The Battle of Pride and Heart

The Battle of Pride and Heart

"It's over."

Carly stood frozen in place, as her mouth hung open in disbelief. She waited, in stunned silence, as her heart fell in pieces slowly to the ground. The pieces hit the floor, shattering into even smaller pieces, flying everywhere. Carly was sure the sound of her heart breaking was loud enough for him to hear from where he was standing a few feet away. Her pride fought for her to turn and quickly walk away with her head held high. She couldn't just leave without her heart, which was still stubbornly laying in sharp little fragments in front of his scuffed shoes. 

Hanging over her left shoulder, her pride yelled in her ear, "Wipe that stunned look off your face now and calmly leave before he thinks you’re an even bigger loser.”

Carly tried her best to listen and forced a casual look onto her face but couldn’t leave. What remained of her heart appeared near her right shoulder and told her in a soft voice, “You can’t leave without me. You have to fight to get me back. If you just leave me lying on the floor, it will take a very long time for me to grow back and be whole again.”

“What?” her pride cried out angrily. “Don’t listen to her. What does she know? It’s her fault for being broken in the first place. She knew it was a risk to fall for that boy. And now look at what happened! Like I predicted, he didn’t catch her and now she's laying broken on the floor. You should’ve listened to me.”

Carly stared down at her own shoes as her heart and pride battled against one another. In the end, her pride won the fight and Carly looked defiantly up at him. “Fine. If that’s what you want. We’re over,” she turned and attempted to look confident as she walked away. 

After being his girlfriend for eight months, her heart had fallen hard for him. She thought his heart had felt the same. They had both exchanged the L-word on many occasions but words meant nothing, if the heart didn't feel it. Hers did. And she knew then that his didn’t. That left the remainder of her heart to continue falling hard, until it hit the ground even harder. And it would be a long time before it would be strong enough to love again. 

He watched as Carly walked away. His own pride popped out to congratulate him. “I told you it was a good idea to get out of this relationship before she did. I told you she didn't care about you and wouldn’t care if you broke up with her. You should be happy that you didn’t let her completely break your heart.”

A few pieces of his heart crashed to the floor as Carly’s footsteps faded. It was too late to stop her. 

He heard a quiet murmuring and after a few moments, deciphered what the repeated noise was. He turned and started to leave the room, never glancing back once at his heart, which was spilling out onto the floor behind him as he walked. He was just about to shut the door behind him, to leave with only one small piece of his heart remaining, when he heard the quiet murmuring of his heart again. “You idiot,” it said one last time before the door closed shut behind him. 

- Written by me, a million years ago