Sarah walked into the house and everyone started shouting. She started to laugh and smile; "this is great! Thank you so much everyone!" But she kept scanning the crowd for the people she wanted to see the most, her parents. She plastered a smile on her face and hugged everybody. It's not that she didn't appreciate the whole party, and she didn't want it, it certainly was awesome. But she just wanted to see her parents. The last time she actually saw her parents in the flesh was about 4 months ago. She used to cry herself to bed when she could breathe when they went on tour and her parents worked all the time. She had been so lonely and she hoped every day that her parents would come. But it turned out to be a quick 5-minute phone call every weekend. She understood they didn't want to see their daughter in the condition she was in but to never come by. She would be angry with them and hate them if it wasn't for the fact that those kinds of emotions just weren't in her. She kept looking for her parents. She thanked everyone for showing up and everyone kept asking her how it felt to 'have a heart' and she politely giggled at the stupid joke but kept arching her neck looking for any sign of her family.
It had been over an hour and not one of them had shown up. People started to leave and Ike made sure nothing had been said saying it might stress her out. She thanked him and kept saying she was just weak and tired and she wanted to make the announcement with him. Because of this Ike and his family also tried to usher people out after a bit claiming she needed her rest. She walked up to her room and all her stuff was there. But she couldn't believe her room. It was EXACTLY like the last day she had seen it and it was spotless. Not one grain of dust littered the place. She couldn't believe it. It was very much apparent that her mother had spent a great deal of time cleaning her room all the time. She opened the closet and all her clothes were in there. On her shelves even her picture frames were perfect. She lied down on the bed and took a deep breath. It even smelled the same way it did, like vanilla or citrus. She looked over at her desk and everything was in the same order. She knew she'd have to go shopping when she earned the money because she needed some new certain types of clothing. She closed her eyes and just listened. Tears started pouring out of her eyes, "mommy . . . daddy." And she just ached. She should have figured the day she'd come back they wouldn't be there for her. She just hoped that maybe they would. She realized at that moment why she was so clingy with her friends, because she didn't have anyone else. She was afraid to lose people. But she sat up and stopped crying and though about her engagement to Ike. "Oh no!" And she just sunk her head into her hands.
She sat there thinking about it trying to remain calm. "Ok, let's think about this rationally." She said to herself out loud. But the more she said that the more she panicked. She loved Ike but didn't want to MARRY him. She honestly thought she was going to die so said yes because she didn't want to upset him. In the back of her mind she thought if she did live then they would be ok for a long time but never really considered the consequences. She started shaking after thinking she could tell him the truth and she didn't want to marry him simply because he had told his family. "Oh what a mess!" And she looked down, "I can't believe this is happening to me!" And she lied down on her bed carefully so she wouldn't pop the stitches in her chest. She just lied there and felt the soft beating of her new heart and just let her worries fall away as she felt the soft pumping of her heart. She started falling asleep to soft and even beating. She finally was in a deep sleep and didn't hear the garage going up.
She shifted in bed and slowly let her lids pop up. She didn't hear anything in the house at all. She figured her parents weren't home from work yet. She realized she had to go look in the paper for a job soon. Those medical bills were going to pile up and she couldn't let her parents and Hanson take care of it. It was her body and heart, she should at least help pay for it. She got up to go search the paper for anything that she might find interesting for a future job. She noticed the living room light on, she assumed the last person accidentally left it on. She walked into the living room to turn it off thinking how the lighting bill would skyrocket. "Sarah?" She stopped, "mom?" Her mother got up and her eyelids drooped, "MOM!" And Sarah ran up to her mother and hugged her, "be a little careful, the stitches will pop really easily." "I'm sorry honey," "that's ok!" And she cried, "why were you never their mom?" "We had to work honey, we still needed to pay other bills. Plus the hospital ones were killing us and still are." She wiped her eyes. "I understand completely. Where's Dad?" "He's still coming yet, he gets off in an hour."
She nodded, "It's Friday, what about school? Am I going to go back on Monday?" Her mother looked at her, "what do you want to do?" "I don't know, I want to go back but I really need the rest." "Well, how about next week's Monday?" "Ok, I'll call the school and get it set up. But what everybody else, like your friends? Are you going to let them know sooner about you being back?" "No." And Sarah left it at that, "Mom, instead of Trust, I want you to enroll me into Spears instead." Her mother nodded, "that's fine, I'll do that if you'd like." And her mother went back to the couch and lay back down. Sarah walked away into her room and shut the door. She sighed and sat down on the bed. She looked around and decided to trash all of the garbage that reminded her of the past. She walked over to her desk and opened the first drawer.
She pulled out a red and gray shoebox and opened it up. Inside were photos of her and her friends before her problem and during the beginning when it was nothing more then a once in a while active heart murmur. There was a few of her and her once best friend Trisha. Then another of her at a party hosted by Hannah with another friend, Daniel. Tears started to stream down her face. She flipped it over and read the writing by Dan,
"Always and forever you and me. I was born to make you happy."
She sniffled and decided she couldn't throw the photo away simply because they had too much past and she didn't want to trash all of it. She realized she couldn't throw all these photos away. It was too painful for her to do for one thing and she realized maybe one day everything might be patched up. She flipped the photo over again and realized those exact words were to be in a song. She smiled and remembered that was the last party she attended before, well, before she got sick. That's when she finally thought about what she thought about how everyone she thought were her true friends abandoned her.
It had been four days and Sarah was slowly being able to do the normal things again but slowly and making sure not to pop any staples and stitches. She carefully took a shower and carefully dried and wrapped a green terry cloth robe around her and tied it. She undid the towel from around her wet hair and flipped her head once or twice and added kiwi-smelling mousse and added it. She washed her hands off and dried them. Her hair was in little one-two centimeter strands and she walked into her room because the door was already open and she shut it without turning around. She felt someone from behind her grab tighten their arms around her waist. She screamed a loud piercing scream before the person covered her mouth.
"Sarah, shut up! It's just me!" Her heart slowly stopped beating so rapidly and it's beat returned too normal. "Don't EVER do that again. And second of all, who let you in?" "Your mother, you were in the shower and she said to wait for you in your bedroom and then she left to work. Is there something wrong with that?" "No, you just scared the new heart right out of my chest." "I'm sorry, I didn't hurt you did I?" "No, you just scared me." And she turned around to face him.
His hair was down, not pulled back in a hair tie. He didn't blow-dry it straight either so it was hanging in slightly curly strands. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a black wife beater shirt. She hugged him, "I'm glad you came over, but turn around, I have to get dressed." "Oh, no problem." He walked over to her bed and turned around. "Ike?" "Yeah?" "Get away from the mirror." "Fine!" And he faked a sad sigh and lay down on the bed facing her but closed his eyes. "I'm trusting you not to look so those eyes better be closed." He smiled, "I promise." She looked at him with his eyes closed. With the sunlight streaming into the windows he looked pretty darn innocent of doing anything inappropriate. She walked over to her bureau and pulled out a bra and underwear. She put them on the bureau and walked over to the closet and looked around for something to wear.
"So, what are you doing today?" "Nothing really, I was hoping to do something with you today because we haven't done anything for a couple of days. Besides, I wanted to ask you about announcing our engagement, or if you wanted to do it at all." She wasn't sure how to bring it up. She stopped looking around her close and looked at him thinking did she really want to spend the rest of her life with him? She walked over to him and he was still waiting on the bed propped up a little from her pillows. "Sarah? What do you think? What do you want to do?" lay down next to him and laid her head on his chest. "I don't know Isaac." He jumped a little surprise and he opened his eyes. He looked down at her and put his hand on top of her's, the one hand that was lying on his chest. "Well, whatever you want I don't care." And he felt the cool gold and diamond on her left-handed ring finger. She inched up and laid her head on his broad shoulders. She inhaled and realized then that she could spend the rest of her life with him. And also, she thought, they could wait to get married for quite awhile.
"I'm tired, I don't want to go back to school." "You liked it before." "Past tense, that's what I'm getting at." "Well, no one really understood." "No, they did, and they didn't give a damn." He didn't know what to say but she spoke up again, "I need you to drive me also. I haven't driven in so long I want to wait." "Ok, that's fine. But there's something else." "What?" "Do you want to go to the MTV Music Awards with us?" She sat up and her jaw dropped opens, "Are you serious?" "Dead serious."
She looked at him and her eyes widened to the size of saucers. "OH MY GOSH YEAH! WHEN?"He started laughing, "calm down Sarah." "We would leave in two weeks. Well, actually, you would we have to leave in a couple days because we have to make an appearance on some TV shows." She stood up and so did he straighten his shirt. "What I'll do is in a week I'll send you the plane ticket and we'll meet you at JFK. We'll have you take a pretty late flight so you get there in the early morning so getting mobbed won't happen." She ran over to him and hugged him, "OH MY GOSH! THANK YOU SO MUCH!" But she then stopped smiling, "what do I do about a dress and everything. I don't have any money. I can't go with you Ike, there is no way I can afford it."
He just looked at her, "Sarah, we will get you what you need." She shook her head, "absolutely not. You paid for the hospital bills. And everything else, I will figure out something. And if I'm not on the flight then you know I can't come with you." He sighed, "fine, but Sarah, you have to find a way to get out there!" She smiled and kissed him, "I swear, I will!" And she sent him out of the room so she could get dressed.
