“. . .I would die for you.”
        The words echoed through my head, invading my thoughts, haunting me. I closed my eyes as if to escape the voice, the words, but most of all her. I could never escape them, never even if I tried. I leaned my head up against the cold white wall wishing that I was back at home in bed like I was an hour ago. An hour ago... that seemed like forever ago. An hour ago I was asleep. An hour ago I was a normal sixteen year old boy with a normal sixteen year old girlfriend. Now... now I didn’t even know what I was.
        “Here’s your coffee, Taylor,” my older brother said handing me the cup. He sat down next to me and we drank in silence. No one wanted to say anything. I knew he yearned to say something, anything at all, but he couldn’t find the right words. I understood. Mostly because I didn’t know what to say to him either. It was a relief for both of us when he volunteered to get us coffee.
        “Everything is going to be all right,” Isaac said finally. I looked up at him and just starred him in the eyes. I didn’t speak. All right? How could everything be all right? I still didn’t answer. I just shook my head. Nothing was going to be all right.

        I had been the one who answered the phone, it had to have been me. Me with the worst timing in the world. Maybe it was a good thing that I answered the phone, instead of my parents having to tell me about the accident, the nurse did. My first reaction was denial. How could Elizabeth get into an accident? She was a great driver. She earned her license before I did, mostly because I was out of state on my birthday. She took advantage of that and got it before I came back from New York to surprise me and make me jealous. Her boyfriend didn’t have a license but she did. She has a great sense of humor.
        When I hung up the phone my only thoughts were that I didn’t even get to see her the day before the accident. That was self-fish of me, thinking of myself like that. That was when I started crying, those words had finally hit me: Elizabeth was in critical condition. My mother came in to see who was on the phone and saw me with my head on the table sobbing. She asked what was wrong and I tried to tell her but the only word that escaped my lips was “Elizabeth.” I tried to tell my mom about the accident but all I said was “Elizabeth. Elizabeth. Elizabeth.”
        Mom thought Elizabeth and I had broken up.

        “Taylor?” A nurse came up to me. I stood and my brother did the same. “Dr. Johnson wanted me to give you an update on your girlfriend’s condition. He apologizes for not being able to make it himself, he is in the trauma room working on Elizabeth and her family. Will you please sit down?”
        I sat, so did Isaac. The nurse pulled over a chair and sat across from us. “Elizabeth was driving the car with her father in the front seat, brother and mother in the back. Her mother is upstairs in the ICU. Her father died on impact. The brother is being worked on in the operating room. Elizabeth herself is in critical condition and is being stabilized in the trauma room. I will be back to update you when anything changes. Until then, honey, are you going to be all right?”
        I nodded. “I will be fine.”

        I already knew about Mr. Quaker’s death. They had told me over the phone. They also told me that Elizabeth was driving. The accident wasn’t her fault, she was hit on the side of the car and the other car drove her off the road and into a tree. I could picture the scene vividly even though I was not there. I knew her so well I could picture it.
        Elizabeth and I had been going out since we were fourteen and we were friends before than. Everyone knew we were perfect for each other, they also knew that someday we would have a large family together. We were together all the time even when we were little children. It was fate that we would eventually end up together. I loved her with all my heart and she loved me. It was a perfect relationship. We admitted to ourselves that we would take a bullet for the other. One time she told me that she would die for me. I didn’t think I would have responded like I did had anyone else had told me that. We declared ourselves Romeo and Juliet, willing to live together in death if we couldn’t in life. That was how much we were in love.

        I glanced over at my brother. He was tired, I knew he was. The phone call had awoke all of us at ten in the morning on a day where us kids usually slept till noon. He had offered to drive me to the hospital because I was in no condition to drive myself. My parents and the rest of my family were coming as soon as the other children woke. My younger brother wanted to come with Ike and I but my parents needed him at home to help the other kids. My parents were in shock as well. They were friends with the Quaker family since Mom was pregnant with Isaac nineteen years ago. They used to live down the block from us, then they moved to a few blocks over.
        Isaac and I sat in the cold chairs of the waiting room for another hour before a doctor entered the room. This was Dr. Johnson. I had met him when I first got to the hospital when we arrived almost forever ago.
        I stood up again and so did Isaac. I could read the outcome of the accident in the doctor’s face. I looked over at Isaac and shook my head. I didn’t utter a word, I couldn’t. Words would just not form. “I’m sorry,” the doctor said. My bottom lip trembled. “We did all that we could.” Isaac hugged me tightly. I didn’t respond.
        “I want to see her,” I said finally.
        Dr. Johnson lead my brother and I into the trauma room. My girlfriend was lying on the table, not breathing. Not moving. Dead.
        “. . .You are my Romeo.”
        “No,” I said aloud. I shook my head unbelieving. I walked over closer and took her hand. It wasn’t cold or anything. Blood had just been running through it moments before.
        “. . .I am your Juliet.”
        “God, no.” I sobbed. I kissed her hand hoping that this would be a fairy tale, one kiss from the prince and the beautiful princess would awaken from a deep sleep where it only appeared as if she were dead.
        “. . . We will always be together.” Her sweet voice haunted me. The kiss did not work, she was still lying there, dead. She was not hugging me and kissing me back like I thought she would, like she should have been doing. “. . .We will always be together. I would die for you. I love you. You are my life. . .”
        “NO!” I dropped her hand and backed away from Elizabeth’s body.
        “. . .Taylor. I love you.”
        “NOOOOOOOOO!”

        I awoke from the dream in a cold sweat. I sat up and screamed once again. I flopped my head back down on the pillow and took a deep breath. “A dr-dream,” I stuttered. “It was all a dream.” I glanced over at my clock, it was nine in the morning. I picked up the phone on my bed and dialed furiously. The voice that picked up was a familiar one, a beautiful one to my ears.
        “Lizzy!” I said. “I just woke up from the worst dream I have ever had.”
        “Even worse than the one where your younger brother Zac and my brother ran away together and got married in Vegas?”
        I smiled. “Way worse.”
        “Taylor, you sound really shaken up.”
        “You have no idea,” I sighed. “You really have no idea.”
        “Tell you what, I’ll come to your house right now and I’ll help you calm down.”
        “I love you, Elizabeth.”
        “I love you too Jordan Taylor. I will be over in about five minutes OK?”
        “I’ll be waiting.” I was greeted by the dial tone. I hung the phone up and got out of bed. I threw on clothes from my closet and ran down my stairs to see who else was awake. I entered the warm kitchen, it smelled of bacon and coffee. My mother offered me a cup. I turned my nose up in disgust. “I hate that stuff.” I trembled at the remembrance of my dream. I had been drinking coffee in my dream. I was still shaking from the memory as I sat down at the table with my father and mother.
        “How did you sleep last night?” Mom asked.
        “All right,” I told her. “Except this morning I had the worst dream ever.”
        “What about?” Dad questioned.
        I shook my head. “I’d really rather not talk about it.”
        “He and Elizabeth probably broke up in it.” Mom smiled.
        I shook my head, “nah. Speaking of my girlfriend, she’s coming over soon. I called her and she said I sounded really shaken up so she’s on her way over.”
        “That’s nice, Taylor,” Mom replied. “I’m making pancakes today and she’s always welcome to eat with us, you know that.”
        I nodded in acknowledgment and picked up the Lifestyles section of the newspaper to pass the time. When I looked back up at the clock ten minutes had passed. She was probably getting dressed still. I laughed at the thought of her getting ready in five minutes like she had promised. I knew she was going to be late when she told me “five minutes.” With Lizzy you never knew if she’d be late or not sometimes. I went back to the article I was reading.
        Before I knew it I had read the whole section. I folded the paper and placed it back in the pile. Thirty minutes had passed since I called her. I started to get worried. A pit formed in my stomach and I told myself that she was just running late. I shook my head. That dream had really thrown my thoughts off track. Nothing is wrong, I thought, Taylor stop thinking. You are an idiot.
        But I just couldn’t shake the feeling.
        The phone rang next to my head.
        I reached over and picked it up off the hook.
        I expected to hear Elizabeth’s voice telling me that her brother Jason was in the bathroom, just to make her mad and she’d be here in a few minutes.
        “Hello?” I asked on my end of the line.
        “Is this the Hanson residence?” The voice on the opposite end inquired. It was professional and unfamiliar. It was for my father, probably, a business call, maybe. We usually got these and then dad would have to go to work for a few hours and he’d come back by the afternoon. No big deal.
        “Yes, hold on a minute.” I handed the phone off to my father. I sighed in relief as he started talking to the person on the other end. “Taylor you are too paranoid,” I told myself in my head. “It was just a dream for the love of Pete! Just a dream.”
        “I see,” my father was saying. There would be long pauses in-between, then he’d say another short phrase, “when?”
        Yup, he had to go to work. He did not look happy. He never did when he was called in on business, especially on a Saturday, his day off.
        He handed the phone back to me. I hung it up. “You have to go into the office, huh?” I asked.
        Dad look at me in the eyes. “Taylor... son, there’s been an accident. Elizabeth was pushed off the side of the road. She is in critical condition at Tulsa County General.” I didn’t say anything. I didn’t think anything. I was dreaming. I had to be dreaming. “Taylor, I’m so sorry!”
        My mother grabbed my head and hugged me tightly.
        It had to be a dream.
        “Elizabeth,” I said. “No...”
        Mom hugged me tighter.
        No. Not a dream. I wasn’t asleep.
        “. . .I would die for you.”

This was handed in on December 7, 1999 in English class. I got a 95 because of some grammar and stuff. This one made people cry (my dad brought it to work). My newest "masterpiece" =)