Broken Glass Read online

Broken Glass

  By

  Palvi Sharma

  Copyright© 2013 by Palvi Sharma

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons living or dead or places, events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Credits:

  Images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

  Other Books from Author

  Published by Club Lighthouse Publishing:

  Repeated Lives

  Repeated Lives Book II: Talia’s Return

  Francesca and Eliza

  Awakened One Night

  Amazon Kindle:

  The Ensnared

  Tina’s Gimmick

  Unraveling the Darkness

  Her First Dance

  The Bell Tower

  Horror Story

  Author Blog: https://youngadultebooks.blogspot.ae/

  Twitter: @Palvi_Writer

  Author's Note: Thank you for choosing this ebook.

  I know writing reviews can seem like a tedious task, but I would appreciate it if you take the time to write a few words to tell me what you think of the story and the writing. I look forward to reading your opinions.

  Thanks and have a nice day.

  She was cheating on him.

  He didn’t need to be told, even by her. He could sense it in the way she no longer had the smile in her eyes that used to be just for him. Nor did she squeeze his hand back when he held hers. She had gone far away from him and he hadn’t realized it until yesterday morning, when she had been staring at the newspaper and drinking her coffee while he was talking to her about their future.

  He wanted to marry her, move into a new house rather than this apartment they shared. She had said nothing and only looked out the window, sipping her coffee with a thoughtful look on her face. Then she had folded her newspaper and walked out the front door.

  The whole day he had been anticipating a break up. She hadn’t picked up his calls or answered any of his text messages. Then when she came home in the evening, she had acted as if nothing had happened. She had even made his favorite dinner and then they had watched a movie together.

  That night he hadn’t been able to sleep at all. He had watched her, beside him, clutching the quilt up to her chin. All that while he kept wondering where she had been the whole day. Since he had just been happy to see her come home, he hadn’t wanted to ask questions. She was there and in his arms and that was all that had mattered.

  But the doubts started to snake into his mind. He had glanced at her purse sitting on the dresser and kept wanting to open it and check her cell phone for any evidence that would point to her whereabouts. Where had she been? Who had she been with?

  The next morning, he woke up after a two hour sleep and found her already dressed up to go.

  “Where are you going?” he asked, rubbing his eyes and trying to clear the fog in his mind.

  She tied up her golden chestnut hair into a ponytail and pursed her lips as if disappointed that her plans to slither away before he had woken up, had failed. Slinging the strap of her purse on her shoulder she stood before him.

  “There are some things I need to take care of.” She replied and then without waiting for his response, she had left, leaving him befuddled and certain that she was hiding something.

  The next few days had been torturous. She became even more distanced and disinterested in whatever he was saying. She no longer held his hand while they watched a movie or even spoke at breakfast. He would find her every morning, sipping coffee by a seat near the window and looking thoughtful.

  Finally, he couldn’t take it any longer and he did in his desperation what he knew was wrong. He had followed her all the way to a garden where under the birch trees; he had seen her with another man.

  His breath had been caught in his throat and he had felt as if he had just been knocked hard on the chest. The man was younger than him, possibly in his twenties. He had black hair and was dressed in a shirt and jeans with a brown leather belt.

  They had been laughing. She hadn’t been laughing with him for days.

  He had walked away from there, realizing that he wasn’t really surprised but just hurt that he had to find out this way. She returned home and acted like she had been doing these past few days- happy, but obviously it had all been a lie. He had watched her eat, across the table noticing the way she would pick at her food and keep her eyes down on her plate.

  That was something else he hadn’t noticed until today. He guessed it must be her overwhelming guilt for not being able to meet his eyes.

  The next day, he just couldn’t take it anymore.

  “Look at me.” He said.

  “What?” she was still picking at her noodles with her eyes down.

  He took several deep breaths, the anger mounting in his chest. “Where were you yesterday?”

  She ran her tongue on her bottom lip and reached for her glass of water. He clasped her hand in his and stopped her. She pulled back and leaned in her chair. “This isn’t working.” She was still not looking at him.

  “You’re breaking up with me?” His eyes twitched with fury.

  She pushed back a lock of her hair with a finger. “Lately, I just don’t feel like we’re connecting.”

  He dropped his fork with a clatter. He wanted to scream at her, shake her until she confessed she was seeing someone else. But she continued to keep her eyes downcast and her tone unwavering, as if every word she was uttering was true.

  “I think I should leave.” She said and put down her napkin.

  He was stunned by her words and he wanted to pull her back and stop her from walking away. But it was as if every muscle in his body had gone numb. She was walking into her room and he could hear the sounds of her opening up drawers and cupboards to remove her things.

  He sat there, staring at the empty chair across from him and then heard her walk in with her bags.

  “I’m leaving the keys on the cabinet.” He heard the jingle of keys as it hit the wooden surface. “Take care.”

  Then he heard the door open and close behind her. He leaned forward on the table, intertwining his fingers and resting them over his lips. Then he was suddenly picking up the plate and tossing it at the wall where it shattered into pieces.

  He pushed away from the table and stormed into his room, his mind telling him that it was all a practical joke or a dream and that she was actually still there, sitting on her favorite sofa by the window, wearing her gorgeous smile. Instead he saw empty drawers pulled out and the bare shelves of her wardrobe. The pictures of her on the nightstand were gone too.

  He slid down the wall and sat near the doorway, one knee raised and his arm resting on it. She was gone. And she hadn’t even left a picture- their picture together.

  How could she have left him?

  A whole month passed and he spent sleepless nights and weary days. His colleagues at the bookstore where he worked, told him to move on, but how could he move away from what he had thought was his life.

  She lived in his every breath and resided in every dream he had in what little sleep he got. He would look at himself in the mirror and see only listlessness in his grey eyes. His stubble was getting darker and he didn’t care to shave. He would close his eyes and see her face. She was everywhere even when she wasn’t here...with him.

  Then one morning, when he was all dressed up to go to work, he suddenly had a thought. The spoon slipped from his fingers and the milk in his bowl splashed onto his cuff. But he was barely conscious of that. He had been yearning for her for days, wishing that just once he could see her face or to just see her at the supermarket where she usually shopped.

  However, it was as if she had disappeared from his life. He coul
dn’t take her disappearing from his life like that. He had to see her just once. He had to know what she was up to and where she had been. And most importantly he had to find out who she was with.

  He went into his room, took out the laptop from his bag and turned it on. Bringing it to the table, he could feel his heart racing. He was about to find out everything about her. He sat down and typed down the web address for the social network she was on. She had teased him often for not having an account when practically everyone in the world had, but he had thought the social networks to be intrusive and distracting.

  His phone rang and he let it. He was supposed to pick up his colleague for work, but that would have to wait. Everything else that wasn't about her would have to wait.

  He started to sign up with his name and then pressed the backspace button. No, if he wanted to know everything about her, he would have to pretend to be someone else.

  He racked his brain to find a name and typed the first one that came into his mind. Peter. Yes, that was a good enough name. He signed up and immediately clicked on the search box to look for her. It didn’t take him that long to arrive at her profile.

  A smile tugged at his lips when he saw her face. She was wearing a white sundress and standing next to a tree, smiling. His fingers touched her face and then lips and his smile widened. Everything seemed alright again. He could feel his life coming back into him again. He was hungry again, he could sleep again and he could be happy again.

  He scrolled down and the feeling vaporized instantly even as the smile stayed frozen on his face. She had posted about their breakup and instead of being sympathetic towards him, her friends had been cruel. The words struck out at him. ‘Good Riddance’ one of them said. ‘Now you can breathe again’ another said.

  His fingers grew numb as he scrolled down to read all the hateful things her friends had written, as if he wasn’t a person but a roguish brute that had mistreated his girlfriend. He rubbed his forehead and the phone beside him continued to ring.

  She had moved on. There were pictures of her in a different city. She was talking about her new home, a new job and new life. She was talking about her life away from him. He closed the lid to his laptop and squeezed his eyes shut.

  No, that had to be a dream. They really hadn’t made him out to be a savage, had they? He opened it up again and hovered the cursor over sending her a friend request. He wanted to know more about her. He had to know where she lived. If he could, he would want to talk to her again, even if it was just chat on this site. He clicked on the button and stared at the ‘Friend request sent’ button for several minutes. It was done.

  He was about to close his window, when he saw a notification pop up. She had accepted his friend request! She was online, right this second!

  His heart beat the way it used to when he was with her. She was with him, even though they were far apart.

  He took a deep breath and clicked on the message button. ‘Hi’, he typed.

  She typed back the same and he could feel his nervous energy escalating. After a month, she was finally with him. He could imagine her at the table, sipping her coffee- black with very little sugar. He imagined her hair on one side and waiting for his response.

  He would obviously not keep her waiting for longer. He asked her how she was. She replied that she was fine with a smiley face. They talked about nothing, careful not to divulge any personal detail. She thought he was a stranger and