Broken Trusts.
1142 Words
**Chapter Five: Broken Truths**
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The morning sun was just starting to light up Mia’s apartment when her phone rang. She had been up for hours, going through her photos, and editing them while feeling tired and unsure. The gallery opening was over, and her hope that everything would suddenly feel okay was gone. Now, all she had was the low hum of her computer and her nagging doubts.
When the phone rang, she didn’t expect it to be her mom. It had been weeks since she’d seen her. Their chats were getting shorter and strained. Mia tried to explain how stressful it was to keep chasing perfection, but her mom always changed the subject.
Mia answered the phone but hesitated for a moment.
“Hello?”
“Mia,” her mom said, her voice smooth but tense. “We need to talk.”
Mia’s stomach dropped. “About what?”
“The gallery. Your work. I’ve been thinking.” Her mom paused, and Mia felt the weight of unspoken thoughts. “I’m afraid your last piece didn’t get the reaction we wanted. You know how important this is for your future, right?”
Mia felt her throat tighten. It wasn’t her art that was the issue. It was what her mom imagined it should be. But she couldn’t say that.
“Right,” Mia replied, keeping her voice flat. “I’ll work on it.”
“You need to be more consistent,” her mom went on, unaware of the gap between them. “You can’t be so distracted by imperfections. Focus where it matters.”
Those words hurt. Mia felt her mom’s disappointment weigh on her like a heavy hand. But instead of snapping back as she usually did, she let the silence take over.
“Mia?” her mom asked. “Are you there?”
“I’m here,” Mia said, her voice steady but quieter. “I have to go. I’ll call you later.”
And then she hung up.
Mia stared at her phone for a long time. Her heart raced, but she felt a new calm inside. She realized her mom’s words might always echo in her mind, but she didn’t have to live up to them. Not anymore.
She placed the phone down and turned back to her laptop. The photos she had taken over the last few months were there—each a piece of her. They were imperfect and real. They were only for her. A breath escaped her as she felt, for the first time, that she didn’t have to apologize for them.
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Eli sat in his office, staring at the blueprint on his desk. The lines that once seemed perfect now felt flat and lifeless. He had spent ages trying to balance the measurements to make his clients happy, but nothing felt right.
Then his phone buzzed, breaking up his frustration. He glanced at the screen and felt a rush when he saw it was a text from Mia.
“I don’t know if this makes sense, but I’m starting to think that perfection might not be the point. Maybe we don’t have to get it all right to be enough.”
Eli straightened up, her message hitting him hard. It felt like she knew just what he was thinking. Her words were like a green light, allowing him to let go of the need to be perfect.
“I think you’re right,” he typed back. “I’ve been so fixated on perfection that I forgot what’s real.”
He sent the message and leaned back in his chair, letting the quiet wash over him. The feeling that had been growing for weeks—the sense of something beyond his designs—was getting stronger, especially after meeting Mia. He couldn’t ignore it anymore.
He noticed the time and realized he had another meeting soon. But before he could return to the blueprint, his phone buzzed again. This time, it was a text from Lila.
“Eli, I feel like I’ve been running from something for so long that I don’t know how to stop. I keep chasing this thing, but it feels like it’s always out of reach. How do you reset?”
Eli read her message twice. It was raw and honest, making his heart ache. He sensed that Lila was struggling, but this was the first time she had been so open about it.
“I don’t know how to stop either,” he replied. “But maybe stopping doesn’t mean giving up. Maybe it’s about letting go of who we think we should be to see who we really are.”
He sent the message, hoping it might give her a bit of clarity. But to be honest, he wasn’t so sure about anything anymore. He didn’t know where his work was heading, what would happen with Mia, or how to help Lila. Yet, for the first time in a while, he felt okay with that. The uncertainty felt like a kind of freedom.
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Lila spent the night reflecting on Eli’s words. His message surprised her, but it brought a feeling of clarity she hadn’t had in a long time. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she looked at her phone, her thoughts swirling. She had always taken pride in her ability to keep moving and stay ahead of the next performance. But now, Eli’s words made her question everything.
Maybe stopping doesn’t mean giving up. Maybe it’s about shedding what we think we should be to see who we are.
She had run her whole life, chasing perfection and trying to impress everyone. But what if all that chasing was distracting her from what truly mattered? What if everything she pursued wasn’t even real?
Lila set her phone down, her hands shaking slightly as she stood up and walked to the window. Outside, the city buzzed with life. But in that quiet moment, she felt something shift inside her. It wasn’t a clear answer, but it felt like the start of one.
She didn’t have all the answers. In fact, she had no idea what was next. Yet, for the first time in a while, she believed that maybe—just maybe—she didn’t need to figure everything out.
Maybe knowing how to stop was just as vital as knowing how to move forward.
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As the day went by, Mia, Eli, and Lila each wrestled with the same thought: What if chasing perfection wasn’t the answer? What if they embraced the broken, the messy, and the unfinished parts of themselves? They realized that the truth wasn’t in the polished art they had crafted; it was in the spaces in between. And for the first time, they began to see that those might be the most beautiful parts of all.
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- Writer
