Broken Glass Read online

  “What are you doing?” I asked him, puzzled.

  “Let’s go look at the stars,” he said simply, giving me a sly smile and getting out of the car. He went to the bed of his El Camino and pulled out a blanket for us to lie in the grass. Clearly, this had been planned. He spread the blanket out on the grass.

  “Tyson, you’re insane,” I laughed, as I sat down on the blanket.

  “I have to tell you something,” he said, smiling at me. “We got a recording deal!”

  “That’s great!” I exclaimed, throwing my arms around him. “Oh, Tyson, when did you find out?”

  “Today,” he told me. “The record label called Pete and said they loved the demo we sent them. They want us to come in on Thursday and look at some contract papers for us to sign on their label.”

  “Oh, baby, that’s so fantastic!!” I squealed, kissing him. His hand cupped my jaw and his lips lingered on mine.

  “There’s something else, too,” he said softly, his eyes searching mine when we’d pulled away.

  “Yeah?” I whispered. He took my hands in his.

  “What if I told you that I’ve found my forever?” he asked me. I didn’t reply, but instead, just stared as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, red box.

  “Tyson,” I whispered, my hands covering my mouth and my bottom lip beginning to quiver. He opened the box and inside was a sparkling engagement ring.

  “I think about you in more than just the now,” he said, his eyes never leaving mine. “I think about you and how you looked when I first met you—falling out of that church window. I think about you and how you looked today—in just jeans and a t-shirt. I think about how you’ll look tomorrow, or six months from now, when you’re graduating from college, or when you’re going to your first day on a new job that you’ve wanted all your life. Or when you’re walking down the aisle towards me in the most beautiful white wedding dress I’ve ever seen…I even see you playing out in the backyard of a house we have yet to buy with the kids, in just a pair of dirty sweatpants and a hoodie.”

  Tears were streaming down my face now. He took my hand in his again and slid the ring on my left third finger. It was a perfect fit. The sparkle on that diamond reminded me of the sparkle that was always in Tyson’s eyes.

  “I told you the first night we met that I hadn’t found my forever yet,” he continued, and I saw tears in his blue eyes now—blue eyes that were brighter than I’d ever seen them before. “But I was lying then. Even that night, I knew it was you, Ava. It sounds corny and ridiculous, but I just…there you were.”

  He paused for a moment before going on with his speech.

  “I am so completely taken by you,” he whispered, his voice quivering slightly. “A-and I want to be completely taken with you for every day for the rest of my life—” His voice cut off then and I threw my arms around his neck, squeezing him tightly.

  “Yes!” I cried. “Yes, the answer is yes! I want to marry you because you’re my forever, too and I’ve known that just as long as you have!” I pulled away and kissed him, long and hard.

  “Infinity plus one,” he whispered, smiling crookedly.

  “Yeah,” I whispered back. “Infinity plus one.”

  When I got back to the apartment that night, I wordlessly stuck my hand in Cassie’s face, causing a major flip-out moment. We both started jumping up and down, screaming and crying and laughing.

  “I’m going to be the maid of honor, right?” she said, through all this commotion.

  “Of course!” I laughed.

  When I told my mother over the phone the next afternoon, she didn’t take the news quite as well as Cassie had. She was a little reproachful, to my extreme surprise. I tried to ignore her reaction and told myself that maybe she was just convinced that I was making a huge mistake by totally and completely giving my heart to someone.

  “Not all love stories end badly,” I tried to tell her. “I know you’ve lost faith in ‘forever’, but Mom, you have to admit that even though you lost Dad, when you were with him, it was the best time of your life.”

  She was quiet for a moment after I’d said this.

  “Well, as long there’s love there,” was her trite reply finally. “And Ava?”

  “Yeah, Mom?”

  “He’d better take care of you,” she told me. “He better make it worth it. Every day of your life better be full of happiness. I mean that.”

  5.

  We didn’t set a date for our wedding. I wanted to graduate from college before starting a new life, and Tyson wanted to focus on his music career after signing with a new recording company.

  Our three-year anniversary came at such a euphoric time in our lives. Tyson was playing with his band at major public places and events so often and they were really getting their music out there. As for me, I would be graduating college with the highest possible honors in my major of business marketing and I was already getting several job offers from some of the biggest advertising firms in the region. Things were going so amazing for us, in fact, that we finally began to plan to get married two months after I’d graduated.

  However, in early April of that year, just a mere semester before I was to graduate, something very strange happened. Tyson and I were sitting in the hammock in his room when he said something that made my heart nearly stop.

  “What if I didn’t make it to your graduation, baby?”

  “What?” I replied, surprised by the question. “Why wouldn’t you make it?”

  “I dunno,” he said quietly. “It’s just that…Ava, what if one day, you woke up and I just wasn’t there anymore?”

  “Tyson, I don’t understand where you’re headed with this,” I told him, frowning.

  “I’ve got this feeling, is all,” he said, his eyes searching mine. “I can’t explain it…but I want to know, Ava…what would you do if I…if I didn’t live forever?”

  I just stared at him for a moment.

  “I-I don’t want to think about that, Tyson,” I replied, really not liking this conversation. “Why are you asking me this?”

  He took my hand in his then and rested his head on my shoulder.

  “If something ever happened to me,” he said slowly. “I wouldn’t want you to be alone forever because you felt like you had to be faithful to me.”

  “I don’t want to think about my life without you in it,” I said, taking my hand from his.

  “Ava,” he said, sitting up and looking at me. “I’m being serious, okay? Don’t get mad.”

  “I’m being serious, too,” I replied hotly. “I don’t want to think about that! What, are you planning on leaving me?”

  “No!” Tyson exclaimed, touching my cheek tenderly with his hand. “Look, I told you, I can’t explain it, but I have a really strong feeling that something could happen to me. I’m not invincible or immortal, Ava. And if something did ever happen to me, and I couldn’t get back to you in this life, I want you to promise me that you’ll let yourself love someone else.”

  “Listen to yourself!” I cried. “You’re scaring me, Tyson! And what the hell kind of promise is that? You know I could never love anybody else like I love you!”

  “I know that, but I don’t want you to be alone for the rest of your life!” he said loudly, getting up from the hammock. “I love you so much, Ava, but if I couldn’t be with you anymore…if being with you was out of my control, I mean…I want you to let yourself be in love again.”

  “This is a ridiculous conversation and I refuse to go any further,” I said coldly, crossing my arms. Tyson sighed and bent down, scooping me up in his arms and twirling me around.

  “Let’s play Mario,” he said then, setting me down on the ground, with his arms still around my waist. I giggled.

  “It’s funny how we refuse to participate in playing video games manufactured after the original Nintendo generation,” I commented. Tyson laughed.

  “That’s because Mario kicks ass,” he replied. “C’mon. Oh, and I’m gonn
a be the princess this time.”

  And just like that, I put the disturbing conversation we’d had out of my mind.

  Friday of that week, Tyson and the band were off to Raleigh, North Carolina to play at this big, new, ritzy club on the beach.

  I was still asleep in my bed at my apartment when he got up that morning around 8:30. The noise he made as he showered, dressed, and got all his stuff together eventually woke me up.

  “Hey, honey,” I yawned, turning over and looking at him through squinty eyes that were slowly adjusting to the new day’s light shining through the window.

  “Hey,” he whispered loudly. “I’m sorry I woke you up. I was trying to be quiet.”

  I chuckled and with a motion of my index finger, told him to come to me.

  “What is it?” he asked, coming over to the bed and sitting down.

  “You want me to make you some breakfast or something?” I asked him. He shook his head.

  “No, I gotta get going,” he replied. “I’m late as it is. I’m supposed to meet the guys at Pete’s house at nine and it looks like it’s not going to happen.” I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck, giving him a squeeze.

  “I love you,” I said, kissing his cheek. “Be careful, okay?”

  “All right,” he smiled, giving me a soft kiss on my lips. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.” He got up and headed out of the room.

  “Call me when you get down there!” I called after him.

  “Okay!” he yelled back and I heard the front door of my apartment shut.

  He called me when he arrived in Raleigh that afternoon, and then he also called me again that night when they’d finished their show. It’d gone great, he told me, and they hoped to get some calls the next week about signing on to another bigger record label in Orlando, Florida.

  They headed back up to Virginia the next afternoon and Tyson called me as they were driving out.

  “I’ll call you when we get into town,” he promised. “My guess is that we’ll be home around nine tonight.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I love you, Tyson. You’re staying with me tonight, right?”

  “You know it,” he replied and I laughed because I could somehow just see the sly smile on his face.

  “Be careful,” I said. “Tell Pete to drive safe.”

  “Hey, Pete, Ava says to drive like an old man,” Tyson said to Pete. I heard Pete laugh, along with Kemper and Dean, Tyson’s other band mates.

  “What do we say to that, boys?” Tyson asked. And then, in unison, they all chanted,

  “Hey, it’s all gravy, baby!”

  “Have fun,” I replied, laughing. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Okay,” Tyson said. “Love ya, honey.”

  “I love you, too. Bye.”

  Less than two minutes later, I received a text message on my cell phone from Tyson:

  Couldn’t say in front of the guys. I luv u

  sooooo much, Ava, & I always will, no matter

  what happens. I’ll always be here. I luv u

  infinity + 1

  Nine o’clock rolled around that night without my even realizing it. I was so into a paper I was writing for my English class that when Cassie came into the room and told me it was ten already, I almost didn’t believe her.

  “Wasn’t Tyson supposed to be here at nine?” Cassie asked me.

  “Yeah, he was,” I replied, sighing, and turning off my computer. “I’ve been working on this paper so long, I lost track of time. Oh, and my phone’s in the bedroom. I hope he hasn’t called and I missed it.”

  “I’m going over to Trevor’s,” Cassie said then. “Listen, if you need anything, just call me, okay? And I wouldn’t worry about Tyson. He’s probably just running a little behind because of traffic or something.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’ll call him. Have fun, Cass.” She left then and I went to my bedroom and got my cell phone out of my purse. I had one missed call from Tyson at around 8:15 p.m. I dialed his number. His voicemail picked up. I waited about ten minutes and called him again. I got his voicemail. I repeated this same routine for the next ten minutes and got his voicemail every time. It was ten-thirty. I was getting worried.

  I called Pete. No answer on his phone, either. So I called the other guys in the band, Kemper and Dean. No answer.

  So, totally in a panic, I called Jake. He actually answered. I asked him if he’d heard from Tyson.

  “Yeah,” he told me. “He called at around 8:30, I think. Said he was coming by here to pick up the El Camino and then head to your place. He said he tried to call you, too, but you didn’t pick up.”

  “So he hasn’t come by yet?” I asked, chewing nervously on my bottom lip.

  “No,” Jake said. “I figured he’d just had the guys drop him off at your place.”

  “Well, he’s not here,” I said, a slight edge in my voice. “And I keep trying to call him and he won’t pick up.”

  “What about Pete?” Jake asked.

  “I’ve tried him, too,” I replied. “And Kemper, and Dean…Jake, I’m really worried. Tyson wouldn’t just not call.”

  “Okay, listen,” Jake said. “I’ll drive over to Dean’s apartment and see if they’re there. You keep trying to call Tyson. I’ll call you back in a little while, all right?”

  “Okay,” I replied. “Bye.”

  I did as Jake said and kept trying to call Tyson. I never got an answer. I called Cassie at one point and told her what was going on. She offered to come home, but I felt stupid for worrying her, so I told her it was probably nothing.

  At midnight, my cell phone rang. It was Jake.

  “Ava, there’s been an accident.”

  6.

  As long as I live, I shall never ever forget those words.

  I lost my breath for a second.

  “I went over to Dean’s house and no one was there,” Jake told me. “And so, on my way back, Pete called me from the hospital and said they’d been in a wreck.”

  “Oh God,” I whispered. “What hospital? Are you going?”

  “I’m coming to get you,” Jake said. “I’ll be there in less than ten minutes.”

  When we arrived at the hospital, all the nurse could tell us was that there had been one instant fatality and one in extreme critical condition. We were left to wonder who the fatality had been.

  Pete and Kemper were in the waiting room. Kemper had a cast on his arm and Pete was pacing around and when he saw us, he immediately came to me with a hug.

  “What happened?” Jake asked.

  “We were on Franklin Road, going around that curve,” Pete explained, talking too fast. “And there was this car on the other side of the road going what had to be at least 80 miles per hour or more, and he was on our side of the road. So I-I panicked and yanked the steering wheel to the right as fast as I could. I-I overcorrected. I thought I could maneuver the car quickly enough so that we’d skid down the embankment and stop, but we hit a tree head on, the car flipped three times down the embankment, and landed upside down in the field below.”

  “God, man, that’s bad,” Jake said. “What happened? Did you get hurt at all?”

  “What about Tyson? Is he okay?” I spoke up, my voice unusually high and shrill. Pete didn’t look directly at me.

  “I got out with a scrape on my arm,” he replied, showing us. “And some bruises on my back. Kemper was in the backseat sleeping and he was shoved so hard against the side of the car that it broke his arm…and he’s got a few bruises, but that’s it. The right side of the car was smashed flat, though, and Dean was pinned in. It took an hour with the Jaws of Life to get him out. And Tyson…” Pete’s voice faded.

  “What happened to Tyson, Pete?” I demanded, tears beginning to well up in my eyes. Pete sighed and, after a moment’s pause, finally answered me.

  “When we hit the tree, Tyson was ejected from the car out the front window,” he said quietly. “When I got out of the car to go back up to the road and get help, Tyson was…he was st
ill in the branches of the tree…”

  I stared at him.

  “What does that mean?” I asked, my bottom lip beginning to quiver.

  “Ava, I’m so sorry—” Pete started, reaching out to touch my arm, but I jerked away violently.

  “Pete, what the hell does that mean?” I said loudly, my voice shaking now. Other people in the waiting room had turned to look at us.

  “Ava, he didn’t make it,” Pete looked down at his shoes.

  I shook my head, backing away from him.

  “No, no,” I muttered. “You don’t know that. You don’t know that. The nurse said she didn’t know who the fatality was, so how could you-“

  “I saw him, Ava,” Pete said then, tears in his eyes. “I saw him there and he…he was—” Pete broke off, covering his face with his hands.

  “He couldn’t have gone out the window,” I was muttering incessantly. “He always wore his seatbelt…”

  “He took off his seatbelt right before we wrecked,” Kemper spoke up, and his eyes were full of sadness. “To take his jacket off.”

  “No,” I whispered, the tears beginning to roll one after the other down my cheeks. “No, no, no, no…NO! I WANT TO SEE HIM!” I was screaming now. “HE’S NOT DEAD!!! I WANT TO SEE HIM!!! I DEMAND TO SEE HIM!!!!”

  Jake gently grabbed me by my shoulders and was trying to calm me down.

  “Shhh, shhh, Ava,” he was saying. “Don’t scream—”

  “LET ME GO!!!” I screeched, trying to jerk away from him. “LET ME GO!!! I WANT TO SEE HIM!!!”