story #2!

i have edited the beginning part and added a lot more to it. :)
let me know what you think!



“She’s gone, Carter. She’s gone. They tried all they could, but they couldn’t save her.”
6:39 AM. October 17. The words hit Carter like a ton of bricks. His future wife, his best friend, his life, his everything. Gone. He was speechless. His heart felt like it had shattered into a million pieces. She was gone, and with her, everything he had ever known.
He sat back in the chair he had spent nearly a dozen hours in, waiting, hoping, and praying. The previous night, at 6:02 PM, it had happened. He had watched it happen, helplessly, two cars behind. He had seen that pickup go a little too fast through a light that had been red for at least 10 seconds. He had seen that pickup slam into the driver’s side of her little Civic. He had seen her airbag deploy. He had seen the driver of the truck reverse and speed away. And there had been nothing he could have done about it.
They had been on their way to the homecoming football game. It was their senior year, and it was supposed to be perfect. The following night, they were supposed to dress to the nines and go dance the night away at the Homecoming dance. Dances had been her favorite part of high school, and she looked forward to every single one. This was her final Homecoming dance, and she had been looking forward to it practically the very second Prom was over. She had searched for weeks for the perfect Homecoming dress, and she and Carter had gone to the florist together to design and buy the perfect corsage and boutonniere. And now everything they had been looking forward to was gone.
After the accident, Carter had been unable to bear the pain of even looking at the accident. They were required to stay at the scene to recall what they had witnessed, but Carter had sat in the backseat of his truck, and tried to feel, think, say, anything. He hadn’t watched the ambulance take his sweetheart away to the hospital; he hadn’t watched the police cars surround the scene. He hadn’t even watched when the tow truck had hauled her crushed Honda away. All he could do was stare blankly at the back of the seat in front of him. Everything about him felt crushed, broken, torn apart.
He had been driving with the guys. She had been with four other girls. They had all met at Carter’s house beforehand to grill out and get ready for the game. Everything had been perfect. The perfect weather, perfect day, perfect friends. It had seemed like nothing could go wrong. Trevor had offered to drive to the game, but Hadley had insisted that she wanted to. Her parents had just paid to put gas in her car, and she wanted to drive. The girls had dressed up in the school colors, blue and gold, and painted the windows of Hadley’s car. They had spent hours perfecting their outfits, hair, and face paint. They had been looking forward to this game since the beginning of the semester. It was their senior year, and they were at the top now. They would stand in the front row of the bleachers and lead the cheers for the rest of the student section, everyone’s eyes on them.
7:34 AM. In the waiting room of Belden Memorial Hospital, the four girls, the guys, and Carter, sat quietly, unsure of what to think of what had happened. The face paint the girls had so carefully applied streaked messily across their cheeks from the tears that they couldn’t seem to stop. The guys, once “too tough” to cry, had broken down into tears, just as Carter had. Hadley’s parents sat in the corner, her mother sobbing heavily into her father’s shoulder, and her father staring straight ahead, a blank look on his face, unable to feel anything. Hadley had been their only daughter, the only girl of five kids, and the only child left in the house. If Carter thought he was broken, he couldn’t begin to imagine how her parents felt.
They said Hadley was gone. But Carter wasn’t sure how easy it would be to accept it.
8:17 AM. Carter and the rest of his friends at the hospital had long since decided they wouldn’t be attending the dance that night. Carter could barely bring himself to leave the hospital. All he wanted to do was be able to hug her one more time. To hold her hand and laugh at her lame attempts at jokes. To surprise her at her locker in school with flowers, a note, even just a hug. To look into her gorgeous blue eyes, and smile just because he could. He didn’t know if he could even stand to go back to school, to walk the same halls alone that he had become so accustomed to walking with her, to sit in the same classes they had together, to sit with the same friends at the same lunch table, missing the most important part.
Hadley and Carter had known each other since they were four years old. They had gone to the same daycare, and their moms had met, and become really close friends. From then on, the two of them had been put together in all kinds of situations: play dates, lunch dates, and family get-togethers. They had grown up living on the same block, just a few houses apart. Growing up, Hadley’s house had been one of the few places that Carter had been allowed to walk to alone. They had always walked to the library together, and then sat in the children’s section for hours looking at picture books, laughing together at all the little things that had amused them so much. Carter knew almost everything about Hadley. From her favorite color to her favorite food, the scars she had, and the things she was most afraid of. He knew the things she hated, and the things she loved. And he knew the plans she had for her life, ones only someone with a huge heart and imagination could have dreamed of, and now it was gone.
9:24 AM. Carter stumbled out of the hospital doors and into the bright Saturday morning sunlight. Already, the temperature had risen to almost 70 degrees, not uncommon for Texas. On a normal day like this, Hadley would have called him early in the morning, far before his brain wanted to wake up, and begged him to hurry up and get out of bed so they could go somewhere for the day, whether it was the lake, the zoo, the mall, anywhere. Carter had cherished every single second he spent with her, even if the seconds were spent doing something he didn’t particularly enjoy.
He stood at the end of one of the dozens of aisles of cars. He could not figure out where he had parked his car. Much of the previous night was still a blur of tears, worry, fear and heartbreak. He wandered, slowly, through the aisles of cars, trying to find his blue pickup.
9:35 AM. Once he located his truck, he got in slowly. He threw his keys onto the passenger seat and put his head down on the steering wheel. With both hands on the wheel, Carter felt the pain of his heart breaking. Tears began streaming down his cheeks, and had he not been gripping the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles were turning white, he was sure his hands would have been shaking. His body shuddered with each of his hard, ragged breaths. The weight of what had happened had finally begun to take over. Nearly four years, she had been his everything. For nearly 7 years, she had been his best friend. For nearly 14 years, she had been a permanent fixture, friend, in his life. He had no idea how he would be able to function without her.
9:14 AM. Friday, October 16. Hadley ran up to Carter in the hallway at Persinger Academy.
“Hey, baby,” she said, standing on her tiptoes to reach up and kiss him on the check. “How was homeroom?” Her blue eyes glittered even under the stark light of the fluorescents.
“Well, it was…homeroom. Tyler was making paper airplanes again the whole time, and throwing them across the room every time Mrs. Knapp turned her back. That was about the most exciting part.” Carter smiled, and took her hand, starting to walk down the hallway.
“Tyler is so immature sometimes,” she said, giggling. “So, am I just coming over to your house right after school? What’s the plan?”
“If you have all of your stuff that you need with you, then most definitely,” he said, nodding. “I think Tanner was planning on coming over right after school, too. So we can start getting stuff ready for the grill and all of that. And you girls can make yourselves look beautiful, more so than you already are anyways.” Carter squeezed her hand and laughed, while she pouted and pretended to be upset.
The minute warning bell rang; shrill in their ears, signaling that is was time to get to class. Hadley kissed Carter on the cheek once more, before starting down the hall to her class.
“I’ll see you after school, babe!” she called down the hallway. Carter smiled to himself as he walked into Calculus, wondering once again how he had gotten so lucky to have such a wonderful woman in his life.
3:22 PM. Carter spun the lock to his combination and yanked it open. He threw his Astronomy book onto the shelf and grabbed his letter jacket off of the hook. He heard Hadley’s voice before he saw her. She turned the corner down the hallway with her best friend, Tori, absorbed in a conversation that could only involve the evening they had planned ahead of them. Even after four years, Carter still got butterflies in his stomach every time he saw her. She caught his eye from the end of the hallway, and smiled brightly at him. He started walking down the hall towards her. They met in the middle, and turned towards the front door.