Shattered Glass: The End of Our Pretend Relationship

The human heart is such a fragile thing, like a piece of glass. Sometimes, it breaks slowly. Other times, quickly. And then sometimes...you don't notice the slow breaking until it shatters all at once.

I met him through a friend. We got along pretty well, almost like we had known each other for most of our lives. We were comfortable around each other. It wasn't long at all before we could talk together even without our mutual friend. I'm not normally like that. And neither was he. But I didn't feel anything special towards him. Just a close friendship. I have no idea how he felt at the time, but it doesn't matter anymore. People we knew started telling us we should get together. They said we'd make a perfect couple. And one day, we decided to shut them up. It was the beginning of our pretend relationship. We acted around them, but when it was just the two of us, it was back to being just friends. That's how it was supposed to be. That's how it should have always been. But after a while, I noticed a change in my heart. I suppose I started to love him. I even began to hope that maybe he shared the same feelings. That hope died a year into the pretend relationship. I noticed that he started talking to her more often. She even gave him a nickname. I felt jealousy, fear, and...pain. I kept acting, putting a fake smile on my face everyday. I hadn't noticed at the time, but my glass was slowly breaking. Crack, crack... A year and a half into the pretend relationship, it finally shattered.

“I think we should put an end to this charade,” he said, out of the blue one day. “I think I've got a crush on someone else.”

“Oh, okay,” I said with a sad smile as the first noticeable crack appeared on my heart. “It's fine. Who's the lucky girl?” I tried to joke, tried to sound happy for him. I really did. He ran a hand through the back of his hair.

“If you can call her that... Well, I'll keep that to myself. Far too many people know already,” he said, looking away from me. But I knew who it was. “It's apparently not hard to guess, as I've been told.” With that same sad smile, I looked down.

“Is it - ”and I said her name. Just saying it hurt so much. Because I knew the answer already. He looked at me in shock for a moment before sighing.

“I should really get used to people figuring this stuff out so easily,” he muttered. I concealed a sigh of my own and looked up at him, plastering a wide smile to my face.

“It's really not that hard to figure out. Well, good luck, sir. I hope you and - became a happy couple and all that jazz,” I said, having a hard time finding the right words to say as the next crack appeared. He chuckled softly.

“How is it not hard to figure out? Seriously, I never get a good answer to that. And thanks...” he said, rubbing the back of his head again.

“Let's just say I'm sure a lot of us saw this coming for a while now,” I said softly.

“Even you? Good lord, how long have people been guessing?” he asked in genuine confusion. I scoffed.

“'Even you',” I muttered under my breath. “It was about the time you got the nickname 'Bubbles',” I said, looking up at him.

“Really? That long? I didn't even know back then...” he muttered loud enough for me to hear. There was silence for a moment.

“You really are oblivious,” I said sadly before turning and walking away. I knew he turned away from me and was going towards her even without looking back. I tried to keep my head up even as the tears fell slowly down my cheeks. And then...

My glass completely shattered.