And her name was Jude.

Chapter 7.

I woke up in a hospital bed. I was cold and I couldn't move my arm because it was entangled in a jungle of iv's and tubes. I looed around, and I didn't see Jude anywhere. I began to panic. I screamed and tried to pull out all of the iv's. My mother appeared into the doorway. She ran to me, my father quickly followed. They embraced me in their arms and tears streamed down their face.
'Oh my god I'm so glad you're okay, I don't know what I would've done if I would've lost you!' My mother whailed.

I was so confused. I don't remebwr anything after the blackout. I looked at my mom with a puzzled look and asked 'What happened? Where's Jude?!?'
She looked at me with sorrow in her eyes. I began to freak. 'NO. NO. NO. YOU'RE LIEING. JUDE'S NOT DEAD. NO. SHE CANT BE.' I began to wail. My mother calmed me.
'No honey, she's not dead, but she's in a coma. She hasn't woke. The crash was a week ago. They thought neither or you would wake up, but they said you had the greater chance to come out of it, and here you are.'
'What do you mean crash, WHAT HAPPENED?!?'
'You and Jude were t-boned crossing the interstate. The driver of the semi was distracted and he crushed into Jude's side of the truck. She would have been dead on impact, but because she was in the middle, it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Jude's in the room next door and she's not looking too good. They say her chances are 1/1000 of coming out alive.'
Tears began pouring out of my face. I couldn't control myself. The love of my life was in terrible condition and may not survive because I was the one driving.

After I calmed down my mother took me over to Jude's room. Her mot her was sitting in the chair next to her bed. Tears streamed down her face as my mother rolled me into the room. She got up and embraced me in a hug. She began apologizing to me for what she did to Jude over the years.
'I'm so sorry I hit her, I never meant to. I'm sorry I was such a terrible parent. I lost my husband, and now I'm loosing my baby girl. She loved you, ya know? She loved you more than I've ever seen someone love anyone. She always talked about you and she always wrote your name on her arm. She stayed because of you, and I thank you so much for keeping my baby girl safe all of these years.'
I pulled myself up slowly out of my wheelchair. I was able to stand long enough to hold Jude's mother in my arms and say to her 'If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have had the love of my life. There is no way I can thank you enough.' She cried and she lowed me back into my wheel chair.

My mother took her to get some coffee so I could have some alone time with Jude. I took her hands into mine and I whispered to her
'Jude. I love you. I need you. You are the best thing I gave ever had in my entire life. You have no clue how much you mean to me. I can't believe I'm slowly loosing you. I know that you've got to be in alot of pain right now, and I understand that now may be your time to leave, but I need you to know that you will be the only girl I will ever love. Noone will ever take your place in my heart.
I broke out into tears and I layed my head on Jude's hand. As my tear hit her hand, her finger moved slightly.
'Jude?!'
'A-alex?' She groaned.
'Jude, it's me.'
'I-i love y-ou.' She said softly as her voice started to faid.
'I love you too Jude.'
'Tell my mom I forgive her and that I lo-' her vitals dropped and her line went flat.
I began to panic. I broke out screaming and the nurse wheeled me out as they wheeled the crash cart in. Her mother ran down the hallway, dropping her coffee and it splattered all over the hospital hallway. They kept her out of the room.
We all watched through the glass as they tried multiple times to revive her, but it was no success. As they pulled the sheet over Jude, her mover fell to the ground and tears streamed out of all of our eyes.

*A week later*
It was the day before Jude's funeral. Her mother had asked me to speak at it. She wanted the words everyone heard to be of the real, loving, happy, and compassionate Jude only I saw.

She stopped by a few days ago with a journal that Jude had kept in her bed frame that not even I knew about. All of the entries were about me. And about how I helped her through everyhting, like her dad's death and her mother's abuse.
The last entry was the night before we left, it read:
'Tomorrow, we head off to the lake. Alex and I will finally have the time we need together. The thing is, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with him, And I plan on telling him. Even though I always claimed love was something I wanted nothing to do with, somehow Alex made me love him, and the fact that I didn't want love made me fall even harder for him. I just hope he loves me too.
Jude♡'

It was the best thing I had ever read in my life. All she wrote about were our late night talks and our counciling we did for each other. This journal made me realize exactly what I wanted to say at her funeral.

As I walked in, I saw Jude's ashes sitting on the table in from of the podium. It was surrounded by flowers and pictures of Jude, and most contained me.

As I stood up and walked towards the pew, I felt my heart sink. This was it. This was me finally accepting that the love of my life is gone forever.
As I stood there and read my speech I watched the tears trickle down her mother's face. Every once in a while a smile would etch it's way across her tear painted pale face.
My speech simply read:

'In your lifetime, everyone gets that one special friend. The friend they grow up with. The one that they do everything with. The one they push into lockers and stand up to the bullies with. The ones that pull us out of our deepest ruts because they don't want to see the other hurt. My special friend was Jude. But you see, I got extra special. Because not only did I get a best friend that would've lasted a lifetime, I got a love. A love that was a stronger love that anyone has ever seen. Everyone is given that one love in their life, the one that's supposed to last forever, the one that's their supposed to marry on day when they get older. I was given my love and she was taken from me. I was given my love, And her name was Jude.'