What A Great Way To Start The New Year

“No ok just stop it, both of you. I decide who I love!”

“Then just decide!”

“GUN!”

“SPENCER!”

Ashley shot up in a cold sweat.

“Same damn dream…god…if only it really was a dream.”

She looked around; yep, still the same sterile, bland, sorrowful hospital room she’s been in for however many months it’d been since prom night. Sure she left every now and then to get a change of clothes or some Starbucks, but she always hated herself when she did. She didn’t want to leave her alone by the sheer chance that she might wake up.

She got up from the chair and stretched out her aching limbs.

“I really gotta stop falling asleep in that damn chair. The couch is so much more comfortable.”

She looked over at the blonde beauty that, also for the past several months, still looked so peaceful, so beautiful, and so sweet and innocent. The blonde that had once been full of life, full of energy and bounce but was now dormant; a mere sliver of whom she’d been.

Ashley walked over, chair in hand and set it down next to the bed. She leaned over, gently kissed Spencer’s forehead, and sat down. Taking a lifeless hand into her own, she began speaking. It was a ritual. The same thing every day; always hoping that it would be that day that she came back from wherever she had gone. But nothing ever changed.

“Hey Spence, it’s Ash. Yeah that’s right. I’m still here. You need to wake up babe. I need me some lovin’! Haha, but seriously, you need to wake up Spencer. You’ve been gone for way too long. Your family needs you…I need you. I know you can hear me…I know you’ve heard me for the past few months. I’m not leaving you Spencer. I never was going to. That bastard with the gun…he interrupted the moment I was going to tell you and Aiden that it was no contest. You were the one I loved, you were the one I wanted to be with, and you were the one I was going to be with. That hasn’t changed. You mean too much to me to ever let go. The doctors, your parents…everyone tells me I’m crazy to stay here with you like I have been they all tell me it’s hopeless and that you’re never coming back…but I won’t do it. I won’t give up on you…on us. We were meant to be and you don’t give that up…ever. So please, please Spence…come back to me so we can get what we had back. Please…”