Stay with me

The doorknob jiggled on the other side. Someone was trying to come in. Oscar’s entire body tensed against me as he held his hand tight over my mouth. He waited for the jiggling to stop and then I felt a blow to the back of my head.

It was almost midnight, but the string lights all around me lit up the sky before the fireworks could. “Mia!” someone shouted. “Can you believe we’re here? We’re in fucking London of all places! New Year’s, baby!” The girl handed me a drink, the liquid splashing over the rim and onto the cobblestone ground beneath me. My freshly manicured nails got my attention. They were pink. “Mia, come on. It’s almost midnight.” The happy girl with big brown eyes and brown hair grabbed my hand as she pulled me down the path. People buzzed all around us. Smiling faces, lights, a Ferris wheel. The crisp winter air took my breath away as we ran through the street. Laughing, music, and conversations blurred together as this happy girl shouted against the wind and noise. “We’re almost there!” We stopped along the edge of the water line as the smells of boat fuel, salty ocean, and fried food filled my nose.

I leaned over the railing and looked down below into the black sea as soon as the fireworks went off overhead. The reflection of the colors bled across the surface of the black ocean, and I lifted my head when the lights sizzled into waterfalls, cascading in the night sky. The fireworks dimmed, leaving a trace of smoke before new colors took their place.

“Beautiful,” a slow, deep voice said beside me. I turned my head to see bright green eyes—eyes more captivating than the fireworks. My entire body turned to face him. He had his arms folded over the railing, hunched over, but his head turned toward me with an awe-struck grin. He wore a white sweatshirt, black Converse, and his jeans were faded and ripped at the knees, and fit him perfectly.

I found his eyes again. “Yeah, it is,” I whispered.

The guy shook his head and chuckled. “No, love. I wasn’t talking about the fireworks.” Heat rose in my cheeks as he turned his whole body to face me and leaned into his side. “Tell me your name.”

“Mia,” I said in reflex, unsure of how the words were able to leave me as I’d forgot everything else I’d ever known.

The guy held out his hand. I reached to shake it, but instead, he grabbed my hand and spun me around before pulling my back against his chest. His hands returned to the railing as he caged me in, but I didn’t mind. He didn’t scare me. I was finally home.

He pressed his head against the side of mine and whispered, “I’m Ollie. You know what tonight is, Mia?”

“New Year’s?” My response was accurate, but I felt foolish for saying it.

“Tonight is the night we’ll be telling our kids about one day. The night my life changed.”

A relieved smile washed over me as another firework blasted from the charter boat off in the distance. My eyes followed the rocket up into the sky, and as soon as the colors burst over us, a gust of wind smacked me in the face. Ollie pulled me closer against him, wrapping his long arms around me to keep me warm. He smelled of nostalgia and marine breeze, with a hint of cologne. I closed my eyes to take in this moment.

“No, Mia. You can open your eyes now.”

“Mia, wake up. Open your eyes.” My eyes sprung open to see the nurse hovering over me with a flashlight pointed directly in my eyes. I squinted against the light when she said, “Oh, good. Now follow my fingers.”

The nurse held a finger between us and moved it from side to side. I did as I was told, still confused to where I was and what was going on.

She dropped her finger and her head all at once. “Do you remember what happened?”

My eyes blinked rapidly. “Ollie,” I said. Oscar. The phone. I stumbled to my feet with the nurse’s assistance.

The nurse looked me up and down. “You’re going to have to come to the station.”

I looked down to see my jeans down to my ankles. Shaking my head, I reached up for the phone and exhaled when I felt it beneath my fingers. “Please, I need to see Dean Lynch. It’s important.”

“You will definitely have to talk with the dean, dear,” she explained as she pulled up my pants, and I clutched the phone in my hand.