The Perfect Half of the Couple by Myron Matuzenko

You’d think they were a perfect couple

– at least one-half of the couple was. Helios was always considered to be much more “perfect» than his fiancée. That’s what people usually said – and for a good reason. He made friends so easily! Wherever he went – he’d leave with a new acquaintance. The young man knew what to ask a stranger, how to crack a joke in a company, or when to strike a flamboyant pose that would impress someone. 

Helios was a student adored by teachers for being a very bright pupil but never an insufferable know-it-all. He was a member of the rugby club of his university, and a very valuable one. “Never give up, my boys!” – he would proclaim in a jolly manner to his teammates – “For if we fail today, we will find a new way tomorrow!». Not only was he a sporty young man, he also possessed a sharp mind, wise beyond years. “You do not need to go to that academy» - Helios told his friend Hannah, when she got a rejection letter from the State Academy of Arts – «You are an artist on your own! You have something in you that cannot be taught». And when his thirteen-year-old cousin got caught drinking, despite his mother’s prohibition, some bottom-shelf rum that he stole, Helios said: “Please, do not punish him, dear aunt. The blame is all on me – I gave your son that rum, he didn’t steal it this time!”. And the aunt shrugged, believing such a gallant lie. Because how could she refuse to believe such a bright smile? How could you ever refuse anything to these ocean-blue eyes and this fair yet strong complexion? 

Indeed, Helios always looked good. Even when no effort was put at all, his blond hair was messy and his clothes had coffee stains, that man looked perfect. Beautiful like an angel, some said. Handsome like the devil, reckoned others. But everyone agreed – Helios was a person you would always want to be around. Never too loud but never too quiet, never too arrogant but never too shy, he always had a key to the human heart. He was not the soul of the company – he was Helios, the “sun”, around which every other human being in any company revolved.

You could only guess how blessed felt Clara when she started dating him. The man of her dreams! What a pity that Helios never felt that way. 

When he met Clara, he was extremely bored. He needed someone to fill the void. Someone to spend the night with. Someone who would adore him. Helios wanted someone who he could bleed dry. Someone to consume attention and energy from, like blood from a vampire’s victim.

Eventually, Clara stopped satisfying his cravings. She became such a burden, boring him to death with her love. “I don’t want her” – the young man thought to himself one day – “Hence I don’t need her anymore”. 

And Helios threw her out of his life. Deleting her number and ghosting her everywhere. Never opening the doors to her again and pretending that she doesn’t exist. He knew Clara was bearing his child. That did not stop him, however, because he cared for the unborn even less than he cared for Clara. 

And then he told his family and his friends to never mention his “ex”-fiancée again. “She cheated on me!” – Helios said whenever someone asked – “She betrayed me. We were a perfect couple, but I don’t think that there was any true love between us at all”. Everyone believed him, even though only the last statement out of three wasn’t a lie. Everyone sympathized with him and never even thought of his imperfect fiancée Clara. After all, everything revolved around Helios, perfect and bright like the sun itself.