Broken...

“What do you think, nothing hurts me?” , he said.

The only line he could come out with for a long time. Everything else was lost behind the tears he was trying hard to control. He closed his eyes, wishing, for that one moment, that she would disappear, cease to exist, and so would his world

She was in a fit of rage, and it wasn’t entirely her fault. For some things, she had reason to blame. Some of it was probably just the negative feelings that had been bottled up within her. They hadn’t had their share of quality time together for a long time now. And both of them were beginning to complain, one vocally, throwing tantrums and the other in silence.

All the reasons that had got her to shouting out loud, hurt him too, and so did her words. He felt shattered. The relationship that they had so lovingly built seemed to be crumbling. She had said she did not feel loved anymore. And that’s what pricked, stabbed at his heart. That’s where the dam broke. How was he to tell her that he was mad about her? That nothing apart from her mattered. That all that he did was for her. And that she was the constant thought in his mind, day in and day out.

She had shouted till she couldn’t have gone further. She had broken down too and begged for forgiveness. His pain reflected in her eyes. He could see that she was repenting.

He had asked himself one simple question when she was done shouting at him. Did he still love her? The answer had come to him instantly. Yes. Did she deserve to be punished? Maybe. But he wouldn’t. He knew they could work it out. All that it needed was a little bit of time, patience and understanding.

Looking out from the balcony, his thoughts were only about her and how he could make up for what they had lost. He had promised her his entire life. And he was going to keep the promise. Nothing, nothing could make him think otherwise.

Silence....

Sitting in that dark corner of her room, she thought about the day when she had first met him. The argument they had back then had united them though they were fighting with each other. And there was today’s argument. They were fighting for the same cause, their grounds were the same and so was their battle. Yet, they were being torn apart. This time, the nature of the argument was personal. It wasn’t about their difference of opinion. What stood between them was the difficulty of being together, to be able to devote enough time to the relationship without having to compromise on their careers, which was taking them both to new heights with every passing day.

She had lashed out at him. Her words had dripped with acid and she inflicted wound upon wound on him. She had seethed with anger because she couldn’t see a solution to their problem, except for maybe giving up on their relationship. And that was the one thing that she wasn’t prepared for. She loved him. She was crazy about him. She knew she could find no other like him. Her words had whipped him till he had tears in his eyes. That is when the horror of her action stuck her. But it was too late. She had gone way ahead. There was no coming back.

She begged for forgiveness. She got it too. Such was the man. But she could not come to forgive herself. She had tarnished the beauty of the bond and she knew that the wound would never heal completely.

Here she sat, feeling lost and lonely, playing with a loose strand of hair, recollecting the times when she had laid her head in his lap and he ran his fingers through her curls… when their words and silence both had equal understanding.