James kicked a can across the road and it landed to rattle against a chain-link fence. James friend followed him in the same hunched down position.

"It's really complicated."

Matt barely looked up from the dull gray road "Love would be so much easier if, right from the beginning, everyone stated their intention." James hummed a sort of agreement and they continued in a slow scuffing walk. Their lives weren't happy. James had lost his girlfriend. Matt was too afraid to find out if his love loved him.

"These days, it's all messy. The "does she, does she not" sort of crap."

James nearly always agreed with Matt. Matt made up the rules. Matt said: "Every relationship should be like Romeo and Juliet's. They meet, and instantly they are in love. No mess."

"Minus the death." Added James."I don't know if I'd kill myself for a girl."

Matt was the serious one, the one who thought about stuff and would sit on his parents' roof and stare up at the stars. The romantic. The idealist. "But if I met her and instantly loved her, loved him enough to marry her in the next couple days... And then that love is gone... I have nothing left it would be like seeing the light, perfect and wonderful and amazing and then the light is gone. I couldn't go back to second best after seeing perfection."

James lifted his head just long enough to glance at Matt, who was now walking next to him, his bruised eyes tired against his white skin. "Sandra?" He said, knowing the answer already.

"Do you believe in love at first sight?" Asked Matt.

James shrugged and kicked out at nothing. It was a reflex. Normally there was some sort of rubbish nearby to take the beating he felt he needed to give. "I believe at love at first talk. After that, it just plays out."

"You're a realist, then. I believe in love at first sight. But then again, I'm a romantic idealist."

"I wish that that would happen... I don't know..." James' voice trailed off and he stared at the buildings in front of him, stretching on and on forever. "I think I'm in love with the feeling of loving someone, not the actual person."

They both looked at the decaying buildings and boarded up windows. "Why is life so hard..."