Always and Forever

by Rebeca Aguila

  Chapter One- Cemetery

  Chapter Two- Date Night

  Chapter Three- Hannah Runs

  Chapter Four- Edward And Hannah

  Chapter Five- Hospital

  Chapter Six- Square One

  Chapter Seven- Rebeca's Secret

  Chapter Eight- Heart Cancer

  Chapter Nine- What Happened?

  Chapter Ten- Hannah's Big News

  Chapter Eleven- Rebeca and Jacob

  Chapter Twelve- Choosing Between Women

  Chapter Thirteen- Spencer Alive

  Chapter Fourteen- Rebeca Wants To Become Bionic

  Chapter Fifteen- Hannah Tells Edward Everything

  Chapter Sixteen- Rebeca Wakes Up

  Chapter Seventeen- Rebeca Discovers Her Bionic Ability

  Chapter Eighteen- Inside Jacob’s Basement

  Chapter Nineteen- Sam

  Chapter Twenty- Edward and Hannah Not Really Married

  Chapter Twenty One- Spencer Proposes

  Chapter One

  “Rebeca!” someone called. When she turned around, she saw Spencer Davenport, her dead sister’s fiancée, walking towards her. “Hey,” she called. “What’s up?” she asked when he finally caught up to her. He looked around and then at her. Her eyes sparkled like sapphires.

  “Well, I’m actually going to the cemetery. What about you?” She punched him playfully on the shoulder. “You just read my mind, buster,” she replied. Side by side, they walked to the cemetery.

  When they got there, she shook her head. “This was a mistake. We should get going.” Spencer grabbed her arm.

  “What? Why?” he asked. His question startled her.

  “I-I have to go.” Zooming out of the cemetery, she bumped into Carlos. Oh my God. It’s you! her mind screamed.

  “What are doing here?” she asked, calmed.

  “I came to see you.” he replied sweetly.

  “Well, you already saw me.” she hissed violently. Her emotions boiled with anger at the sight of him. She started to storm off but he caught her arm. “What do you want from me?” she asked, pulling away.

  He looked at her with interest. “I, um, want to take you out to dinner. Would you be interested?”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t date criminals.” she replied flatly.

  He looked shocked. “Rebeca, I--” He leaned over to touch her but she scooted away. “Rebeca, please try to understand. I--”

  “Why’d you do it?” she asked. Why? Without an answer, she fled.

  * * * *

  After a while, once she got home, she went to her room, closed her door, and wept on her bed. Soon, she heard a knock on her bedroom door. “Come in,” she said, choking back tears. Spencer entered, smiling. Rebeca smiled back weakly.

  He suddenly stopped smiling. “Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked, concerned.

  She sniffed back tears and wiped her eyes and blew her nose with a tissue. “I don’t know Spencer, I just have mixed emotions. I don’t know what to think anymore.”

  “What do you feel?” he asked, walking towards her.

  “I don’t know how to explain it to you.” He sat next to her on her bed.

  “Try,” he encouraged, holding on to her hand. “It’ll help”

  She breathed deeply. “I just feel neglected.”

  “What do you mean by neglected?” he asked.

  Rebeca couldn’t answer. His question swayed in her mind, making her dizzy. “Are you all right?” he asked.

  She quickly shook her head to get rid of the memories. “Um, yeah I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I-I’m fine.”

  “Then, what’s the matter?”

  Swept with emotion, she kissed him long and hard. He broke the kiss. “I-I’m sorry,” she replied apologetically. She automatically moved to her desk, on the other side of her room. She sighed heavily and started crying.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, worried.

  He lifted her chin with his forefinger. “The doctors found out that I have heart cancer. I’m going to the hospital.” Tears sprang into her eyes and slid down her cheeks, making her cry.

  Chapter Two

  “How?” Spencer was dumbstruck. “You’re doing so well” She suddenly looked pale, like she’d just seen a ghost. She zoomed down the stairs, out the door, and into the city. Spencer followed like as fast as he could but he soon lost her.

  Where’d you run off to? he wondered. Soon enough, he found Rebeca standing in front of a graveyard. When she saw Spencer coming towards her, she disappeared behind a few trees.

  But before she could, out of nowhere, Carlos came flying towards her. Grasping Rebeca by her throat, he pushed her against a tree and looked her sternly in the eye. “What do you want from me?” she wheezed.

  “Same thing that I got from your sister when I killed her. Her blood.” As fast as he could, Spencer zoomed over to her and pushed Carlos away from her. Suddenly, a hand grabbed Carlos by his neck, knocking Spencer out of the way, touched Carlos pressure point, killing him, and fled the scene.

  Who was that? Rebeca wondered. The girl walked over and introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Hannah Suarez.” The girl looked exactly like her, and had beautiful curves, just like her, but she was pale and Rebeca was tan. “Wait, but you can’t be my sister. My sister’s dead.”

  “I AM your sister. Look.”

  Hannah lifted up her right hand and showed her a ring that had an emerald on it. Rebeca, then, felt a weird sensation up her spine. She quickly grabbed hold of her necklace that held the exact same ring.

  “But, how are you alive?” her sister asked. “I saw your tombstone and your coffin. You were dead.”

  Hannah held up her hand. “I escaped.”

  “How?”

  “I’ll explain later. I have to go.” Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked. Without looking at him and answering, she vanished.

  * * * *

  Once she could catch her breath, hoping that no one saw her. Oh thank God, no one was following me, she thought silently. Looking down at her hand, she closed her eyes, and breathing deeply, she murmured softly, “Spencer, I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” And dropping the ring, she cried and whispered, “I love you.”

  As she turned the corner, she accidentally bumped into Edward Black, her major crush at school. His books hit the concrete. Hannah felt her cheeks grow bright pink. “I-I’m so sorry. I didn’t look where I was going.”

  “It’s all right. This happens all the time.” As they both bent down to pick up his books, their hands brushed against each other and Hannah suddenly looked away. When they finished picking up his books, he thanked her, and then added, “Hey, would you, maybe, like to go out sometime?”

  She quickly answered, “Um, sure. What’d you have in mind?”

  “Well, I was thinking somewhere quiet. Like a hike. Do you like hikes?”

  “Yeah. I even climb trees,” she added dumbly.

  “Cool. So, is it OK if we go like around the evening? Say around 6:30?”

  “Sure.”

  “OK, then. I’ll call you tonight.”

  “OK.” He kissed her softly on the cheek, sending shivers down her spine.

  Her watch beeped, signaling her that she had to get home. “I have to go.”

  “OK, sure. No problem, but just to let you know, the date is on Saturday, OK?”

  “OK. I won’t forget.” And sped home, without looking back.

  Chapter Three

  As soon as she parked her car in the driveway, she turned off the engine, and sighed, “What now? I can’t just barge in on her. She’s probably scared out of her mind.”

  * * * *

  Mea
nwhile . . .

  “How could she do this to me?” Rebeca sobbed. Spencer was there, stroking her hair.

  “It’s OK” He cupped her face in his warm hands.

  Suddenly, the doorbell rang and Spencer got up to answer it. When he saw Hannah, he demanded, “What do you want?”

  “I want to talk to you,” she answered, calmly, careful not to aggravate him. He nodded in understanding and walked toward her, closing the door behind him.

  “Listen, I just wanted to say I’m sorry.” She sighed deeply. “I should have told you both but--” He put his hand up, shushing her.

  “Cool it,” he said. “What are you doing here, anyway?” he asked, his gaze suddenly serious.

  “Well, I wanted to see and check on Rebeca, but I guess that’s out of the question.” When Rebeca heard her name, she came to the door.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. When she saw her sister, she left and went to her room.

  “Guess she’s still mad, huh?”

  “Yes. She’s been heartbroken.”

  “And she hates me?”

  “Of course she does. What you did was unforgivable.” Looking at her seriously, he asked, “OK, Hannah, why are you really here?”

  “I just want to see my sister.”

  “Like I’ve said, she wants nothing to do with you and neither do I.”

  “Why do you hate me? I never did anything to hurt you. Or in this case, Rebeca.”

  “You deliberately hurt her feelings.”

  “How?”

  “Well, she thinks that you’re dead, for one.”

  “How?” she asked again.

  He sighed deeply to keep from yelling at her. “She thinks that you’re a ghost and that you’re dead.”

  “I’m not dead.”

  “Well, she’s scared.” Grabbing her by the hand, he whispered, “Get out.”

  “Gladly.” She started to pull away. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. Getting into her car, she drove off to her house.

  Once she got away from Spencer, she stood in her driveway, thinking about what he had said. What did he mean? she asked herself. Suddenly, she felt something tug at her pant leg. When she looked, she found her dog, Chloe, looking at her, begging her for food. “Sorry, Chloe, but I don’t have food for you,” she said to the sad looking Chihuahua.

  “Actually, I wasn’t thinking about food. You’re sad.”

  She looked at her dog, wide-eyed, and saw that she could talk. “You can talk?”

  “Uh, yeah. I could talk ever since I was found and adopted by you and Spencer.”

  “Who’s Edward?” the dog asked. Edward!!! As soon as she heard that name, she fled in her car to see him. “You coming, Chloe?”

  “No, it’s OK. You go ahead. I have to go inside, anyway, and go to sleep.” The little dog, then, went inside and went to bed.

  “Well, OK.” She then rushed to Edward’s house. Where are you? she asked while she got out of the car.

  “Hey, what are you doing here?” a familiar voice said. Somehow, she got goose bumps thinking it was Spencer.

  “Spencer--” She stopped at mid-sentence because someone turned her around. “Edward?”

  “Yeah, it’s me. What are you doing here?” he chuckled.

  “I don’t know, I got lost.”

  “Really?” He smiled his crooked smile, leaving her breathless.

  “OK, the truth is that I needed to talk to you.”

  “OK. Sure, what is it?”

  “My ex-fiancée.”

  “What about him?”

  “He hates me and I don’t know what to do anymore.”

  “Well, then if he hates you, what happened?”

  “It’s a long story.” she answered.

  “Tell me. I have time.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah, why not?”

  “OK, then.”

  Chapter Four

  “Wow. That’s harsh. I like that.”

  “What do you mean you like it?” she asked, curious.

  He chuckled. “I mean that I like you. I’ve liked you ever since I went to school. I just never told you, because I didn’t want to feel like an idiot in front of my friends.”

  “You’re not an idiot.” she said to him as he softly stroked her hair.

  “Come with me. I want to take you somewhere.”

  “Where?”

  “Come and you’ll see. You’ll probably even remember it.” He held out his hand to her and she welcomed him by taking it.

  “OK. Where are we going?” she asked, suspicious.

  “Shh. . . We’re here.”

  “Where are we?”

  “Same place where we used to hang out as kids.”

  “You remember this place?”

  “Yeah. Look.” There on the playground swings were two teens that looked like Hannah and Edward when they were younger.

  “Wait a minute. Did we just go back in time?”

  “Yeah, that’s kind of what I wanted to show you. I wanted to show you’re childhood since you had your stroke a while back and you don’t remember. Do you remember now?”

  “Wow. This is amazing!!” she exclaimed. “But . . .”

  “But what?”

  “I don’t remember any of this. At all.”

  “So you don’t remember me?”

  “Yeah, of course, I remember you.”

  “Then how come you don’t remember this?” he asked as he reached for her hand and showed her a little ring that she had on her middle finger. “Do you remember this?” he asked again.

  “Oh my god,” she answered, astounded. “This was the ring that you gave me a few years ago. Yeah, now I remember.”

  “I also wanted to give you something now. Do you know what it is?”

  “No, what?”

  “This.” And gave her a small black box that held a small crystal heart necklace.

  “Oh my goodness, Edward. It’s beautiful.” On the crystal, were engraved the words “I love you.”

  “Well, I just wanted to show you how worthwhile you are to me.”

  “Aw . . . you really think that I’m worthwhile to you?”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  “That’s so sweet of you.”

  “You know what else is sweet?”

  “What’s that?”

  “This.” And kissed her sweet and softly like a million rose petals falling down a waterfall.

  “Wow.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “Nothing, nothing.”

  “You sure?” he asked, smiling his crooked smile. “You liked the kiss, didn’t you?”

  “Um, yeah. How did you know?” she asked, blushing.

  “Don’t blush; I kind of enjoyed it, too.” And kissed her again.

  A smile appeared on her face and she kissed his cheek. “Thanks for the flashback. I really enjoyed it.”

  “You’re welcome. So, ready for our date tonight?”

  “Yeah, but I thought today was Tuesday.”

  “I went a few days into the future. I couldn’t help it.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing, nothing. Come on.”

  “Where? I don’t have the right clothes.”

  “You do now.” he said, smiling his crooked smile.

  Looking down, she said, amazed, “Wow, that’s weird. I thought I had a dress on for school.”

  “Which looked beautiful on you, by the way,” he added. Hannah blushed, her cheeks turning bright pink.

  “Oh, come on,” she said. “That’s not true.”

  “Sure, it is. How come you say it’s not?”

  “Because . . . it’s just not.”

  “Really? You really believe that?”

  Well, I’m not beautiful in my perspective.”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. You’re beautiful. You’re stunning. You’re radiant. My heart races when I see you.”

  “Aww . . . you’re so sweet
.”

  “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

  “So, anyway, where are we going?”

  “I’ll show you.”

  “Well, no more surprises. Please,” she begged. “I don’t want to be any more surprised than I have been today.”

  “OK, OK. As you command, Your Highness.” He bowed toward her and did a curtsey.

  “Oh my goodness, Edward. That’s kind of funny,” she said, laughing. As he got up, he looked into her eyes and kissed her cheek.

  “I love you,” he whispered.

  “Me too.” she echoed.

  “Kiss me, and I’ll be yours.”

  “Forever?”

  “Forever.” Hannah, then, kissed Edward with all the love she had for him.

  “Do you want to go back?” he asked.

  “Go where?”

  “You’ll see.”

  “OK.”

  Chapter Five

  As quick as lightning, he zipped toward a beautiful landscape that uncovered a gorgeous waterfall. “Here we are,” he responded.

  “Wow. This is beautiful,” she answered astonished. “How’d you find this place?”

  “I thought about you when I found this place back during our freshman year in high school.”

  Suddenly, she started feeling a headache as strong as a horse trampling her chest.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. “I’ll take you to the hospital. My dad’s a doctor.”

  “Is your dad a neurosurgeon?”

  “Of course. He’s seen these types of operations before. Let’s go before it gets worse.” With a flick of a wrist, he was at the Memorial Hospital within seconds.

  “What happened? Who is she?” his father asked.

  “I came here as fast as I could. Long story short she has a VP shunt and it’s not working. She needs an operation, now!! Dad, please!!!”

  “OK, OK. Fine.” Wayne answered, frustrated. “Who is she?”

  “She’s my girlfriend.”

  “Any siblings?”

  “Yeah. Rebeca Suarez. We have gym together.”

  “Married?”

  “No. But she did have an ex-fiancée.”

  “Oh, OK. Well, let’s bring her into the operating room.”

  “OK. How long will it take?” Edward asked.

  “90 minutes or more.”

  “OK.”

  “Well, I better hurry.”