The Shattered Ride

Chapter 10

    Today turned out better than I thought it would be... It broke my heart to see his grave, and it took everything to get into this dress, but it was worth it. And after the whole sad thing, he took me for ice-cream. We decided to share what we missed the most about Erik. It was hard, but we tried.

    "My favourite memory of Erik is the day he asked me out," I said and took a lick of my blueberry ice-cream. "He tried so hard to make it special, but everything just seemed to go wrong, one after the other. I couldn't help but stand there and laugh foolishly. He was so adorable mumbling, and catching things that were falling." We laughed together at this story-Caleb has heard it hundreds of times before. "And after a while, I finally walked over to him, planted a kiss on his cheek and whispered in his ear, 'Yes'. He just smiled and then," I paused and took a deep breath. This was really hard, looking back at this, "he gave me a kiss. That was our first kiss." I closed my eyes. A tear escaped and I let it roll down my cheek. The memory was painful and nice at the same time.

    Caleb must have noticed, because he lifted my chin to look me in the eyes. With the back of his hand, he wiped the tear on my cheek away. He smiled at me. It reminded me of Erik's smile, but Caleb had a tenderer, soft smile. Their blue eyes always seemed to steal my attention and I never wanted to look away.

     After finishing our ice-cream, we hopped in the truck, and headed to my house. Caleb had plans tonight, so he would just drop me off. We laughed at the jokes the radio personality made and sang along to the songs that played, but this all ended when we came around the corner of the street and say a body lying in front of my house. I gasped, and Caleb told me to close my eyes. He parked a distance away, and told me to stay put. I listened and he motioned to the body. He stopped and suddenly hurried to the person lying in my parking lot.

    Caleb cried all of a sudden, "Call then ambulance, and get over here!" I did as he said, and when I came closer, I was totally shocked to see who it was. It was Jordan. He was covered in spots of blood all over his body. His face was full of bruises and cuts, and he lay there motionless. I couldn't breathe. Tears started filling my eyes. Caleb said he was breathing, and his heart was stable and that we had to wait for the paramedics to arrive. When they eventually did, Caleb and I got in his truck and drove to the hospital. The paramedics let his parents know and they were on their way. Caleb told my parents where I was and what happened. I was too in shock to speak unless I wanted to know what was wrong with him. He was in surgery and we had to wait for an hour or so.

    I went to sit down in the waiting room next to where Caleb was. When I sat down, I started crying. I couldn't keep it in. I started to feel so weak, I fell down from the chair and on to my knees. I just cried. After a while, I felt Caleb hugging me, and in that moment, I fell into his arms. I just continued to cry. His hug reminded me of Erik's hugs, and that made this worse. I missed Erik, I'm worried sick about Jordan, and now Caleb's holding me. Way to go Erica! You're falling in love and you don't even know it. After what Sam said about Jordan liking me, I realized how much I like him too. And now, Caleb is giving me a warm, tight hug, and I seem to really like it. Great!

     All these thoughts came rushing to me head. How did he end up there? What happened? Why does he look so bad? Where was I when this happened? Why did this happen? To him? Where were my parents? Was baby Alex okay? Why are the doctors taking so long? Is he still alive? Is he okay? Will he be able to walk again? And was I going to lose him too?

***

    My head hurt. Everything hurt. I slowly opened my eyes. I couldn't quite see through my left eye. It was swollen too much. As I gradually started to see, I noticed something lying at the end of the bed. It looked like a girl, in a red dress. Or was it maroon? I wasn't sure. She sure was beautiful, and she looked so peaceful lying on her arms. Sleeping. I looked around the room. Wait, what am I doing in a hospital? Am I dead? No.