A Broken Man

People remember him as an outgoing guy living a carefree life. Someone who is always there to help you, someone who will help you get over a breakup, someone who gets you the best beer in town and someone to whom you go if you need a party thrown. His mates in high school would definitely miss him once he goes to college.

That is William Hughes, or rather the side of him he shows to the world. But inside, he is a lone man, afraid of the world itself, afraid of losing it all. No one knows of the scars inside him that he hides behind his laughter. He was once a lost man, and he is afraid of becoming a lost man again.

Every single day, he wants to forget, he hopes he would forget. But he can't, no matter how hard he tries to push the thoughts away from him, he can't. He can't forget that one rainy night eight years ago...

But right now, the very thing he was afraid of has happened. His girlfriend of two years has cheated on him. His first girlfriend, someone he loved truly, someone he trusted after six years of trusting no one. That same girlfriend cheated on him.

"It's your own damn fault."

"I shouldn't have gotten together with you in the first place."

"Dale is a hundred times better than your sorry ass."

The words kept ringing in his ears. He knows Christine was right. He was the one who caused all this. He can lie to himself as long as he wants, but he knows, that won't change the truth.

It's been a few hours but the feeling of a dagger piercing his chest didn't subside yet. He can sleep, but when he wakes up, he'll still remember. He can eat, but he knows he would later throw up in the bathroom. So, he does the only thing he knows best. He goes to his punching bag.

To think that all of that could've been avoided if only...

He is now alone once again. He is now a broken man. His life came crumbling down and now he has to work, he has to rebuild the walls that broke, all because he let his guard down. He has to rebuild the walls that he built around his heart.

'Never Again,' he thought to himself.

Never again would he allow the walls surrounding his fragile heart to be broken.

How naïve, dear William. He doesn't know now, but those walls would be broken, not by any cannon, but by a butterfly, a butterfly that would convince him to destroy those walls himself.

Isn't that what fate is?

A broken man, who'll find joy once again in his life, all due to one shy little butterfly...