You Never Know When You'll Feel Yourself Break

She watches him as he walks away, and she can feel her world breaking.

She can see it on his face before he even opens her mouth. He's going to disappoint her—just like always. The only difference is that now it's here in her town, right before her best friend's wedding. But because she's been through this routine before, she defends herself in the only way she knows how: she throws up her walls and prays to God (if there even is such a thing) that it won't hurt too much.

"Sherry's pregnant." As soon as the words are out, she feels her walls collapse. She tries to stay calm, and she tries to let him off easy. Because, really, letting him go is the right thing to do.

Instead, all she can feel is anger—at Sherry for getting pregnant now, at him for leaving and never being there for Rory (for her) and getting to be there for Sherry's baby, at the world for always being so against her…

But mostly at herself. For believing the lie. For thinking that it could ever possibly work. He has always been her fallback, because she thinks a part of her may always feel something for him, but now—now, she can feel everything breaking. Everything she has ever known—ever wanted—slowly falls apart until nothing is left but her, herself, and all her mistakes.

For a moment, she even forgets who she is for a moment.

She watches him walk away, and the anger intensifies because this happens every time with them. It's never right; it never works. (She thinks fate might be trying to tell her something.) She vows silently never to speak to him again, a promise she's sure she'll keep (thought with him, her resolve has never been very strong).

Yes, as she watches him walk away, she can feel everything crumbling around her. The empire she has built for herself is falling as fast as the Roman's did. And it hurts.

But, walking back to the wedding, she remembers her semi-broken friendship with a certain diner owner, and a daughter who loves her and will always stand by her, and an entire town who will support her no matter what…

And, even though she can feel herself breaking, she realizes it isn't so bad.