Page 94 of Forever Mine
Fighting against the weight of Julien’s body dragging me down, I propel us forward with sheer determination. Each inch of distance I manage to swim feels like a hard-won battle.
Finally, my feet find solid ground on the squishy, muddy bottom of the lake. Almost there.
As carefully as I can, since I don’t know the extent of his injuries, I wrap both arms around his chest and pull him the rest of the way out. The night is warm, but the air feels frigid on mysoaked clothes and skin. Lying him gently on the muddy grass, I collapse beside him and caress his face.
His eyes flutter open, dazed and unfocused, but they find mine, and in that moment, everything else fades away until all I see is him.
“Hey.” I kiss his forehead.
A weak smile plays across his lips as his eyes drift closed again. Salty tears track down my cheeks as my heart fractures into a million pieces.
“Honey, I need you to stay with me. Open those beautiful grays,” I whisper, my vocal cords cracking with emotion.
“My head hurts.”
“You have a nasty cut on your forehead. Probably a concussion, too. I don’t want to touch it and get it infected.”
“What happened?”
Something must have hit us, or we hit something. I didn’t notice another car or a deer on the road.
“I don’t know. I need to call for help.”
He mumbles something about fucking hospitals. I couldn’t agree more, but he needs to be checked out. He could have something internal, or a spinal injury, or something else that I can’t see. Just thinking about it makes me nauseous. The love of my life was almost taken from me tonight, that grim possibility overwhelmingly painful to fathom.
Reaching into my pocket, I grab my phone. My waterproof phone. I’ve never been so grateful for wasting the extra money it cost to buy one. Dad insisted after the third one I destroyed at the pool. The myth about drying out a phone by placing it in a plastic bag full of rice is complete bullshit.
My hands are shaking so badly, it takes four attempts before I’m able to unlock the screen and press the emergency call button.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
I put it on speaker.
“We’ve been in an accident. Our car went into the lake. My boyfriend is hurt. We need an ambulance. Please hurry.”
The operator’s voice remains calm. “Can you tell me your location?”
“I…” Shit. I wasn’t paying attention. “I’m not sure where we are. Can you track my phone’s location?”
“We were on Colby Road,” Julien mumbles.
“Colby Road. There’s a lake. Our car is submerged, but we got out,” I relay to the woman.
“An ambulance is on its way,” she assures me. “I’ll stay on the line until they get there.”
I glance up the bank at the flickering light. “How long?”
“Ten minutes.”
She asks me a bunch of questions. If I’m hurt. What Julien’s vitals are. His breathing, his pulse, if I know CPR.
I don’t want to think about that. I can’t. Julien is going to be okay. I won’t accept any other outcome.
Ten minutes feel like a fucking eternity until I hear the faint wail of sirens.
“I hear them,” I tell the woman.
The first responders arrive in a blur of flashing lights and hurried movement.
