My Love, My Dream
They had been the best of friends since they were little. Both remembered clearly, that night that they met, but for different reasons. He remembered because only because that was the first time he had seen such a pretty girl with such sad deep green eyes. She remembered because that whole day had forever been burned into her memory.
Her older brother had been everything that she aspired to be. He was smart and, unlike many of the people in their neighborhood, he kept himself out of the gang life. On a day in late November, he went to soccer practice at the park after school, and she went to playground with some friends, just as they did everyday. And, just like any other day, at 3:00pm she walked to the front of the school and waited for her brother to come, but he never did. A neighbor from her apartment came to get her. He didn't say anything. The drive home was awkward and when she walked into the small two bedroom apartment she was met with two hysterical parents. They both fell to their knees holding her tightly to them as they wept. That's when they told her. Her brother had been shot on his way to pick her up. He had been caught in the middle of a drive-by....he died immediately. She didn't believe it when they told her. She ran. She sat herself down on the swing set in the park behind the apartment complex and there she stayed. She looked out at the small pond just a few yards away. Just as the sun began to set a small voice came up out of nowhere. She found a boy, who lived down the hall from her, standing at her side. They had never spoken before, but that night he was the one who held her when she cried.
That was how their friendship started. They were strong for each other. They stood up for one another and held each other up during the good and the bad times. She was there for him when his mother was shot during a grocery store robbery, and during any other hardship he went through and he did the same for her.
By the end of their sophomore yeah they had become inseparable and had confessed their love for each other. The night after graduation, where they had both graduated at the top of their class, he proposed to her under the night time sky in the small park where they had met. They had been walking home from a party when he decided to take her on a small detour to the park pond when he took her into his arms and asked the hardest question he had ever asked. He received the best answer anyone could ever hear. “Yes, I’ll marry you!” She cried out throwing her arms around his neck ecstatically. He placed upon her finger the ring that his father had given to his mom when he proposed. It didn’t have the biggest diamond, but it meant a lot to him, and she knew it. So, when she recognized she couldn’t help but choke on her tears of joy. That was the happiest day of their lives that would soon be cut short.
A week after his proposal he was walking her home from work as he always did. He didn’t like her to be walking on the streets alone past sunset. They were enjoying quiet conversation about a future where she would become a doctor and he would be a lawyer when the sound of gun shots shook the earth around them. The next thing she knew her was shoving her to the ground. She fell, her back hitting the hard stone wall of the apartment building. She looked up after recovering from the shock. She could feel her head throbbing from slamming into the wall so hard. She quickly forgot about the pain in her head as her breath got caught in her throat from the sight before her. He lay there; his favorite deep blue shirt had a growing stain as blood poured from his chest. She crawled to his side, blocking out the sound of the screams and tires screeches against the asphalt of the street. Gently, she pulled his head into her lap as tears ran down her face. He weakly lifted his hand to her cheek, catching the falling tears. He smiled up at her. “Promise me you’re not a dream” he whispered in a hoarse voice. Those were the same words he had used when he first asked her to be his girlfriend and the same words he used when he asked her to marry him a week before. “I’m only real when I’m with you” she whispered back faithfully, trying to not choke on her tears. He smiled up at her again. The faint sound of sirens met their ears as he stared up into the same deep green eyes that he had fallen for when they met at the age of eight. “I love you” he said in his last breath, before his eyes shut forever. That’s how the police found the young couple. Him, dead in her lap as she ran her fingers through his hair crying silent tears.
That night, two lives were lost. His funeral was held a few days later and she refused to open her heart to anyone again. She lived a long life, and became a doctor, but she never married. The ring he gave her never left finger. She passed at the age of 79 in her sleep, dreaming of the man who forever held her heart.
