[ WP ] You and your SO of some time have been on the rocks lately - you 've been thinking of ending things when a horrifying truth convinces you .

People say that there once was a moon hovering around the Earth a long time ago. 
 
 Like all the other moons I've read about and seen during my travels in outer space, it was a round spherical body not unlike our planet. Only, it did n't harbor life like the Earth. The only thing that it had were craters -- - proofs of stray objects such as asteroids and meteors hitting it at times and permanently marring its surface. 
 
 That was a long time ago, a thousand years ago to be exact, long before I was born. They say that the moon moved away from the Earth inch by inch every year until the planet's gravity could no longer hold it in place, until it finally broke away and moved on to God knows where. 
 
 Looking up at the sky right now, all I see are stars -- - gaseous and fiery heavenly bodies raging into a conflagration of light and heat. Then again, I'm not even sure if the stars I'm looking at are there anymore. Some of them may already be dead and it is only their residual light that I am seeing right now, like memories that stay even after what has triggered them has already been put out. 
 
 Memories. 
 
 I remember that Stella and I always looked at the stars back when we were still together. We pointed at each one, trying to figure out which among the gems in the sky would become the guardian that would bless our relationship so it would last for billions of years, long after we take our last breaths. 
 
 When the two of us finally decided on one, we named it “ Steves,'' a weird but beautiful combination of my name and hers. We boarded my second-hand spaceship the next day and blasted off into the sky, talking with each other excitedly as we went into warp, more than a thousand times the speed of light, until we finally reached our destination. What greeted us was nothing like the red and orange flame that we were expecting to see. Instead, we only saw an empty space, filled only by darkness. When I saw Stella's disappointed face, I tried my best to comfort her. 
 
 `` Do n't worry. There are millions of other ones. We'll visit them all and find the one that's right for us someday,'' I told her. 
 
 `` Sure. Someday,'' she said, forcing a smile. 
 
 Stella has changed a lot since then. I've changed as well. I guess that is what happens when people go separate ways. 
 
 We never did find our star. I became too busy finding work, as well as the other mundane things of life that I once thought were too important, important enough to forget everything that really mattered. It was of little things at first. I would neglect to greet her in the morning, to surprise her with gifts, to talk. I became too focus to make myself better. I have been thinking of letting her go, thinking that if she ’ s gone then I can do so much. Soon, the things I forgot and neglected moved on to consequential matters like her birthday, our anniversary, and those crucial moments when she needed me to smile for her when she was feeling out of orbit. 
 
 Whenever I looked at her during those days, I would see her anxious face, as if she were waiting for something to happen. 
 
 `` Someday,'' I kept promising her. 
 
 `` Alright,'' she would say. 
 
 I did not notice that I had begun to lose her but one day; she could no longer take in. She became furious and left me broken. I never thought she was capable of hurting me. She changed. I became bitter and I tried to move on. Until one day, 
 *** 
 
 I could n't help but approach Stella when I saw her walking along the street as I was going home from work. 
 
 `` Stella.'' 
 
 `` Vester'' she says, surprised. 
 
 I invite her for coffee. I know she loves coffee. She seems apprehensive at first but I eventually manage to convince her to share a moment of reminiscing. 
 
 As we exchange pleasantries in a nearby coffee shop, I contemplate on the things that do not change, like the taste of coffee we are drinking. Amused, I note how she still blows her coffee in a hurry to make it cool, how her eyes still squint whenever she laughs, how beautiful she was even with no make up and how she still delights in talking about the future. But not everything's the same. 
 
 `` He's going to take me to that new planet two solar systems from here. He already bought a house,'' she says. 
 
 Her face has definitely changed. She is no longer frustrated or anxious, always waiting for something better to happen. I can tell that she is happy right now by the way she smiles and by the way the diamond ring on her finger glimmers whenever the light touches its smooth surface. 
 
 Perhaps the two of us could have been happy. I could have been the one to make her smile. I guess stupidity just got the better of me. I did n't know what I was thinking when I took Stella. Or maybe I did. Maybe I just wanted to wipe that stoic look off Stella's face, a look that had taken over suddenly without warning, or at least I thought so. I was at the verge of coming when she entered my room and caught us humping away, drenched in sweat. I still remember her shocked face when I looked at her as I came inside the girl underneath me. 
 
 We did not break up right then. We even made up after that, although our relationship was never the same. Our kisses no longer had the spark that once ignited everything inside us. Our embraces were no longer the passionate yet calm assurances that they once were. Our conversations regressed from intimate revelations about each other to mundane recollections of everyday life. It was as if we had become aliens to one another. Soon, the only thing left was for us to make the inevitable choice of separating from each other. 
 
 Our days together seem so long ago. I sometimes doubt my memory of us being with each other at all. 
 
 Now, as we talk about what we shared back then, she only gives me polite nods and occasional smiles, entertaining me about thoughts that she had long since forgotten, or want to forget. 
 
 I squirm in my seat, not because of the tension between us, but the lack of it. I see the awkward look in her face, a look that I feel is rapidly creeping onto mine. I try to dispel it with a fake smile. 
 
 `` Do you need to go?'' 
 
 `` Yes, I really do,'' she replies. `` Is it alright?'' 
 
 `` Of course,'' I say, even though it never will be. 
 
 `` It was nice seeing you again.'' 
 
 `` Yeah. Same here. You take care, alright?'' 
 
 `` You too.'' 
 
 After one last smile, she stands up, heads for the door, and is gone soon after. After she leaves, there is no more reason to stay inside the shop. I pick up my coffee and go outside. I stroll around the city and look up to the sky. Besides the occasional anti-gravity cars hovering just above the tall buildings, I see only darkness. There are no stars tonight. 
 
 As I stare at the darkness above, I mull over the fact that the moon once occupied that empty space, that it once reflected the sun's light and illuminated the ground during the night, just enough for the people below to look up towards the sky with a calm assurance, knowing that they are not alone. 
 
 But now, all that is left besides the fading light of stars is an empty space -- a vacant orbit whose only use now is to highlight the planet's loneliness, having only itself to blame for not pulling hard enough. How I wish, I can take her back but now, I am convinced, I lost her. 

