The end had already begun.
By this time, the young couple’s parting was inevitable; and to prove it, it had been more than a week since he and she had seen each other in person - something unthinkable just months earlier.
Still, it was only hours since they had last spoken on the phone - a strange new dynamic that had become quite common during the past few weeks. But also, very different from before their relationship changed subtly yet undeniably. Prior to this unforeseen change, they spent every day together. Now, maybe once or twice a month at the most.
Teenagers who started dating their high school senior year, he followed her to college, about a two-hour drive from the