Tyler, beaten up and hospitalized, managed to pass Ashley an envelope before being whisked away.
Now, alone in her room, Ashley gingerly opens the envelope and inside she finds a letter, smelling faintly of lavender.
She held her breath as she carefully read every word, written in apparently slow and deliberately drawn cursive, her lengthy auburn hair covering her face as she bent to focus on the paper, her rosy cheeks turning red. Her heart slowed as she caressed the crisp paper and looked out the window, stunned.
Her mind raced back to the past, back when Tyler was known only to her as the ’idiotic joker,’ back to the time when he would play pranks and tricks on her just for the sake of fun. She remembered his smooth black hair always thrown back as he laughed, revealing rows of even white teeth. He would always stay in that position until he had to stop to re-adjust his too-big glasses.
He was a fool, but he had never left her side. Wherever she went, he would always be there to make a remark about her, smelling of sunflowers. She remembered him always saying, ‘Even if you were crippled, I would take care of you because you’re the most interesting specimen I’ve ever had.’ Never had it been a joke, she realized, but a vow.
She ran out of the house and pedaled her bike furiously to the hospital, not even thinking as she sprinted to Tyler’s ward, hoping to catch him awake.
Tyler was sitting by the window, a pencil in his hair and paper on his table. He slowly stood and took uncertain steps toward her as though he was unsure. Breath whooshed out of him as she rushed to embrace him, her hair tickling his chin. He grasped her by the shoulders, his head throbbing and a confused look flashed across his face. “Hello,” he said in a friendly tone.
“My name’s Tyler, what's yours?”
