Sunsets and Car Washes

A/N: So this is my first short story so go easy on me you guys :)

I met Blake Harrison at the most unlikely of places to ever meet someone: a car wash.

I remembered going up there only to have this dashing college give me a dimply smile and asking if I wanted to have my car waxed. Up to this day I can’t remember what I said exactly but whatever it is made him throw his head back and laugh, his blue eyes twinkling with laughter. After that he sent me off and ordered for a full service. I said thanks and drove my car to have his full washing service.

I didn’t see him again, at least not until I was out partying with a couple of friends. I was at the bar ordering some drinks when he appeared out of nowhere and smiled. I remembered him because of the dimples.

“Well isn’t it wax girl,” he said as a greeting.

“Um, hello to you too car wash boy.”

His grinned. “Blake Harrison.”

“Williams. Liv Williams,” I said cornily.

It worked because he laughed again. “So Liv,” he began and I thought he was about to ask for my number or something, “I want to ask for a favor.”

“Yeah?” I asked him, cocking my head to the side.

“Would you break up with me and act like a real bitch? Please?” he asked, running a hand through his tousled brown hair.

I sighed. Oh, well he was certainly jumping ahead in this relationship. “Sure,” I shrugged, giving in.

“Thanks Liv, you’re the best. I will have to pay you off somehow. I know how! Lots of free wax for your car, sound likes a deal, huh?”

 I nodded and proceeded to break up with Blake Harrison before our relationship ever started, it was quite public and all and of course I made him seem like the victim with my dramatic storm off and everything. After that, I thought I would never see him again.

*

I saw Blake one month after that at the library. He seemed to be concentrating really hard on a text book. I didn’t know what was it with me but whenever my eyes found him I couldn’t help but to stare, maybe it was the way he was so light and charismatic that he just drew light to himself.

I sat in front of him and stared until he finally looked up.

“Oh hey. Liv, right?”

I nodded. “Hello Blake.”

“You know anything about Journalism in Latin America?” he asked me, running a hand through his hair.

“Bunch of bloody news?” I suggested. “Communications?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “You?”

“Education. How about this,” I started, “you and I can go and grab some coffee to get your mind off things and then we’ll both research about journalism in Latin America.”

He nodded and snapped the book shut. “For an ex you’re pretty cool.”

I laughed.

We went to get our coffee and talked about everything and nothing. We talked about our majors, friends, jobs and even some family there. I learned that Blake and the girl he managed to sweep off her feet the night we ‘broke up’ were now going out regularly—he thanked me for that—he was working on the car wash thing to earn money for his fun and that his family lived in New Mexico where he had been born and raised. I guess you could say Blake Harrison and I became friends that day.

*

That friendship flourished over the course of the years. We did all sort of stuff together, chick flicks, action films, coffee, sleepovers, tickle fights, late night conversations, one or two more fake break ups over the course of the years. He consoled me when a guy dumped me and sometimes I found myself consoling the girls he dumped.

I guess you could call us best friends but truth is I hadn’t thought of Blake Harrison as a friend for three years now. I loved him. Somewhere along the way I had fallen in love with him and I couldn’t go back. Believe me I had tried, I’d had five boyfriends in the last three years but the truth is not one of them was Blake. Not one of them could make me laugh as hard as he could nor could I trust them like I could trust Blake. Maybe that was the problem, maybe I was looking for another Blake and I wasn’t going to find one and since the real Blake wasn’t interested on me in a romantic way I just had to stand by and watch the streaming line of girls go by.

I popped a Skittle on my mouth as Ashton Kutcher told Natalie Portman all kinds of sweet needy stuff and wished Blake would tell me that someday. So when my phone rang in the best part ever—the one where he’s telling her that if she comes any closer he won’t let her go—I groan and curse whoever is interrupting this sacred moment.

“Hello?” I snapped.

“Hey there Oli,” Blake greeted cheerfully.

“What’s up?”

“Meet me outside,” it’s all he said before disconnecting. I’m so not up for a fake break up or a blind double date right now.

I groaned again, press stop and turn off the TV, walking to my room to change out of my movie outfit and dressing into something more decent and meet Blake outside.

He’s waiting there leaning on the blue truck he’s had since we went out of college two years ago. “Looking good Oli.”

“Thanks,” I murmured, blushing. I’m not used to Blake saying I look good just because. “Where and why are you taking me?”

He chuckled, dethatching himself from the truck and walking around it, to open my door.

I sighed. “Cut to the chase Blake, for my sake.”

“We’re just going for a drive Liv, relax,” he is now kind of irritated at me, he never calls me Liv unless he is.

“Fine, but if you as much as try to embark me into some club to help you score a girl I will kill you Harrison.”

He laughed. “That’s why I love you Oli, you’re just direct, no rodeos.”

I blushed, even if I knew he wasn’t saying he loved me in the full sense of the world, but that he loved me as a friend. “Now, you’ve just fulfilled my lifelong dream. I can now die happy.”

“Do not appreciate the sarcasm Liv, it’s not appreciated,” Blake told me, clicking his tongue. “Did I interrupt you or something?”

“Yes, I was watching No Strings Attached and you interrupted gorgeous Ashton Kutcher so I’m pissed,” I confessed.

“You girls are so emotional about your movies. Now get in the car and prepare for the time of your life Olivia Williams.”

 

“Lake Austin?” I asked him once I was faced with the large body of water and a stunning sunset. “Isn’t this your ultimate romantic spot?”

“Yes,” he nodded and slid out of the car, walking around the truck and opened the door for me. “Now hop out and let’s enjoy the sunset.”

I did as he said and smiled at the setting sun. I was a sucker for a pretty sunset. “It’s lovely.”

“Indeed it is,” he agreed.

I looked up to him and smiled. The colors reflected in his face giving his natural tan complexion a lovely color. “Why are we here?”

He turned to look at me and smiled too, his dimples breaking through. “What, can’t I bring the girl that has stuck with me through everything to a pretty place?”

“You can, but why?” I asked him curiously.

He just stared deep into my eyes and I stared back. I didn’t know what this was but it felt important, a life-changing stare of sorts or just a connection. “Oli?”

“Yeah?”

Blake never replied because instead his lips came down to mine and just like that we were kissing. Blake Harrison was kissing me and I was kissing him back. It was all I thought it would be and more, it was a moment I had been daydreaming about for three years now and even though it didn’t last that long it was perfect.

“Because I love you.”

“I love you too,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around his waist and beaming like a huge idiot. He loved me.

“You have no idea how good that feels,” he confessed. “This is perfect.”

 

Until it wasn’t.

It was midnight and I was still awake, staring at my ceiling grinning like a huge idiot because nothing  could ever ruin this day, I was sure of that. It was that moment when my phone rang.

“Hello,” I answered cheerily.

“Olivia,” Garret, Blake’s roommate, gushed into the phone. “There’s been an accident.”

I stopped breathing, my heart stopped for a minute before I could register what he was saying. An accident. Okay, maybe there had been a fire or something like that and they needed a place to crash for the night, but I knew deep down that wasn’t it.

“What happened?” I asked him, holding my breath while waiting for his reply.

“It’s Blake, he was in a car crash. He’s in the hospital, that’s where I’m calling you from,” he replied.

Car crash. Blake had been car crash. He was fine, probably just a broken bone or something, right? “How is he?”

“Bad Liv, bad,” he said.

My heart dropped, my stomach protested and a tear made its way down my cheek. “Where is he?”

Garret told me the hospital he was being treated on and I numbly dressed and drove there. Sooner than I thought, I was going through the emergency doors.

“Liv,” Garret choked on my name, the simple syllable.

“Garret, how is he? How’s Blake?!” I demanded. “I need to know!”

He swallowed and wrapped his arms around me. “He’s critical Liv, there was a lot of blood and Blake was unconscious when they brought him here. Things aren’t looking good.”

I sobbed into Garret’s shirt. “No! He can’t be! I need him Garret. There must be confusion, I saw him an hour ago and he was fine! I told him to stay the night! Why doesn’t he ever listen?”

“Calm down, Liv,” Garret hushed, rubbing my back. “He’s Blake, you know him.”

I sniffed. My Blake, not him. Why him? Why not someone else? Why didn’t he listen?

 

Dawn falls upon us and there’s no news about Blake. Not at all and maybe it’s meant to be that way, maybe fate it’s waiting for his parents to come so they’ll hear the news first hand and skip through all the wondering. Just maybe…

“Who knows Blake Harrison?”

“I do,” I tell him, standing up as fast as I can.

He nodded calmly and sighed. “Ms. You might want to sit down.”

“Please just tell us doctor,” Garret told him. “We are worried sick here.”

“Okay, Mr. Harrison is delicate, he lost a lot of blood, there’s broken bones and internal injuries. Right now we’re waiting for him to wake up, but it doesn’t look good,” he confessed.

“He has to be alright!” I exclaimed.

“We can only hope,” the doctor told me sympathetically. “We will update you on his situation.”

Blake didn’t wake up. He was in a comma. That’s what the doctors said. He could or could not wake up, we just had to wait and hope for the best. I was tired of hearing that. It was the man I love there! He was only kept alive because of some machines and all they could tell me was to wait and hope for the best? That was not acceptable! What if it had been someone they loved?

“Olivia, sweetie, you should go home,” Mrs. Harrison told me softly.

I shook my head, looking over to where Blake’s limp body rested in the cot. His face was bruised and he wore a cast in his arm and one in his right leg. “I can’t just leave him here Mrs. Harrison.”

“How many times have I told you Olivia to call me Adele? You need to rest, I can stay here.”

I shook my head. “You go rest, I’ll stay with him.”

I couldn’t leave Blake, not when he was in such fragile state. Not when he could wake up any second. I  had to be here when he woke up.

“You sure, sweetie?”

“Of course, Adele,” I reassured her.

“Okay, but tomorrow morning you are marching straight home, no protests,” she told me severly. “And you,” she continued, turning to look at Blake, “have to wake up, understood?”

“You think he can hear you?” I asked her, peeking at Blake’s impassive face and feeling my heart drop and my stomach heave.

“Of course can, I know he’s in there somewhere. You know? As he grew up he always told me it would be ‘cool’ to fake his own death and see who would stick through. Such a silly boy,” she said, shaking her head.

I smiled. He had said that to me once or twice. “I remember that. I told him whatever girl you’re dating, your mom and dad, Garret and of course myself.”

She smiled fondly at me. “I hope you get a good night rest Olivia.”

“You too Adele,” I told her.

As she went, she kissed Blake’s forehead and looked at him hopefully before dashing out of the room, tears welling her eyes.

Maybe he could hear us. It wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot, would it?

I dragged the chair I was sitting on to Blake’s cot. “Hey there car wash boy,” I began. “I need you to wake up, you understand? Who is going to pay the wax for my little Fit, huh?” Can you believe Blake still paid for my car getting waxed? “I need you and my Fit certainly does too, but most of all me. I love you, I have loved you for so long, you can’t just give up on me now Harrison.”

I looked at his face closely, just for any sign that he had heard me. Anything that he was still there waiting to wake up and smile at me like he smiled just before he left my place that night of his accident, to have one more lingering kiss. Just to have him with me again, but nothing came.

 

Still, I didn’t give up. Every day I talked to Blake. I talked to him about my classes in kindergarten and about our lives back in college and about the moment I knew I had fallen in love with him.

 It was New Year’s Eve and we were at this party one of Blake’s friends invited us to and he, naturally, was already flirting with some girl and I was there with Terrance—my boyfriend back then—looking on to Blake flirting shamelessly and smiling that cute dimpled smile to the skank and having jealousy eat me inside out. I just care too much for him and his well-being, was what I told myself, but how wrong was I. Then came the countdown and when the clock struck midnight, Terrance kissed me but I kept my eyes open looking unto Blake and The Skank kissing too and I swear I’ve never felt so much anger toward someone in my life. I just wanted to strangle the girl and I knew I never wanted to see Blake kiss someone again if it wasn’t me.

I told him this and I almost expected him to smile and kiss my forehead and say “You were always a little dangerous Oli.” But he didn’t, he didn’t even stir.

*

A month went by and still nothing. I was giving up hope, I was desperate. I even came to blame myself a little bit. If I had insisted more Blake wouldn’t have left my house that night and would never suffered the accident. If only I had seduced him into staying or pleaded with him, nothing of this would have happened.

“I’m sorry Blake, so sorry,” I murmured, squeezing his hand. “More sorry than you’ll ever know. I love you, please wake up. Who is going to tease me? Who is going to go and buy decoration for my classroom? Who will give me a ride in his blue truck? Who am I going to drag into chick flicks? No one, that’s right! So you have to wake up for me and your mom and Garret. How is he going to pay the rent?”

I could picture the lively expression on his face, had he been awake. It would be one of total amusement and maybe a roll of his eyes and a remark or two.

“Blake, please,” I pleaded, a lump forming in my throat and tears starting to blur my mission. “I love you so much, you can’t just leave me here, alone. It would not be fair of you. You know I would never forgive you if you left me, right?”

I heard a little grunt.

I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my eyes from tears. “Blake? Blake, is that you?”

“O” he croaked.

I beamed. “I’m here baby, I’m here!” He was awake! Blake was awake. “I love you Blake Harrison.”

“Oli,” he grunted over the tube getting air into his lungs

“It doesn’t matter, all that matters is that you’re awake,” I told him. “Let me get the doctors,” but before I left, I kissed his cheek. “I love you.”

He nodded, signaling to his heart and then to mine. ‘I love you too’ that’s what it meant.

I went to get the doctors and called Adele and Garret who promised would be here as soon as they could. I was beaming, beaming like a huge idiot.

“Do not ever do this to me Harrison or I’ll kill you,” I threatened him after explaining the whole ordeal.

He smiled as the doctor removed his tube.

“Please speak Blake,” he said formally.

“Of course you are not Oli. Wanna know why? Because you love me,” he said meekly, but cockily.

“I do and that’s why you should never do this to me again.”

“What take you out for a lovely evening with a stunning sunset and then get hit by a car? I’ll do my best,” he assured softly.

“Exactly.”

“No worries Oli, I won’t,” he assured.

“You should rest Mr. Harrison,” the doctor told him.

He nodded and opened his arms open wide, signaling me to join him in the cot.

“Can I?” I asked the doctor.

He gave me the okay.

I nestled next to Blake and inhaled him. He smelt kind of like hospital and medicine, but like Blake too and he was warm and he was Blake.

“You know Oli? I have loved you for so long it seems unfair that I lost a whole month here. Two years are a fucking hell.”

I frowned. Two years? He had loved me for two years? “You Blake Harrison are the stupidest person I know! Why didn’t you speak up before, jackass?”

“Well, how nicely you treat me after almost loosing me,” he commented nonchalantly. “That’s what I love about you.”

“You are a jackass.”

“I love you too,” he said, kissing my temple.

“I love you too, but you should’ve spoken sooner,” I told him teasingly.

“I will, next time I fall in love.”

I slapped his chest.

“I’m kidding you Oli. Promise me something, after they dismiss me we’re going out to Lake Austin and watch a sunset, okay?”

“I promise and then maybe wash your truck. Wax and all.”

He chuckled and buried his face in my hair.

And we did as I promised.

We did go on every anniversary and we always went to a car wash afterwards. It was our thing. Sunsets and car washes.