A room away, Daniel found himself under verbal fire.

“So I’m nothing more than a fling?”

He had to duck in order to avoid a flying vase that crashed behind him.

“No, Julia, you misunderstood, I didn’t mean--”

“Then how, Daniel? How did you mean it, tell me? TELL ME!”

“Well, ok, look, did you really think we’d make it out of high school?”

He avoided another flying object.

It was his first time seeing Julia so angry, and it was a scary spectacle. Her face was curled in a deep frown, there was sweat on her forehead, so much that he wondered how her makeup wasn’t starting to trickle down; the way she moved was sharp and sudden, like a hurricane swallowing houses and drowning out noise. Daniel shook off the words and concentrated on what she was yelling now.

Julia threw her hair back and only now he noticed how much she tended to do that.

“That’s not the flaming point, Daniel! You were in this knowing you’ll break up with me, what’s the matter with you?! Do you know how much effort I’ve spent on you?! You think I do my hair and my face to sit around at home?”

“I never said I needed that sort of thing!”

“Right, because appearance doesn’t matter to you at all! Remind me, aren’t those tattoos on your face?”

“Don’t start with this again! I’ve told you a thousand times that this isn't why I got those! And you knew from the start that this was just a trial period--”

“Trial period my ass! A month and a half is a trial period, six months is a flaming commitment! I didn't know that's how you wanted it to go down!”

“You know I'm not the only one who came into this to test the waters so don't blame it all on me!”

“That's-- that's got nothing to do with it!”

“It's got everything to do with it! God, no wonder no one could put up with you before me, you always whine and complain and don’t listen to a word anyone else says, and all you care about is how you look! Curses, Julia, you--”

“I don’t listen to anyone? I came here for YOU!”

“What? What’s that got to do with anything?”

“I’m stuck here because of you!”

“How, exactly? You have your own brain, Julia! If you didn’t want to come, that was your choice!”

For a moment, she seemed to be at a loss of words. Then, she burst out, “Know what, have it your flaming way, Daniel!”

She slammed the door behind her, thus ending it for a tiny painting that fell on the ground and out of its frame, breaking the glass protector in the process.