The Heartbreak Chronicles

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Step One: Talking

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Axel heaves a sigh, lifting the glass of beer to his lips. "I don't know. I guess?"

"I'm all ears," Charlie props her chin in the palm of her right hand, and smiles softly.

"Well," He starts, setting down the glass and rubs the palms of his hands together. "You know the catch; she cheated, and then rubbed it in my face."

"The player gets played, huh?"

He pauses for a minute, as though pondering over her question. "I guess you could say that."

"And how are you feeling now?"

"Pretty bad," He veers his head to the side, smiling rather disconsolately. "She meant the world to me, I was ready to give her anything and everything she wanted, but she chose to cheat."

Charlie furrows her eyebrows; Axel was never this pensive. "Maybe she had a reason for it? You can never deny the possibilities, Ax."

"She didn't even seem sorry," He says with a humorless chuckle.

A lacuna of silence lapsed between them. For the first time, Charlie didn't know how to comfort him. She didn't know how it felt to go through the tribulation.

Instead, she placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. "I don't know what to say. But if there's one thing that my inveterate romantic of a mother has taught me, it is that broken hearts don't stay broken forever, no matter how badly shattered they are."