Run Away

Three weeks later...

She sat in the waiting room waiting to be discharged. John sat beside her, holding his hand. She was well, healed, and the doctors had called her a miracle. She didn't feel like a miracle. She was overwhelmed, scared and just wanted to curl up into a ball in her bedroom.
Despite all that had happened, did John really think she was going to forgive him? She could see the regret in his deep green eyes every single time he looked at her. He knew, in his large and complex brain the reason why she was going to the tree. Why she was so distraught that day. Why she knew the car was coming, had enough time to move, and didn't because in that very moment, she felt dying was right. Like it was what she had to do to survive. She knew he knew that, yet he still avoided the conversation all together. That's the thought that tormented her the most. She thought about the phone call, how her knees shook and her heart sank. She won't ever forget that.
"You ready to go home baby?" he squeezed her hand.
"Yeah." she said quietly, holding back her sudden rage towards him.
"I can't wait to sleep next to you again. Wrap my arms around you and fall asleep." he smiled softly to himself.
"Yeah." she replied again, rubbing her knee with her free hand.
"Is everything okay?" he leaned his head back, regretting what he said right after he asked it.
"Yeah." she closed her eyes.

~~~~
"For-ev-er." he wrote on her arm in a black sharpie marker.
"Yes." she smiled and put her hand on his face, rubbing his cheek with her fingers.
"I mean it Lauren. Forever. You're all I write about. You're the only person worth my time." he looked deep into her eyes.
She felt content. Like all her cares could just melt away and she would be okay with him for the rest of her life.
"Dinner tonight at Red's?" John asked, taking a sip of his soda.
"Sounds good Johnny." she grinned, taking in the way the sun shined so perfectly on his face. How his green eyes glimmered at her. She felt his love.
~~~~

She rolled her eyes and stood up, signing her release papers. The doctors smiled at her as she and John walked hand in hand out of the hospital that claimed well over the past month of her life. John opened her car door for her and she slid in. When he slid in, he leaned over for a kiss. She turned away.
"Did you really think I'd forget John?" she asked.
His face went white and his eyes clouded over.