I pulled back and stared into her blue eyes that looked so much like Dane’s. Her golden blonde hair hung over her shoulders, her skin, still sun-kissed from hours spent next to their pool.
My best friend and my brother were standing in front of me, and I could actually touch them, as if they were alive. The reminder that they weren’t was enough to make my lungs, and my chest, burn with longing.
“Where am I?” I asked, looking between them. “How are you here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” laughed Charlie. “This is Heaven.”
Heaven?
Did that mean I was…
“You’re not dead,” said Jewel.
“Then why am I here?”
Charlie smiled down at Jewel, and they each took my hands as we walked down to the edge of the dock.
“I don’t understand what’s happening,” I said, taking a seat between the two people I loved more than anything.
Jewel patted my leg. “That’s okay, you won’t be here long.”
“You were in accident,” said Charlie. “That’s how you’re here. But someone saved your life.”
“I don’t remember anything.”
“We know,” said Jewel. “That’s why we’re here.”
The scene in front of me changed, and we were suddenly standing in an emergency room at the hospital. I recognized the girl on the bed, and let out a gasp when I saw it was me. My clothes were wet, my hair stuck to my face, my lips blue.
“You were in accident,” said Charlie again. “You got stranded on the side of a bridge in a rainstorm, and someone collided with you from behind. Your Jeep hit the barrier, and landed in the water, where you stayed unconscious for three hours before you were rescued.”
I looked around the room, at the nurses buzzing around me.
“Technically you died,” said Jewel. “But somehow you hung on long enough. It’s like you knew he was coming to get you.”
“He?” I asked, looking between them.
Jewel grinned. “Dane.”
“Dane saved me?”
She nodded, and when I looked forward again, we were standing in the waiting room. Reid and Dane were there, and Dane had his head in his hands. He was saying something, but I couldn’t quite make out what.
“He loves you, you know,” remarked Charlie. “It’s just taken a bit of time for him to realize it.”
Jewel huffed beside me. “He’s always been stubborn. He needed a kick in the butt.”
Dane’s face was twisted in anguish, and I thought I’d heard him crying.
“We had a fight,” I said quietly. “He said he wished it was me who had died instead of you, Jewel.”
“Oh I know what the dummy said, and there’s no excuse. He’s wasted so much time hating you because Charlie isn’t alive, and you were the closest thing to the person he blames for what happened to us. I just wish he’d let go of everything keeping him from you.”
“From me?”
“He’s your person,” said Charlie. “Like Jewel is mine. He’s who you’re meant to spend the rest of your life with.”
“But how?” I asked, confused by everything that was happening. It was bizarre, really, and I was struggling to make sense of it.
When I turned my attention away from Charlie, we were back in the emergency room.
“Our time’s almost up,” said Jewel. “They’re about to bring you back.”
“No,” I cried. “You can’t leave me again. Why can’t I stay here with you guys? Please?”
“Because you have to live, Kenny. You’re getting the second chance we never got, and we wanted to make sure you did it right.”
I wrapped my arms around Charlie’s waist, and closed my eyes as I held him close. “But I miss you, Charlie. I don’t think I can do it without you. You’re all I had.”
He chuckled, and returned my embrace. “You’re not alone, and you never have been. I might not be here anymore, but you have people who care about you. Don’t allow you past to dictate your future. And always remember that I love you.”
He was slipping away from me. I could feel it. I wasn’t ready to let him go. I needed him too much.
He dropped his arms and stepped back. When I opened my eyes, we were back on the dock.
Jewel took my hands in hers, and looked at me with watery eyes. “I miss you, Kenny, every day, but I’m always with you, even when it feels like I’m not.”
“It’s not fair.” My voice cracked, and my chest felt heavy. I’d already gone through this once before, why did I have to relive it?
“I know it’s not, but you’ll be fine, I promise. And I need you to deliver a message for me. Tell Dane I’m glad he found his cliché.”
She laughed when my brows furrowed in bewilderment. “He’ll know what it means.”
She dropped my hands, and I knew it was time. Still, I hated it, having to say goodbye, even though I never got to the first time.
“I love you,” I said, looking between the two people I loved the most in this world.
“We love you too,” replied Charlie. He put his arms around Jewel’s shoulders, and she looked up at him with love, and adoration. I decided that was how I’d remember them from now on.
I opened my mouth to speak, but found myself falling backwards into the water. I let out a surprised scream but the water surrounding me muted the sound.
I kept sinking deeper and deeper and deeper until…
The steady beep-beep of a machine pierced the silence. I cracked an eye open, wincing when the harsh florescent lighting made it burn.
My body was heavy, weightless, and I felt incredibly tired. I lifted my hand, and turned my head to the side when I felt something akin to hair brushing my fingertips.
My eyelids lifted slowly, heavily, until I could make out that there was a head resting on a forearm where my hand was.
I was slightly disorientated, but looking around I surmised that I was in a hospital room. The head stirred next to my hand, and twisted until two startling blue eyes were looking back at me.
“You’re awake,” said Dane. His voice was thick with sleep, and I wondered how long he’d been here. I couldn’t remember much, but I could vaguely recall our fight, hitting the water, and some weird dream with Charlie and Jewel.
“How long was I out?” I asked.
“Three days,” he replied.
Three DAYS? It hadn’t felt that long.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he whispered, his eyes bloodshot, and full of remorse.
“You saved my life,” I said, feeling my throat close. There were so many things I wanted to say to him, but couldn’t. I wasn’t sure what I wanted after everything that had happened.
“How do you know?”
I gave him a half smile. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
The Doctor chose that moment to interrupt by walking into my room without preamble. He was a young doctor, blond hair perfectly styled, brown eyes, average height. He looked fresh out of med-school.
“Miss. Monroe. Nice of you to come back to us.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” I replied, smiling when I thought about my brother and Jewel.