He'd finished his drink so he made himself another, lit up a cigarette and sat down to sink himself into his thoughts. No-one to talk to here, no-one to relate to. He'd just have to sort it out himself. He could do with a sounding board, though.
He'd come back to the kibbutz not knowing what was going to happen between them and had tried to keep himself above all the pain he'd suffered before. And now he felt like he'd been thrown into the thick of it again. A deep quagmire full of screaming voices.

Like he'd told his friend, he was happy for her but also like a slice of him had been taken away... again. It had to happen sometime. This on-off situation couldn't have gone on for much longer. Time to decide, and she'd made her decision. So be it. 'Time to live for myself, not for others,' he thought.

So, he got on with things in his own way. Which sometimes just turned out to be sleeping and working. Staying in bed until five in the afternoon, going to work until six in the morning and then sleeping late the next afternoon. What was there to get up for? No-one really cared anyway. He didn't show his face in the dining hall too often, keeping himself to himself. He became distant and withdrawn - it was his way of dealing with everything. Not the best way, he knew that, but he needed the space in his head to rearrange his thoughts.