Spencer is finishing up getting ready when Ashley opens her bedroom door. They smile at each other and Ashley shuts the door behind her.

“Spence, we’re going to be late for the movie.’

Spencer fixes her top, turns to look at Ashley and grabs her purse. “Alright, I’m ready. How do I look?”

Ashley’s heart beat speeds up as she answers truthfully, “Beautiful.”

They hold hands down the stairs, fingers intertwined. They say goodbye to Spencer’s dad and Arthur holds them a little longer than necessary. As they walk to the car, he lingers at the door, a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he can’t quite explain, but figuring that it must be watching his daughter grow up, he lets it go.

They’ve been together for five years, but if you asked one of them, they’d tell you that it seems like forever. Much longer than when they first met over spilt coffee. It had taken them a lot to get to the point they are now. After Clay’s death and Ashley being with Aiden, Spencer never imagined that she’d ever be able to call Ashley hers again. But here they were, sitting in Ashley’s car on their way to the movies for their anniversary.

The light turns red a block away from the theater. They sit at the intersection, Spencer laughing at the joke Ashley just told her. The light changes and just as they start to go Spencer looks out the passenger window. Before she knows what happens the car slams into them, her head snapping back, Ashley’s voice a distant echo in her mind.

Ashley’s eyes open slowly. There’s blood on the steering wheel, a gash across her forehead. She struggles to get her seatbelt off and looks over at Spencer. Spencer’s head is resting against the smashed window, her long blonde hair in her face.

“Spencer?” But Spencer doesn’t answer. Ashley gets out of the car, her shoulder throbbing with pain, her whole body raked with fear that the girl she loves might never come back to her. The passenger door is wedged tight, but Ashley is determined to get to Spencer, to make sure she’s okay. She pulls at the handle, desperate now to get Spencer out, ignoring the pain coursing through her, until she realizes that the door will not open. She cuts her finger pulling the window out of its frame, but the blood is nothing compared to what she sees when she lifts Spencer’s head up. The last thing she hears before she falls to the floor is the sound of an ambulance somewhere far off.