Hold on

Thomas should be calling me today.

I paced back and forth in my cramped room, kicking at the random bottles of mascara and chargers scattered across the old carpet. He was never this late in calling.

Every Tuesday, at 6:30, he would call me. We had fallen onto texting each other too much, I’d almost forgotten what he sounded like. Looking into my cracked mirror, I tied my hair up into a ponytail while I studied the various pieces of paper crammed in between the spider web like breaks in the glass. Letters, notes, hastily scribbled words on a random sticky so I wouldn't forget our inside jokes. All from, or about, Thomas.

Pick the heckity heck up, Thomas is calling you!

I quickly clicked answer before the ringtone went off again, it’d been set like that for months, I just always forgot to change it.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Trin, sorry I’m late, got busy with family stuff.”

I smiled,

“Don’t worry about it, how’s everything going?”

He sighed,

“I’m… Not exactly sure, I know that doesn’t really make any sense, things have kind of just been blah lately.”

Frowning, I slipped to the floor to lean against my wall. Letting my head fall back. The background noise was, iffy, to say the least. Really loud, like multiple people were talking.

“So, something’s going on, but you aren’t going to tell me what it is.”

“No.”

He laughed, I knew him too well. Thomas and I had met a couple years ago on a random Among Us game. We got each others info and started texting, the rest was history. We had clicked so fast, at this point, we were best friends.

“Do you have any idea of when you’re doing that family vacation thing in Florida?”

Right. The only problem, he lived in Texas. And I, lived in New York. We’d been trying to see each other for years now, but the timing was always off, something always didn’t work. He and his family were supposed to be going to Florida this summer to see some old friends, and I was planning on meeting him there; but if they didn’t go, no seeing each other.

“Um, actually, plans have changed.”

“What exactly do you mean by “plans have changed”?”

“Uh, well, they’ve been entirely altered from what they were.”

“Thomas!”

I huffed, he was being so vague, and I was impatient.

“Hmmm, go to your mom.”

“I-”

Click. I heard the phone hang up and I was tempted to throw my phone. Begrudgingly, I got up and stomped down the stairs. Finding my mom standing, waiting for me by the door. She tilted her head to the side quickly,

“Get in the car.”

I hesitated,

“But, why?”

“Trinity Callum, get. In. The. Car.”

I rushed out the door, mumbling a yes ma’am quickly. The cold air slammed into my face as I walked down my porch steps, the old wood creaking in agony under my feet. I slipped into the van quickly and sat on my hands. Watching my breath billow out from my mouth, curving and twisting in the frigid air. I pulled down the visor and slid the mirror open, glaring at my reflection. My cheeks were already pink, my eyelashes coated in a thin layer of frost.

Finally, mom climbed in next to me. I opened my mouth to ask her where we were going but she shot a, “Don’t ask me any questions or I will murder you in your sleep”, look. My lips clamped together and I kept my eyes forward. The cars sped by us in a blur. Almost too fast to see.

After what seemed like an eternity, we pulled into our tiny airport.

“What-”

“Just get out.”

I put my hands up and got out,

“Okay, okay.”

Sliding out, I glanced around. Seeing nothing, I turned back to my mom, she shooed me away with her hand. I spun on my heel and walked forward. Walking through the gates, I crammed my hands into my pockets and pulled the door open. Warmth greeted me, I felt my skin beginning to thaw out and I sighed. Now, to figure out why I was here.

Our airport was small, really small. So when I looked up, there were only about five people walking towards my direction. I scanned their faces, and my heart stopped. Thomas.

“THOMAS!”

I ran, my feet pounding against the smooth tiled floor, my heart pounding in my chest. He pushed his blonde hair out of his eyes and smiled at me before taking off into his own sprint. We met at the middle, tackling each other and landing in a heap of tears and laughter on the floor. My arms stayed thrown around his shoulders as I sputtered out nonsense.

“What? H-how, I don’t.”

He held me tightly,

“I’ve been planning this for months, the weather held me up.”

I looked at him, nothing but happiness on my face. His eyes sparkled with joy,

“This is amazing, I can’t believe you’re really here.”

He grinned, untangling himself from me and standing. I followed shortly behind him.

“I can’t either, It’s so good to actually meet you in real life.”

I hopped with excitement.

“Thomas! You’re here!”

Laughing, he shook me by my shoulders as if that would calm me down.

“Yes! I’m here! We don’t want to keep your mom waiting, come on.”

I happily followed him back to the car, pulling out my phone and texting all of my friends immediately. He looked at me as we drove back home,

“Ah, so your eyes are hazel.”

I smacked his arm,

“Shut up.”

We both laughed and I turned more towards him,

“How long are you here?”

He sighed,

“Three weeks, it’s not as long as I wanted it to be, but it’s all I could get.”

My smile could’ve beaten movie stars.

“I’ll take all the time I can get with you.”

In that moment, it was perfect, finally. My best friend, was here. He was really here. My hands stopped shaking, the anxiety, slowed. A wave of peace rolled over me, and I couldn’t help but smile to myself.

I opened my mouth to say something when Thomas screamed.

“LOOK OUT!”

The car, sliding into our path, slammed into us. I was flung sideways, my head colliding with the glass window. Tiny cracks spiraled up from the point of impact. I tried to put arms out to brace myself, feeling blood trickling down my head, then everything got fuzzy. The smell of burning rubber hit my nose, causing my throat to clench up, my ears were ringing with the sound of metal scraping across metal. Tearing into the smooth surface, ripping it apart. The screams and wails of the different parts breaking into pieces.

Maybe the screaming was the car, maybe it was the tires skidding across the road, no, the tires weren't on the road. We were moving, spinning as we flipped over and over and over again. The screaming, I realized, was coming from my own mouth. My vision began to get fuzzy, and finally, as we stopped flipping, we smashed into a tree, and my head was thrown to the window, yet again. I cried out as I heard the shards of the glass breaking free of the car, raining down on me.

I felt Thomas’s hand find mine, and heard him whisper, in a low and pained voice.

“Don’t let go.”

Then I closed my eyes, and let the darkness swallow me, as everything went black.

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Beep…. Beep…. Beep

“How are they looking?”

“Not too well, the boy will live, the girl will be lucky if she does. She’ll be paralyzed, at least.”

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“Hunny? Wake up, please, wake up.”

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“They don’t know how long she’ll be in this coma state, they don’t even know if she will wake up at all.”

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“Thomas, I’m so sorry.”

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Thomas…. Thomas.

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Hold on, don’t let go.

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Fight.

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Fight.

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FIGHT.

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My eyes, fluttered open slowly. Thomas was standing there, tears running down his face.

“You held on, I knew you would.”

Ten years later.

“Mom! Prim won’t stop pulling on my hair!”

I bent down, tousling my 7 year old sons hair,

“Why don’t you talk to her dad about that one, Ben.”

He crossed his arms and made a pouty face, but reluctantly ran off. Screaming for,

“Uncle Gageeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

I laughed, turning to watch my husband, Evan, playing with Kristine, our other daughter. She was only two. He scooped her up and shot me his handsome smile before going back to spinning her around.

“Can you believe we really made it this far?”

I shifted, grinning at my visitor.

“We held on, right brother?”

Thomas grabbed my hand, his bright eyes filling with tears. The hot Texas son beaming down on him. As the chaos unfolded around us, kids running everywhere, screaming and shouting. The various parents chasing them through the grass, or sitting and talking. The cake for my mom's birthday sitting untouched on the picnic table. Thomas and I, shared a secret smile. Knowing, that we were two of the three, who knew what we had gone through to get to this point. The pain, the struggles, the grief. Even with mom gone now, we still knew. And we always would.

“Always sis.”