As I walked down the hall with my books in my arms and my friends by my side, I saw her. She quietly smiled, lowered her head, and left for class. Nobody knew much about that green-eyed girl, not many people even realized that she existed. On occasion, I’d say “Hi” in the lunch line or in the hall, but she never seemed to notice. She was in several of my classes, but she always seemed so distant. She wasn’t noticed very much at school, so naturally, wasn’t chosen for anything, either.

By the time I’d gotten to class, Niki T. was on my case with her obnoxious laugh and high voice. “Why didn’t you call me? I gave you my phone number, remember?” she whined. “Listen Niki, if I wanted to call you, I would have looked up your number in the directory. Why are you even here? This isn’t your class.” I responded with a slight smile because, well, I’m not what you would call popular, and a “popular” girl giving me her number? But nobody doesn’t like me. I could see it in her face that she was trying to find something intelligent to say, but hey, it’s Niki. The only thing she can think about is who to flirt with next.

Otherwise, life went on as usual, and nothing exciting enough to even hit boring happened. However, Spring Break was quickly approaching, and that meant the Spring-Fling was, too. I heard that this is the 3rd to last dance of the year, so there will be slow music for us. I ended up going with a group of friends-one of which was going with Niki; this I loathed the most.

We ended up having a great time, and I slow-danced with a girl of whom I generally talked to; Chelsea S. At one point or another, I headed over towards the concessions that were in front of the bleachers. Standing tall and proud, the bleachers were covered in graffiti and scattered teens. There was also a couple on the top right that were making out. How nice. Anyway, I was at the concessions so I searched for any of my friends who might want something. All I knew was that Brian M. went off somewhere to experiment with snorting various substances. Otherwise, I didn’t see anyone who I counted as a friend. Suddenly, everything around me stopped. There she was. On the bleachers that green-eyed girl. She looked up and our eyes met, and immediately I saw a brilliant sparkle in her seemingly dull green eyes. She was writing something, drawing maybe, but then she got up hurriedly and left, just like that. I stopped, staring at the spot where she sat. Everything around me came to life once more, but I wasn’t sure what was happening until Chelsea came up and squeezed my palm in hers and wrapped her fingers around my hand.

Another day passed and I knew something was going to happen, something bad. In my thought’s, I began to thing of her as ‘my green-eyed girl‘. It was strange though. I mean, it seemed like I knew her.

Niki flirted, Chelsea talked, but nothing interesting happened that day after lunch. When I returned to my locker, there was a note folded into a neat little envelope. Carefully, I unfolded it and looked at those words; “You are the nicest most handsome guy I haven‘t met.” I didn’t think much of it, I just figured it was probably Niki. Despite that note, life went on in its usual way.

The next day would be the field trip for some sort of humanities class to New York. The drive would be about five hours, but it was only our class. We would spend two nights there then come back. Mr. Doustau wouldn’t let any of us see the seating arrangements, so a bunch of people became paranoid. The fact that we didn’t know who we were going to sit next to until the day of didn’t bother me. As it turned out, none of us sat next to someone we knew. It was a huge class, so there were pairs or triplets of people who knew each other.

I walked toward my window seat in the middle of the bus and sat down. There were two buses, so it took a while for everyone to get on. After about five minutes, I realized I recognized pretty much everyone on the bus, but there was no one sitting next to me. Did Mr. Doustau honestly expect me to go five hours with no one to talk to? Just as completing that horrid thought, my green-eyed girl jumped up the stairs in a hurry to be counted in attendance. I didn’t see any other open seats, so I thought she might have just got on the wrong bus. Then it hit me. Could I have been any stupider? She was walking towards me, her seat was right next to mine. My green-eyed girl would sit next to me for five hours.

It was great, she was great. I found out so much about her, someone might’ve thought she was my girlfriend, or even my sister. She was beautiful, too. More beautiful than I’d ever realized. Her gray-green eyes seemed to sparkle and shine with pride as she told me about herself and the places she’s been. She wasn’t terribly preppy or annoying either, she was just… just herself. She didn’t pretend to be anything she wasn’t, and she wasn’t overly self-conscious. The more I knowledge I gained about her, the more I loved her, whereas with any other girl, I’d get tired of. I knew I would like her the moment she sat down. It seemed my life was leading up to this, meeting her, the most wonderful thing in the entire universe.

Then it happened

On the outskirts of New York. All I heard were screeching tires, and then an eighteen wheeler slammed into the right side of our greyhound bus. Terrified screams shot through the bus, every person on the right side of the bus was sent flying to the left on impact. Others had a split-second more to react, some tried to brace themselves, and others were petrified in fear.

She wasn’t ready. The force threw her to the side and her rib caught under the armrest. The whiplash tried to pull her back, but the rib was stuck, then cracks, broken and torn. Her scream tore through me like a million knives. We tried to hold onto each other, both because of love and fear, as the bus tipped and crashed on my side. The glass broke and shattered into thousands of pieces. I tried to protect her, my back was cut up and bleeding, but the strength of love helped me hold onto her and stay in the way of the shards.

At that moment, two other cars rammed into the roof, which was now on its side. Peoples heads were hit, and along with other numerous injuries, they bled, burned, and ripped apart the spirits of thirty-seven teens.

I could smell the dripping gasoline, the smoke, and blood of others around me, but I was not going to let go of my green-eyed girl. I felt a pair of strong arms grip my waist and shoulders. I tried to rip away, tell them her condition -to save her life, and not mine- but all that came out was a gasp for air. As I was pulled away, I tried to bring her, but she was caught on something, and I might have caused her more pain. With a final thrust, we were torn out of each others arms. She painfully lifted her head and her green eyes dimmed. It caused her much pain, but she uttered her final words. “I love you.”

They carried me away and told me it was going to be okay. It wasn’t. The smoke and the sirens, the screaming and the people, it all faded, and all I could see was my green-eyed girls’ face slowly disappearing. My head, chest, arms, and back were torn apart and bleeding, but I could only think of my green-eyed girl.


The crash was caused by a drunk-driver, going ninety-two miles an hour when merging on the freeway. He survived, and only two people died that day, Jackie Wilson and my green-eyed girl. Why didn’t he die? Why did he get a second chance, and not a young girl who had barely lived her life yet?

I’ll never forget her. Since that day, I’ve never loved or had a crush. Nobody ever teased me or even flirted with me ever again. They knew I loved her. She made me happy. But I could’ve saved her. I thought her death was my fault. It was like I didn’t even try to save her.

I’ll never forget her, and no matter what, she will always be my green-eyed girl.