Jessica: A Fateful Night

Like he always did on a Friday night after work, Jessica Tucker's boyfriend, Alex went down to the pub with his mates for a few drinks after work. As usual, Jessica thught nothing of it. After all, Alex always went to the pub and had drinks with his mates and he always came home late.

That was, Jessica thought nothing of it until she got a call from the local hospital at around 9:30, 10 that night. "Miss Tucker?" Asked a voice. "Yes." Jessica said nervously. "I'm a nurse in the emergency ward. Your boyfriend has just come in. He's asking for you." Explained who Jessica assumed must be a nurse. "I'll be right there." Jessica promised, slamming down the phone and racing frantically around her little apartment, gathering her things.

15 minutes later, she was sitting beside Alex in his hospital bed. He'd been sleeping ever since the accident, when suddenly he woke up. "Jess?" He said weakly. "Alex. I'm here." Jessica replied, reaching for his hand and squeezing it tight. "Jess. I love you." Alex whispered softly. "I love you too." Jessica agreed.

Hours later, Alex had regained enough strength to tell Jessica what had happened. "As you know, me and Jake and Seth and Wayne, we were all at the pub." Alex began. "We all agreed that Jake would be the designtaed driver. But as the night went on, we all jad drink after drink, and pretty soon, we were all drunk, even Jake." Alex went on. "And Seth decided that seeing as he was the least drunk of all of us, he'd drive. So he got behind the wheel, although still drunk." "Before we knew what was going on, there was a bright flash of light, Seth swerved the car round, there was a huge bang and then I'm waking up here next to you." Alex finished.

Suddenly, Jessica heard a loud beeping noise. She looked over to see that it was Alex's heart monitor. His heart was beating really fast. "Nurse!" She yelled urgently. Almost immediately, a nurse came flying out of nowhere, pushing her out of the way, and out of the room.

Jessica watched in horror from the window as a team of nurses and doctors tried and failed to revive Alex from his sudden coma. Then she saw one of the doctors peering down at his wrist. But it didn't occur to Jessica that he was calling time of death. In the rush, and her panic, Jessica thought he was timing how long it took the rest of the team to treat Alex. That was until a nurse came out of the room, a sympathetic look on her face and told Jessica of the news. Jessica sat down and shook her head in her hands, beginning to sob.

The next thing that Jessica knew, someone was sitting next to her, their arm around her shoulders. Jessica looked up to see Garry, Alex's older brother. "I know Jess. The hospital called and told me what happened." Jessica leaned into Garry, still unable to stop crying.

Months later, Garry and Jessica began dating, and eventually fell in love and got married.

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This is the 4th in a series of short stories based on the faces of That's Life! Magazine