Short Story Collection

The Pain of Losing a Loved One

This is my first prompt! I actually felt a lot of pain while writing this. I get reeeeeally into my characters. Anyway, the prompt was "Never had I seen someone look so lost in their own home before."

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Never had I seen someone look so lost in their own home before. It pained me to think that just weeks ago he was the one showing me around.

"Where did you get that?" He stops in front of a painting in the hall. I close my eyes as unfathomable sadness washes over me, then open them again. He can't know that anything is wrong.

"Oh, I don't remember. Probably some flea market somewhere." He made it for me.

"Huh," he smiled slightly. "I rather like it. You should find the artist someday."

"I should." I hope I can. He keeps walking and I follow. Memories come rushing back to me. So much had happened in this apartment in just a few weeks. How can I act as if everything is normal?

I feel a tear slip down my face and quickly swipe it away. He looks back at me.

"Is everything okay, Charlotte? You've been awfully quiet today."

"Fine. Yeah, no, I'm good." I'm such a bad liar. "Care for some tea?"

I make my way to the kitchen and put the kettle on, purely to keep myself busy. Jonathan follows me in.

I had just put my hands on the counter when his cover my own.

"What's wrong, Charlotte?" I choke down my feelings and push out an obviously fake laugh.

"Honestly, Jonathan, I don't know what you're talking about."

He raises an eyebrow and steps closer.

"I know it's been a while but I still know when you're lying."

My mouth had become bone dry and I couldn't breathe. I couldn't speak. I couldn't look away from those forest green eyes I'd missed so much.

It's funny how much you can miss someone when they're standing right in front of you. Of course, when you've been inseparable for weeks, a few days seem like a lifetime. In this lifetime of seconds all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around him and make this pain -- his as well as mine -- just go away. But that's not an option.

I shake my head slowly and snap myself out of whatever trance I'd momentarily fallen into.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I repeat. When he shrugs, happily convinced he was wrong, I knew I'd lost him for good.

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Wow. Okay. I just want to remind you lovely readers that these are just scenes from stories that pop into my head. If you want more to the story, please let me know. If you have compliments, please let me know. If you have constructive criticism, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. And thank you so much for reading!!