Gritty and tough like a slice of real life, and I savored every word.

That was an amazing read. The main idea of referring to the circle again and again was good, but the way you presented it made it totally awesome.

And the one paragraph of what would happen was a good part of it. Going on and on just to say she did nothing. I liked that.

It's totally great for a first draft. Even a final one, I'd say. It's just the ending that bothers me a bit. I love how its "The Circle is almost complete," and "Except this time I knew it was there." but for some reason, "I knew it was shit" ruins the first two lines, and the flow of the story.

Besides that, I LOVED IT! :)

aw Xen this is so cool. i so admire how you can do real stuff. i'm hopeless with it. but you hook teh reader in and keep them glued all teh way through, and not with firebreathing dragons and death defying feats but with reality and achingly true to life characterisation and teh real pain of relationships. i love where teh mc's imagination goes, and i absolutely adore teh ending. in keeping with your theme though, maybe consider having something similar, emotion-wise, but shown/acted out, in teh begining, to get that real sense of a closing circle? loved it.

Loved it. Love love love loved it. ...I don't know...this just really hit home with me. Like everything about it. I just kept thinking of last March and everything, and my cheating experience, and I feel so much like this about it, like why don't people just *come out with it*? But no one ever does...

Anyway. I loved the voice. You had me won over towards the end with the larger paragraphs of "this is what would happen" and then up to that ending where nothing was said. I just really relate to that almost 100%. Seriously. I liked that they kept silent and pretended everything was normal-I've experienced that kind of thing, and I think you wrote it wonderfully.

I'm no good with grammar/spelling lately, and find myself reading more for content, but stylistically, I really enjoyed this. Per usual, it's very refreshing to read your work. You really have a way with the human condition, and moments and relationships in people's lives. You do a great job here. I really loved this :)

Don't change that big paragraph, as far as making new ones, or anything. I liked the stream of consciousness effect there. That was my favorite. Gah-I just really loved this. Thank you, Xen. Hope things are well and all since I don't see you too often :)