"I met a girl."

"Oh?"

"She's really, really sweet and so incredibly beautiful."

"Oh."

"And I asked her on a date."

"That's..." Ana hesitated to reply, holding the moving box gently between her hands, "that's awesome."

"Yeah. We met at AA the other night," Jeremy added on as he taped shut a box full of Ana's books.

She stifled a laugh that went unnoticed. The entire situation just sounded so grotesque. "That's so awesome!"

"Her names Sadie." Jeremy reached for more books, stuffing them inside a fresh box.

"Sadie Sink?" Ana teased, gesturing to the novel in his hands: 11/22/63.

"Nerd."

They had a shared love for Stephen King novels, which was discovered after Ana made a joke about it when doing the walk-of-shame from his apartment nearly a year ago.

"You know it."

Jeremy continued blabbering on about this Sadie character, someone who sounded entirely toxic. Apparently, she likes to cut her spaghetti with a knife, which Jeremy finds oh-so adorable!

"It's just so unique, like, who does stuff like that?" He rambled on as his packing became slightly haphazard.

"I cut my ramen noodles because the juice burns my chin all the time," Ana offered, trying to take all of his attention away from this stupid girl who came out of nowhere.

He made an unsure face and said, "Yeah, but, it's just not the same."

"How is it not the same? It's literally the same exact thing."

"Just, no, okay? Sadie is so different than any other girl, okay?" Jeremy insisted before taping down the box in his hands. He set it on top of the others beside him.

Ana was moving out of the apartment she was co-renting with Laura. She felt it was time to move on, grow up. She found a studio that was both closer to her work. The let down was that it was farther away from their café. But it was still only a hop, skip, and a jump away.

Ana was packaging her clothing across the room from where Jeremy was knocking out the things on her bookshelf. She was on the floor in a so-called criss cross apple sauce position. Jeremy had offered to do the clothing items because Ana was very terrible at folding. He had told her that, but she denied the offer because she felt weird allowing him to see her undergarments.

They both knew he underlying situation of that.

"Sadie would do something like that." Jeremy said as he watched Ana twist her hair behind her ear.

She huffed, her hands dropping into her lap. "You're serious? Jeremy, you barely know her. How would you eve-"

"I just know, okay?" He became agitated, slamming the tape down on the bed. "Why're you being so rude about her? You're like fixed on being negative."

"I said one thing, Jer, one thing." Ana held up her pointer finger to detail her point.

"And it still hurt my feelings because," Jeremy plopped down onto the bed and ran a hand through his messy hair, "you're my best friend and I want you to accept the that person I like."

"Oh, so we're in middle school now?"

"That's so not middle school. It's validation."

"No, I definitely did that stuff in middle school," she pulled herself up from the floor and placed her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, I don't think so." Jeremy plucked at her comforter with raised brows.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Anas shoulder squared backwards as if they were physically hurt by his words.

"I'm not calling you a truther." He imitated.

"Jeremy! Seriously, why are we even fighting right now?" Ana tossed her hands up in grief.

"Because you're not accepting Sadie and I want you to!" He exclaimed.

"Are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm not. I want you to like her."

Ana fumbled with her hands, "Well, i don't, okay? She sounds like someone I could never get along with. Plus, you just met her and you're already obsessed with her."

"And? Maybe I'm in love with her!" Jeremy suddenly stood from the bed.

"Well, good for you, go on and get married then!"

"Maybe I will!"

"And then you can just cheat on her l-" Anas eyes went wide as she realized the words that were coming out of her mouth. She clamped a hand over the spill, but it was too late.

Jeremys face was shocked, but his stature stayed firm. He moved towards the door with, "I'm going home."

Ana followed behind him as he reached the front door, her lips dry of any words. "Jer-"

"No, it's okay," he turned around, his hand on the door knob, "it's okay."

He was smiling which made Ana feel uneasy. She knew that he had anger issues, something he had worked through. She just didn't know if something like what she had said would trigger an explosion.

"Jer, please," she reached for his hand but he stepped back, into the hallway.

"I'll see you later."

Ana stood there when the door clicked shut, when he loaded himself onto the elevator and walked across the street to his apartment. When he punched the dry wall in his living room, as if it was a butterfly effect, Anas shoulders shrunk and she shuffled back to her bedroom.

Ana turned on music to drown out the thoughts wracking her mind. She packed the rest of the day away until everything except for spare clothing and the essentials of her daily routine were left lying on her bed beside her.

She slept with a heavy conscious.