Persistence of Memory

Prologue

April 2006...

“What the fuck just happened?”

That thought was burning itself into his brain to the point that it was a physical pain. He was walking away, out of his life, again. He sounded so incredibly defeated, so exhausted and in such pain when he said, “I'm done, Brian....I'm just...done...” that it paralyzed him into immobility. No, wait...he was already stunned into silence long before those words were spoken, due to a thoughtless comment fired off like a bullet, with a precision of a sharpshooter directly into the target's heart. The irony was that he, the king of spin, master of award winning copy, ad exec extraordinaire, wasn't the one to say the hateful words that rendered him utterly speechless. The irony was that words – his domain, his livelihood – failed him, possibly for the first time in his entire life. His brain ceased to function at the worst possible moment and now...he, Sunshine, believed someone else's lie so absolutely that he WAS. JUST. DONE....

How did it come to this so quickly? How was it possible for the incredible joy of the morning to descend into complete chaos of this evening, in mere moments? This morning, just this morning, they were happy to be back together for the weekend, celebrating the success of Justin's show. They were so excited that the hard work, the misery of the past 11 months, the pain of a long-distance relationship was finally paying off. Justin's first show was such a success that he was offered another one in five months’ time. Justin was ecstatic about his plans of coming home to Pittsburgh, for good, after the second show – he was so optimistic that after that he would be able to manage his career from Britin. Now, that happiness, that optimism, along with their future together was reduced to ash...and he was watching him walk away...again.

Suddenly, an anger born of helplessness, anger like he has never felt before completely consumed him.

“How could he? After everything they'd been through, how could he have so fucking little faith in them, in me? Fuck him! He's done? Fine, so be it!” he thought.

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