Indurate.

"Why are you doing this to yourself?"

She stopped dead in her tracks, took a breath of windy, dark air. She started walking again.

"Why did you leave?"

He was following her now, but not relinquishing the lead. "Don't change the subject. Please. Tell me why you're doing this to yourself."

"I don't know what you're talking about." She took a breath, her lungs burning from the cold. They had rounded a corner now and were completely alone. He grabbed her shoulder here, and they stopped running. She didn't realize they had been running.

"Everyone knows it. Everyone knows this can't last. You can't keep this up forever." They were face to face now, more lonely than seemed possible. She looked at him, at that face she knew so well, at the changes of the last six months. She walked away then, but this time he didn't follow. "Stop it. Just stop it. You can't keep this up forever."

She did stop. She turned, walked up behind him, impossibly close, and leaned forward, pressing her forehead to his shoulder blade. She sighed. And spoke.

"Watch me."