“What’s wrong, babe?” he asked. For once, he didn’t try to make a joke out of it. He didn’t try to play around. He just sounded concerned, worried.
“It’s nothing,” she said, forcing a smile. Because it really was nothing. Nothing in her life was wrong. She had good grades, good friends, her family wasn’t broken. There was no worry, no pain at all.
She just felt hopeless. Useless. Meaningless.
Empty.
She prayed for at least a reason to be sad. But no, everything was going smoothly. Her brain just wanted to make her feel unhappy.
“It doesn’t seem like nothing,” he pressed on.
She looked up at his loving eyes. She wanted so badly to love him. He cared about her. He did everything right. She needed to stop shrinking into herself, grow up, and learn to love him back.
Yet, she was a robot. She had no emotions. Unless numb is an emotion.
But she couldn’t tell him all this. Because it’s nothing.
He leaned over and kissed her softly, tears welling in his eyes.