Stuck On You

July passed with fireworks on the beach for the Fourth of July. August came and it was time to celebrate Hayden’s birthday. He liked to rub it in my face that he was a year older than me. We celebrated in private. We stayed in the apartment and I let him do whatever he wanted. He enjoyed that. September brought our one year anniversary. We hadn’t really planned anything in particular but I knew we would probably end up staying in.

“What do you want to do today? It’s your day,” Hayden said. I sighed and smiled.

“I don’t know. I’m perfectly fine staying here,” I said.

“Let’s go for a drive,” he suggested. “We could go to the beach,” he added. I kissed him gently.

“That sounds good,” I finally agreed. We got in our swimsuits and grabbed towels and whatever else we needed. It was tuning out to be a beautiful day for September. It was nice and warm outside with very few clouds. We rolled the windows down in his truck and blasted the music. Problem by Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea was playing. I laughed and threw my head as I yelled the lyrics. Hayden yelled them with me. A horn sounded. I looked over through the driver’s side window just in time to see the headlights from an 18-wheeler. Then everything went black.

body. His head was against the airbag. I looked over his body to check for any injuries. My eyes watered as I saw blood pooling in the seat.

They put him on a gurney and took him away before another paramedic came and tried to tend to me. You know how they say that things move in slow motion after a wreck? They were dead wrong. It seemed like everything around me was spinning at 90

crumbled as the tears streaked down my face. My knees hit the ground but I didn’t care. I was watching as they wheeled Hayden away on the gurney. The doctor who was holding me back was trying to asses my injuries but I couldn’t feel anything but the stabbing ache in my heart as it pounded furiously against my chest. The doctors practically dragged me into a room and strapped me down. I was drugged. I sobbed as

as it all came rushing back to me. The accident. Hayden. My heart started racing. I had to know if he was

Is he okay? Where is he?” I asked through shallow breaths.