The Galaxy Meetings

twenty

"Oh my gosh." I mutter. "This is so cute."

"This is the most humble little restaurant, but I love it. My aunt used to bring me here as a child and I think you'll really like what's on the menu." Chase informs me, smiling at his own memories.

"It looks perfect."

***

"So, are you ready to start in my school?" I ask. As the words rolled off my tongue, it still felt abnormal – but I couldn't wait.

"Yeah – I told all my friends and they think I've turned into a softy. "Weren't you one before?" I jokingly tease him, laughing. "Mm... Maybe secretly."

"I-is that you, Chase?" an old woman approaches us, grabbing the two sides of Chase's chin with one hand and inspecting his face. Chase places his hand on top of hers. "Yeah, Ethel. It's me."

"I haven't seen you in years!" she cries, flinging her wrinkled arms around Chase. He gratefully hugs her back. "Eth, this is Leila."

"Nice to meet you, Ethel." I smile, shaking the kind woman's hand. She smiles. "You got lucky, Chase. She's a stunner." My cheeks flare up, hot with embarrassment but I keep on smiling genuinely.

"Well; I have to go but I'll see you soon, Chase." Chase waves as the woman waddles away on her stick. I raise an eyebrow. "Wow. You must've come here a lot."

"Yeah." Chase sheepishly confirms. "That's the owner's mother. What are you going to eat?" I shrug. "It all looks so nice. Typical girl problems. You know what?- surprise me."                                                          "Okay. Hi there, can we get two of the meatball and pasta dishes please, with extra sauce on both?"

The waitress, who looked quite stunned at Chase (she obviously vaguely recognised him too), nodded and then scurried off. "Thank you!" I call after her. We chatter about the most random things that only we could probably be caught talking about as we waited for our food. Once we had finished our food, which was delicious, we decided against getting any dessert because we were so full. Instead, Chase promised to bring me here again to have dessert on its own.

I try to pay but Chase said that he wants to, and I couldn't fight him. Like me, Chase was quite stubborn in his thoughts. We climb into our car and we're on our way back to the home to drop me off.

"So, did you enjoy it?" Chase asks me. I nod eagerly, smiling until my mouth was sore. "It was magical, Chase. Thank you."

"No problem." he casually grins. "You know I really love you, Lei. Forever."

"I know, Chase." I pause, looking at him as I beam happily. "We're forever."

"Let's play a game." I begin. "Each time we go under one of these tunnels, we hold our breath. That's what we do in the home on our outings. Well, only the little kids."

"We're little kids on the inside – so it's okay." Chase decides, beaming. He didn't take his eyes off the road for a second.

"Okay ready?" we both held our breath, puffing out our cheeks. I splutter with laughter and Chase joins in. "I win – you laughed before the end of the tunnel." I smile. "Yeah, that was a practice."

"A practice, really?" Chase asks, tickling my stomach. I flinch, squealing. "I'm really ticklish, Chase. I thought you found out the night you left with a bruise on your head from rolling down the hill."

Chase scoffs. "Trust me - I paid for that. My dad showered me in all these remedies to get rid of bruises because he had to bring me to a conference meeting in the airport uptown. Dad ended up saying it was from football."

I splutter. "Ah, Chase. I love you."

"Forever, Lei-'' All of a sudden, a car speeds into us and we're thrown in the air. All I could see were blurry headlights and Chase being tossed about. I screamed as we flew through the air. We landed upside down in the middle of the road and instantly I could feel an unaware driver crashing into us.

A soaring pain raced through my back and blood gushed down my cheek from my sticky head. My arm was stuck underneath something when I realised I couldn't hear anything from Chase. "Chase?" I call, unable to move my head from my back hurting. "Chase, Chase – baby wake up. Come on, come on, come on." Tears poured from my eyes onto my dusty jeans. "Chase!"

I manage to stretch my arm out to hold Chase. His body was cold. Too cold. "No, no no! Chase! Damn – wake up! Please, baby – n-no..." I choked on my own words as I began to sob, giving up on myself. "HELP!" I screamed as loud as I could from inside the car, but no one arrived. My main priority was Chase. There might just be a sliver of a heartbeat there that someone might be able to save.

The car was making creaking noises that scared me, but I ignored it and just carried on with my sobbing. "Chase. Chase, come on. No no no no no no no; come on. Please. You are my world Chase. My world. I love you I love you... I love you." I whisper, crying softly.

"Okay, I'm going to get you out!" a voice called. "I'm Olivia; a paramedic. Everything is going to be alright. Can you tell me your name?"

"Uh, Leila Clarke – listen. We need to help my boyfriend. He-he's cold. I can't hear him breathe a-and I love him." I break into more tears.

"Okay, sweetheart. Let's have a look at your boyfriend, shall we?"

Olivia stretches through the shattered windscreen, placing a wary hand onto Chase's neck. She sighs. "Alright. Let's not panic; do you hurt anywhere, Leila?"

I cry. "He's gone, isn't he?" I sob. Olivia doesn't reply. "ISN'T HE?" 

When she doesn't reply, I let out a shriek. Suddenly everything was blurry, and the only thing I could see was Chase, my darling Chase, as he laid there completely l-lifeless.

Olivia clicks her pager and walks away for a second. "Ambulance 009, I need backup on Thomas Street. A crash, one pronounced dead at the scene – one may have spinal injuries. No other casualties. Out."

A fuzzy noise sounds in Olivia's pager and another voice calls into it. "Ambulance 0010, on my way."     I use my spare arm to rub Chase's cold arm, sobbing uncontrollably. My back didn't hurt as much as my heart currently did. Chase was dead. And I was nothing. I had lost everyone I could ever love in this world. "He's dead." I mumble to Olivia. "I'm not deaf."

"Everything's going to be alright, sweetheart." Olivia repeats again. "Now – where does it hurt the most?"

I don't reply, instead just pointing to my sore back. "Alright. Let's just pop this head brace on and get you to the hospital – okay?"

"What about Chase?" I fret. "We can't leave him here. I don't want to leave him!" I cry, clutching his arm. Chase? As the tears poured down my face, I knew from this moment on my life would never be complete, or positive - because Chase was my positive. 

And he wasn't alive...