Don't take anything for granted. You never know when your last goodbye comes |
“Hello,” said Daniel with a sense of calmness in his voice. No response. “Excuse me, I need you to try to talk so we can assess the situation,” he calmly spoke “Daniel.” Daniel’s heat stopped. He could feel his stomach in his chest. All of a sudden he had no pain in his back from the chair, his thoughts of hating his job instantly escaped his mind, and he did the only thing he could think of doing. “Honey,” he replied quickly “What happened! Are you alright?” “No,” Jennifer said barely being able to think with her mind racing “This isn’t good Danny, I’m not sure we will be having a Christmas.” “Don’t say that, tell me what’s happened,” He replied attempting to maintain his composure “I almost hit a truck, I-I-I swerved out of the way as fast as I could, and everything else was too fast to remember. There is a pole lodged in under my chest. I can’t feel it but I may be bleeding out.” “WHAT,” he exclaimed in disbelief “how could this happen, I don’t understand why….” “Daniel! Please, I’m the one in the accident, calm yourself. I love you, baby. I forgot to tell you when I left the house. I’m sorry.” “I love you too, don’t apologize. You never have to apologize to me.” “Danny,” She managed to say, though she felt her breathing slowing, “Tell me how we met again, take me back, I want to feel how it felt again.” Jennifer was a complete realist, but could not do anything but day dream when Daniel spoke. He had a sense of creatively depicting things so that even sure could almost believe she was there. He had always been able to get out of trouble by making up stories so believable with the most confidence in his voice so that everyone could imagine themselves in that situation. As he began to speak, she closed her eyes, and before she knew it she was there. She had been completely enveloped in the moment that every action her and Daniel went through almost seemed as if it were happening again. “Do you remember the party, Jenny,” he began “Where I begged you to dance, but you said you wouldn’t” “Yes I can see the house now.” “I’ll take it from here, baby.” Daniel was an eighteen year old high school athlete. He belong to the close knit group of friends that seem to run the city, but even more, ran the state when it came to football. He belonged to the elite class that brought their city together in almost all aspects of life. After a big win against their cross town rivals, Daniel and his friends decided to throw a party in celebration. “It’s going to be lose,” exclaimed one of the players “As long as it isn’t too lose,” Daniel reminded them “We got states coming up, and anything that could threaten that is a distraction.” “True,” the player replied “But besides the fact, there should be some girls from Edgewater high there. We got to at least make it look good for them.” Daniel nodded and continued on his way to his car. As he was driving home he was trying to figure out what to wear for this party. He was pretty close with a few girls from the school so he wasn’t too stressed out about making any type of impression. He still wanted to look good though. After a quick shower and food he picked up a simple polo with cargo shorts. It seemed to be the default outfit at the time. It looked nice but still wasn’t anything special. As he rode up he saw a few girls he knew from Edgewater. A group he liked to call “Jennifer and company”. They were known as the good looking, rich girls, who like to make appearances places just to boost their popularity. But no one complained because they didn’t act like snobs. As he jogged up to them he said “Girls, hope we have a good night tonight. But don’t expect too much out of this party, we are trying to be low key. It’s still football season.” “As long as there is alcohol, we will be fine.” Jennifer said with a small trace of a smile on her face. “Typical,” Daniel laughed to himself as he walked away. “Why would anyone want to go to a party just to see friends?” But he couldn’t help but do a quick turnaround to check out Jennifer. He had gone way back with her. They met in middle school where they always had a small puppy love but nothing ever too big because she was taken. As Daniel opened the door, he was overwhelmed with the amount of people at the party. As he walked in there was three gallons of what he believed to be hunch punch on the kitchen table. He walked to the left into the living room to find a his whole gang nose deep into the T.V. to try to see the highlights of all the high school football games around the city for the night. “Everybody shut up,” One of the players yelled as their highlights had just come up on the screen. The highlights still excited the players even though they were there when it happened. Perhaps it was because this was the closest the players have been to their dream of being on the big screen in the pros. Daniel quickly made his way through the room to the big open room in the back. The set up was the regular scene with speakers set up to the loudest volume they could go, and one of the students from the school DJ-ing the party. There was a big group of hot sweaty teenagers in the middle dancing and drinking the night away. As Daniel proceeded to walk back out to the kitchen he notices that Jennifer had finally made her way inside. He walked up to her and attempting to make conversation. “How do you like it so far, I hope its good enough for your standards,” he laughed. “What do you take me for,” she said with a sense of sarcasm “and you look very nice tonight, by the way.” “As do you, love,” he replied “you up for a little dancing.” “No thanks, I have to leave soon anyways. My mom stays up for me till I get home and I don’t want to worry her too much.” “Seems like an excuse to me,” He replied “Either way it’s an answer,” She said with a cocky tone in her voice “Nice seeing you tonight, Daniel, you should try to come to my side of town a little more often I miss the old days. We should catch up.” “I’ll hold you to that,” He said as he proceeded to give her a hug and be on his way. As the night went on he started to get more tired and decided to call it a night. As he was about to leave, one of his friends came up to him with a sense of excitement in his voice. “Yea, so, Jennifer,” he said. “What about her,” Daniel said with a tone of curiosity. “I was trying to hit on her but she kept saying you were cute. So I gave up and told her I would let you know,” his friend said with a chuckle. “Good looking out,” Daniel laughed and continued out the door. He searched in his phone hoping that her number would still be there, and to his surprise it was. He figured he would text her in the morning so he doesn’t seem like he is drunk texted her. As he got home, he showered and relaxed in bed with thoughts of what he was going to say to her tomorrow running through his head. |