Unatural Selection

There are many ways to tell somebody you no longer love them.

Some are more passive: you stop saying it back before you hang up the call. You stop saying it back before you walk out the door. Your hugs become more half hearted; your conversations become more mundane. When they ask you if you’re okay, you get annoyed. You brush them off; pretend that everything is fine. Small things end up in huge fights. You can’t bear to watch them cry.

Falling out of love is rarely gentle.

Other ways are more direct. You’ve been thinking about it for a while, but you say nothing until you’re sure. They don’t have a clue. One day, at breakfast, or at dinner, or a week before you’re supposed to go on holiday with their parents, you say “can we talk?” And they look at you through their unassuming eyes, thinking you’re going to tell them about your day but instead, you say “I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’m no longer in love with you.” And there is silence before there are tears and there is violence in the emptiness until it fades - and then there is just emptiness.

So, there are many ways to tell somebody you no longer love them. But there is no way to do it painlessly.