Broken Heart and Important Ones

Break-ups are supposed to happen between two romantic partners. You’re supposed to be in love with them until the moment you’re—or they’re—not. You end things and suddenly you feel as if someone is ripping a hole in your chest and taking a portion of your heart with it. Not every break-up of the romantic sense ends with heartbreak, but the important ones probably do. Unfortunately, heartbreaks are not just a thing of the romantic genre. Your family can break your heart, your dogs, your grades, your dreams. The ones that might hurt the most, though, are the heartbreaks that occur when your friends break your heart.
I’m sorry. Isn’t that how you’re supposed to start apologies and atonements? I’m sorry? You admit that you were wrong and that you could have done better, even when you’re not sure that you could have. You’re supposed to say, “it’s all my fault” when you’re not exactly sure that it was. It wasn’t all my fault. It’s never all anyone’s fault. And yet you’re making me feel as if it’s all mine. Your best friends are supposed to always be there. They’re supposed to understand if you’ve gotten totally wrapped up in your new boyfriend and forget to text them for three days. They’re supposed to get you tissues and chocolate and vodka whenever you’ve had a bad day or had your heart broken. They’re not supposed to be the ones breaking your heart.
Some best friends do leave, though. And if they leave you, they’re supposed to fade into the background of your life without dramatic flare. You didn’t fade and you paid a huge amount for the dramatic flare. Shakespeare famously wrote “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.” Is it weird that I just quoted Shakespeare in this? Or is it weird because even 500 years ago people recognized that not everyone is meant to stay in our lives forever. Sometimes people—even our best