Mon Chou

Flash Forward 8 months later

            I spent every day before graduation with him. We went everywhere, did everything, it was a blast. We would go out at least once a week, catching a movie, going to the beach or a party, whatever. A week before graduation, Rhiley and I went with a group of friends to a cabin that party kid, Andy’s, parents owned. It was kind of like an end of the year/graduation celebration. Most people were drinking, but Rhiley wouldn’t let me and he was driving home so we were both sober, chillin’ with our Pepsi’s. the party was pretty uneventful, but Rhiley and I hung around until the end. Sandra and Philip drove to the party together and were both drunk. Rhiley offered to take them home with us but Phil didn’t want to leave her car behind, so we resolved to have Rhiley drive Philip home in his car and I would drive Sandra home in her car. Because they lived on opposite sides of town, we split up after a few miles. About halfway to Sandra’s house, cops, ambulances, and fire trucks raced past us. We had no idea what had happened but figured it was nobody we knew.

By the time that I got home, Rhiley was already waiting for me in my room. We sat and talked for a while about our future. Then, unexpectedly, he got up from the recliner he was sitting in and dug for something in his pocket. “Come here for a second Corina,” he said to me. I walked over to him and he took my hands. He then knelt down on one knee and revealed what he had dug out of his pocket. It was a small velvet box. My eyes started swelling with tears.          

            “Corina Leamsey Martin, I have loved you since the third grade and have never stopped loving you. I will love you until the day that I die. I want to be with you forever. By your side day and night. I never want to see you unhappy or unwell or without me. I love you Corina. Will you marry me?”

            I was so shocked. I would never have guessed that he would ask me this tonight of all nights. I was so happy that I couldn’t even speak. I nodded my head and he stood up. He picked me up, spinning me and hugging me with all of his might. I was so happy. Words could never explain the way I felt right then. I heard my mom downstairs and I just had to tell her. I kissed Rhiley before running down the stairs. “Mom! Mom! You’ll never guess what…” I stopped when I saw her holding her phone in her hand and tears running down her face. “What happened, Mom? What’s wrong?” I started to freak out. She never let me see her cry.

            She couldn’t stop crying long enough to tell me. I gave her some water and she was finally able to choke out, “I’m so sorry Corina, but it, it, it’s Rhiley.”

            “What are you talking about,” I asked. “I was just talking to him. He’s right upstairs.”

            “He got into a car wreck on the way home from that party. A drunk driver t-boned him. I am so sorry Corina,” she whispered, afraid to use her whole voice, afraid that it would bring the whole thing into reality. I just didn’t understand. I just saw him. There was no way. He just proposed to me. “Mom, this isn’t funny. I JUST saw him. I’ll go get him for you.” I ran upstairs and found no one in my room. I searched the closet and burst into my sibling’s rooms trying to find him. When he wasn’t to be found, I checked my hand to see if the ring was there, searching for some kind of sign that it was real. There was nothing on my ring finger. Absolutely nothing. I broke down right then and there. Screaming and crying. “WHY?!?!?!?! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”  My mom ran up the stairs and held on to me. “I know, baby, I know,” she said as we cried together.