She stopped for a moment, shook the Discman under her jacket and sighed as it stopped playing, the batteries dead. Then she resumed her steady pace against the ferocious winds. After what seemed like an eternity, she ducked under the cover of an overhang and through the shabby wooden door.

She pulled back her hood and let the water run onto the pitted floor as she stood there, cold and shivering. Her short purple hair hung dripping, and streams of black dripped from her eyes and over her cheeks. She wiped her face with her hands, managing only to smudge the mascara marks around a bit. Finally, satisfied that she was as presentable as she was going to get, she looked around the dark coffee shop.

A few others dressed in black with kohl-smudged eyes were clustered in the corner farthest from the roaring fire. A girl with glasses and long, dark hair sat next to the fire, reading and chewing on the eraser end of a pencil.

She walked over to the fire and held her numb hands toward it. She stared into the fire a few long moments, not noticing the girl’s look of curiosity and interest as the pencil nibbling ceased for an instant. Then, she turned and slowly moved toward the group of people clustered in the corner.

The group seemed to part as she moved towards them and he looked up, as if he hadn’t noticed her arrival. His raven hair hung in perfect ringlets, his pale marble face remained untouched by sun or wind or rain.

His large gray eyes met her blue ones for an instant as she saw the paper in his hand. He handed it to her, mumbling, “Sorry.”

She knew without even opening it. She wriggled the ring from around her finger and silently placed it on the table in front of him. Then, she turned, head held high amongst the whispers and smirks, and walked calmly to the fireplace, where she dropped the letter. Then, she left, not deigning to look back.

Outside, she pulled the hood up and sighed again. It always seemed to be raining these days.