We were driving down to see Noah and Lucy’s grandparents again, they had always been like grandparents to me too, since I had none. They had all passed away before I was born or when I was young.
Their grandparents lived in Devon, four hours away from us. They had a quaint little white brick cottage, ivy climbing the wall, curving around the old oak door. The garden was always pristine. It was there grandfather’s pride and joy, he spent hours out there working on it. Growing flowers and planting vegetables. Their house always smells like cinnamon sugar cookies, as their grandma was always baking.
“Noahhhhhh,” Lucy screeched, stretching out the ‘H’ in Noah’s name and pulling faces at him in the review mirror.
“For the last time, no, I’m driving and that means I get to choose the music,” Noah replied sternly, a frown fixed on his face. I chuckled quietly and he turned to face me shooting me a quick smile before fixing the frown back in place for Lucy.
“Noah,” I whispered, “Please,” putting on my puppy dog eyes and biting my lip, he shivered and I could see his control slipping bit by bit, I grinned inside - he never could resist me, even after five years of being together.
“You know I can’t resist that face, why do you continue to torture me baby,” he sighed, reluctantly changing the radio station. I pluck his hand from my lap where it’s placed and give it a quick kiss on the knuckles which causes him to shoot me a loving smile.
I remember the first day we met, on the first day of school. He and his sister took the same bus as me.
A boy steps on the bus, nodding to the driver. He looks my age, maybe a year older and he has his head firmly down so I don’t even catch a glimpse of his face. My eyes run down him and I blush, am I checking him out? That’s not me! I follow his arm down to see his hand is tightly gripping the hand of a little girl, maybe five years old. She is staring right at me, a smile firmly pinned to her face, like she knows a secret I don’t.
They walk briskly down the aisle taking a seat opposite me where they place their bags on the ground before the little girl jumps up and sits upon the boys lap, whereby he places his hands around her waist keeping her firmly tucked against his chest. Is she his sister? Looks like it, they have the same shape face. Then he finally looks up. An endless turquoise ocean, that’s what I saw, though we were nowhere near the sea. No, it was those eyes. They were drawing me into the deep pools of blue, and I couldn’t stop staring, couldn’t look away. Then he smiled and it was like the stars aligned and I couldn’t help but smile in return.
“The names Noah, and this is Lucy”, and that was it, I was done for, I lived and breathed for him from that moment on. Two weeks later and we were going for our first date.
“Are we there yet?” Lucy whined, a mere five minutes after asking the same question for the tenth time.
I turn in my seat to face her, where she has her arms crossed and is pouting, she’s definitely Noah’s sister. “Twenty minutes max, I promise Lulu,” I sighed. She beamed back at me. Lucy was like a little sister to me now, I never minded taking her with Noah and I when we went out. Noah always complained I was only dating him to get closer to her – I admit it is half true, I adore the blond haired, blue eyed cutie.
Turning back around I hear Noah curse and the car swerves to the right narrowly missing the oncoming vehicle in the wrong lane but we hit a sign post and cartwheel, my head whacks on the celling and I scream when the windscreen shatters, glass shards puncturing my skin.
***
Pain. That’s the only thing I can feel. It’s radiating around my body, flowing to the tips of my fingers and to the end of my toes, excruciating pain. It surrounds me, a bubble, closing in. I can’t get enough oxygen in, I’m panting in short breaths. I’m lying across someone’s lap. Noah’s. How did I get on the floor? I can’t remember. I can’t remember anything but those blue, blue eyes. They are hovering above me, concern flitting through them. I can’t hear anything, not my short breaths, not Noah talking to me, but I can see him. Mouth open wide, tears streaming down his face. I wanted to wipe those tears but I don’t seem to be able to move my arms, they are frozen by my sides. Pain. Pain. Pain. That was all I could think about. My eyes started closing on their own accord. I blink, trying to fight it, but it’s too much for me, so I give in to the stream of unconsciousness that beckons.
***
The incessant beeping won’t stop, I flail my arms trying to hit whatever’s making that noise but I can’t, something’s holding my hand down. My eyelids flutter before opening fully. Noah’s there, gripping my hand tightly, as if his only life support. His frowning confuses me until I notice him covered in bruises and scratches, and that makes me remember the crash. I swing my head frantically round the room crying hysterically,
“Where’s Lucy?”
