Life, Love & A Little Coffee

Chapter Forty-Eight: Crashing Fantasy

The most incredible night of Ada's life was short lived. She'd gone to sleep, naked in his arms, imagining as he had all the different ways they'd wake up together. They'd have morning sex in the bed or in the shower. She would slide on one of his shirts like women often did in the movies, her hair looking flawless despite not doing a thing with it. She imagined having coffee with him outside on the porch before it became too warm that the bugs began coming out. Breakfast would make itself and he'd feed her some fruit they never bought.

Reality mixed with fantasy in a delicious dream.

But none of it ended up being reality. Instead, she was shaken awake and even through squinted eyes, she could tell the sun hadn't come up yet. Her body felt like it'd only been asleep for a few hours at most.

"Ada, you gotta wake up."

Despite the overwhelming desire to keep sleeping, Ada's green eyes opened to look up at Tom. A light was on in the hallway, allowing enough visibility to see how pale Tom appeared. He was only wearing boxers, but that was still more than what he'd been wearing when they fell asleep. When she looked downward, Ada noticed the phone in his over-clenched fist.

"What time is it?" Ada asked as she sat up before running her fingers through the hair that did not feel as flawless as in her dream.

"About four in the morning." Tom's voice came out shaky as he looked down at the phone in his hand. "There's-"

When Tom failed to push the words out, Ada's body and mind woke up. "What the hell happened?"

A heavy breath escaped his lips before his hand reached out to turn on the light on the bedside table. "Your dad called my cell. There's been an accident."

Everyone she loved flashed through her brain in her most perfect memory of them and a panic rushed through her brain, not knowing which memory to concentrate on.

"Britt was driving home from a graduation party and she was drunk and... I don't know all the details, but your mom and dad are at the hospital right now with her mom."

Ada's most perfect memory of Britt came when they were about twelve and a boy had been making fun of her at lunch for being so fat. It was right around the time where the opposite sex was more desirable and people were dating for a few days before breaking up and moving to the next person. People rarely went on actual dates, just said they were dating and held hands between classes.

Britt, being the most sought after girl in their class, went over to him flirtatiously, then smashed his face in his food. She was Ada's hero that day.

"Ada, did you hear me?"

She shook her head, causing the memory to shatter into a million pieces and scatter into the air above her. When the pieces fell, she felt the sharp edges of them stab at her skin.

"Ada?"

She wasn't sure how long she'd been in a daze for, but by the time she came to, there were clothes on her lap and Tom was fully dressed.

This didn't make sense.

Britt never drove drunk.

Because Ada was always the one who cut herself off early to drive them home. And Ada was here, and Britt was-. "Tell me she's okay." It wasn't a question, but a demand for reassurance.

A reassurance, by the look on Tom's face as he paused from shoving their things back in their shopping bags, that he couldn't give. "She's in surgery right now. That's all your dad would tell me over the phone. Please, Ada, get dressed."

******************

The drive was quiet. Tom kept the radio on low, not appearing at all tired as he drove. It was still dark out and in the early morning hours, they rarely passed a car and had the lane to themselves.