Before We Left: Part 5

The very next day…

Diana’s point of view… 

I woke up later than I thought I would. I looked at the clock to see that it was 10:30 am. I couldn’t believe that I had gotten up this late. I rushed to get out of bed and get ready for the day. Then I remembered that there wouldn’t be anything to do. Bruce would’ve left hours ago. I buried my face in the pillow again. I started to think about everything that happened over the years.

Bruce and I had been friends since we were 5. I had been in love with him for the last 8 years. If I was anyone else, I probably would have thought I was insane. I had never gotten into a relationship with anyone. Bruce had always been the only person I’ve ever wanted to be with. Yet I never told him how I felt about him. Not until just a few days ago. Now in those few days, everything that we had together was gone forever. I was so stupid. I let everything I had ever wanted slip through my fingers. God, I wish I had just told him how I felt sooner. Maybe then things could’ve been different. For a few moments, I allowed myself to fantasize about what might’ve been had we just told each other before we left. I wanted to think we could’ve been happy together. We could’ve gone on cute dates and done all of the things we wanted to before college, and who knows, maybe we could’ve found a way to make it work when he left for Boston had we told each other. It could’ve been great, but now it was over and it was my fault. I had ruined the one good thing in my life. Then I heard a knock on the door. I slowly got up. My head was pounding that morning. I had spent too much time last night in my room. The heat in here could be tolerated, but not going downstairs left me super dehydrated. I walked down the stairs in my pajamas.

I opened the door to see Bruce standing there with two cups of coffee. He was wearing a white t-shirt and light blue jeans. It was a completely new look for him. He gave me a sad smile and offered me one of the cups of coffee.

“Can we talk?” he asked.

I thought for a minute on this. Did I want to talk to him at all right now? Did I even want to hear him apologize? When I thought about it more, I decided to let him in, and we sat on the couch in the family room.

1 hour later…

We spent the next hour driving around town listening to music on our favorite playlist. When we found ourselves at Thatcher Park, we got out of the car and walked over to the hill by the soccer field. We began to lie down on the grass next to each other. I snuggled up and rested my head onto his chest. I looked at his bare arms. I hadn’t seen them by themselves for so long. I could see all of the scars on his upper arms. I felt like the luckiest person in the world. He had never shown anyone the scarring from his accident all those years ago. Now here he was not even afraid to show me his. It was like this was a whole new version of Bruce.

“Bruce,” I said, “are you sure about all this?”

He looked at me in the sweetest way possible, “I have never been more sure of anything in my life.”

I smiled at the comment. I leaned up and as our lips met, I felt right at home. I wrapped my arms around him as we deepened the kiss. He placed a hand on my waist. For those moments I was happier than I had ever been. Then Bruce pulled away suddenly and I knew something was wrong. I moved a couple of feet away from him to see that he had collapsed. I couldn’t believe what was happening. His eyes were closed, he wasn’t breathing. His face was beginning to lose color and his body was limp. I kept shoving at his shoulder. My heart racing at the thought of what happened to him. Not knowing what I could do, I called 911,got down on my knees and started CPR. I kept looking down at Bruce’s unresponsive face.

“Come on Bruce,” I yelled, “don’t leave me!”

I began to cry as my mind wandered from what was happening and on to the future. He meant everything to me and now I may lose him. As I went down with each compression, it was as though I could feel everything around me grow thin and lifeless. Even thinking about what was happening was horrifying. At some point, my arms became too tired and I had to stop the compressions, which meant there was nothing more I could do for him. I was going to lose him. I held onto his hand and placed a soft gentle kiss on his forehead. Every part of him was cold now. I was mortified. Then I heard the sirens of an ambulance. I let out a sigh of relief as the paramedics arrived…

To Be Concluded