"What was that, Billy?" asked his university roommate, Trevor Burnsworth.
"Gina just broke up with me." He looked up from his corner.
"Tough break, man." He rested a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Everyone thought you two would make it."
"Yeah well, apparently she 'wants it that way'." Billy glanced down at the ring adorning his ring finger. He pulled off the symbol of the love he had for his ex-girlfriend of two years and let himself fall forward onto his bed to look at the sapphire ring.
"What way?" Trevor opened up his psyche book.
"Are you gonna analyze me, now?" Billy found his stash of candy bars and started to ruffle through it. He wrinkled his nose when he found a power bar, and tossed the weight loss food behind him. As he started to eat a Hershey's Cookies 'n cream bar, he looked at his trim, muscular form in the mirror. "What she meant was that she wants it to be the way it was. She wants to have good memories of us, not memories of heated arguments and make-up sex. I was so stupid not to have seen where this was going before."
"Look, there's this big dance on Friday. You can try to forget about her there. Just go, dance, get drunk, and listen to some good music." Trevor closed his book and tossed it on his desk. "Just promise to give it some thought. You're really boring when you're moping." He headed out to the library.
"Maybe I will." Billy rolled onto his back and spent the next three hours staring at the ceiling.
"See, man?" laughed Trevor. "Good music and tons of babes all over you."
"Billy, will you dance with me?" asked a pretty, blond girl in fishnet leggings.
"Later, Julie." He got up from his chair and walked over to the DJ. "I'd like to request this song." he handed the man a slip of paper. "Just don't say who it's from. Dedicate it to Gina from 'you know who'."
"You got it, man." He turned off the music. "Okay, we've got a dedication going out to Gina from you know who. It's the latest from the Backstreet Boys, 'I Want It That Way'."
"Gina." Billy exclaimed when he laid eyes on the pretty redhead standing in front of him.
"Billy, that's really sweet what you did." She smiled, nervously. "It got me thinking about us. I want to be 'us' again."
"Well I don't." Billy confessed. He looked her square in the eyes.
"But"
"Listen to the song. 'Ain't nothin' but a heartache, ain't nothin' but a mistake'. Hello theme song!" He turned away from her when he saw her face twisting. He could never stand to see her cry.
"But Billy, we could make it. Let's change our theme song to 'You're Still the One'!" She said, referring to the popular Shania Twain song. She grabbed his arm and turned him around. "I was stupid to let you go. I see that now."
"Now I can see that we're falling apart from the way that it used to be." He said, quoting the song again. "We were falling apart for a long time now. It never will be the way it used to be. I'm sorry. Now I want it that way." He turned away, knowing that there was no going back from this point.
He never looked back.