Short Stories

Love can be Scary

Love can be Scary

Yesterday was going to be the best day ever. I was going to propose to my oh-so beautiful girlfriend. I know it was Valentine's Day and that is cheesy, but she loved cheesy. I was not supposed to be sitting here. Not in this stupid hospital worrying about her. Worrying about whether she made it through the night without being worse. Not sitting here in this hospital with stitches pulling at my own bruised stomach skin. Not being forced to sit out in the waiting room.

Yesterday started out well. I had woken up early to make what my girly, Elizabeth, Beth to me, what she considered to be her most favorite elegant breakfast. Thick French toast piled like the leaning tower of Pisa with nutella as the cement topped with strawberry syrup and icing sugar.

We 'shared' the eight mighty slices, and laughed about nothing in particular. All I could think about in that moment is having that for the rest of my life. Having her askew smile to look at every day and being able to hear her contagious laughter that appeared for no apparent reason.

She always saw the bright side of everything. No glass was empty to her, instead they were all in need of more to drink. Every living thing was something that needed to be loved. She liked to go around saying things like "Everything can still happen until it can't." She was always so different from me. I was the person who saw a glass half empty and thought that if things looked unrealistic of happening they would not happen even if they could. Yesterday is a day that showed me just that.

I had planned on taking her out for dinner then we were going to go in one of those swan boat rides that our pint size town had set up specifically for Valentines. We got through dinner with no bumps in the road. I was getting overly nervous and anxious about the last part of our night. I had butterflies fighting world war three in my stomach. I had started to think of things like what if I was wrong? What if she never really loved me? What if had not known her as well as I thought I did and she was going to hate the way I had planning on proposing to her?

We got in my car, of course after I held her door open for her and she mocked me with her sarcasm saying "Why thank you fine gentleman, what would I have ever done without your mighty door opening capabilities?" Followed by her uncontrollable laughter. Spiking another explosion in the war that was escalating in my stomach.

I put my car in drive and started towards our final destination.

We were almost there when everything turned bad.

"Daniel. Daniel!" Beth was yelling at me. I had zoned out thinking about what was to come. I did not see the tree that had fallen into the road. It was too close and it took me too long to figure out that I had to do something yesterday, because we ended up slamming into the tree full speed, twirling over it and coming crashing back to the ground.

It felt like it had taken forever for the ambulance to show up. For them to rush off to the hospital with Beth leaving me there to be taken off in one that took longer to get there. When I finally got to the hospital I had already been stabbed and pulled by the needle that was supposedly supposed to help me. But it could not sew up the gaping hole I was feeling in my chest. I asked every person who walked by if Beth was ok. Everyone ignored me, till a doctor came and took me into an empty room. He said solemnly, "She is not dead son, but she is not getting any better either." I had to hold it together because crying pulled too much at the stitches, and I could not faint of pain. Beth had needed me.

"What can I do? I need to do something!" I was almost yelling. But not on purpose.

"She needs blood, she needs it bad and we know you have compatible blood, but you have already lost so much that taking any from you could put you in just a bad position as her."

"She will die?"

"Almost granted"

"Everything can still happen until it can't. I will do it."

I did it. I gave my blood and came out alright, and Beth stabilized. For now.