I had to leave. Had to.

It was for the best. I knew it was. It was never supposed to go this far.

I was never supposed to...feel things. At all. We had agreed it was easier that way.

It was for the best.

I had almost made it out the bedroom door before a voice called out to me. "Justin?" Her voice was only a whisper in the dim lighting of the room. The sun was just barely rising, causing an orange-y glow to come through the sheer curtains over the windows.

I took a step further through the door, my goal to pretend like I just hadn't heard her and keep on moving. But she called out again.

 Dammit. I was hoping to have escaped before she woke up. I wanted to avoid the conversation I knew was coming.

"I know you heard me. Why don't you stop running for five seconds to explain yourself?" The tone in her voice now was angry. I scratched at the back of my neck nervously and spun around to face her.

"You know as well as I do why I'm leaving, Rhys." I said with a sigh, leaning against the door frame.

"I thought we were past all this." She said as she rolled out of bed and padded towards me slowly, looking more beautiful than any woman should after just having woken up. Gripping my hands in hers she brought them up to settle on her cheeks but when she released them, they moved of their own accord to tangle in her long curls.

Her head drooped back exposing her neck and I bent forward towards it, my lips moving along the column of her throat and up and down her sternum easily. My name escaped her lips once and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

There was something I was supposed to have been doing but her fingers were already working on my belt buckle and I couldn't make my brain concentrate on anything but taking her back to bed.

Her fingers popped the button on my jeans and the sound of my zipper being tugged downwards somehow brought me out of my trance.

I was supposed to be leaving. I grabbed her wrists gently to halt her movements and she groaned.

"I almost had you." She said with a seductive smirk.

That smirk was one of the reasons we were in this position in the first place.

She struggled against my restraints and finally gave up with a pout and crossed her arms over her chest.

"We can't keep doing this and you know it." I supplied, re-buckling my belt and adjusting my shirt.

"That's your explanation for sneaking out before the sun's come up? Without even a goodbye?" she asked, her voice rising in pitch quickly. Out of the two of us, she always did have the shorter temper.

I shrugged. "I don't do goodbyes."

Her eyes widened at me. "After all this time, you don't think I deserve that much?" She was yelling now. If I didn't leave quickly this was going to turn into a screaming match and that wasn't what I wanted.

"You do deserve that. But I knew that you'd just try and talk me out of leaving. And I couldn't have that. This time is for good, Rhys." I explained, pleading with her with my eyes to get what I was saying.

"So that's it then? You're just gonna leave?" she screamed, grabbing a pillow from the bed and throwing it at me. I ducked out of the way quickly and held my hands up in defense.

 "It was never supposed to be like this." I told her in the calmest voice I could muster. I knew she understood where I was coming from; she just didn't want to admit it. When this thing between she and I started, it was never supposed to go this far. We had both agreed on it.

But I'd let my guard down. And so had she.

Now here we were. In a situation that, in the past, I had always been able to avoid.

"Look Rhys, we both know this won't turn out well. One, or both of us, is going to get hurt. I'm just ending things before it gets to that point."

She plopped down in the middle of the bed, dark curls bouncing on her shoulders when she did so and she looked at me with tears in her eyes. "Well one of us already is getting hurt, Justin."

"I'm sorry. I really am. But I know you'll understand my reasoning when you've had time to cool off." With that I turned on my heel and left, ignoring her pleas not to go. If I went back now I may never have the strength to leave again. I knew how quickly I was falling for her. Each time we'd get together I felt myself slip a little bit more over the edge.

And judging from the way she was reacting to my leaving, I knew she was on the same page as me, was feeling the same way.

I'd lied when I said that I was trying to avoid getting hurt. Leaving her was hurting me. More than I wanted it to and more than I wanted to admit to myself.

But we'd never work out.

And it was for the best.

I just had to keep telling myself that.