"I'm breaking up with you."
Everything seemed to freeze around Jonah as Samson spoke or maybe it was more the opposite; it was he who had stumbled to a stop; i. It was he who'd forced himself to turn and face Samson in shock and it was he who was standing, immobile, in the centre of the park and the rest of the world went on around him. Families still moved in their groups around the grass, birds still flew amongst the branches of the trees and leaves still fell in wide arcs towards the moist ground below, but for Jonah everything had stopped. He could look at Samson's face and see the way his eyes were trying to hold back the pain and he could see the twist of his mouth, pushing it down into a frown, as he probably tried not to take back what he'd just said. He could see everything but it felt like he was stuck in that moment with Samson's words reverberating around his mind like an embarrassing moment he couldn't forget. He could feel his heart beating against his chest, pounding away as if he himself were trying to break out of this cage and take Samson into his arms. He wanted to touch him. He wanted to convince him that he was wrong, that they could work this out. He wanted to hug him again, to kiss him again, to talk to him and persuade him that this was just a bump and they had years left in their relationship but he was frozen and it was raining and all the worst things seemed to happen when the rain was falling.