[ WP ] When two people fall in love , they receive an object that is the physical embodiment of that love . It changes as their feelings change towards each other and destroying it can have drastic consequences . How does this change the nature of relationships ?

Damn them! Damn them both! How *dare* he take her from me? How *dare* she not choose me!? 
 
 I threw the various objects off the top of the dresser in a fit of rage. A box of jewelry hit the floor and fell open, the various earrings scattered across the floor; a bottle of perfume hit the floor and shattered, glass and scented liquid everywhere. Cologne soon joined it, followed by a picture frame, pens, pencils, the small TV. 
 
 No, it was n't there. Of course not, it would never would be - why would they have left it there, in the open? Of course, I was an idiot blinded by rage - it was obvious it would be inside something. 
 
 I dropped to the floor to look through the various earrings that had fallen. Was it this one? No, it was n't, could n't be - I would know! There was no way that it was something that would be mistaken as jewelry, their love was n't based in that. 
 
 I threw open each drawer of the dresser and cast out the contents, and soon the floor was coated in glass, jewelry, under garments, shirts, pants, and a sweet-yet-musky blend of cologne and perfume. Tears were streaming down my face as I slammed the bottom drawer down, tearing it from the dresser and onto the floor. 
 
 Had they fallen in love then? I had been sure that they would have held their object there - that was the standard for a couple that lived together, to put it in their dresser! 
 
 Their Adornment was n't here, they would never lie about receiving one - no one would lie about something held in such high regard. It was the literal symbol of love, and no one would lie. They had never said what it was, but I had been sure it would have been something they'd keep on their dresser. 
 
 Perhaps, I thought to myself, I could find it in my memories - I had been a friend to him, and at one time a love to her. Surely I knew them well enough to know what it would be. 
 
 Memories of video game nights with both of them, spent drinking and eating snacks as we killed waves of baddies, I was always in the middle; of going to the mall and the movies, I was always in the middle; of going on walks, I was always in the middle; of going to the comic store, to the various local diners, the park, the state parks that were just outside of town, the national parks that were states away- I was always in the middle. 
 
 `` The middle...'' 
 
 I looked back towards the bed, and saw on the wall three photos. Something clicked that I had always been in the middle, holding them at arm's length from myself - at two arms' length from each other - it would make sense to put their object in the middle to bring them together, would n't it? In a world of metaphor and symbolism, where love is represented in a physical object, why would n't someone do something so stupidly figurative? 
 
 I grabbed the middle one, a portrait of them on their first date, and threw it off of the wall. 
 
 I threw it down onto the bed and stomped down on it, again and again. Glass shattered and the frame snapped. I let out a scream as I stomped again and again and again, before falling to the bed. 
 
 I eventually passed out, only to wake up when they had come home. 
 
 She had rushed towards me when I came to, he stood watching as she wrapped her arms around me. I weakly pushed away, not sure who it was that I heard crying - her or me. 
 
 I looked up to see a hole in the wall behind the picture - I had n't destroyed their Adoration. 
 
 They still loved each other. 
 
 `` Oh, god, what happened? Are you okay, Daniel?'' 
 
 I did n't respond to her questions, my mind set on one thing. I had to destroy the Adoration, that was the only way that she'd love me instead - instead of that damned man who had come into our life and torn us apart. 
 
 I pushed her off of me, and she seemed to think I just needed space. I stood up and noticed the blood - apparently the glass had cut me while I was passed out. 
 
 When I reached out to the hole, however, they both immediately knew what I was doing. 
 
 `` Do n't do it, Daniel,'' he said as he stepped forward slowly. `` I know you're upset, but do n't do it.'' 
 
 `` You do n't deserve it! You do n't deserve her!'' I shouted back, and she watched only in horror - he did n't do anything either though. It was too beyond belief for both of them, no one destroyed another's Adoration. 
 
 But no one had been so wrongly robbed in living memory. 
 
 I felt my hands wrap around it as I pulled it out, a snowglobe - a snowglobe that was beginning to change. It was hardly a snowglobe but instead a shifting mass of glass, the house inside slowly falling apart. 
 
 I threw the snowglobe at the wall, and with a crash it shattered apart. 
 
 `` Why, Daniel?'' 
 
 The fragments disappeared before they fell to the floor. 
 
 The man stared at the two of us. I sat down on the bed and moved towards her. She stayed still. 
 
 `` Because I hate him! Things were better before!'' 
 
 They both were silent. 
 
 `` Leave,'' I ordered at him - he obeyed, and silently began to walk away. 
 
 I smiled - she was mine and I was all she had now. Whether she felt it or not, it would be better now - things would be better now that she had no feelings. 
 
 I placed a hand on my mother's head, and closed my eyes with a weary sigh. `` I love you, mom.'' 
 
 There was only the sound of silence.
