Chapter 1

He came awake with a start, sitting bolt upright in bed and quickly looking around the room, taking in the briefly unfamiliar surroundings, his heart racing and sweat pouring from his face. It took only moments for him to realize where he was. At home, in his bedroom, alone. He'd been sleeping -- must have dozed off for a few minutes, but the dream had awakened him again. He glanced at the window, and seeing it was pitch black outside without even the slightest hint of dawn he looked over at the clock.

3:15 am. He thought back to the last time he'd looked, before he'd fallen asleep. Then it was 2:35. He might've gotten a whole 40 minutes or so this time, that is assuming he fell asleep right after looking at the time, which was a joke. The thought of him falling asleep period was a joke, really. He hadn't slept through the night in a year now, and hadn't even gotten a decent night of rest in months. Every time he managed to nod off for any length of time the same dream came.

It was getting to the point where he didn't even want to try sleeping anymore. It wasn't worth it. He couldn't take the dream much more. Michael sighed, wiping his face with his blanket and then resting it in his hands. The tears started to come again, and as always he fought them. They always won in the end, though, and before too much time passed he was sobbing into his hands again. Even now, so many months afterwards, he still couldn't believe it'd happened... As usual, his mind went back to that night... The night his whole world fell apart.

Nine months earlier

The day of the prom. The day - and night - that every little girl dreams about for years, and the one most high-school boys dread for almost as long. Tuxedos. Limos. Dresses. Dinners. Money, money, and more money. For a boy from a single-parent home that lived on the lower-end of the middle-class, it was a night that was almost bound to be a letdown. No matter how hard he tried, he knew he couldn't save up enough to compare to the people he envied. The limos, fancy restaurants, hotel rooms... You could save for years and not be able to afford any of that.

For Michael though, that didn't matter. He knew he couldn't go all out, not like he'd always secretly hoped for, but he knew he would make it special. He was just afraid it wouldn't be special enough. Only the day before he'd finally realized that there was no way he could come up with the money for the limo. He'd already reserved it, but didn't have anywhere near enough to cover the full cost of the trip, and there was no hope left for getting the rest. His mother was as helpful as she could possibly be, but she just didn't have a couple of hundred dollars to spare. Not after she'd chipped in every spare dime they'd had for months to scrimp together the money for his tuxedo and the other 'essentials'. So, instead of a limo, he was on his way to pick her up in his car. He'd desperately wanted to avoid this, but there was simply no other choice.

It didn't do anything to calm his nerves. Of course, the fact that this would be only the second dance that he'd ever gone to didn't help soothe them, either. The first had been way back in 8th grade, and was a disaster. And here he was a Senior in high school, and walking out to his car to pick up his girlfriend to go to their Senior Prom. The fact that she'd never been to a dance added all the more worry. Sighing, Michael kissed his mother on the cheek and gathered his jacket and the wrist corsage: a purple orchid, her favorite flower, slipping a small box in his other pocket.

He couldn't help but think that he should be more nervous. He knew all about the ritual terrors that some of his classmates would be going through now, panicking over whether their hair looked alright, or if their dates would stand them up; just generally dreading the moment... Those things didn't worry him at all. He wasn't like the rest of them. He was sweating bullets he was so nervous, but not dreading it. On the contrary, he was looking forward to it. Really, he could hardly wait. He just couldn't believe he was finally going to do it.

Taking a deep breath he walked out the door of the house, climbing in to his small car and starting the engine, carefully folding his jacket over the seatback and making sure that neither the corsage nor the other box got squished. He said a quiet prayer, praying that everything tonight would go perfectly, and started the engine, putting the car in gear.

Michelle's house was only 3 doors now, but there was never any doubt that he was driving. It wouldn't do to pick up his prom date -- his girlfriend -- on foot, not tonight. He pulled up in front of her house and took another deep breath, just sitting in the car for a minute to compose himself before he got out and headed up the walk to the front door.

It was a walk he'd made thousands of times before in all the years that they'd been best friends, even before they became a couple back during Freshman year. This time though, it was different. He knew this was going to be a new experience, and hard, for both of them, and mostly he wanted it to be everything she'd always dreamed about. Reaching the front porch he scratched his beard lightly and took another moment to pray that everything went smoothly tonight. Then he raised his hand and knocked on the door, waiting for his destiny.

Michelle's father opened it, smiling at him and inviting him in.

"Hi, Michael. 'Chely will be down in a couple of minutes, come in and have a seat."

"Thanks Mr. Andrews." he said, walking into the familiar living room, by now finally accustomed to all of the assorted medical paraphernalia there. Even now though, after six months of being there, it still looked out of place. Like it shouldn't have been there. As much as they tried to disguise it, it looked foreign to the room, took something away from the friendly atmosphere of his best friends home, where he'd spent so much time growing up. "How's she doing tonight?" he asked softly, sighing.

"Ehh." Mr. Andrews muttered. "It's been a tough couple of weeks for her, you know that... As well as could be expected, really. She's weak, but she's determined to do this. She's spent the past week in bed, just to be able to go with you tonight." he said, letting out a long breath.

"You know this is going to be hard on her, Michael... She's been dreaming of this day for years, even before you two started dating, she always pictured doing this, with you," Melissa Andrews said, walking into the living room from the hall, where she'd just come down the stairs. "But this isn't the way she wanted it to be. People are going to say things, there's no way to avoid it... Please... Just try to watch out for her. She's been resting up a lot for this, but... I'm still afraid it's going to be too much for her."

Michael nodded and thought for a second before replying to Mrs. Andrews, the woman who'd been like a second mother to him. "I'll do everything I can to make it special for her, I promise," he said softly. "I know it's going to be tough, but she wants to do it anyway, and I wouldn't deny it to her. I couldn't." He blinked back tears and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. Then he looked up at both of them and leaned in, talking so softly that he couldn't be overheard, and crossed the fingers of his right hand, fingering the box in his pocket with his left.

Just a few minutes later they heard a voice from upstairs. "Dad! I'm ready." Michelle said, calling down. Michael stood up and dried his eyes, handing the box of kleenex to Mrs. Andrews and shaking her husband's hand.

"Can I go up and get her, sir?"

Mr. Andrews closed his eyes for a second and then smiled and nodded, giving the boy a pat on the back as he turned to walk upstairs.

He turned right at the top of the stairs, careful not to trip over the oxygen tubing, and knocked softly on her door, waiting for her to say it was okay before he opened it.

"Come on in Dad, I'm ready," she said.

Michael smiled and opened the door, looking in towards her bed. "Nope, not Dad," he said softly, smiling. She looked beautiful. He couldn't believe how amazing she looked. He knew it had been a lot of work finding her dress, and then having it altered to fit, and he even knew what it looked like, but this was the first time that he'd ever seen her in it, and she almost seemed to glow. Most stunning of all were her eyes though, as always. Their twin pools of bright green still lit up when they saw him, in spite of everything she was going through.