Mara would always look back upon the day where she and Mick washed up in the kitchen together. She would always remember the way he'd flicked the washing up bubbles into her face, how they'd ran round the kitchen laughing, and how she'd done the fateful thing, she'd given in, and they'd gotten back together. She would always look back upon that day, but after a few months she would only think back on it with regret.

It was funny, because for weeks afterwards she'd remember that day as the day where she'd been happiest, the day where something good began. However, she never thought about the reason they'd broken up in the first place, she'd almost forgotten the election and the fighting. Back then, she presumed she was just in awe that someone like Mick would ever care enough to like someone like her the same way.

In three weeks and two days, that day would be a year ago, and as it got increasingly closer it became the reminder of how much things had changed.

Mara hadn't even remembered their anniversary, but Mick had. Mick had been dropping hints for days about something he'd been planning, something that she was going to absolutely love. Most girlfriends would feel ecstatic to have a boyfriend that cared that much, though Mara just felt guilty. Mick had never done anything wrong, he had never gotten angry or argued with her. He'd always been the considerate, fun guy that he'd always been.

And that made it so much worse.

She would often wonder whether she had changed during the year, whether she had suddenly matured and became a different person with different wants and a different personality. But in reality, they were just too different. Patricia had warned her about it, but she thought that because they'd been getting along fine at the time, that it would work out.

But in one year, everything changes. In one year, while Mick's feelings grew, Mara's disappeared, and she finally realised that her and Mick should never have gone out in the first place. It took a year for Mara to sit back and think about the times when she felt the most comfortable, when she felt the least pressured into impressing someone, and that was when she'd been friends with Jerome. While it took no time at all for Mara to accidentally terminate their friendship, simply by choosing Mick, it took a year for Mara to realise that Jerome might have been the one to choose in the first place. Whether as friends or more than that, she still wasn't quite sure how she felt, but it would have saved her the guilt. So much guilt.

Though on Jerome's side, it only took a second for Mara to shatter his heart into pieces, but it took slightly less than a year for him to finally move on. It had been hard, and he had struggled, but a year later and he could finally look at her and feel nothing. He would laugh at himself for his stupid little crush, and wondered why on earth it had taken so long to get over it. Now she was Mara, the girl from his house, who he had once been quite close to. Nothing more, nothing less. Now when they bumped into each other in the hallway he could smile without feeling nervous, now it was back to normal.

Now, everything had changed.

Hey :)

This is somewhat of an intro. Wanted to take a new spin on the normal Jara story, so it's kind of like the opposite to normal.

Can I just add, I'm loving the recent outburst of Jara stories on here. Much love to all authors, spread the Jara love ;)

Pip xxx