Mariah felt the wind in her hair. The sun was shining brightly,
even though it was the worst day of her life. She stood still, not wanting to
move from her spot. Everyone began to leave around her. People approached her
and hugged her, whispering words of assurance, that everything would be alright.
'Yeah right,' thought Mariah bitterly.
She noticed Brian's parents leaving as well, their tear-stained
faces gave her a wry smiled. Mariah walked over to Brian's mother and hugged
her. They both promised to keep in touch, then she left, leaving Mariah alone.
She sat on the ground on her knees. She thought of their time together.
"Well," she sighed heavily. "I guess you decided to
leave me after all. I thought we were suppose to be together." Her voice
cracked and she felt more tears spring to her face. She surprised even herself
at how much she could cry. She must've cried enough the last couple days for it
to rain a whole year.
"You said you'd never leave me!" she cried. "You
promised! You weren't suppose to leave!" She cried hysterically.
"What am I going to do without you? What am I going to do?" she
whispered.
Mariah continued to cry until she had nothing left in her. She was
completely exhausted. She slowly got up and laid the rose she had in her hand
on his grave.
"I love you Brian." Mariah looked one more time on his
grave, then turned and slowly walked away. As she walked away, she heard
someone calling her.
Mariah stopped in her tracks. "Brian?"
"Mariah!" called the voice softly.
Mariah listened to the voice and tried to follow it, but she
started to struggle. Something was holding her back. She fought back with all
her might.
"Mariah!" called AJ. "Wake up!" He tried to
hold her still and calm her down.
"Brian! Wait!" she cried. "Brian!" Mariah's
eyes flew open.
"Whoa, it's okay, calm down. It's just a dream. It's
okay."
Mariah blinked several times. "AJ, that was so real."
"Yeah," agreed AJ. "No kidding. You must've punched
me at least 5 times. If I have a bruise, you're in trouble!"
Mariah smiled weakly. "I'm sorry, AJ. It's just that, the
dream was so real. I--Brian--he--" she sighed heavily, not knowing how to
explain it.
"It's okay, it was just a dream. Don't worry about it."
AJ smiled at her. "Come on, come get some coffee with me."
Mariah smiled at AJ and nodded her head, grateful to have a
friend. After they had bought coffee they went back to the waiting room to find
the others had come back from the hotel. They had gone back to change, but
Mariah had refused. She wanted to stay there in case there was any change. AJ
offered to stay with her.
Now, the group gathered together, waiting for the results of the
operation. It had been 3 hours since Brian had gone in. Soon, however, Mariah
and everyone else began to get restless. Too much time had gone by and they
began to worry. Mariah paced up and down the hallway. Everytime a doctor walked
in her hopes would come up, but then realizing that wasn't Brian's doctor, she
fell back to worrying.
After a long time of waiting, everyone's hoping began to
deteriorate, but they never said anything to each other. It was unspoken
feeling. When they had almost lost all hope, the doctor walked into the waiting
room.
He looked at the everyone and said, "You better sit
down."