The Last Memories

Chapter 4 - The Visit

(Matthew Bay's POV)

 I followed the directions the lady from the flower shop had given me. I got there following the backroads she advised me to take to avoid traffic jams. I got to the hospital in less than ten minutes. When I got into the parking lot I sat there for five minutes.

What if she didn't want to see me? What if she already moved on? What if she no longer cared? What if she changed?

It's been half a year since I last saw her (Maye... I can't remember. All I know is that it has felt like forever). No matter how hard I have tried, I can't let go. I know I'm gonna have to learn to let go somehow, but my heart won't let me. People say you can't experience true love at a very young age, but I believe differently. I may not know much about love but this is what I do know:

I love Averey enough that I would drive eighteen to nineteen hours straight with no sleep just to see her.

I opened the visor mirror, and inside it was a picture taped to the mirror. The picture was of me and Averey. I remembered that one time Ethan shook his head when I opened the visor mirror without thinking to look at the picture. I didn't care what he thought. I can't bear to remove the picture from my car. Nonetheless, I didn't want to.

In the picture, I had my arms wrapped around Averey's waist, holding her tight against my chest. It was the first Christmas she ever celebrated. We were sitting on the floor, and she was sitting on my lap. She was sitting sideways, facing the tree, but looking at the camera. Her arms were wrapped around my neck.

She wore a burgundy long-sleeve, MissMe jeans, and was barefooted. That was one of the things I could never forget about Averey, no matter how cold it was she would always go without socks and shoes when she wasn't in public. Her "public" included other people's houses besides mine.

She was smiling so big, you might have said that her smile touched the moon. She looked so happy. That was before Adrian died.

I was also smiling in the picture, but my face was a quarter-inch hidden in her hair. I was wearing a blue and red plaid, button-up shirt, and jeans. My hair was nicely combed back. I had boots on, just because I always felt most comfortable when I wore boots in the house.

Averey's parents' religion didn't accept holidays being celebrated. Not even Christmas. Averey had never been able to celebrate a proper Christmas, so my family and I invited her and her two brothers over for Christmas break.

I remember the day I finally got permission to let Averey, Daverey, and Adrian spend Christmas Break with us, and when I told my grandparents they were so excited. They even stayed the entire break. My grandparents were eighty-years-old.

Over that one week and three days, my grandma and grandpa bonded with my girlfriend perfectly. They bonded more than they ever got to before, and by the end of Christmas break, it was like they knew each other since birth.

God, Averey should have seen the look on my grandma's face when she found out that we had no longer been dating. Sometimes just remembering the look on my grandma's face pained me enough. But I knew what hurt the most. It was leaving everything that I and Averey had behind.

Realizing my last thoughts on Averey's first Christmas gave me enough courage to step out of the car and walk inside the hospital. At the front desk was a woman with strawberry-blonde locks and green glasses. Her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail. She was at least in her early twenties.

"How may I help you?" she asked with a kind smile. You could tell she loved her job.

"I'm looking for Averey Peterson," I replied awkwardly.