Midnight Swim

It's freezing but I don't care. I'm with him and he is with me, we are happy to be together. That's all that matters. We are chest deep in bone chilling water. He pulls me to his chest. He whispers something in my ear. I don’t know what it is he is saying. I’m concentrating on how warm his breathe feels on my ear. He takes down my hair, which was put up into a ponytail before. He runs his fingers through my hair. He turns me so I’m facing toward him.

"I love you. More than you could ever know” He stares at me and I at him. He pulls me closer than before. Alexander sweeps my feet from under me. He is cradling me like you would cradle a baby. He looks at me with love in his eyes, “Hold your breath,” He tells me. He takes me under water with him. I wrap my arms around him while we’re under. We resurface, he kisses me, and I return his kiss with one of my own.

We walk back to the shore, our fingers intertwined. We grab our towels and get somewhat dry. We start to walk back his car. He stops and I stop as well he pulls me closer to him. He kisses me, I kiss back, and he moves his hands up and down my body. I can barely reach his lips. He pulls me up and I wrap my legs around his waist. I run my fingers through his hair. I stop kissing him and focus on his hair that I realize is frozen.

“Is there something wrong?” Alexander says.

“Your hair is frozen,” I feel to see if mine is to. “So is mine. Sorry I didn’t mean to ruin the moment…” I say. I look at Alexander and my thoughts melt away. I kiss him passionately. Alexander puts me down on the ground. He leans over and kisses me on the cheek.

“I will always love no matter what.” Alexander tells me.

“I love you and always will too, Alexander.” He turns around to open the car door, I assume we are leaving and walk around the front of the car.

“Hey where are you going?”

“I thought we were going leaving.” I reply

He pops the trunk and pulls out blankets and a cordless CD player with a six-pack of Jones soda.

“No not quite yet. If that’s okay…I mean if you are not cold…I just thought that…if you want to go back to camp.”

“Alexander, its fine I don’t care what we do.” We walk back to the lakeside. Alexander places the blankets on the sand.

“This is a CD that I think you’ll like,” He puts the compact disc in music starts to play. It is some crazy techno music.

“Um… I don’t really like techno that much but okay. He doesn’t say anything he just puts down the blankets and some dry towels. Alexander walk towards me just as the song changes to our song.

“May I have this dance?” He asks

I don’t even have to answer. He just knows I want to. We slow dance to the music. The song changes and Alexander stops. It made me wonder if he made this CD just for this moment. We lie down on the blanket and get us some Jones. As the music plays, we look up at the sky. I think to myself, this weekend with the Clarks has been the best weekend of my life. Nothing can beat this.

“Here,” he takes my hand, “Close your eyes,” I do, “I love, and I will always love you. The only thing I need to know if you will love me for forever as well.”

“I will always love you. I thought….” Alexander cuts me off.

“Arabella Brittney Callaway, as proof of our love for each other, would you marry me?”

I open my eyes and there is a ring on my finger. I look into his eyes.

“Yes,” I say, “Yes. Yes. Yes I will!”

“I want you to know that I don’t want to actually get married till were are out of high school. If that’s okay with you?”

“Yes,” that’s all I can say.

“Good that’s what I told your Dad.”

We continue to sit under the stars. I don’t ever want this night to end. I start listening to the music again. It’s our song. He defiantly planed this. I run my fingers over the diamond ring on my finger.

Flash forward; the room I’m in is full of morning people. I’m by Mrs. Clark. She is squeezing my left hand. Tears fill eyes.

“Alexander was the one of the most Christen young boys I had ever had the pleasure to meet. He lived a Christen life. Alexander has now gone to live with the Lord. He has left behind his fiancée Brittney Callaway and his mother LeAnn Clark…”That is all I could bare to listen to. I look at the ring on my finger. I remember what he told me at the hospital before he died.

“I love you, but don’t let me take your life, like mine was taken from me.”

Those were his last words before he slipped into an eternal sleep. He was only nineteen and some one killed him plastic cards and green strips of paper in his wallet. He was the only one I’d let call me Arabella. My mind slips back to that one night not to long ago. I will always remember that midnight swim.