//------------------------------//
// Every Story Has to End 
// Story: The Other Side of Someday 
// by FoolAmongTheStars 
//------------------------------//

She heard heavy footsteps coming from behind and as they got louder, she turned to look over her shoulder. It seemed like he just got off from work, judging by his neat dress shirt and work pants, she almost felt guilty for asking him to come to the park, no doubt the bench would soil his black pants if he wasn’t careful. Starlight waited for him to sit beside her before she began.

But he beat her to it. "What do you want to talk about?"

Sunburst eased himself on the bench and she noted the arm length worth of space he left between them as if testing if she was fine with him sitting this close. He'd become this considerate. She allowed herself to smile at his gesture.

But this trepidation had dragged on for too long.

"Sunburst, what do you really think about our situation?"

He flashed her a startled look. "The divorce, you mean?"

She nodded. "What do you think about it?"

She watched as Sunburst's face turned from expressionless to confused, then it settled with the pensive look she knew very well each time they talked about plans, back when they were married. She also knew not to bother him when he was like this because it meant that he was thinking deeply and considerately. Rushing him for an answer would only result in a fight.

'It’s probably not the first time it crossed his mind,' she assumed as she waited for his answer.

When he finally spoke, Sunburst kept his eyes on the bay before them.

"I was…angry the first few months after we separated," he began, "and I…started drinking heavily to cope with it, so much so that I almost died due to alcohol poisoning. Guess it was that bad. Had Shining Armor not been there at the time…but that's beside the point." He laughed but it was devoid of humor.

He cleared his throat before he continued. "I know you made it clear why calling it quits was for the best and I thought I would understand them eventually, but the truth is: I don't, and I still don't agree with the reasons you gave me. But at the time I decided that if you were so adamant about letting go, then I shouldn’t stop you." Sunburst finally spared her a look, and Starlight saw the unhappiness in his eyes along with the defeated slump of his shoulders. "That's what I thought."

He looked away and Starlight took a deep breath, blinking back tears as she collected herself. "I hated you when you told me not to take the university's job offer, I thought that you didn’t believe that I was capable of doing it, that you were envious of me, or that you just wanted me to stay at home like a good little wife," she sighed heavily, looking down at the dirty tips of her heels. "I took the job just to spite you. Pretty immature, huh?"

He looked at her again, disbelief coloring his tone. "You did? I thought you took it because you really wanted it."

"I did! That was a major part of why I took the job and why I haven’t quit because I really love what I do despite all the work and the stress…but a small part of me also wanted to prove you wrong."

"And then things turned sour." Sunburst quipped and clicked his tongue.

She hummed in agreement. "I assumed that each time you'd call me out on something you were just waiting for me to screw up so that you could goad to my face that you were right all along, that I should've listened to you as a good wife should." She laughed listlessly, it almost sounded contrived. "I’m not proud of how I acted, I treated you like an enemy instead of a spouse, it wasn't the adult thing to do, obviously."

Sunburst huffed. "Your pride rides very high most of the time, you know."

"I guess it does." Starlight agreed solemnly. "That's why things turned south between us."

Silence descended upon them for a short while.

"I really thought it was for the best," Starlight said and tried to keep her tone level, even if she felt like she was about to cry. "I mean, we were fighting almost every day over the littlest things, and yes disagreement is a sign of a healthy relationship, but too much fighting is a red flag. So divorcing felt like the most logical thing to do. For our sake. For my sake."

"But didn’t you consider how our divorce would affect me? How it would affect Luster?" Sunburst's voice dropped, sounding somber.

She frowned as she tucked a bit of her hair behind her ear. "Luster took it hard the first few weeks, and if it makes you feel better I couldn't sleep easily at first, even during the days that work was especially demanding."

Sunburst shook his head. She sighed loudly.

"I know I didn't consult you when I filed for our divorce papers and truth be told, I didn't care about anyone but myself when I decided to take the leap. I'm sorry I was such an asshole back then."

“We were both assholes back then, as much as it hurts to admit it,” Sunburst managed to chuckle lightly. "I should have explained what I meant when I told you not to take the job, I knew it would be demanding and I was worried how it would affect you, I just wanted you to trust me that one time; but then you got angry because I wasn’t supporting you and I got angry because you weren’t listening to me and well…” he shrugged. “I ended up being an awful husband to you."

"That's…true," she agreed almost immediately. "But you were a wonderful father to Luster—and you still are—except when you didn't even call to ask how she was doing."

"I'm…sorry about that, and if it will also make you feel better, I couldn't sleep most nights feeling guilty about it, I thought Luster hated me for leaving and not calling her, and every day that passed and I couldn’t work up the courage to do so, it only made me feel worse.”

Starlight didn’t hide the wistful smile on her lips as she meets Sunburst's eyes. "That honestly makes me feel a little better about myself."

Sunburst only returned the gesture. "I'm really sorry it came to this."

"No. We’re here because I let it come to this, you only did what you thought would make things easier between us."

"But I had the choice to stop you, to fight for you, and I didn't. It's not entirely your fault."

Starlight looked at him sternly and crossed her arms over her chest. "I told you, I didn't consult you about this when I filed for our divorce. It was all me."

She felt a weight on her knee and looked down to see Sunburst's hand. His touch was heavy, but it didn’t carry any hate.

"Please tell me we're not going to argue about this, too."

Starlight looked alternately between his eyes and his hand. "But Sunburst—"

"Listen, Starlight," he said strictly as his grip tightened a bit over her knee. "You might have been the one who started this, but I also had a choice to stop it. If I only thought things through, and not assumed that this was indeed for the best, then maybe we'd still be together." His hand finally left her knee. "We were both to blame for what happened."

Starlight nodded slowly. Not for being right, but because she was tired of playing this game. It didn’t matter who was at fault, the damage was already done.

"I'm sorry I didn't stop you." He said it close to a whisper.

Starlight shook her head. "I didn't expect you to, but not because I thought you gave up as I did, or that I didn't trust you or something like that, I guess…I just knew that you'd ride this out because I was so insistent about it." She glided as close to him as she dared, her hand resting next to his knee on the concrete bench, and looked at him with a sad smile. "I'm sorry I gave up on our relationship, but I'm glad we are finally able to talk things through."

She gasped when two hands grabbed hers, enveloping it with the familiar warmth she’d missed so dearly.

"Me too," Sunburst mumbled, and she almost missed it because she's so focused on the warmth covering her hands. She couldn’t take it.

"And I missed you."

Before she realized she was doing it, Starlight released the tears that had been waiting to cascade down her gloomy face since they started talking.



She didn’t know what to feel or what to say after talking with Sunburst. She was actually surprised that it didn't go as she expected—arguing, screaming, one of them storming out of the park without resolving anything­—but she took what happened over the dramatic scene her imagination had concocted any day.

She sat at the passenger seat of Sunburst's car, but they weren’t heading home. What should have been a heartfelt moment by the park ended abruptly when Starlight's stomach grumbled with hunger. She’d been so nervous about this that she didn’t eat anything before coming to meet him, so they decided to eat at Starlight’s favorite sandwich shop for a late lunch.

Starlight’s cheeks were warm with embarrassment, and she looked out the window sullenly for ruining what should have been a beautiful moment. 

"Come on, it's not the first time I heard your stomach grumble." Sunburst teased.

"You're not helping, you know," she muttered, "I’m just mad that it happened at the worst time."

Sunburst let out a snicker, his eyes on the road. "But wouldn't it have been more embarrassing if it happened when we were being all dramatic? That would have really killed the mood."

Starlight giggled and rolled her eyes.

He parked the car just a block away from the restaurant and they walked the short distance talking about nothing in particular, though this time they walked closely, so close that she could’ve grabbed his hand if she wanted, but she didn’t. The restaurant was full, the only available seats were those by the bar and they accepted without complaint. Sunburst was seated to her right, with only a few inches of space between them—he was close enough for her head to rest comfortably on his shoulder, and for his head lay on top of hers­—but she doesn’t dare to breach that distance, and she scolded herself for thinking about it as they waited for their orders to arrive.

Perhaps when she was ready, and he was too, then she'd be able to do that and more for as long as she wanted to.



"What do you think about people who can't make up their minds?"

Miss Luna cocked her head to the side. "Pardon me?"

"Don't you think they're irresponsible for being indecisive?" Starlight looked up from the floor, which she had been staring at for the last ten minutes of their session. "I mean, there's always a logical choice staring at their face, but they still can't make a decision."

"Rather than irresponsible, maybe they are deliberative." Her counselor remarked, then straightened her back. "What are you thinking about?"

Starlight breathed out and braced herself for some storytelling. "I've been thinking that…perhaps the divorce wasn’t the most logical solution to my dying marriage."

The older woman settled herself comfortably on her office chair and nodded for her to continue.

Starlight clasped her hand before speaking. "You probably noticed that when things get rough for me, I tend to react almost immediately instead of thinking things through. I'm brash, as one would call it, and what happened back then as a result of my recklessness, I didn't even give him a chance to air out his thoughts about separating."

She looked at her counselor as if waiting for her approval to continue. Miss Luna only smiled reassuringly.

"I honestly thought things would be much better if we weren’t together. I did consider how the separation would affect Luster, but for the most part, I was just impatient for things to be over. So I called it quits. And now, here we are.

"When Sunburst came back it opened up so many wounds that hadn’t scared yet, and it confused me so much that I began to doubt if I made the right choice. I guess I wasn’t over the whole break up," she pauses to let out a humorless chuckle. "I mean, if I were, I probably wouldn't have stayed single for two years, that’s the point of divorcing right? To meet other people, start over with someone new, be free, and explore your options without a marriage tying you down, but I didn’t."

"Didn't you say that marriage hadn’t really crossed your mind until Sunburst?" The older woman interrupted gently.

Starlight rubbed her chin with her index finger. "That's true. I didn't see myself as marriage material, even now I still have my misgivings. Which I guess is the reason why I even thought about getting a divorce." She let out an exasperated breath. "This is becoming more convoluted."

"You did say so yourself; one's understanding of life tends to be complicated." Miss Luna said almost quietly. "Would you like to proceed?"

Starlight nodded curtly and psyched herself to go on with her train of thought.

"All that aside, the divorce also made me see things I wouldn't have realized if I hadn’t pushed through, like how important family is to me, and how difficult it is to raise a child as a single parent. I admit that I took it lightly, and didn't even see how it would affect my work and my daughter, and it made me sad each time I'd chanced upon Luster watching her friends with their dads during school events. It also made me realize that, despite all the things that I misunderstood about Sunburst, he is probably the only man I'd marry." 

She feels her cheeks flush an angry red when she hears her honest thoughts. 'I can't believe I said that.'

Miss Luna inclined a little forward from her seat. "What are you thinking right now, Starlight?"

She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Am I…a horrible person if I decide to change my mind?"

"That question," her counselor begins, "is something only you can answer."