The Miracle of a Teenage Romance

Chapter 15

It's storming. Lilly and Caden can barely see the road in front of them. The light turns green and just as they pull forward, they're blinded by bright yellow lights. The last thing they hear before crashing is a deafening screech along with a car horn.

Lilly wakes up to the sound of sirens in the distance. She feels a warm sensation dripping from her forehead. She rubs it with her hand and looks at it. It's blood. She panics and immediately turns to check on Caden, who's unconscious with blood streaming down his face. "Caden. Caden. Please wake up, Caden. I can't lose you. Please. Caden."

Caden slowly opens his eyes and looks at Lilly. He grabs her hand. "I-I'm here, Lil. I'm f-fine. You won't l-lose me."

Lilly sobs. "You don't sound fine, Caden. You sound like you can barely breathe."

He takes in a shaky breath. "I-I'm fine, Lilly. I promise. Ar-are you ok?"

Lilly nods. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just have a really bad headache and my leg hurts." Lilly's leg is pinned under the dashboard and she can't move it.

Caden mutters, "I-I'm s-sorry, Lilly. I didn't s-see them."

"It's ok, Caden. It was raining way too hard. I couldn't see them either. But I'm not worried about that now. I'm worried about you. Be honest with me, Caden. Is it hard for you to breathe?"

Caden nods. "Y-yeah. E-e-very br-breath hurts."

Lilly sobs more. "Oh no, Caden. Please stay with me. Don't die. I need you. I can't live without you."

Caden squeezes her hand and gives her a look that says, 'Goodbye.'

Lilly squeezes his hand, leans down, and softly kisses it as tears stream down her face. She sobs, "No, Caden. You can't go."

He turns her chin up to look at him. "Y-you are so beautiful. You're an amazing person. I-I'm s-so glad I got to know you and fall in l-love with y-you. Y-you're r-really going to ma-ke s-so-some lucky guy really h-happy s-some-d-ay."

Lilly sobs, "Caden,...please don't do this. Don't say goodbye. We've got a life to live together. Remember. We're supposed to get married and have kids and grow old together."

He wipes her tears away as more fall down both of their faces. "I-I-I'm sorry, Lilly." He leans towards her and kisses her one last time, both of their lips trembling. He pulls away, smiles, and utters his final words, which are miraculously unbroken. "I love you, Princess."

Lilly sobs, "I love you, Prince Charming."

His smile then fades and his hand falls from her face. Sadly, he is gone.

"Caden? Caden? No. No." Lilly breaks down crying. She continues to call on him, never letting go of his hand. "Caden! Caden!" she screams through her tears. "No. He can't be gone. We were supposed to be together forever. Caden," she sobs, her heart now completely shattered.

"Caden!" Lilly wakes up crying.

Her mom comes running in the living room and over to Lilly. Lilly throws her arms around her mom and bawls her eyes out. Her mom wraps her arms around her in a comforting embrace. "Sweetie, what's wrong? Are you ok?"

In between sobs, Lilly mumbles, "It was terrible, Mom. It was just terrible. Caden and I were driving home and there was this storm and we could hardly see the road and we ended up in a car accident. And Caden he...he...he died." Lilly bursts into more tears.

"Oh, sweetie, that's terrible."

"Y-yeah. Thank goodness it was just a dream. Right, Mom?" Her mom doesn't say anything. Lilly pulls away and looks at her mom. "Mom?" A scary thought appears in Lilly's mind and she asks, "It was just a dream, wasn't it?"