“Oh. Sure.” Jared turned back toward the pasta and stirred listlessly.

Quentin had seen Jared mope like this every single time he and Lara had broken up. But it didn’t feel good to see his cousin hurt. “Are you sure you’re all right, man?”

“Yeah. I’ll be fine. But it’s just really over this time,” Jared said hollowly.

That was what he’d said last time as well, but Quentin didn’t want to be an asshole by bringing it up. “What makes you say that?”

“Because she smashed my phone.” Jared sighed as he dumped the pasta into a colander to drain. “She knows I don’t have the money to get a new one right away. Which means that when she smashed it, she knew she wouldn’t be able to reach me for a while. She’s never done that before. Usually when we break up she’s blowing up my phone like crazy for weeks.”

Quentin cleared his throat. “Maybe it’s better this way. A clean break. It’s harder to get a fresh start if you’re always in communication with each other, you know?”

“A fresh start? I haven’t had one of those since we started dating sophomore year.”

Quentin got a sudden flash of the person Lara had been in high school. Chipper and smiley. She’d always had a temper but she’d been...happier. Quentin remembered the way her high ponytails used to bounce when she’d gallop down the hallway to jump into Jared’s arms. When he considered the person she’d been then versus the person she was now, it seemed highly probable that Jared wasn’t any better for Lara than she was for him.

“Do you want to be with her or do you want to break up?” Quentin asked point blank.

Jared sagged as he slid a plate of pasta across the counter to Quentin. His head lolled to one side, a defeated look on his face. “Neither. But, you know, I guess breaking up is the closest to what I want.”

“Then you have to stick to it, man. It’s not fair to either of you to drag this out. Both of you deserve to move on.” Quentin scooped the salad that he’d made onto Jared’s plate and watched his cousin’s face carefully. It wasn’t often that he inserted himself into anyone’s life, and the feeling was distinctly uncomfortable.

“Maybe you’re right,” Jared said after a long moment. “If you were going to try for a fresh start, how would you go about it?”

Quentin, not having had very many relationships to “fresh start” his way out of, racked his brain for healthy suggestions. “Hmm. Join a rec league for soccer? Meet some new people? You always said you wanted to get a short story published. You could work on that. Or, I don’t know, maybe date?”

“Ding ding ding!” Jared sang, pointing across the counter toward Quentin. “We have a winner. I’ll go on some dates. I could definitely stand to get laid.”

In Quentin’s eyes, Jared got laid plenty, in or out of his relationship with Lara. He should know; they shared a bedroom wall. “That’s not exactly what I—”