This is a paper that I wrote in my creative writing class during Highschool.
I come to this bridge every year on the first day of spring because I lost someone here. On Spring break ten years ago my friends invited me to a party, I told them that I would go but not stay long. We drove there in my brother's 1970 blue mustang. When we got to the beach party there were at least 500 people there. While pulling into a parking spot a group of girls came giggling over to us. My friends and I got out of the car and then made our way over to introduce ourselves. my friends pointed to the blonde and looked at me and said, "she is single." I knew what they were up to immediately, in return I turned to face my friends and said, "nice try, I'm going home. " I turned around and walked out of the group to start walking home.
When I get home I just wanted to stay there rather than having to get out to pick up my friends later so I decided to walk home rather than drive. While walking across the Bridge of Lions I noticed there was a girl sitting on the edge of the bridge, I started running for her because I thought she was committing suicide. When I reached her I noticed she was taking pictures of the party on the beach. She jumped when she realized I was behind her, I blushed and apologized for startling her. She looked at me with her bright green eyes and in return said, "It's okay." I introduced myself and she replied with, “nice to meet you, Eric, my name is Hayley.” I responded with you, “have a very pretty name.” Her cheeks turned pink and she giggled a little bit then in return said, “thank you.” I then pointed to her camera and asked, “why are you taking pictures of the party?” She handed me her camera and, “I am going to college for journalism and photography, I am writing a newspaper article on teenagers and spring break.” I said, “oh, I am going to college for the same thing.” She smiled and said, “that's awesome!”
We talked for hours and in return, I found out so many interesting things about her. Come to find out she lives 5 hours away, I knew tonight would be the last time I would ever see her again. When the sun started to rise we realized what time it was and we knew it was time to go home. While saying bye she pulled me close to her until I was an inch away from her face. Looking into her eyes I said, "I'm going to miss you," she said, "I will miss you too." I leaned in and kissed her gently, I felt like I was floating through the clouds. When she pulled away I asked her if I could take her on a date tomorrow at 5, she nodded then grabbed my waist and hugged me I then said, "I will meet you right here." While heading home I felt butterflies the whole way back.
As soon as I made it home, I went to sleep so I wouldn't be tired for our date. I woke up at 3:30 p.m and hopped into the shower then got dressed when I got out. At 4:15 p.m I turned on the news to watch before I head out when "Girl Killed in a Car accident on The Bridge of Lions" appeared. I didn't think anything of it until they showed me her name and picture, as soon as I read Haley I snatched my keys from one of my drunk friends laying on the sofa and went running to my car to head towards the bridge as quick as I could. When I reached the wreck all that was left were pieces of her car and a clean-up crew. I turned my car off, got out, then walked up to one of the crew members and asked them, "what happened here?" they replied with, "a drunk driver hit her at 100 miles an hour which would have instantly killed her." I thanked them for their time then headed home.
I decided to go buy some flowers to lay where she crashed and when I got to the crash site 100 people were gathered along the bridge placing flowers and crying. I put the flowers right next to her photo, then left to go back home. I have never fallen for someone so quickly, but I remember that spark that I felt when I kissed her and I knew right then that she was the one. Later that year I found a photo of the sun setting when I realized that I have seen that photo in Haley’s camera. I turned it around and on the back of it, it read, "Dear Eric my daughter called me a couple of hours before she passed away and told me about you. She told me that she has a date with you later and that she feels like she is in love. I just wanted to say that I have never heard my daughter so happy, thank you for letting her last moments be the best!" His words gave me peace and let me know that Haley died happily.
