Not yet grown to its full potential, a rose bud planted in the window seal of a young girl’s room. Her hair a soft blonde almost the color of snow, eyes the color of a cloudy day and a smile that made the sun shine all day. This girl loved her parents dearly. They play games and have fun of some sorts. She is 13, almost 14 in two days’ time.
The rose that grew outside her window grew almost as fast as she did. Since the day she got home it was a little leaf, never showing a withered pedal or bract. Happiness within the spirit of the little girl left it growing.
In a full bloom grazing the sun, the eve of Lea’s birthday, excited for the party with her friends the next day and the dinner with her parents this night. In the car driving home from her favorite restaurant, Italiano, the streets where pitch dark with only the lights from their glowing car. A car on the wrong side of the road going 120 mph right at them, no lights shining off the car until it was too late to notice anything. Out of no were the car crashed dead on to the one containing Lea and her parents.
In the hospital dazed and sore with a tube down her throat supporting her breathing; hearing the heart monitor beating like a rhythmic drum. Her left hand in a cast, stitches upon her scalp, and various scrapes on her arms and legs. Searching franticly for her parents; wondering what had happened as she was passed out by the flash of despair. Light sobs filled her dreary eyes as reality struck the core of her self-conscious.

This day, the day of her birth, she cried. She cried tears of hopelessness, tears of loneliness. No one there as she awoke, no one there to soothe her thoughts and worries. Her parents suffered the kiss of death once the car hit. She felt dead inside; she felt the emptiness in her life. She was the only person to survive; the man in the other car was drunk and passed out at the wheel died on impact.
Lea only had her aunt still living. Her aunt was a fairly amiable person, she never had anything bad to say, but she did run her mouth when she thought it was necessary. Her aunt had dyed her hair jet black and had mud brown eyes. Lea’s aunt moved into the extra room in the house so that Lea didn’t have to leave the life that she had once known.
It took three days to get out of the hospital. They had to run tests and had asked her questions of anything that she could remember of the crash. Lea knew nothing. All she remembered was sitting in the back and singing songs with her parents till darkness overcame her.
The day she returned home it was cloudy outside and looked like it would rain soon. Her friends where all outside the house ready to help their friend get through this rough time of somber passing of her parents’ life. Something inside her had made her happy, she showed a little of a smirk, but there was something over powering her even more. The feeling of that she should be grieving over the occurrence. She tried to show no emotion as they pulled into the driveway. Balloons, presents, and hugs filled her as she hopped out of the car. She pretended not to notice them; Lea showed no eye contact and waved her arm uselessly back and forth till she thrust it down on her thigh.

Everything on the street was all the same except for the moving truck next door and the sound of her father’s voice guessing the occupation of the new neighbors; her mother laughing at her father’s answer. Lea went straight to her room. She didn’t care at the moment if her friends were there; she just wanted to be in a familiar place away from the pictures of her and her family in every room. Her face buried in her pillow with the rain starting to pour inside and outside the house. The perfect rose started to slowly wither away.
As Lea fell asleep she started to have dreams of that night. Everything that she remembered, everything that she saw. Her parents and her where singing in the car, the air conditioning on. Everyone with their seat belts buckled, and the song playing was Angel by Sarah McLachlan. The lights shining on the other car, and waking up before the cars collided. Lea woke in a sweat and started crying. Her aunt heard her and started to soothe her. Slightly rubbing her back and hugging her lightly. The rose was disintegrated, the color was so weak that you couldn’t even tell that it was a rose anymore.
Lea’s aunt put her in a group to help her get through her parents’ death. Lea just sat there the whole time never wanting to talk or anything. After a few months Lea noticed this boy that sat next to her, she had seen him somewhere before but she just couldn’t think of where. Then it hit her he was her new next door neighbor. He had broad shoulders and an elegant face like the ones you would see on men models; he had dark skin and black hair with hazel eyes.
As he shared his story on how his parents died Lea learned this; his name was Paul, his mother’s name was Mary and his father’s Luke. They died in a shoot-out at a bank, his father was the security guard and his mother was dropping off his lunch. His father tried to protect the woman that he loved and everyone else in the bank. Ten people died that day including the bank robber who had a cryptic soul of torture.
After the group session was over, Lea and Paul started talking to each other. They had a lot in common, they shared almost everything together. Paul made Lea laugh and smile; this was the first time Lea ever smiled after her parents had died. She had almost forgotten what it felt like to be happy and around a good friend.
Paul made her feel safe and had become her best friend. Now when she feels alone she has someone to turn to. Now when she cries she has a shoulder to catch the tears the sliding down her cheeks. Now Lea knows that it is okay to smile even though the people that she loves are dead. The rose outside her window pane is now a blossoming flower with colors so brightly flourished that you can see them from a mile away.