It took Nash a few seconds to register that he was now walking alone, and he turned around with a frown on his face. He knew more about Dana than he even knew about himself, and he studied his friend’s face, trying to figure out what happened and which look he was giving him. Only took a few seconds to realize Dana was rocking the ‘Nash, did you finally snap and butcher someone!?’ face. “Dude, noooooo, come on!” Nash rolled his eyes. “I meant…what’s that thing in English? Where it’s like you say something that means one thing but you don’t mean it literally? Whatever, I don’t know, but it’s like when people say they slayed someone, but they didn’t actually kill them. They slayed them with words.” He sighed and looked down at the ground. “I just— it was easy, you know? To say I was over her when I didn’t have to see her, but then all of a sudden there she was after twenty years, and I- I thought it was some type of second chance. Not to be with her, but… to tell her I understood why she did what she did. That I understood people acted out in harsh ways when they were hurting inside, and that I’d be her friend this time around. A real friend. Not some guy trying to win her heart over, but really be there for her. Someone she could talk to about what happened to her that made her so sad, if she wanted, and I wouldn’t judge her in the slightest no matter what it was. But,” he shook his head and forced out a laugh, “turns out everyone was right. She made a comment about how she only did the things she did because she loves attention and I-I just sorta lost it. I’ve never said the types of things I said to her to anyone in my life. But it hurt more than I can ever describe. My feelings, the things I did for her, it was a joke. I’m a joke. She broke my heart…for fun. And maybe, maybe I was naive and an idiot for believing there was no way someone could be that cruel. That there had to be an explanation for it. Maybe I did need to wake up from my delusion, but…,” he shrugged, “it was never her place to take it away from me.”