Chapter 25

Beauty is everywhere and lies in everything. Just like an extra product for having one costly product. We may have one most valuable thing and find some kind of beauty in it. Or we may have a massive amount of something beautiful and find small, yet available, an important value of that.

Life works in many ways as we all are aware of it. Life can do a lot of wonders, but it can also leave you miserable to the extent you've never been before. Although life isn't all rainbows and unicorns, it beholds some kind of rare beauty within. Some shall dig deep to find that rare beauty, some shall find it on the surface of their hand.

Beauty will be there. It will always reside in something. Whether people or plants. Even in the non-living, it resides. When it's shiny, when it rains, when it's snowing, or it's windy; beauty remains. Not to normal people, but certain observant ones will even find beauty in pain. They find beauty in sadness, anger, guilt, impassiveness, rage, fury, destruction. Even in the destruction of hearts; how human mind races thousands of miles per second, how human expressions change within a few moments, how our instincts kick in quicker than a lightning bolt. It's all works of beauty. It may occur in small quantity but beauty needs no quantity. It brings positivity to the mind and soul. Makes one feel free to look forward to a new day.

For Hazel, her dark days were a pain. It was torturous, slightly overbearing, and nerve-wracking. It was something she never wanted to come back into her life again. She had thrown it out of her mind and soul, would it ever come back, she will lose herself completely. Those were very haunting and nerve-wracking.

Had it not been the two annoyingly attractive boys in Hazel's life, she would've lost herself sooner or later. She is grateful for them. She's thankful to them. They unknowingly brought Hazel out of her 'dark phase'. For that, she'll be forever grateful because this was the turning point of her life.

According to Jayden, Hazel only needed a bit of encouragement from someone who meant so much to her, to hold her hand and bring her out of the dark and push her towards the light.

It's almost ironic that Hazel hated Christian and Jayden initially. Christian was too arrogant and Jayden was too obnoxious. But gradually, they both showed her different meanings in life. She got to learn so much through them. That was written in her life, for Hazel. It's such a beautiful thought that you get what's meant to be yours, and you lose which is not yours.

Just as beauty resides in everything.

She was lost in thoughts of everything and the scenario was quite beautiful too. The trees were draped by white snow, the ground was white except the one-way road she was driving through. There were several cars behind hers, all driving at normal speed because the snow was slippery and it was an order from the policemen standing at every checkpoint.

Where was Hazel driving? To meet Jayden. Why would she drive through woods to meet Jayden when he could be living in the apartment next to hers? Because it's been eleven months and fifteen days since Christmas last year that they both spent together with Elena and his mother.

A week after Christmas last year, Jayden was asked to be present on the first day of his company's new branch opening in Washington. So he left, promising to come back to Connecticut once he's settled. He was promoted to the president of the company. His mother and Elena were happy to hear the good news. But they were deliriously happy to have him come back even for a short period before he's asked back at the company again.

Before Hazel could continue going back to thinking about everything in the last year, she was startled by a loud honk coming from the sideway. At first, she was confused about which way the loud honking sound was coming. Suddenly, a truck appeared on her left and she lost control over her driving skills for a tiny moment. Instinctively, she stopped driving and pulled the hand brake. Her car came to an abrupt halt and the truck ran over the car which was in front of hers. Wide-eyed, she screamed out of shock. The accident made her eyes watery. She was staring and mumbling prayers for the family in the wrecked car. Within a few minutes, police automobiles came up with loud ambulances behind them.

In the midst of cars honking behind her, urging her to move on, she drove away. But not before watching a young gentleman taken out of the wrecked car and put on the stretcher. Everything felt hazy yet in fast motion. She drove away; away from the terrible and heart-wrenching accident with moisture in her eyes while thinking of only one thing; that man could've been her if she was still living like she used to.

Twenty minutes later, she parked at the civilian's parking lot at the Airport. She was excited to see him again. Hazel was excited about Jayden. The thought of him smiling brightly whilst glancing at Hazel made her feel giddy. She was selfishly over the accident which happened twenty minutes ago on the highway. The only thing that seemed to be on her mind was Jayden and his handsome face. She had waited patiently for this moment for eleven months. She had dreamed of them sitting side by side and talking deep about life and his career. She even dreamed of him proposing her for marriage since he had made it clear on the phone calls they've shared in the period of eleven months.

Taking the bouquet of flowers from the back seat of her car, she mumbled, "Finally the day is here, Jayden. It's the day when I'll get to see you after eleven months of desperate waiting."

Just as she locked her car, her ears resonated with the most familiar voice of Jayden.

Jayden knew that she'd be late but it made him want to see his girlfriend more and more. He literally couldn't wait to wrap his arms around Hazel and embrace her in a way to never let go. Those eleven months of him waiting while being on the verge of breaking out and losing his job to go back to his one and only love; Hazel.

He could sense when his soon-to-be-fiancé arrived at the airport. He saw her coming out of the car. He saw her mumbling to herself and smile shyly while taking out the bouquet of flowers. He had seen her every move. He was just waiting for the right time to reveal himself, and when he did, God knew if the time was right or wrong.

Because when he called her name and her ears picked up her boyfriend's voice, she roamed her eyes to be met with Jayden's dark brown ones from across the narrow road for cabs. That was a beautiful sight for both of them. Both of their hearts skipped a beat and their lips curved in a bright smile.

"Oh, how badly I've missed this day. My beautiful soon-to-be-fiancé." Jayden mumbled just in time for Hazel to run across the road towards him.

Hazel wasted no time in running across the road to engulf his boyfriend in a much-needed hug. She had waited so much for this moment; so she wanted no regrets to stay in between.

Little did she know that this could be her last sight? Little did he know that those could be his last words said to her?

They all tell us to be careful in every step of our life. We all have learned that looking both ways before crossing the road is important.

It was a matter of few nano-seconds that Hazel ran across the road to Jayden's arms and a taxi van driver drove at full speed on the narrow road.

There was a loud screeching sound of tires and a much louder booming voice of Jayden shouting his soon-to-be-fiancé's name in astonishment. Although the taxi driver lowered his speed on the impact, the danger had been done. It had been made. She was already on the floor in a growing pool of her own blood.

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