Hopelessly Devoted

The story of Anne and Sumner.

        

I slowly put my arms around his neck, feeling the beating of my heart speed quickly. He hugged me around my waist, my arms were around his neck.I had to tell him.  I whispered his name in his ear.
“Sumner...”
We slowly pulled apart, I kept my hands around his neck, he kept his hands on the small of my back. I pulled one hand down from his neck to touch my necklace. I felt my fingers graze the ever-so-familiar cross as I looked up into his eyes. The deep brown eyes I had seen many times before. Just as my fingers left the cross, he pulled me in closer. I saw him lean in, and did the same, closing my eyes.
Our lips touched, my heart stopped. I felt infinite at this moment, and I didn’t care who was around, or where I was. I was with Sumner. I wasn’t alone.
Again we pulled apart, and I looked up at him. He was grinning now, and I knew what was going to happen.
People were staring, and I didn’t care. Our fingers entwined, and he walked me to my bus stop. One more hug, and a kiss on the forehead, and he left me. I got on my bus, and looked at my cell phone.

One new voicemail.....

“Hey honey, it’s me mom. Just calling to say your father and I will be out for the evening, we got an emergency business call. We left you money for pizza. See you tomorrow afternoon. Love you, bye!” My mom’s all too cheery voice was the one voicemail. I was home alone tonight, oh GREAT. My first thought was to call Lacey, my best friend. But then I got a new thought.

The tall, skinny character popped in my head- SUMNER! He could come over. We could hang out, and talk.

I got home and ordered my pizza. I then took out my phone and found Sumner’s number. I tried to call him, but it went straight to voicemail.
“Hey it’s Sumner’s Cell. You know you’ll leave a message, and if you’re lucky enough, I’ll call you back.” His voice was gone and the automated part came on. Then the beep.
“Hey Sumner, it’s me Anne. So listen, about this afternoon...“I paused for a second “Well, my parents are out for the night and I just ordered pizza. And well if you wanted to come over then you can. You know where I live. Or you can call back later.” I hung up the phone, hoping silently that Sumner would show up.

Fifteen minutes later the doorbell rang, and I opened the door, paid the pizza man, and he left. Now it was just me, my house, my dog, and the pizza. But I wasn’t really hungry.

I sat the pizza down on the counter and moseyed into the den so I could get on the computer. Maybe Sumner would be on. I quickly typed my password into AIM and it went through. I saw Lacey online, and I messaged her quickly.

Annexheint028: Hey Lace!
oxLaceyxo: Hey anne!
Annexheint028: So guess what happened today!
oxLaceyxo: What?
Annexheint028: I was going to tell Sumner i liked him. we were hugging and stuff. And when we pulled away, we looked at eachother. then he kissed me. like full on KISSED ME!
oxLaceyxo: NUH UH!
Annexheint028: yeahhhh :] hahaha hold on lace, my phone’s ringing. and it’s Sumner :] I’ll be back in a bit, okay?
oxLaceyxo: okay, love you hun, goodluck!

I quickly signed off and answered my phone.
Me: Hello?
Sumner: hey. So is that offer still up for me to come over?
Me: Yeahhh of course it is. So when do you think you can be here?
Sumner: oh, probably twenty minutes, maybe a half hour.

The doorbell rang three times, I decided I should probably check who it was.

Me: okay. hey can you hold on? someone’s at my door…
Sumner: haha. okay.

I put the phone down,and went towards the front door. I peeked out at the driveway, there were no cars. It was kind of creepy, but whatever. I yelled I’d be right there, and went to answer the door.

I opened it up and couldn’t believe who I saw.....

“SUMNER!” i squealed as he hung his phone up and smirked. I quickly hugged him, and the door shut behind me. I pulled away from him slowly, and looked up into his dark brown eyes. He’s about seven inches taller, but I could see them ever so clearly. I saw him move in to kiss me, and this time I got up on my tiptoes, and put my arms around his neck. It was different this time. I wasn’t as nervous, or confused. We pulled apart and decided we should head inside.

We went into the kitchen, and sat down. After eating in a mostly-awkward silence, we went into the livingroom to watch TV. There was a movie on Payperview that I wanted to see, so I rented it. We were on the couch, he was on one side, me on the other. Soon though, I had made my way closer to him, we were only inches apart. I put my hand down, and not too long after he started to play with my fingers, he laced his fingers in mine.

I scooted even closer, and put my head on his shoulder. He looked down at me and smiled. He took his hand out of mine, and put it around me, I crossed my arms over my stomach and felt his hands playing with my fingers. Again, I looked up at him and smiled.

We actually watched most of the movie, which was actually just a totally fake horror movie. It was just these two stupid kids who figured out the room they were in, they’d be attacked by some ninjas. Then they tried to escape, the ninjas try to come. They eventually get out after a bunch of “plot twisters” that were totally expected. But whenever I jumped, I noticed Sumner’s grip tighten on me, then relax.

After the movie finished, we remained in the same position. I looked up at him, and this time it was MY turn to smile. He leaned down and kissed me slowly. I turned around to face him,and put my hands around his neck. I was in heaven right now, just where I wanted to be. I felt his tongue pushing against my lips, so I opened them, allowing his tongue in. His hands were on my back the whole time, and after a while we pulled apart. Sumner had a devious grin on, and I knew he too was happy.

But when we heard a car pull up in the driveway, we both got a confused look on our faces........

I saw headlights cut off, and an engine die. I had no idea who was coming to my house, or why at nine at night. My first instinct thought it was my parents, and at that thought I jumped away from Sumner instantly, knowing my parents wouldn’t like it. I heard a knock at the door, and realized quickly that my parents wouldn’t knock. I took a quick peek out the window, and saw a police car. Sumner saw my expression, and he stood up next to me. I walked over the door, him following behind me like a shadow, and opened it. Standing there was a police officer I didn’t recognize.

“Anne Heint?” his solemn voice startled me. I nodded silently, scared of why he wanted me. I was a good girl. I went to school, went home. I sang in the choir, and competed in gymnastics. I didn’t do anything wrong, ever.
“Anne, I have bad news. I was just on my way to the station when I passed a car crash. One car was smashed in the front, the other had been pushed off the road and had rolled into the woods. I stopped slowly, and saw the driver of the smashed car get out. She was hysterical. I asked what happened and she told me the story.
“She had been turning out of her driveway, when she lost control. She hit the oncoming car, pushing it off the road. She said it had rolled at least twice before landing upside down. She didn’t have her phone, and didn’t know what to do. I almost instantly picked up my phone, called dispatch, then had the ambulance called. We had no idea what had happened to the people in the car that was flipped over, but we knew that they hadn’t made their way out.
“About ten minutes later the ambulances showed up. We got the doors open, and pulled out two people- a woman who looked to be in her late thirties, and a man of the same age. They were not responding to anything, but they had a pulse, and that was all that mattered. The ambulances took off instantly to the hospital, but the chief told me to stay behind and check for ID. The tow truck that had came to tow the smashed car flipped the car back over, to make it easier. I found the wallet of the man, almost instantly. I found ID and then when I checked it I was told to come here. And that’s what I did. They’re still alive, just very, very hurt. The driver that caused the crash had some head injuries but was released shortly after examined. They’re staying at the Central City Hospital, both in critical,comatose, condition. You’re welcome to visit them, any time you’d like. Do you have any questions?”
I shook my head, choking back tears. Sumner’s grip tightened on me, and I knew it wasn’t long before the tears came.
“I’m very sorry I had to tell you all of this. Best luck to you and your parents, and goodnight.” He stepped off the stairs and got back into his car, and drove off. Sumner and I stepped inside, and as soon as I heard the door shut behind me, I turned around to face Sumner. I was looking up at him, and the first tear slipped slowly, silently. More started to come, at a faster pace. Then the sobs broke out, and Sumner gripped onto me tightly. He wiped the tears away from my face, and after a few minutes I stopped crying enough to talk.
“So what do I do now?” I asked, voice groggy from tears.
“We can go visit them if you’d like. Or you could go alone.” he replied, his voice a near whisper.
“No, no. I want you to come with me, please. But can you drive us? I don’t think I can drive myself there. You can drive my car though.” he nodded and helped me into my coat, and out the door. We got into the car and pulled out of the driveway. It was a twenty five minute drive, where we went in almost silence, a few sobs and sniffles from me occasionally. Sumner’s hand was holding mine, and that made me feel better.  Way better.
We got to the hospital, parked, and went to the main desk. We asked to see my parents and the nurse told us where to go. I thanked her and quietly took a deep breath. Sumner’s grip on my hand never was broken, and I was thankful for that. We made down the right halls, and up the stairs, into the intensive care unit. My jaw dropped at what I saw........