"What?"
Bella looked at the boy, no, the man, in front her in disbelief. His green eyes swept across the ground before looking up at the storm clouds gathering overhead. He sighed and looked down at his shoes as he repeated those seven heart-stopping words.
"I think we should take a break."
The disbelief clouding her mind turned to agony and unwanted tears sprang to her eyes. She blinked them back furiously. 'No!' she thought. 'I will not do this. I will not cry. Not here, not now.' She opened and closed her mouth several times. It crossed her mind fleetingly that she must have looked like a fish, but dismissed it as unimportant. Just a random thought to fill the blankness that had encompassed her mind. She shook her head slightly to get a hold of herself before finally verbalizing the only thing she really needed to say.
"Why?"
He shifted almost unnoticably to his left and began playing with the ends on the leather band around his wrist. His darted his eyes back and forth across the ground. She had learned over the years that these were sure signs that he was nervous; uncomfortable. Broad shoulders lifted slightly and slumped back down before a deep voice answered.
"I just . . . It feels like being with you is more of an obligation instead of a choice. I mean, we've been together so long that I think . . . I feel like we are only still together because we don't know how NOT to be, you know? And I, I just, I don't know what to do anymore. . . "
His voice trailed off and he finally raised his head to meet her eyes. Sad muddled green clashed with tortured brown and the floodgates finally burst on the tears Bella desperately tried to hold back. He spoke again.
"Please don't do this."
Bella shook her head furiously and took a step back. One hand flew up to her mouth, to hold in the bile, the sobs, or both, she wasn't quite sure. Her other hand snaked around her waist and shaking fingers clawed desperately at her side. She couldn't even think. Breathing became labored and standing was almost impossible. His words echoed around her.
'I think we should take a break.'
'. . . more of an obligation. . .'
'. . . don't know what to do anymore.'
She briefly wondered if her soul actually made an audible sound as it crumbled. Would he hear it? Would it change anything? A rumble of thunder made her jump. It seemed even the heavens were protesting this meeting; this heartbreak; this destruction.
Another sound permeated the thick fog around her brain.
"I . . . I have to go."
And he left. As he walked away, only one thought surfaced.
I gave him that hoodie for Christmas.
And with that her knees and the clouds gave way to her pain. Bella sat on bruised scraped knees and watched through a haze of rain and tears as her world walked away.
Without a single glance back.