“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize how much it meant to you,” the young man looks at her with wide, confused eyes.

“Well, it’s too late to take it back,” the woman gazes at her outstretched hands, cupped around a gray stone.

“Hey, look at me, please,” he pleads, voice quavering.

“It never meant that much to you. It never did,” her stone face demeanor hid from him what she was feeling inside—small, weak, and hurt.

“Look, I just wanted to be honest with you. Even if it meant…this…”

“You’re always too honest”

“I’m sorry”

The woman doesn’t respond and instead rubs her fingers against the stone’s smooth exterior, lost in a trance. Instead of waiting for her to say something, the man begins pacing on the sidewalk.

 

“I just want to get out of here,” he finally says, breaking the silence.

“You always have,” she replies. The knot in her stomach begins to travel to her throat.

“It’s just too suffocating here, I wasn’t meant to live this way,” he wrings his hair in frustration.

“Well, go. Just go. Why don’t you leave right now? No one’s stopping you.” She swallows, trying to prevent the knot in her throat from bursting.

“Are you going to stop me?”

“Do you want me to?”

 

Pause.

 

“No.”

He looks at her one last time– those same blue eyes, wide with confusion- never able to decipher the truth in her eyes. And walks away.

 

Minutes that feel like hours pass. The woman continues staring at the stone in her hand. Suddenly, she screams in rage. Anguish held inside finally released in the form of uncontrollable tears. Gasping for breath, she throws the stone across the sidewalk.

It breaks into uneven pieces.

And she runs off, knowing that neither of them would return to mend it.

---

 

Hope you guys enjoy this short story! It’s been a while since I’ve written these micro-fiction pieces. Really enjoyed doing so. Definitely a different kind of medium from poetry– a nice change from my usual writing these days!

Would love some constructive criticism, feedback, thoughts, ideas in the comments section 🙂

❤