended to be feeling similarly…"

<p></I>Taylor gasped and looked at the phone, not believing what he was hearing. He immediately composed himself, and started to agree.
<p>"I don't think that our relationship was working out too well, either, Marie." Taylor sighed, dropping the pencil he was holding and leaning back in his chair.

<p><I>"And led you to believe I was OK, To just walk away from the one thing that's unyielding and sacred to me…"

<p></I>"Are you ok?" Marie asked, concerned.
<p>"Yeah… It was just a 7 months fling, no biggie." Taylor lied through his teeth, all the while forcing himself not to cry out in anger.
<p>"No Taylor, it wasn't just a 7month fling… I know it meant the world to you, and I'm sorry to have to do this to you." Marie argued. "And it probably still does."
<p>"Marie, just… Please. Leave me alone." With that, Taylor hung up the phone, then buried his face in his hands, forcing himself not to cry. 

<I><p>"Well I guess I'm trying to be nonchalant about it… And I'm going to extremes to prove I'm fine without you…"

</I><p>"Yo Tay… Where's Marie? I haven't seen her around for a while." Taylor's older brother, Isaac walked into the kitchen 6 days after the breakup.
<p>"Marie and I decided that we should breakup." Taylor explained simply, masking his emotions from one of his best friends.
<p>"Ouch. She was a hottie." Isaac grabbed a Coke, and left the room.
<p>"Yeah, she was Ike… More then you know…" Taylor mumbled to himself.

<p><I>"But in reality I'm slowly losing my mind… Underneath the guise of a smile gradually I'm dying inside…"

</I><p> Taylor set his head down on his arms, and thought about all the good times that Marie and himself had had… He had no idea what drove her to break up with him. He had treated her well… He had… He had.

<p><I>"Friends ask me how I feel, and I lie convincingly.. Cuz I don't want to reveal the fact that I'm suffering."

<p></i>Zac walked into the kitchen, and saw Taylor crying.
<p>"Hey Tay, are you ok?" Zac asked, sitting down next to him.
<p>"Yeah… I just had something in my eye. I told the makeup artists not to pluck my friggin eyebrows!" <p>Taylor pretended to laugh.
<p>Zac looked at him with suspicion, but tried to believe him. 
<p>"Ok Taylor, whatever you say…" 
<I><p>"So I wear my disguise 'til I go home at night and turn down all the lights… Then I breakdown and cry."

<p></I>Taylor looked up at Isaac's bunk bed as a tear slipped from his eye and down his cheek. He missed Marie more then she knew, more then Isaac or Zac knew, more then he himself knew. All he wanted was for her to come back to him, even though he knew that just wasn't going to happen.


<I><p>                            "So what do you do when somebody you're devoted to, Suddenly just stops loving you and it seems they haven't got a clue, Of the pain that rejection is putting you through, Do you cling to your pride and sing "I will survive", Do you lash out and say "How dare you leave this way", Do you hold on in vain as they just slip away?"

<p></I>Taylor was so confused. Did Marie suddenly start liking another guy, or did they just grow apart? He didn't know whether or not he could make it. The love he felt for Marie was unlike any other he had ever had to deal with, and the pain of rejection she had given him was tearing him apart inside. How was he supposed to deal with the lose he felt? He honestly didn't know.