March 2010,

An enormous silence fell on the room the instant Zach dropped his bombshell. Mitchell blinked her eyes twice before she pinched herself to be sure she wasn’t having a scary dream, she felt the pain and reality kicked in. She wasn’t dreaming at all. It was happening.

Zach was saying something, she could see from the movement of his lips but she was no longer listening to him, her mind was far away. When he stopped and looked at her questioningly, she realized he must have said something that demanded a response or he’d probably asked her a question.

“What?” She managed to ask in a feeble voice, pressing her lips firmly together, determined not to give in to the burning tears that now threatened her eyes.

“I asked if there was anything you wanted to say to me.”

“Anything I wanted to say to you?” She repeated stupidly after him blinking her eyes twice in quick succession. What would she possibly want to say to him or was he expecting her to say something in particular? But of course, there was a lot she wanted to say to him now that she thought about it but she couldn’t bring herself to say them right now, not with the tears that now filled her eyes and emotions clogging her throat.

Closing her eyes for a few seconds, she tried to control the tears before she finally opened them again, even if she has to wait until some other time to say everything she wanted to say, she deserves to know right now why he was breaking up with her.

She needed to know.

She has the right to know.

“Why?” She asked slowly, looking at him straight in the eyes.

She caught the look of guilt in his eyes before he hurriedly averted his gaze from hers.

“Why?” She repeated when he remained silent.

“I have no reason,” He said slowly, not meeting her eyes.

“No reason?” Mitchell repeated dumbly after him, unable to believe her ears.

“None at all,” He said, still not meeting her eyes.

“None at all?” She repeated with a look of disbelief in her eyes.

He nodded.

She slowly nodded acceptance. He cannot have any reason anyway, because she had been her utmost best to him. The thought of begging him flashed through her mind, but she had done a lot of that lately with him. She was going to save her last pride and walked out with dignity and never looked back.

Taking a look at his face, the determined set of his jaw, and the rigidness of his body, Mitchell knew that he’d meant every word he had said and no amount of pleading or persuasion could make him change his mind, so she grabbed her bag and took one final long-lasting look at the man she had come to love, adore and place above all else before she hurried out of the room, just as her eyes gave ways to the tears that have been threatening to spill.