In a Summer Haze

He left the party with a slight haze over his mind but was aware enough that he decided he could drive himself home. All went mostly well, with only a few swerves and over-braking or accelerating. He made sure he went under the speed limit and stopped at all the lights and stop signs because he knew that anything that went wrong would be his fault if he didn't.

Then, as he turned the second-to-last corner, he saw bright lights staring straight at him, going much faster than the speed limit. He swerved and hit the gas, causing him to miss the other car by a few inches.

A near miss. He sighed in relief and relaxed a little. That was the last thing he did before the world went black.

…………………………………….

On a normal, average Tuesday afternoon, Lillian Powell sat by herself again during her lunch break. She wasn’t even that new anymore! Why did no one like her? Her lunch today was the same as it had been since she had started here. Also, it was almost the same lunch she had eaten throughout most of her time in school. She was somewhat embarrassed by that fact, but no one else knew about it, as far as she could tell. Well, except for Casey, but she had known her since elementary school. Mostly, she was just grateful that Grace didn’t know because she knew Grace would give her a hard time about something like that, and that would get real annoying real fast.

Then, Tyler walked into the room. He started to walk toward her. Her heart began to beat a little faster. Tyler had been her crush since pretty much the first day of junior high. She had never really talked to him before, even now that they were adults, but she knew who he was.

He walked over to the table, coming up to the seat across from her…

And walked right past it to the vending machine. She relaxed, though she did feel a bit disappointed. She went back to eating for about 30 seconds when she heard a voice from right next to her.

She let out a quiet yelp and nearly fell out of her chair. Her face started to turn a bright red as she composed herself.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes,’” he said as he sat in the seat next to her. He wasn’t super close to her there, but still close enough to keep Lillian nervous as she resumed eating her lunch.

She tried to keep her hands from shaking as she continued to eat in relative peace and quiet. Tyler also sat in silence, though she could tell he would like to talk. She had no idea what to say, though. Just as she had mustered up enough courage and opened her mouth to at least try to start a conversation, she walked in. Grace Banks.

Her shoulder-length, jet-black hair was styled to perfection, as always, and bounced slightly as she walked. She wore what was the latest fashion, or at least what she thought was the latest fashion: a pink, form-fitting top that stopped just shy of the waistline of her white jeans, allowing a little skin to show. She walked over to the table and seemed to be trying her best to ignore Lillian. She began to talk to Tyler as she sat down next to him, which very much frustrated Lillian since that meant she was directly across the table from her. She tried her best to calm herself before she did something stupid.

“Soooo, how’s your day been?” Grace asked Tyler with her annoying slight southern drawl.

“Oh, it’s been fine,” was Tyler’s simple reply. There were a few seconds of silence.

“‘It’s been fine’? That’s all you have to say about it? No explanation like, ‘It was a bit boring because of this,’ or ‘I was almost late because of that’?”

“No, not really.”

“Is there a reason you’re not talking to me all of a sudden? Did something happen to you?” She poked his cheek with one of her perfectly manicured fingernails as if to make sure he was even human.

Of course she doesn’t think it could be her fault, Lillian thought. She never thinks about anything other than herself and what she wants.

Tyler grimaced slightly as he gently pushed her finger away from his face. “No, I just don’t really have anything to say right now.”

“Okay. Well, if you do want to talk, I’ll be a few tables over.” She then shot Lillian a venomous glance before she turned and stalked away. In that split second, Lillian thought she saw a tear forming in her eye.

What a drama queen! Just because someone doesn’t want to talk to you every single second of the day doesn’t mean they hate you.

She heard a sigh of relief from next to her. She looked up to see Tyler slumping down in his chair.

“You don’t like her either?” she asked Tyler.

“No. How could anyone? She is so self-centered and overly dramatic about everything.”

“Why does she talk to you?”

“We were friends back in high school, and we got pretty close. We almost started dating, but I saw that she started caring more about her clothes and appearance than she did about spending time with me. We were still friends, but we did start to drift apart, mainly because of the differences in our personalities. Then, I came here, and she wants to be friends again and blames me for what happened to our relationship. If she hadn’t been so selfish…” He trailed off, realizing he’d been rambling.

“I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, not really. But thank you for listening and letting me get that out. It helps to be able to talk to someone.”

“Well, if there’s ever any time, and I mean any time, you just need to talk to someone, let me know.”

“Thank you. That’s very kind of you. Not many people I know would be willing to take the time to do something like that.”

“Oh, it’s not a problem. Most of the time I'm bored out of my mind because I have nothing to do.”

He chuckled softly. “I can relate to that.” He thought for a moment before saying, “Let me get your phone number so I can call you outside of work.”

“Sure.” She blushed just a little. They exchanged phone numbers and finished their lunches quietly. Then Lillian looked at the clock.

“Shit,” she muttered under her breath as she began to gather her things and threw her trash away.

“What’s wrong? Is everything okay?” The worried questions came from Tyler.

“My lunch break ends in one minute, and I need to get back to my office before then, or James will have my hide. I hadn’t realized how long we talked for.” She began to walk away.

“Hey, before you go, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”

“Alright,” she retorted as she stopped and turned back to him, somewhat annoyed but also curious.

“Are you doing anything this Friday? One of my friends is having a 4th of July party and I was wondering if you would like to go with me.”

She tried to keep from squealing in excitement, instead opting for a smile as she replied, “Yeah, that would be great.”

“Okay. We can talk more about it tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow then.”

“See ya.”

She nearly jumped up and down in joy after she turned the corner.

…………………………………….

The night came, and she was ready about ten minutes before he was supposed to be there, which for her was a great accomplishment. She had planned for an extra half hour than necessary to get ready, just to be safe. Even with that time, she wasn’t completely sure she was going to be ready on time. She kept pacing in anticipation of a knock at the door.

“Stop walking around so much. You’re going to wear yourself out before you even walk out the door. Come sit down.” This advice came from her best friend and roommate, Casey Brooks.

Lillian plopped down on the couch next to Casey, her foot tapping the ground. About ten seconds later, she stood back up, resuming her pacing.

“I’m just too excited to sit still. This is going to be so great! I can’t believe he asked me.” She looked at Casey. “How much longer ‘til he gets here?”

“You need to calm down. Please, come sit down,” her friend pleaded, but she continued pacing.

After what seemed an eternity later (about five minutes), a knock came at the door. She tried to collect herself as she hurried to the door and opened it. There he stood. He wore a blue- and white-striped button-down shirt and jeans. She had to keep herself from laughing so as not to seem creepy, though she couldn’t keep a broad smile from forming on her face.

“You ready to go?” he said with a charismatic smile on his lips.

“Yep!” A thought occurred to her. “Oh. Would you like to meet my roommate real quick?”

“Sure. Why not?” he replied with a shrug.

“Casey! Come here really fast. I want you to meet someone.” Casey walked over from the sofa and shook hands with Tyler.

“Do I know you? You seem familiar,” Tyler said with a squint as he shook Casey’s hand.

“We were in Biology together in high school. We were lab partners for a semester.” Lillian shot her a glance that said, We’ll talk about this later.

“Oh yeah! That was definitely interesting, wouldn’t you say?” Tyler said with a chuckle.

“Interesting is one word you could use,” she replied in an almost mischievous tone.

Lillian stepped outside and began pulling the door closed behind her. “Alright! I think we need to be going now, Tyler, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yeah, yeah. We should go now.” Lillian took his arm and began to gently pull him towards the car. “It was nice to see you again, Casey,” he called back as they left.

Lillian and Tyler walked to the car in silence. “Are you mad that I was talking to your roommate?”

“Well, yeah. We’re going to be late,” was her lame attempt at an excuse, a light blush on her cheeks.

“I’m sorry. I just haven’t seen her in years, and she’s so different now.” There was a slight pause before he added, “But tonight is about you. Only about you.”

“I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t be mad at you for something like that. She’s my friend. I shouldn’t be jealous of her.”

“Jealous? You think -- me and her--. No, no. We just bonded over our hatred of our teacher and became friends after that year. And, as I said, I haven’t seen her in a long time.” Again, a few moments of silence.

They both got in Tyler’s car and began their trip to the party. Within about thirty seconds of them leaving, Lillian’s phone began to ring. She looked at the caller ID.

My brother was her bewildered thought. Why would he be calling me?

She answered, mostly out of curiosity.

“What is it, Josh?”

“It’s Mom.”

“What’s wrong? Did something happen to her?”

“Just hurry. We’re at the hospital.”

“I-I’m on my way.”

She turned to Tyler with her mouth beginning to open.

“Where do you need to go?”

She was touched by his automatic response. How he was willing to help her even though he didn’t know her that well and had somewhere else he was going. Then, she remembered how she had told him the other day that she was willing to do the same and realized she already loved him.

“The hospital.”

“The one off Center Street?”

“Yes. That one.”

They drove the rest of the way to the hospital in silence, one dreading what would be awaiting Lillian there, the other only hoping it wouldn't be too bad.

…………………………………….

A couple of hours later, Lillian sat at her mother’s bedside, holding her hand and trying her best to comfort her mother. She whispered words of consolation to her mother, words like, “It’s going to be alright”, “You’re going to make it through this”, and “You can do this.” Most of this was said for herself, as her mother had been asleep almost from the moment she had gotten there. She had only been able to let her mother know she had made it before she drifted off. She wished she had gotten there sooner.

Her mother had been driving to the grocery store to pick up a few things for a barbeque with some of her friends when she lost consciousness. Fortunately, she had been in the right lane and had already been going relatively slow. She had run into a tree and had suffered a mild concussion and a few scrapes and bruises. Internally, she was fine, but the doctors wanted her to stay in the hospital for a day or two to make sure she was stable.

Lillian, tired after a long week of work and the lull after the relative excitement and bustle, eventually drifted off to sleep next to her mother.

She was awakened about two hours later by shouts and the sounds of feet running past the room. She groggily got up to check what all the hubbub was about. Knowing it would probably be serious with all the shouting and running, she braced herself for the worst. What she saw when she turned the corner was worse than she could have possibly imagined.

She saw the bloodied and torn blue and white shirt almost immediately. It took her a moment to process what she was seeing.

No. No. Not him. Please, not him. But as the bed was wheeled closer, she saw that she was right. The man on the bed was Tyler Robbins. His face was covered with enough blood that she almost couldn’t tell it was him. His leg was bent at an angle she knew couldn’t possibly be normal, and she thought she saw bone. She turned away before she could see more. She thought she might be sick.

“W-What’s happening?” The whispered question came from the bed on the other side of the room.

“Nothing, Mom. Nothing. Just go back to sleep, alright?”

Her mother mumbled a few words in protest but promptly fell back asleep.

She quickly rushed back out and ran in the direction of the shouts. She quickly caught up to one of the nurses following the large group.

“Do you know what happened to him?” she asked, trying not to let the panic she was feeling creep into her voice.

“All I know is that he got into a crash.”

“Was anyone else injured?”

“I don’t really know. He is the only one who has been brought in.”

“Thank you,” Lillian told the nurse as she stayed back and let the doctors and nurses push Tyler farther and farther away from her. She knew that there was nothing else she could do. She decided to check into the hotel across the street and stay the night there so that she could be close by.

…………………………………….

The next day, she woke up earlier than usual to be able to check up on both her mother and Tyler. Her mother was asleep and stable and was going to be able to go home on Monday. Tyler, on the other hand, was not doing nearly as well but was stable. The doctors told Lillian that he would probably not be able to go home for at least three weeks.

Three weeks?! That’s a lot of days he’s going to miss at work. I hope they will let him keep his job.

Lillian was able to call Casey and get her to take her back home so she could get ready for work. Casey, of course, asked what had happened. Lillian explained almost everything, only leaving out the parts about how bad Tyler looked, knowing how Casey would react if she didn’t.

“Do you think he’s going to be alright?” Casey asked worryingly.

“I hope so. I really hope so.” They both then went on their ways to work.

As Lillian walked into work, she could hear voices and laughter from the lounge area and went to see what was happening. Is there a party I didn’t hear about? No, that can’t be it. Somebody’s birthday, maybe? That seemed like the most likely scenario.

“You should have seen the other guy! He, like, came around the corner and swerved at the last second. I wish I could have seen his face! It would have been hilarious!” This story came out of the mouth of Grace Banks, who was leaning back against a table as she told her posse her tale.

“What are you talking about?” Lillian asked, trying to keep anger from seeping into her voice. She was pretty sure she already knew the answer to her question.

“Oh, nothing,” came the reply. “I was just drunk while driving last night and almost got into a crash. The other guy barely missed me, but I’m sure he’s fi-”

“NO, HE’S NOT!” She could no longer hold in her anger and frustration. She walked a few steps closer to Grace. “He’s in the hospital right now and may not be able to leave it for almost a month! And it’s all your fault because you had to go and be an idiot and decide to drive while you were drunk! How could you do something like that?!”

“What are you talking about?” Grace asked with a look of confusion.

“Tyler was the one in the other car, but you don’t care.” She took another couple of steps closer. The people around Grace took a few steps back to leave space between the two women. “You didn’t even stop and check if the other person was okay. You just kept on driving without even thinking about what could have happened to him. The only person you care about is yourself!”

“No, I care about other people,” she said in an offended tone, though her eyes had widened as Lillian approached.

“Oh yeah, like who?”

“Like uh - uh--”

“See! If you can’t think of anyone off the top of your head, you can’t really care about them. I can think of a lot of people!” Grace had to take a step back as Lillian had been slowly getting closer. “My mom, my dad, my brother, my best friend, Casey, Tyler, and lots of other friends! Definitely not you. I hate you.”

Lillian said the last word with her face only an inch away from Grace’s. She also jabbed a finger at the other woman’s chest. Grace quickly swatted away the finger as she took another step back to get Lillian out of her face.

“Is that how you really feel about me?”

“Yes, and it has been since the day I met you. The first time I saw you, I immediately knew that we would never get along. And you proved that by bullying me without even trying to get to know me. I’m tired of it.”

“Well, if that’s the case, let’s settle this right here.”

“Okay.” Lillian instinctively assumed the pose she had learned from her self-defense classes. Grace seemed somewhat surprised that Lillian would know something like that, which made Lillian smirk slightly and gave her a boost of confidence. She knew that she would be able to win this fight quite easily.

She waited a couple of seconds, then lunged, pushing her fist towards Grace’s face. Grace threw up her arms wildly to block the punch, but Lillian was counting on that, and took her other hand and connected it with Grace’s stomach. She doubled over and grunted at the impact. Grace then jumped up and tried to scratch at Lillian’s face, but her fingers only met air. Lillian had been expecting this. She then brought her leg around and connected it with the back of Grace’s knee, which brought her down on one knee with another grunt of pain. Lillian, not wanting to draw blood, slapped Grace across the face.

“That's for every time you pushed me around.”

She slapped Grace again before she could stand up and retaliate.

“That's for all the times you teased and belittled me.”

With a roar of rage, Grace lunged at Lillian. Lillian turned to the side, and, as she was flying past her, put Grace in a headlock. She hit Lillian repeatedly, as hard as she could, but soon realized there was no use in struggling anymore; there was no way for her to get out other than Lillian letting her go.

Lillian gave her an ultimatum. “I will only let you go if you a) admit that I beat you-”

“Alright, you beat me. Now let me go!”

“--b) promise to never talk to Tyler again--

“I promise! Let me GO!”

“--and c) swear to never let me see you again. If I do, I might not hold back.”

“I prom-” Her eyes narrowed as her brain processed what Lillian had said. “You don’t mean-”

“Yes. You will quit working here and move as far away from here as possible. I will give you until next Wednesday to leave. If you are still here then, I will find you and come after you to finish what I started.”

“You don’t even know where I live! How will you find me?” She said this with a hint of a smile creeping onto her face.

“Tyler knows. I can just ask him.” I don’t know if he actually does. Hopefully, she doesn’t call my bluff.

The smile on Grace’s face fell almost immediately. So he did know.

“So, do you swear?” she asked as she tightened her hold on Grace.

She struggled one last time to see if she could get out of the hold. It was a futile attempt.

“I swear,” she said in barely a whisper.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you,” Lillian said with a smirk.

“I swear,” Grace said louder.

“I still can’t hear you,” Lillian said in a singsongy, mocking tone.

“I SWEAR!”

“Thank you,” Lillian said, letting go of Grace’s head so she fell in a heap on the floor. “Now leave.” Grace slowly stood up and walked out of the room, rubbing her neck.

“Anybody else have a problem with me?” she asked the group around her.

Everyone shook their heads and nervously shuffled out of the room.

…………………………………….

Lillian visited Tyler almost every day until he was able to leave the hospital. During that time, she was able to figure out where Grace lived and checked to see if she had left by the prescribed time, which she had. Also during that time, her mother was released from the hospital and was allowed to go home. Lillian and her brother ensured that their mother would be safe by herself.

After Tyler was released from the hospital, he and Lillian started dating and continued to do so for a couple of months before Tyler decided to break off the relationship. The reason:

“I just don't feel like you are the same person as you were before the accident. Did something happen?”

“No, nothing happened.” She couldn't tell him what she had done, and never would.

“Another reason I don't think this will work out: you won't tell me the truth.”

“I am telling you the truth.”

“Just stop it, please! It's not going to work. Can’t you just accept that?”

She hung her head and could feel the tears start to well up in her eyes. “Do you think it will ever work out between us?”

“I don’t know. We’ll see,” he said as he gave her one final embrace, then walked out the door.