Love is Forever

Chapter 1

I woke up in a place I’ve never recognized before. I don’t remember a thing. My mind is a blank canvas. I pick myself up and find my feet. I observe the space around me, it’s definitely bright. It’s almost mesmerizing. Moving my gaze to the ground, or what should be the ground, I see mountains and streams. Further on, I see cities and ant sized people. This is bizarre. Where am I? I begin to panic. My mind races, trying my hardest to remember any little detail that may lead to an explanation, but it’s like my memory was wiped clean. I quickly turned around to explore the place more, but only to collide with a giant man standing in my path. “Who are you?” I asked. “Where am I?” The man didn’t say a word, just snapped his fingers, and then without any warning, I blacked out.

In a matter of seconds, I watched my whole life pass by. Every second of my life up until the moment that I died. “Wait, I died?” I opened my eyes to find that the man was gone. I sifted through the memories I had just saw. I honestly don’t even know what I’m looking for. I shifted my gaze down below and recognize a familiar face. I somehow gravitated myself down to where she stood. I examined the scene. Tears were going down her face as they pronounced me dead at the scene and zipped my body up into a body bag. She dropped to her knees and screamed in grievance. I finally remembered who she was and how this day had gone. Her name is Kylee and she was my girlfriend of 5 years. We were more than just a couple. She was my best friend. Knowing what I know now, I can only imagine the pain she feels.

I followed her as she ran home. Running past her mother and into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. “Honey, what happened?” her mother questioned, feeling concerned. Kylee didn’t have a reply. She scrolled through her phone to find pictures of us together, and the tears flowed even more. Her mom walked in, Kylee started breathing heavy. “It’s okay, sweetie. Breath. What happened? Did you and Lucus break up?” She tried to catch her breath to explain, but the tears wouldn’t stop.

“No, mom. He’s d-d-dead.” she faltered. Her mom wrapped her in a tight hug as Kylee described the scene. As she told her mom the events of the afternoon, I remembered every detail. School had just gotten out, I met her in front of her classroom, like I always did and we walked home together like we did everyday. It was our usual everyday routine. We would always walk to her house after school to hang out, then I’d kiss her goodnight and leave. This time we decided to take a different route. We were crossing the road just as a distracted classmate was passing by, I seen them coming, and quickly pushed Kylee back to the sidewalk, but unfortunately, I didn’t move fast enough to save myself.

Her mom reassured her, that life would go on. And said that I would want her to be happy. She told her that I would be watching over and taking care of her from above. And from that moment, I knew that was exactly what I was going to do. So I declare from now on that will be my purpose. To protect my love. To make sure my best friend lives the best life possible. Until I can finally see her again.

I directed my gaze at her face and made my declaration. “Kylee, I promise to protect you. You may be without me in life, but I will always be here.” She looked up from her phone, almost as if she heard me. She took a deep breath and wiped her tears, looking empty. Sitting there in a deadening state. I decided to leave her to grieve at her own pace.

~

I go back down to earth the next day to check on her. She was up getting ready for school. She moved sluggishly, as if she didn’t even want to go. Skipping breakfast, she walked out the door, and began to walk in the usual direction to my house, but came to a stop as she realized I wouldn’t be there. She stood there for a minute, then changed directions.

She arrived at school earlier without the regular detours. Classmates were approaching her left and right giving her their condolences. Each time, she gave a half smile and continued walking. She arrived to first period, and as expected no one was there yet. She sighed and put her back to the wall, sliding down to the floor. As 8:30 neared, students started arriving. She stayed put at the door until 8:29, and was the last one to walk in the classroom. She sat at her desk resting her head on her hand with a blank stare at the students back in front of her.

She snapped out of her blank stare to see the whole class staring at her and her name being called repeatedly. Mr. Roberts’s substitute was taking roll. “Here. Sorry.”

“Next time, pay attention, please.” Ignoring his command, she zoned back out. The announcements came on and the substitute was trying to keep everyone quiet to listen. Everyone started quieting down when they heard my name.

“We have an unfortunate announcement this morning. We lost one of our beloved students yesterday afternoon. So if we could please ask everyone for a moment of silence to honor Lucus Griffith.”

Everyone who knew of Kylee and I, which was almost everyone, turned their head in her direction. Tears welled up in her eyes. She took a deep breath with her head still down and wiped the single tear that ran down her cheek. She took another deep breath and looked up as everyone stared and then quickly looked away.

The substitute teacher didn’t even acknowledge that a student was in pain from the loss and just continued his job like it was a normal day. Well it was for him, I guess. He didn’t even know who I was.

I could tell Kylee had a hard time paying attention, or even being mentally present. She’s still in shock that I’m not around. She did her school work to the best of her ability. Most of it didn’t even get finished. The teachers that she had that knew me, were a little more understanding than the others. The substitutes were more brutal. And she didn’t feel like she had to explain to them why she was zoning out so much. Not that she really wanted to anyway. It would just make her break into tears.

In 3rd period, she asked the teacher to be excused to the bathroom. I followed behind her and she walked along sluggishly. She got to the nearest girls restroom and closed herself in a stall. I began to hear her sniffling and crying. As she realized no one was coming in any time soon, her cries became hysterical.

I wish she could see me… I wish she could hear me.. I just wish I was there for her. All I could ever want right now is to comfort her and tell her everything will be okay. To hug her and kiss her. And there’s no way that will ever happen again. That’s how we got into this dilemma.

She walked out of the stall and stood in front of of the sink. She wiped her face and sighed as another girl walked into the bathroom. It was Lacey. We didn’t talk to her very often. “I heard what happened to Lucus.” She said as she seen Kylee covering her red face with makeup. “I would say I’m sorry, but it’s kinda hard to be sorry when I know what he did.” Kylee’s face grew with confusion.

“What are you talking about?” She asked, not even sure if she really wanted to know.

“I was sure you would’ve known by now.”

“Know what? Just tell me Lacey!”

“He cheated on you.” Kylee’s heart dropped. As did my mouth. I can’t believe people are saying things like this after I passed.

“That can’t be true. I was with him almost all the time.”

“Yeah, almost.. well I don’t have all the facts, but when you add things together, it makes sense.” She left it at that and walked out of the restroom. Kylee sat in there in disbelief the rest of the period. She left just as soon as 4th period began.