Broken

The loud thunk made her jump. 

The crystal in her earring had cracked. It was her favourite pair, and it always made her think of him.

He had given her these earrings, a long, long time ago, and he had given them to her out of the blue. She'd always remembered her surprise, knowing how unlike him it was to give gifts, knowing he must have saved up for awhile to afford them. They were exquisite crystals, delicately balanced, perfectly cut and ridiculously sentimental for two very independent individuals, yet she remembered throwing her arms around him in her excitement, feeling that subtle shift in their relationship.

That had been a long time ago. Those earrings were now just a reminder of a time when she had been young and carefree, and she had thought that love was forever.

He left a year later, left for the wilderness to pursue his passions, and he had been gone for a couple of years, trekking somewhere, often in places where he had very little communication with the outside world. It had been a fulfilling love affair, and it had almost killed her to see him leave, but the world had rotated on its axis, and she had gone on with her life, as people do.

The crystal had cracked out of nowhere. It felt like an omen.

She read of his death a few days later in the paper. A mutual friend had called her to tell her the news, and she felt her heart burst anew with a long-suppressed emotion as she broke down again, after the years of him gone.

The crystal had finally broken, like her heart so many years ago.