Bliss shortlisted entry 1 

SAMMY PRICE, 15

First Love, Last Love

I sat up in my hospital bed as I shook my head at what I was being told. As the doctor finally finished talking, I screamed in pain, but it wasn’t my pounding head that had made me scream, it was the words which had come from the doctor’s mouth that had caused the pain. The next few words he had said I couldn’t hear, as all I could hear were the beats of my heart, which were getting faster and faster.

*     *     *

I stood in front of the music rooms waiting for him to come out. He was late and I wanted to get home quickly as I started to feel the cold air getting to me. I watched as most people started to rush out of the school as if they had just been let out on day release, or maybe they had. I pulled my coat further round me as I started to feel shivers run down my back. As I did this everything in front of me disappeared.
“Guess who.” Said a deep voice from behind me. I slowly smiled and carefully removed his hands from my face. I then suddenly felt strangely warm inside. I slowly turned round to face him. He gave me a smile and leaned in close to me. I froze as I thought he was going to kiss me, but we were just friends, so that wouldn’t happen. “Guess what…” Chris whispered in my ear. I then relaxed as he moved away from me.
“What?” I looked at him feeling slightly confused as he never usually acted like this.
“Well” He said as he reached his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out two pieces of paper. He handed one of them to me. I closely looked at it and then screamed. I looked up and saw that Chris had his hands covering his ears, although I would have thought he would be used to it by now. “Has it stopped?” he asked very loudly. I nodded so he removed his hands from his ears. He looked at me smiling as he flicked his soft brown hair out of his dark brown eyes.
“I thought they were sold…”
“Out?” He said before I managed to finish my sentence. “Well, I’m magic.” He laughed as he stuck his hands in his pockets. I pulled a sarcastic face at him as I gave the ticket back to him. “Well its tonight so I’ll pick you up around 5.30 is that Ok?” He said looking in my eyes. I quickly looked away and nodded.
“Cool, Celebrate The Irony will never know what’s hit them.” Chris said throwing his hands up in the air.
“Chris don’t do that” I said shaking my head at him. He quickly put his arms down and put his arm around me.

It was 6.00, and Chris hadn’t arrived. I glanced at my phone, which had no messages. I wasn’t worried about being late to see my favourite band, I was worried about Chris. I started to get impatient. He was always late but not this late and I felt myself start to panic. I then heard a car pull up my drive. I jumped to my feet and rushed to the door. And there he was, right in front of me, where he had always been, but I never noticed until now. He slowly took hold of my hand and led me to his car he opened the door for me and I slowly slid in. He then closed the door and I watched as he went round the front of the car. He opened his door and slid in and put his seatbelt in. He then looked up at me and started to shake his head. He then leaned over me. I felt confused but sure at the same time. He took hold of my seatbelt and clipped it into place. “Safety first” He said smiling up at me. I looked into his eyes and time just froze. My heart was going crazy. Chris looked at me and was about to lean in, but he decided not to which I could tell because he sat back in his seat.

It had been an hour since we both spoke. The car was feeling silent and awkward. I felt flushed and light headed. Could it be that I was falling in love with a guy who I always thought of as my best friend. “I have an idea.” Chris suddenly said out of nowhere. I jumped out of my skin as it had been so silent. “Go in the glove compartment and pull out the CD in there.” So I did as he said although as I rummaged round all I could find was a pen. He kept glancing over at me. I then saw him out of the corner of my eye him rolling his eyes. He slowly leaned over which made my heart beat really fast. I watched as his hand slowly rummaged through the glove compartment. I took a deep breath in and looked up. And that’s when it happened.

I had finally found something good in my life and in a few moments it was gone. I couldn’t remember what had happened but apparently Chris was too busy trying to find the CD and I had been too busy looking at him, we didn’t see the van heading towards us.

When they told me, they asked if I wanted too see him before they turned off the life support, so I did. I tried to tell him everything, that I was sorry and I blame myself. It was my stupid fault for not being able to find the CD and my stupid fault for looking at him. I told him I loved him as I squeezed his hand. I looked at his face which set my heart off. I took a deep breath and kissed his hand as the doctor turned off the life support. I started to shake, from shock. My mum had to drag me out of the room like I was a child. As she dragged me out of the room, it started to spin.

*     *     *

“I’m sorry miss, but she wasn’t able to make it. She died of a sudden heart attack which could have been caused by stress and the accident. I am terribly sorry.”

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