Goodbyes; New Beginnings

"Goodbye, beautiful," he whispered gently, his hand resting lightly on my face as I stared into his mesmerizing electric blue eyes. His smile was as soft as his touch.

 "Don't leave," I found myself whispering back. "Who are you?"

 "Shh, don't say anything," he told me, my body relaxing and filing with a warmth that made me feel calm. "I'll see you again. But not now. Not yet."

 "Goodbye..." I trailed off as he vanished into thin air. I couldn't say anything else. My entire body relaxed and my eyes closed softly. 

 When I opened them, I was back in my college dorm, laying on my bed. I got up carefully, looking around. My head was dizzy and I couldn't get my eyes to focus. "Lex? Lexi, where are you?"

 My best friend poked her head through the kitchen door. "Hey, Nat, you're awake! Do you want breakfast?"

 I groaned, getting up. "What time is it?"

 "Thirty minutes before class," Lexi said, placing a plate of French toast on the table for me. "Are you okay?"

 "Yeah," I muttered, sitting down. Something felt weird. I don't know what it was, but something was very off. 

 "Wait a minute, did you have one of those dreams again?"

 Then it clicked. "Oh my god, yeah. I remember now..."

 "Was it the same hot guy that always shows up?" She teased. "Dark brown hair, hot blue eyes, tall, built— he's totally my type."

 "I keep seeing him, I don't know why," I said, trying to remember everything I saw. "He told me he'll see me again."

 "You're lucky, I wish I could have a hot guy sweep me off my feet every night."

 "Lex, it's not funny," I complained, taking a bite of the food. "I feel like I'm going insane. I'm scared."

 Lexi shook her head. "You get the same dream of an attractive guy that talks to you. What's there to be scared about?"

 "I hope you mentioned the part where I've been getting the same dream for a week. He's always saying he's going to see me again. Isn't that creepy?"

 She playfully rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, Nat. Now hurry up and eat, before we go to class I have to stop at the library. Class was moved to 8:20."

 I lightly threw the plastic cup at her. "Go by yourself."

 "You are such an amazing best friend," she said sarcastically, flipping me off as she grabbed her bag and walked out, laughing. 

 I finished up eating and got ready to go to class. I brushed my teeth, washed my face, changed, fixed my hair and grabbed my backpack. I locked the door as I walked out and headed to my first period. 

 "Natalie."

 I froze, looking around to see who called my name. The class was silent and the only person speaking was my teacher, Mr. Phalls. Confusion stirred in my head as I quickly scanned the surroundings. 

 This wasn't where I was supposed to be.

 I was in Molecular Biology, my 3rd period class. 

 How did I get here? 

 I could've sworn I was heading to my government class just five minutes ago. I checked the time on my watch. 10:14.

 I shut my eyes tightly, praying this was a dream. When I reopened them, my chest tightened as I came to the realization that this was real. I started freaking out. My heart started racing faster and faster and I could feel the pounding in my head. Mr. Phalls' voice rang in my ear as it got louder and became nearly unbearable.

 "Natalie," Lexi snapped, shaking my arm.

 I gasped, snapping back into reality. I was sitting on the grass outside in the school's courtyard. "L-Lexi?"

 She sighed and grumbled in annoyance. "You dropped your sandwich! Natalie, if you're going to zone out can you at least make sure no food goes to waste?"

 "Lexi, what just happened?" I asked, trying to slow my breaths. "Where am I? I swear I was just in class a second ago—"

 "What are you talking about?" 

 "I was just sitting in class... how did I get here?"

 Lexi stared at me. "Are you joking with me? Nat, you walked here with me. We were talking about my boyfriend. Remember?"

 "O-oh, yeah," I lied. "Sorry, my mind blanked for a minute."

 She picked up the sandwich. "What a waste of money."

 I took out my phone and checked my watch. It was 12:46. 

 What is going on?

 There was no way this was real. How did I black out for hours? 

 "Natalie, are you going home for spring break?" Lexi asked, taking a sip of her Sprite. "They want us to clear out by tomorrow at 12. Are you just going to stay home?"

 "Y-yeah," I muttered, completely unaware of what day it was. "Wait, it's spring break already?"

 "Jesus christ," Lexi said. "You're actually going to make me think you're going crazy. Do you want to drive tomorrow, or should I?"

 I smirked. "You know I'm a better driver."

 "You wish," She replied, swinging the keys. "I call first drive."

 "If you were going to take it, why'd you even ask?" I laughed. "Forget it, as long as we don't die on our way."

 "Come on, we got class in an hour. Let's go pack some of our stuff."

 "Stay."

 The same voice from before rang in my head. I looked around to see who said it but there wasn't anyone around me. "Lexi, did you hear that?"

 "Hear what?" She asked, coming up to me. "Natalie, are you okay?"

 "With."

 "I'm not going to play these games anymore," she chuckled nervously. "Let's go."

 "Me."

 "Ms. Brookes, you have to hand in your test," My Software Engineering teacher said. 

 I blinked and all of a sudden I was in class, staring at the test that was filled out. This was seriously scaring me but everybody seemed normal. "Oh, sorry..."

 I got up and placed the test on his desk as I took in my surroundings. I didn't know how I got here... I must've blacked out again.

 As I was heading back, I met eye contact with Cole Davis. He stared intently as he gripped his pencil tightly. 

 Cole was my ex-boyfriend. I broke up with him after he cheated on me with two girls. He started becoming weirder after we broke up and started stalking me and kept trying to talk to me. I tried keeping him away but he wouldn't leave me alone.

 As I went back to my seat my head started pounding again. Every sound became muffled like my head was shoved underwater. Everything became blurry and I felt like I blacked out.

 "Please."

 I opened my eyes and I felt my heart stop for a second when I saw that Cole had cornered me in an empty room, grabbing my arm tightly. His green eyes were cold and full of pure jealousy as he tightened his iron grip on me.

 "What did I ever do to you?" He growled, pinning me against the wall. "I love you, why can't you see that?"

 I flinched as he raised his voice. "Leave me alone, Cole. Let me go!"

 "Not until you love me again," he whispered coldly into my ears, sending shivers down my spine. "Come on, Nat, did you forget? How much you used to love me? How much you loved it when I kissed you like this?"

 My eyes widened as he leaned in to kiss me. I started panicking and screaming, kicking him as hard as I could.

 "What the fuck is wrong with you?" He shouted, punching the wall right next to me, creating a massive hole in the wall. 

 Fear filled every inch of my body. 

 "You're going to listen to me," he said, gently putting his hand on my shoulder. "I'm not going to hurt you. Calm down."

 "Wake."

 "Oh my god," Lexi said, shaking me harshly. "I told you if you fell asleep again I was going to pour water on you!"

 I opened my eyes tiredly and realized I was in a car. I was in Lexi's car. We were driving home. 

 How did I get here? What is going on? 

 Memories of where I was last flooded into my head. "Lexi, what happened to Cole?"

 "Don't you remember? A guy found you after he heard you screaming. I can't believe that prick. You were too good for him anyway."

 "Which guy?" I asked, confused. My mind was foggy and I was still dazed from everything, like I haven't slept in days. 

 "I don't know his name but people say they couldn't find who saved you. But you're lucky he did. I swear, I would murder Cole if I could."

 "Lexi... what's going on?" I asked. 

 "What do you mean? This day's been normal," Lexi grumbled. "Unless you're talking about that creepy old guy from Starbucks. He grossed me out."

 The car slowly stopped at the red light. Lexi sighed and leaned back in her seat. "Next stop, you're driving. I'm exhausted."

 "Yeah... okay," I told her. "When's the next stop?"

 "It's not that far from here. 5 minutes away? It's passed the 4-way intersection though. If there's a lot of traffic, it's going to take forever to get past."

 "I bet there's going to be absolutely no traffic," I said with all of the confidence in the world.

 Lexi looked at me like I had lost it and laughed. "Yeah right. There's going to be an insane amount of traffic."

 I shrugged and smiled. "We'll see."

 Lexi pressed on the gas as she started driving to the next stop. We were a few minutes in when we could see the intersection.

 "Ha! I told you!" I exclaimed excitedly. "No traffic."

 Lexi rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine. You win!"

 My eyes widened as I saw a car speeding towards us as we were trying to cross. Fear paralyzed my body as I screamed, "Lexi!"

 "Up."

 The oncoming car rammed into us full-speed on Lexi's side, the force tipping us over as we rolled over hard several times. 

 Everything seemed to go in slow motion as I heard Lexi scream, the tires explode, and the windows shatter. A pole fell over and crashed into our car.

 I immediately blacked out but it wasn't long before I shot up, gasping for air weakly. Everybody was screaming and police sirens could be heard in the distance. 

 I could barely keep my eyes open as pain erupted in my body. Every square inch of my body felt like it was on fire, burning and screaming in agony.

 "Hey," a voice gently said. "I'm right here."

 I weakly opened my eyes and saw the same guy I've been seeing in my dreams. As he placed his cold hands on my shoulder, warmth filled me and the pain slowly started to subside. 

 His smile gave me a sense of overwhelming peace and reminded me of every happy moment I've ever had in my life. "I got you, you'll be okay."

 Then he snapped his fingers and everything around us froze. All of the people stopped moving. The smoke from the car froze. Even the sounds had completely stopped and everything went silent.

 The guy stood up and reached his hand out to me. I took it and he helped me get up. I winced, expecting there to be pain, but I couldn't feel any. When I looked back at where I was laying, I saw my own body, bloody with cuts and pieces of glass in my skin.

 Dread filled me. "Oh my god, am I..."

 "Dead?" The guy said, chuckling softly. "No. Don't worry. But... your friend on the other hand..."

 When I looked over to Lexi's body, my jaw dropped and my eyes widened. "No, no, no, no... Lexi, oh my god."

 Her body was twice as bad as mine. I couldn't even make out her face because it was caked in blood. She was laying on the road with broken bones protruding from where they should not be.

 I couldn't swallow the lump that was forming in my throat. "W-what happened?"

 "You're ex-boyfriend Cole couldn't handle the fact that you didn't love him anymore," the guy answered sadly. "So he took his anger out by... trying to take you out. He tried to kill you."

 Pure sorrow overwhelmed me and I felt hot tears stinging my eyes. It was getting harder to breathe as my heart began to race. I wrapped my arms around myself to try and stop myself from shaking. 

 "No... no, no, no, this can't be happening," I mumbled. "No, this isn't real. This isn't real."

 "Hey, listen to my voice," the guy said, putting his hand on my arm. When he did, my sadness disappeared and so did my pain. "Listen to me. Focus on my voice."

 I looked at him, every inch of my suffering going away like it was never there. His dark brown hair turned lighter in the sun, his eyes looked brighter too. His skin was pale and he was tall. 

 "Wait..." I said. "What are you? Who are you?"

 He smiled. "I know you're probably overwhelmed. But I'm here to save you, okay? Trust me."

 He put his hand out. "Take my hand. I'll get you home safely."

 "Home?" I asked. "Will I be able to go home?"

 He nodded. "I'll take you home."

 I reached out and took his hand and I felt myself drifting into the air. My eyelids felt heavy and they closed. After a few seconds I woke up again, gasping for air. 

 I was laying on the ground but the guy had my head in his laps. Everything went back to normal. People were frantically screaming, sirens got louder and louder, and the smoke filled the air. 

 "Goodbye, beautiful," he whispered gently, his hand resting lightly on my face as I stared into his mesmerizing electric blue eyes. His smile was as soft as his touch.

 "Don't leave," I found myself whispering back. "Who are you?"

 "Shh, don't say anything," he told me, my body relaxing and filing with a warmth that made me feel calm. "This is it. You're going home."

 "Home..." I muttered to myself, thinking of my parents standing at the door, waiting for me as I ran up to them and gave them a big hug. I would go into my room I haven't been in for months. I would go say hi to my younger brother and sister. I would be home.

 "Goodbye," my voice trailed off and I felt my eyes close again.

 "She's awake! Pulse is normal. She's okay, doctor."

 "Hey, Natalie," the doctor said. "Are you feeling okay?"

 "What... what happened?" I groaned, attempting to sit up.

 The doctor lightly tapped my shoulder. "Lay down, you're too weak to be moving."

 "Oh my god," My mother said, rushing to me. "Thank goodness you're okay."

 My dad came up to me too. "Sweetie, we've been so worried about you. After the car accident we thought we wouldn't be able to see you again."

 "You were pronounced dead for about two minutes," The doctor said. "But then you made it back except you went into a coma." 

 "How long was I out?" I asked, my memories foggy.

 "For a day," he replied. "Do you remember anything?"

 "No... all I remember was getting in the car on spring break with Lexi..."

 "Oh, sweetie," My mom said, her voice laced with sadness. "Lexi couldn't make it. She died from the impact of the car..."

 "She's d-dead?" I stammered, as I broke down into tears. "N-no—"

 "I'm so sorry," she said, hugging me. "It'll be alright, baby. I'm sorry..."

 ———————

 "No, mom, I'll be okay," I said, laughing into the phone. "Yes, I'm okay, mom."

 "Is your leg okay?" She asked, concerned.

 "Yes, mom, Nora says she's going to help," I told her. "I'll get used to walking in a cast. Don't worry!"

 "And Lexi?"

 I smiled. "I'm okay. She would want me to live on with my college life having fun. Of course, I miss her, but I'll be okay!"

 "That's good time hear," she said. "I miss you, so does your dad."

 "Aw, I miss you guys too!" I exclaimed. "Now I have to go and wait for Nora. I'll call you later!"

 We exchanged goodbyes and hung up. I looked around at the beautiful campus I haven't seen in weeks due to the accident. 

 I genuinely didn't remember what I saw when I was out the day of the accident, but whatever it was, I remember it being the most peaceful experiences I've ever felt. That was it. 

 I grabbed my books and slowly started making my way to the tables. One of them slipped out and fell, making me sigh out of annoyance. 

 As I went to pick it up another hand went for the book and picked it up for me. I looked up and met eye contact with a really hot and attractive boy with bright blue eyes I could stare into all day. He was tall and built, and he looked at me, running his hair through his brown hair.

 "Here," he said, smiling kindly. 

 I smiled back and took it from him. "Thank you."

 "I'm Josh," he told me, putting his hand out. 

 I took his hand. "I'm Natalie."

 "Do you need help? I can carry the books for you," he offered, taking them from my arm. "I haven't seen you around. Were you here for Spring Break?"

 "I couldn't," I told him, laughing. "Car crash and all."

 He smiled. "Really? You made it out alive."

 I nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty insane."

 "I bet," he said, chuckling. 

 He seemed similar but I couldn't place a finger on why. But that day, I made a new friend.