It was spring by the time he figured it out. But because the school year was coming to a close he considered it the summer. 

She had alluded to it. In a kind of, maybe this is where we are headed if things don't change, kind of way. But at that occasion he knee-jerked into just suggesting, 'maybe we should just be friends.'

"You think so?" she said.

Right after it was agreed, all the good parts of the relationships came back to him. Especially on those long drives alone. He'd made the wrong decision he was convinced. But what would've been the right one? To drag this thing on? No.

He didn't feel like telling anybody. If someone were to ask then he wouldn't hide it, but he wasn't into reaching out to people and telling them, hey this thing happened. He didn't hold it against other people who did that. In fact he liked it. When people reached out to him with bad news, it made him feel important. Bad news didn't make him feel bad like it seemed to other people. He could always be a listening ear. 

It was about a month before anybody asked him about his girlfriend. 

"We broke up." is what he said. "We're still friends."