The Girl With Five Watches

24: Life and Love

Sitting at the wheel, my head began to wonder what would happen if Sara actually didn't make it through this. What would I do? Would her family hate me? My poor innocent girlfriend was just sitting there almost lifeless. Did these pills actually work? Taking hold of the bottle of pills, I decided to take one out of the bottle and examine it. My mouth was almost tempted to try one. What would happen if one of these pills were tried? A moment later, I put it back in the bottle and stood out of the car. Being in there was too much for me. Once out of the car, my eyes were on the moon.

"God, don't let her heart die. Please let the pill work."

Getting back in the car, my eyes were closed and waited. About another moment later, my ears heard a cough. Sara was coughing! That's a good sign. A few seconds later her eyes opened and she took a few heavy breaths. She was alive and I couldn't help but laugh as tears drained out of my eyes.

"How long was I out?" She asked looking around her surroundings. 

Hugging her and kissing her cheek multiple times, I responded. "Not long thankfully. Next time, keep the pills in your pocket."

"You found them in the glove compartment?" There was not much movement from her as she tried to catch her breath. I couldn't let go of her. "I'm sorry. Sometimes I just hate having them in my pocket. I don't want to be reminded every day of my condition."

Things went by somewhat smoothly during the next few weeks. Yes, for the first couple of days after the near-death incident, there was some tension between us. Sara even tried to get me to swim again to face my fear which created more tension between us. That soon stopped and we were quickly able to move past that tension. While things between us were going well, things between our roommates were in question. Roger grew less interested in double dates and soon enough, Karla would end up as the third wheel when we went out. Roger would always tell me that he had a big group project that he was working on. Just about every night during the month of February, this girl named Kim would walk into our dorm and asked me how I was doing. She would wait on the couch until Roger showed up. And for the rest of the evening, they would work on their project.

With Kim in our dorm every evening, I figured it would be best to continue reading 'The Fault in our Stars' at Sara's dorm without ever mentioning anything about Kim. We were able to finish the novel within what was left of February. And every time it was my turn to read, I would put a lot of emphasis into what I was reading. I even gave Augustus Waters a British accent. Sara would give Hazel Grace an Australian accent. There were even times when we made up our own lines.

"I do say, would I be able to have a glass of water my dear Hazel," I improvised. "My throat feels a bit dry."

"Why certainly mate. You've been good to me. I do hope that neither of us dies and live forever."

We would both laugh at each other. There were also times when I read where Sara would stare at me and have no idea where we were when it was her time to read. Towards the dead of February, Karla would hang out in the common room with us and roll her eyes every time we got cute with each other.

"You guys planning on reading 'Romeo and Juliet' after this?" she asked eating her noodles.

"You want to pick the next story?" asked Sara. "You can always join us."

"I'm good. I don't think I could compete with those accents you both do.

On the last day of February, we finished reading the book. We also found ourselves on a double date with Roger and Kara that night. The date consisted of a drive-in movie and dinner. Roger seemed to find every opportunity to argue with Karla. It was surprising to see how angry he could get over small things. After a lot of bickering between the two during dinner, Sara jumped in and tried to lighten the mood which caused Roger to calm down and stay quiet.

I don't know why, but Sara wanted to order dessert. And seeing how Roger was acting that evening, I didn't stop her from doing it, but it was tempting. She ended up ordering a brownie with the rest of us not getting dessert. Taking a bite of the brownie, she quickly realized she didn't like it.

"You want me to finish for you?" I asked not really wanting the brownie.

She smiled and handed it over to me for me to finish. Roger sighed, rolled his eyes, and excused himself to the bathroom.

Even with our odd and awkward dinner date, Sara found the time to talk to Roger, and to my surprise, he apologized to Karla. It seemed like all was well. And with all being well, I found Sara sitting on the grass leaning against a tree one late afternoon in a dress clearly ready for spring. She had a notepad and a pencil. My mind couldn't help but wonder what she was doing and joined her.

"What's going on?" my lips gave her a kiss.

"Oh, there's this writing contest that I'm trying to be a part of. It ends at the end of the semester. The winner gets a thousand dollars and a potential publishing deal. And I'm trying to write a romance novel." She took a pause and looked at a cloud. "I think I might've found inspiration." Immediately, she took my hand and squeezed it.

For the next ten minutes, I just sat there watching her write and not tell me what it was about. Once she ran out of paper, she put down her pencil and asked me a question.

"You know, my birthday is coming up right before spring break. My dad's birthday is a couple of days later. You down to come home with me over spring break and meet my family?"

It looks like Sara is going to fine. Thank goodness. Thanks for reading. Don't forget to comment, vote, and share!

Are you relieved to know that Sara survived?

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