"He is late again." Erin thought to herself. The glow of her cigarette the only light other than the stars that filled the sky over the meadow that she say in. The grass beneath her dry from the summer heat, but still better than bare dirt. She waited for Paul as she put out her cigarette and reached in her pocket for another. "If he doesn't show up in five minutes I'm done." Erin said to herself as she lit her next nicotine hit. The minutes ticked by slowly, and Erin's patience ticked away quickly. "It was important that we got together tonight and talked about us." Erin voiced to herself as she pulled out her phone to check the time. "We have been so busy with work and school that we haven't had a chance to be alone and talk. Then he blows me off?" Erin muttered to herself. She typed the message into her phone in the heat of frustration. "I'm done! If you can't make time for us then there will be to 'us'." She stood up as she hit the send button.
The phone vibrated on the table next to a clean bed. It moved a small distance and stopped, resting against a small box. Inside the box a ring sits waiting. A bouquet of flowers rests on its side behind the box. One dozen roses with stark red petals. One petal falls onto the floor. Both the phone and the petal go unnoticed by Paul, who doesn't wake up to the soft buzz. White sheets cover his body, white bandages his head. Paul couldn't wait to start the next chapter of his life. The driver couldn't wait for a light to change. Blazing thru the red light, he hit Paul as Paul was leaving the flower shop. The driver didn't stop moving for a moment, but he stopped Paul's life from moving forward that day.
