In a small fraction of a second I opened my eyes. My eyes felt heavy,  like sand bags were holding them down. I could feel a hand enclosed around mine, holding it tightly. Before I even saw, I knew it was my mothers hand. Then I realized where I was, I had to be in hospital.

I forced my eyes apart, frantically searching side to side for Ben, but he was no where to be seen. My mother say up straight, crying tears of joy that I woke up or something like that.

     "Sweetie... I thought you weren't going to wake up-" she croaked, tears were still streaming down her face.

   "Where's Ben?" I said, still searching through the hospital room. My brother was asleep in the corner, along with my Dad.

     "You're safe, that's all that matters" My mom said, squeezing my hand roughly. I struggled to sit up, but I didn't get very far before my mom held me put. "Sweetie, you have 5 broken ribs and bruises everywhere, you're in no fit state to do anything" She said, keeping me in bed.

    "Mom I have to see Ben.. where is he?!"  I yelled. Her face grew soft, an apologetic look etched in her eyes and mouth.

    "Sweetie.." She trailed off, bowing her head looking at the ground.

   "Where is he?!" I yelled again, my worry was increasing heavily, as was my heart beats because the machine was going crazy.

   "He's very badly hurt honey, worse off than-"

But I didn't let her finish, I ignored all the pain that coursed through my body when I stood up, yanking the cord from the machine as I ran from my hospital room. The nurses looked at me before rushing after me, trying to stop me as I ran through the hallways, looking in rooms like mine.

In the reflection of the window I didn't even recognize who I saw, my face was bruised so bad I might as well have been blue and purple, and my eyes were swelled so puffy I looked like I got punched. My legs were just as bad when I looked at them underneath my dressing gown.  I didn't stop even when I heard my mom and nurses yelling, I just kept running.

A familiar face crowded my vision, but it wasn't the face I wanted to see.

Colton?

What was he doing here?

"Elizabeth! I'm so sorry, I was drunk, I didn't know what I was doing, I-" but I stood there, completely frozen as he lost the right words to say. A bandage was wrapped clear around his head, but other than that he looked fine. He looked fine. I would've said more, I would've yelled at him and punched him if I weren't so stunned and aching. I kept on running,

Pushing through the pain until I saw him.

His mom was hunched over his bed, crying. His sister was crying too, and his dad was sitting there looking dazed.

I stopped moving, looking at the blue wallpaper and the tissues that lay on the floor at her feet. Ben had a cast on his leg, and one on his right arm. A neck brace was placed around his neck, and he just lay there. Un moving, motionless. With every step I took my heart raced, I keep wondering if this was how it was going to end. If this was the plan God had for us, but surely we would make it though. Ben had survived, I survived. We still had a chance in this world, we could do this together. 

Ben's mom looked up at me, tears streaming down her face. She ran over to me and hugged me tightly, and I was too heartbroken to not hug her back.

    "Ben" I croaked, grabbing his hand gently in mine. I sat down next to his bed, looking at him. By now, the nurses and doctors had gathered at the door, watching me. But I didn't care, only one thing mattered to me right now.

     "Lib" I heard his voice speak softly, his voice was barely audible. He opened his eyelids slightly, looking at me. He gave my hand a tiny squeeze.

    "It's going to be okay, we made it. We're both alive." I said, holding on to any hope I could find. A weak smile spread across his face as he looked at me, tired. "We're going to grow old together, just like we planned remember?" I said. I started thinking of God, and how he gave me a miracle that my love was still alive. I would be lost without him in my life, This was a blessing from heaven.

    "I remember" he said in a soft whisper. I smiled, he was talking. This was all going to be okay.

        "You know once you get home we can have macaroni and cheese again, I can make it for you and everything, like we always do" I said, remembering all the good times we had. Right now, I just wanted to cling to the past, I was unsure if any of this would happen again. He seemed like he would recover fine, we would be back to how it always was.

We would graduate and grow old together.

He smiled

  "I love you, you know that?" He said softly. I nodded as a silent tear rolled down my cheek. I don't know why I was crying, everything was fine.

He closed his eyes, his fingers still rubbing the back of my hand calmly.

But then they stopped

And the only sound that filled my ears was the monitor flat lining.