champagne problems: short story [h.s.]

01 - in this hurt

"you booked the night train for a reason
so you could sit there in this hurt"

December 2021

The light chatter on the train felt like the loudest thing to the both of them.

The many conversations being had on the train, in the dim lighting of the train car, while the pair sat in complete silence. One of them not even being able to look at the other.

"Can you please try to talk to me?" she asks, pleading with her disgruntled other half. The other half, who's heart she just broke into a bunch of tiny fragmented pieces. "You can't just sit there hurt for the whole ride and not talk to me."

"I sure can try," he mutters back, making her heart drop to her stomach.

His closed off demeanor and the way he has brushed off any of her attempts to talk about what happened before they got on the train has started to kill her slowly. Adding crack after crack in the way she has been holding herself together.

But nothing compares to the way she took his fragile glass heart and dropped it in front of him. The damage on display not only for them to see, but also for everyone back at the restaurant. The scene of the crime where there is a chalk outline of Harry on both of his knees, smiling and pouring his heart out, before he turned to pleading for her to love him back with the same amount of love he has for her.

She hesitated to answer one simply question.

And they fled the scene before more damage could be done to his poor heart. Leaving the pieces behind on the floorboards.

"Harry," she says softly.

He shakes his head, facing her, "What do you want me to say Wisteria?" he snaps back at her. "What? You want me to talk to you about the way you just obliterated my heart in front of a bunch of people? Is that what you want me to say?"

Tears prick the corner of her eyes. "I j-just think we should talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about. You don't want to marry me, I get it." he replies, muttering under his breath before going to look back out the window. The night landscape blurring past them as they move. The snow flying in flurries before landing on the ground and covering the lush green grass from the summer. The moon, bright and full.

The perfect night.

Back to the suffocating silence.

The train car chatter surrounding them, making Harry want to slam his head against the window to make it stop. While Wisteria just wishes Harry would look at her and have a conversation. They are the only two people on the train not talking to one another.

"Y-you didn't even hear me out. I didn't even get to give you answer," she speaks up.

"You hesitated to answer the simple fucking question. I think that was enough of answer."

"You're not really being fair," she replies. "How do you know I wasn't going to say yes?"

"I'm not talking about this with you right now," he simply mutters, shutting her down once again and, not even bothering to look over at her.

A tearful expression on her face. "Harry," she says.

He ignores her, serious about not wanting to talk about this with her right now. All he wants to do is sit there in his hurt and think about where they went wrong.

Of all the years they have been together, he knew that one day he was going to promise to be with her forever. To which he immediately thought she was on the same page as him. Only, it turns  she's about a couple hundred pages behind him still. Probably still sitting at chapter one, while he's continuing to read through chapter forty six.