Member-only story
Broken People
A Short Story
“Do you want to know the best part?” she screamed after him.
He didn’t respond as he continued his stride toward the front door.
“This time, I won’t be here when you get back!”
He slammed the door behind him as she watched, shaking from rage. Her sobs continued.
She wondered if the rest of the building had heard the argument. Maybe the other residents of this apartment complex had become inured to their constant fighting and finally decided to just go about their evenings, turning up the volume on their televisions or putting on their headphones.
Her body convulsed from sadness as she found her way to the raggedy living room couch. Hadn’t she done the same thing in a way? she thought. She’d normalized being in a relationship where the descriptor “tumultuous” was a euphemism.
It wasn’t just him. It was her too. It was their connection-what it underscored in both of their personalities. Neither of them was stupid, but both of them were deeply broken.
Her critical analysis offered her no comfort. These thoughts fluttering in her head, trying to glean some logic out of the chaos of their relationship-it happened after every fight. She would sit on this same sorry excuse for a couch and try to understand her way out of the…
