As he left her at the stoop of her uncles house, he accepted her embrace and they held it for as long as they could. This was goodbye, and unfortunately for him, he was still very much in love with the idea of her in his life.

When they parted, and he opened his eyes, his glasses had fogged, a sign of the impairment to his vision for the uncertainty of his future. He quickly removed the fogged spectacles, to see what he still believed to be the one. He memorized her in their last moment; how her image reflected the light tint of orange from the street lights, that flooded Story Avenue.

As he stared into her eyes, the second pair of brownish gold, he believed would be with him until the end; yet he knew that it was over for her and would have to be the same for him. Realizing this, he felt the loss. This wounded him but not as deep as he originally thought it would. The complete effect of it will take time to sink in and impair his future judgment when thoughts of returning would begin to take root.

Parting with and refusing to ingratiate himself with her during the last moment, was his attempt at ending this chapter quietly and without the lush and gaudy romance one would succumb to in an effort to win back the warm affections of this past security.

Turning away from her and walking down Story Ave towards Castle Hill, he waited at the corner of Quimby for the Bx22.

Standing there, he began to feel it. He hoped to have a confrontation with one of the crews prowling the street, who could have interpreted his slacks, shoes and button down as an easy jack. He hoped for the confrontation so he can submit to it, and use them as the ear that he so desperately needed at the moment, to vent his frustrations out on, and to force them to empathize with him. They would have “bit off more than they can chew” so to speak. To have that moment to confess that he felt nothing, that she took what little value he had left, for them to go back down Story and pick up the crumbs of himself left on the sidewalk, as a path back to her through the concrete jungle which he now dwelled. To yell, “Go ahead! Take what you will, these objects are of no value! She,..has taken all that I had. My words and emotions have bounced off of her and back onto me. The impact has dazed and confused, and you… You can have these uncertainties! There is nothing you can do to harm me!”