The river was very loud. No one told Nino the river was very loud at night, roaring against the bank, seemingly angry at the manmade things that confined it. But its noise wasn't loud enough. Nino still heard every word Suze uttered. And when comprehension dawned on him, he gripped her scratched, tiny, pink guitar and threw it to the ground.

The sound of wood against concrete was louder in his ears than the cries of the river.

"There. It's broken," Nino declared. "It's beyond repair. Everything is. I get it now."

He heard Suze release a short breath, then her arms were around his waist, fingers clinging to his shirt. She was the only girl who would dare come close to him when he was this angry, seething that he could barely see the haze of colors and lights, his ears ringing with the rush of the river beside them. 

But Suze was braver than most, and she liked putting him in his place. Reasons out of many why he thought they would last. Why hurting her had made him unable to forgive himself.

Suze pulled away, taking his face in her hands, watching the tears pool in the rims of his eyes. He let her stand on his sneakers, tiptoeing so she could reach him. He let her kiss him, relishing the taste of her mouth, the urgency of her touch, more things to imprint in his head. This kiss would do it. This guaranteed that Nino would see Suze's face every time he was lying in bed, staring at cracks on the ceiling. He would regret this kiss in the morning.

He whispered her name, holding her to him, glad she couldn't see the freefall of tears down his cheeks. Was this it? Was this how their night ended, with the two of them hurting each other a final time? One last bit of pain for the road. Maybe that was their closure.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," was her answer to every time Nino murmured her name between kisses.

"It's my fault. It's all my fault," was Nino's reply, his anger ebbing as heat flowed through them.

***

"Where do I put all these?"

"I told you, right there."

"This is very anticlimactic."

"And you're too dramatic. Do you want to include a hefty fine in your episode?"

"No, thank you."

Nino lugged the remnants of the beautiful pink guitar and shoved them into a nearby trash can, taking care that each string, each wood and metal piece was safe inside the bin. He thought it deserved a proper burial, this creature that never hurt them, that only ever played them rough Leaving on a Jetplane takes plucked by Suze's little fingers. But its broken pieces had nowhere else to go, and Nino had his temper to blame, as usual.

"It was a bad idea to return the guitar to you. Now it's dead." She had returned to her cold concrete seat, Nino close beside her.

"You never even named her."

"Maybe because I knew you'd break it someday. Like my heart."

Leave it to Suze to hurt him with a one-liner. He returned her small smile, relishing the feeling, the small of spark of joy in his chest that came with the slice of pain. A small smile to remind him that this girl had been nothing but good to him.

"Remember I told you we have the breakup song, karaoke-level kind of love," he said in a rush, fueled by sudden desperation. "Things could break, but love should endure."

"Didn't you just say it's beyond repair?" Suze whispered to her fingers.

"You know me and my temper. The things I say." He bowed his head to catch her gaze. "But this doesn't seem that bad. The mistakes we made. As Brandon Flowers once said..."

"It's only a kiss."

He nodded, touching hislips against her temple. This girl had been nothing but good to him, but was heever good enough for her?

I've said before thatI would try harder. 

He moved to press his kiss against her closed eyelids. 

Will it be enough to promise her the samething now?