Crashing Love [COMPLETE/PUBLISHED]

Chapter 1: Turn on the TV

I woke up in a cold bed. I am expecting to find my wife to the side of me, but nothing. Why does my wife insist on waking up before 10 AM on a weekend? Weekends are the time to rest, not wake up at the ass crack of dawn. I grab my phone off the charger without looking at the loads of notifications that I suddenly have. I push myself out of bed and scratch the back of my neck. I find some random pair of sweatpants on the ground and I slip them on with a shirt that I had on top of my dresser, and I make my way out of the room. I walk down the hall and I peek into Willow's room and I find her sleep with her economics textbook on her chest. I switch on her light for no reason because the light is already shining through her curtains. She must have noticed because I hear her groan and she pulls the covers over her head and snuggles into her pillow knocking her book onto the floor.

"Wake up lazy ass, I'm making breakfast," I say walking out the door leaving it wide open. I hear groan yet again, and then I hear a thump. She must have fallen out of bed. Ehh, should have watched what she was doing. I walk downstairs and I place my phone on the kitchen counter and I get some coffee brewing. A little while later I'm sitting at our breakfast bar sipping my coffee waiting for my daughter to come down the stairs. I go to take a sip, but I'm stopped by...

"You suck, Dad," Willow says opening the fridge.

"For your information, I don't suck. I thought that you would want to be up before your mother got home from the store," I explain taking a long drink from my black coffee. I don't understand how people add all that cream and sugar to this delicious liquid. It makes it taste like shit.

"Dad, I was sleeping. I thought you of all people would understand that sleep is always more important," she says pulling the orange juice from the fridge and pouring herself a glass.

"Honey, I love sleep too, but I don't like waking up to an empty bed."

"Gross. That's my mom you're talking about," she says taking her glass into the living room.

"You'll understand when you're older and have someone to love. Now, what do you want for breakfast?" I don't think that she even heard me considering she walked out of the room before I even asked. I'll make what I want then. I open the fridge and I see plenty of eggs. Hmm, veggie omelets. Something Willow won't eat... Perfect. I start to crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk them up and I about to pour them in a pan and then I hear Willow calling my name. I turn off the flame and I set the bowl down and I walk into the living room. I see Willow standing in front of the TV with the news playing from it. They are saying something about a car accident and it switches to the live feed. They starting talking about the fatal car accident and I have no idea why Willow called me over here.

"Willow, what do you want me to see?" I ask.

"Dad, look," she says pointing the familiar blue Ford Escape in the background. They show a clear shot of the license plate and I know that plate from anywhere. It's her. It Aria's car. They keep saying that they are trying to get in contact with the victim's family. I run and I grab my phone off the kitchen counter and I see text after text from the family to turn on the TV. There is one that caught my eye. It is a text from Ava, Elijah's mom.

'I just saw her at the store when I was there. I'm so sorry for your loss.'

Huh? Does that mean that Aria is the victim? I see Willow standing behind me with tears in her eyes. She can't be gone. She just can't. The next thing I know is that Willow and I are driving to the scene of the accident to see if what we heard is true. We see an ambulance nearby as well as a fire truck as well as come cop cars. We park and we walk over to the scene and we tell them who we are and they let us through. They walk us over to and they starting asking questions. I space out and Willow answers all of the questions for me. They continue talking until I hear...

"I'm sorry, she died before they could rescue her. I'm so sorry."

She's gone. My wife is dead.