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It’s just us two here.
We’ve walked in relative silence - a comfortable silence – all the way here from the hotel. I want to give Josie the space she needs. Whatever she was crying about wasn’t good, but I don’t know how the hell I can support her.
I’m just a man who has never dealt with a crying girl before. A stupid loaf of a man.
“It feels fake,” she explains. “The sunset. It doesn’t feel real.”
“It’s happening right there,” I tell her, pointing out to the setting sun. “Literally in front of our eyes.”
Josie shrugs.
“Ignore me,” she says. “I don’t know what I’m saying. My head is a mess right now.”
“That’s okay,” I tell her. “You don’t have to have everything figured out.”
“Everything has just been a struggle,” she whispers. “For months and months and months. I feel like I’m pushing against a wall that will not budge in the slightest.”
“Yeah,” I say. “That’s called life. That’s what we have to do every single day. That same fucking wall.”
“I’m sure you’ve never felt like that,” Josie remarks.
“Yes, I have,” I say.
“Come on, don’t lie. You’re a Penmayne. You haven’t felt that kind of struggle.”
“So I don’t have feelings?”
“No, you’re not allowed to,” Josie rebuffs. “You are literally one of the best-looking people on Earth, Victor. You have an overstuffed bank account. You’re on the front page of every magazine. You have millions of girls lusting after you...”
I laugh, cutting her off.
“I am still human, Josie.”
“But you’re not supposed to feel the stresses and anxieties everyone else feels.”
“I’m still just a man who gets out of bed every day,” I explain. “I’m not an emotionless robot. I have stress and anxiety like everyone else on this planet.”
The girl sighs.
“I find it hard that it’s all fake,” she murmurs quietly.
“What do you mean?” I ask her.
I don’t know what she’s talking about... the sunset still?
“The relationship,” she explains. “Us. What we’re doing. I find it so hard. Don’t you?”
I pause and reflect on what she’s saying.
That’s what she’s worried about?
To be honest, things don’t feel too fake to me.
“No. I don’t,” I reply. “I don’t find it hard.”
“Okay.”
We stop to watch the last moments of the day’s sun before it disappears. But I’m not looking at the sunset.
