“Please don’t call me that. My ex called me that.”
“Brett, they were killed on impact.”
That was when my world went black. I didn’t do much more but sit there.
Silence.
Words were spoken but I couldn’t hear them.
They held my hands. They tried to console me. I watched them cry, cry for my parents. Cry for me.
But to me there was only silence.
They left. I think, but can’t really remember, after promising to come back.
And then there was only me.
Only me.
What did I have left?
* * *
“Hi, Mr. Taylor?”
“Yes, Brett?”
“Can I talk to Mandy?”
“She’s not here.”
“Sir, this isn’t about… um… us. I just need to talk to her. It’s really important.”
“She’s not here.”
* * *
Ring. Ring. Ring.
“Hey, this is Mandy. Do what ya gotta do, fool!”
Beep.
I tried to talk but only got out a plea. “Please call me. I can’t do this.”
* * *
I stood before the podium. I hadn’t cried much since I first talked to Emily, but I saw her there, in the first row. She stopped by a lot that last week. Sometimes she was in her uniform, often though she was just wearing jeans and a t-shirt.
I didn’t have words. I didn’t know what my head wanted to say, and when I looked out into the audience, I saw so many people– all friends of my parents or my family.
I looked for another blonde out there, hoping, I needed the courage.
But my eyes landed on Emily’s, and she was staring at me, trying to give me all the support she could.
“My dad loved movies from the nineties. They were his favorite, and my mom suffered through them. They always did that for each other. No matter what, they were together through everything. Even this.”
I looked down at my notes and saw the two quotes I wanted to read. Both kind of came from his two favorite movies.