The Story of Ty and Jessi - One Shot

A figure sat stoically by the bed, hands cupping that of the one currently occupying the bed. Her expression was unreadable, whatever turmoil that was going on in her mind, were kept from onlookers who were around the room. Some were standing idly while looking that the girl and the bed’s occupant while some where trying to keep themselves busy with their phones and music players.

Just a few hours ago, the girl was seen thrashing around hysterically, crying out to the doctors. Her friends had to restrain her or she would’ve clawed the doctors who stepped out of the operating room with their heads hung low. The girl knew the odds were against them but she kept her hopes up while the operation was going on. She wanted to believe that the person she loved would come back to her. After all, there can be miracles when you believe right? Wrong.

The crash that took place earlier that evening was labelled as the worst crash their city has seen in years. Six cars were involved and her beloved was unlucky enough to be the one in the middle. Not only that, another car had spun out of control trying to avoid the piling wreck had rammed to the side of her beloved’s car from another direction. Yes, the crash took place at a cross road.

Out of the six, her beloved’s car took the most damage. When they finally retrieved him from the wreck he was already unconscious. It was a good thing that the pile of wreckage didn’t catch fire or else, removing him from the vehicle would’ve been impossible. The paramedic rushed him into the emergency operating room just as she burst through the hospital doors, panting and crying. A good friend of hers, Sunny, was already there waiting for her. Eyes red and puffy, it was clear Sunny had cried as well. Sunny had told her that he looked almost unrecognisable with all the blood on him. He was barely breathing as well. The crew in the ambulance had restarted his heart once already while on the way to the hospital. She dropped to her knees and buried her face in her palms and cried.

She brought her beloved’s cupped hand to her lips and kissed it before bringing it to her cheek and leaned into it. She was tired. The night was no longer young and the crying she did earlier had taken a toll on her. Eye lids were heavy, dark circles were visible and her eyes were hurting due to lack of sleep. It didn’t help either that she was already sleep deprived no thanks to an incoming project deadline. She willed herself to stay awake, with the help of several cans of coffee earlier; now sitting in the trash can by the door. She would not forgive herself if she let him leave without her by his side.

Her beloved was in a coma but the doctors said he would not last the night. Too much blood was lost due to internal bleeding. Though they manage to patch up some of the major areas, it was not enough. She watched as his chest rose and fell rhythmically, she listened to the barely audible sounds made when he inhaled and exhaled through the respiratory device. She listened to the beeping sound the machine her beloved was hooked up to made. She paid attention to every little detail, like the interval between each action. It had been constant, she should be happy. Her beloved might just pull through. But just when she was starting to at least try to be positive, the next beep was a few milliseconds too late and she cut her gaze to her beloved at once.

His breathing tempo was off; it was getting slower and slower. The other occupants in the room noticed it as well, because the interval between beeps was longer. They kept still, being as quiet as possible as all laid their eyes on the one on the bed, listening to the machine as the beeps’ interval gets longer and longer and finally they heard the dreaded extended beep.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion at that time. The girl got up and shook her beloved, calling out to him while others went to move her as doctors and nurses rushed in. She watched helplessly as the doctors did their last check and pronounced her beloved dead.

“Ty Kim, time of death 4:18am”

***

“Jessica!!”

A tenor voice echoed in the bustling airport and the said girl whipped her head towards the voice and beamed. Rushing over, she nearly knocked him over when she tackled him into a bear hug. She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck and he could feel her smiling as he picked her up and gave her a squeeze.

“You silly girl..leaving your poor luggage abandoned like that” he ruffled his hair and she puffed in annoyance while he walked over to retrieve the abandoned luggage trolley sitting in the middle of the arrival hall. When he returned she latched herself onto his arm, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder while he wheeled the trolley towards the car park.

Ty asked about her recent trip abroad, mostly consisted of close ended question and she nodded or shook her head in reply. Jessica had just returned from a backpacking trip around Europe with her friends after their graduation. She had gone to London to pursue her tertiary education while he stayed behind. Ty attended her convocation but was sorry he couldn’t join her for the trip because he had limited number of days he could take off from classes. He still had a semester to go back then while Jessica had already finished hers.

Between the convocation and the end of her European trip, two months had passed and it felt really good to have her beside him again. Though it was only a couple of months but those two months were the worse. Those months were his final few weeks in university and he had to work extra hard to keep his grade point average at an acceptable level. After an unexpected failure the semester before, he had the added pressure of having one subject more than his peers and it didn’t help at all that the subject he failed was dubbed the hardest to pass in his faculty. Nevertheless he made it through and his convocation was a week away and he couldn’t be happier that Jessica would be able to attend it.

He was really glad to have her back, the drive back to Jessica’s house was filled with the comfortable silence that they have both gotten accustomed to over the years. He was looking forward to spending as much time as possible with her before the two of them get caught up in job hunting and all those boring, grown up things. They weren’t able to chat online very often because of the time difference. Wanting to have a nice long chat would mean one would have to sacrifice sleep and they both agreed that even though they really want to, they should set their studies as their priority. It was Jessica’s idea. She frantically scribbled her logic on to the board and showed him. Her logic was if they had wasted sleeping time, they would under-perform in classes and that could lead to them having to extend a semester or two and that would mean even more time apart. Before Ty could even refute the somewhat ridiculous yet logical argument, she quickly tossed the board and marker away and silenced him with her lips.

When Ty woke up the next day around noon he called Jessica but her sister picked up the phone instead and told him that she was still asleep. He thanked her and chuckled after hanging up.

This princess..ah well…who needs lunch dates when there’s dinner dates and late night movies…

He smiled to himself and got ready for lunch as the aroma of food seeped into his room.

***

“Now listen here young man, just because you’ve known my daughter for a long time doesn’t mean I’m going to go easy on you. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir. I completely understand.”

“You will have her back before 11 and no funny business whilst on your date, do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir. We’re going for dinner and a movie and I’ll have her back before her curfew.”

“And one more thing…” Jessica’s father said in an exceptionally stern voice while placing a hand on Ty’s shoulder, causing him to gulp. He tried to keep a straight face while he was being stared down by the man. There was a longer than needed pause before his expression soften and he said

“Just..take good care of her ok?” and gave his shoulder a few pats before Jessica emerged from upstairs. She came up to him and gave her father a look that said daddy, stop scaring him before taking Ty’s hands and dragged him out of the house. When they got in the car she looked at him with concern and he patted her head.

“Don’t worry, he didn’t scare me” before pecking her on the cheeks and started the car.

Though he said he wasn’t scared, he was. . Jessica’s father was usually a very calm man. Ty had never seen him angry before, not even when Jessica accidentally knocked over a can of paint while taking her new bicycle out from the garage and it fell onto the car, successfully denting the hood. Jessica got so scared she immediately hid behind Ty while her father came out to see what the ruckus was about. He didn’t get angry at all but he told Ty to step aside and gave his daughter a reassuring hug that everything was ok.

Comparing that man from all those years ago to the man who was almost threatening him at the house, he shuddered at the vast difference. It was understood. He was taking his darling daughter out on a date. Who wouldn’t get overprotective?

Ty was not planning on asking Jessica out on a date, much less confessed to her during their school festival. He was taking a break from his shift at their class’s café and was talking to a few other friends when they started teasing him how good Jessica looked in a waitress’s uniform.

“Jessica is looking fine today, isn’t she Ty?” one of his friend elbowed him and wiggled his brows.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Right..and we also didn’t see you checking her out when she walked in this morning..”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about..” Ty reached for his water bottle in his bag and unscrewed it.

“Just tell her already! Gawd!! What’s so difficult about it?”

“What’s so difficult about it? Well, obviously it’s super easy to walk up to your best friend and say ‘hey I’ve liked you since forever, will you go out with me?’ ”

Ty remembered that everybody in the room was looking incredulously behind him and there she was, standing by the door and had heard everything. That indirect confession had led to a series of fortunate events which involved an ecstatic Jessica throwing herself at a confused by equally happy Ty and their friends, who were eavesdropping outside, came bursting into the room congratulating them. And all of that had led to their first date and also a chain of dates in the following months.

Like any other day, Ty and Jessica were chilling at their usual spot under the tree in Ty’s backyard. Ty had fallen asleep while resting on her lap in that lazy afternoon. The weather was perfect. It was a cloudy day and the air was chilly as though it had just rained. Jessica smiled to herself as she stroked and played with his hair, completely forgotten about the book in her other hand. She quickly fished her phone from her side and took a picture of her boyfriend, sleeping contently on her lap with his mouth wide open. Chuckling, she took a few more pictures for blackmailing purposes and turned her attention to her neglected book, smiling contently to herself. That day happened to be their first year anniversary as a couple. After confessing that he didn’t know what to do to celebrate, Jessica proposed the idea of just spending the day together like how they usually do. It was not bad of a first anniversary.

She glanced down at the white board and marker that laid next to her and pondered for a moment that how on earth did that lead to them being what they are today. Ty had been with her all the way since they were younger; fending off bullies who teased her about the board and marker she always carried around.

***

Eyes watched from a distant as a new figure joined the existing group in the playground. It was a girl of five or so, wearing a frilly pink dress and looked like a total princess. She tried to befriend a few who were playing in the sandbox but nobody was bothered about her. The little girl got onto her feet and went to the swings but no luck there. Same with the see-saw. Everybody was too occupied with their own cliques to bother about the new girl, especially when she just stood there smiling holding up a board that said “hi, my name is Jessica. Can we be friends?”. They probably thought she was weird, he mused. So she went to take a seat on a bench. She wanted to cry because nobody wanted to be her friend. Noticing that her bottom lip was trembling, he quickly got up and made his way to the girl, flashing her his biggest grin.

“hi, my name is Ty and I want to be your friend!”

End.

A/N: well...i pictured it to be better than this but somehow words failed me today. haha but still, i hope you like is at least. thank you for reading.