Forgotten Souls

Chapter 23: I Love You, Forever.

I’ve been sitting at Zaylee’s bed for the past three hours, holding her hand and just staring at her face as I pray over and over again for her. She hasn’t waken up out of the sleep they put her in after her heart failed, but at least she was still alive. That was the only thing that mattered to me at that moment.

I felt her stirring and immediately looked up to meet her confused green eyes.

“Am I still alive? How? I mean.. it felt like I was dying..”

“Technically you had uh.. passed away for a few seconds.. but they uh.. they got you back baby girl. Are you hurting anywhere?”

“No I’m alright Braydon. You look tired, you should go home and sleep. I’ll be alright now.”

“No way baby girl. Do you really think I’m leaving after I almost just lost you again? I’m staying right here with you until you are released baby.”

She smiles softly at me and then notice that her hand is still in mine. She studies it carefully and then she looks up, studying my face, but not even for a second does she try to remove her hand from mine. I decided that I wouldn’t pressurise her into anything too much too fast again.

“Thank you Braydon. If you.. if you hadn’t been here, I might not have made it.. and then I never would have gotten to tell you what I’ve been dying to since the moment I saw you at the gallery. You are the only person that knows about my disease and isn’t treating me like I’m dying even though I am.”

“Honestly baby girl, I try to not even think about the fact that you might be dying. I’m just happy that you are here with me now. I just want to stop wasting time away from you baby. What did you want to tell me at the gallery?”

I think I already know what she is referring to, but I selfishly want to hear it again, this time I want to have the chance to say it back to her. Gently she takes her hand from mine, then she places it softly on my cheek. I know for sure, this is where I belong. This girl had made my whole life better. In every aspect.

“I love you Braydon. It frightens me how much I still love you even after all the time we spent apart. You are the only man that had my heart, and will forever have my heart.”

She looked content with her feelings and it was at that moment that I realized that when you really love someone, it doesn’t require for that person to have the mutual feelings, but it sure does make it a whole lot better.

“Zaylee.. I love you so much! I never stopped loving you. I missed you so much these past two years that I basically buried  myself in work and in doing God’s work as well. I never thought I’d get the chance to tell you how much I love you again. I know we can’t go back to make a brand new start, but we can start now to create a brand new ending baby.”

She had silent tears running down her cheeks, but I’ve never seen a smile as bright as the one she was giving me at that moment, so I did the one thing I told myself I wouldn’t do right away. I rose from my chair and gently placed a kiss to her soft lips.

It’s in that moment that  I realized the irony of life. It takes sadness to know what happiness is, distance to appreciate the memories and absence to value the presence of someone.

The doctors came in and did some tests on her to make sure that she was alright. Hours turned into days and soon, three weeks had passed of Zaylee being in the hospital. When she was finally released, she looked much better than she had in the beginning and I was pleased to just be able to be around her again.