Adam kicked the soccer ball to the front of the house.  Sam watched him chase after it, while she sipped her sweet tea.  The sound of his feet stopped and was replaced with car tires driving through the gravel road.  She stood up and walked down the steps to see who had come.  Adam cut her off before she made it around the corner of the house.
Panting and out of breath, he gasped, “Mommy…Daddy’s home.”
Sam stared at Adam, letting those two words sink in.  Adam turned around and started running back.  She stood there for a moment and then took after her son.  Thoughts were flooding her mind.  When she hugged him one last time before he left, him walking towards the plane, the letters coming home every week, his arms wrapped around her, and the sounds of him and Adam playing football in the afternoon.
Her pace slowed when she arrived to the front of the house.  Cameron’s grey truck turned off followed by another black car tuning its engine off.  Cameron hopped out of the truck and looked over at her with sorrowed filled eyes.  Adam ran up and gave him hug, but Cameron’s eyes never left hers.
A Marines officer walked up to Sam with letters in his hands.  Her heart started beating faster and could feel a hole beginning to form in her stomach.  Please…Please, don’t tell me he’s gone.  Please be a mistake, she closed her eyes and thought.
Ma’am, are you Sam Chesterfield?” the officer asked.
She opened her eyes and forced a whisper, “Yes.”
“Mrs. Chesterfield, I am sorry to inform you that your husband has died in combat.  He gave me this letter to give to you.  Here is another letter from the Department of
Defense about the funeral if you have any questions.  You have my deepest condolences, Daniel was an honorable man,” he placed his hand on her shoulder and walked away.
As he climbed into his car, Sam broke down.  She feel to her knees, letting her vision get blurry.  Cameron ran over and wrapped his arms around her, trying to calm her down.  Adam walked over and took his mother’s hand.
“Mommy…is Daddy coming home?”
Sam looked up at him.  She saw so much of Daniel in him.  Before she could answer, Cameron responded, “Your dad…well he went somewhere where he can get better.”
Adam just nodded.  “Sweetie, why don’t you and Cameron go inside.  I need to take care of some things,” she sputtered out.
As they went inside, she stared at the white envelope with her name scribbled on the front of it.  She slowly opened it and began to read,
My Dearest Samantha,
If you are reading this, you already know that I am not coming home.  I could not know or describe the pain that you are going through right.  When Adam has asked what has become of me, tell him the truth.  Let him know that his father died a hero and that I loved him very much.  I already asked Cameron to look after you and Adam, and he has promised.
Sam, please do not grieve my death for the rest of your life.  Smile and remember the good times.  Our wedding day, the first day we met, how we fell in love.  Remember all of that; watch the tapes to see my face again.  I will always love you and be with you, no matter what.  I know that it may be hard at first on your own, but you are a strong woman and can do it.  You and Adam are my life’s love and happiness.  I will always be with you two in heart.
There is another letter in here for Adam to read.  I want you to give it to him when you think he is ready to read it.
I love you with all of my heart.
Love,
Daniel

My feet carried me away from him.  His feet were pounding against the metal and rubble, coming closer and closer.  My heart was racing, my breathing becoming heavy.  The only thing that kept me moving forward was the thought of getting away.  Then, my ears were filled with echoing shots.  My body cringed and tightened.  The tunnels began to quiet, but the silence seemed more deafening than the gun shots were.  I opened my eyes and breathed out.  As my lungs expanded, sharp shooting pains coursed through my body.  I look down, my eyes falling still on my stomach.
Red liquid stained my shirt, devouring it as if the bloods life depended on it.  My hands shakily went to my torso.  I looked up to the end of the tunnel, seeing sunlight and a few shadows pass by the opening.  I tried to take a step forward, but my knees buckled, forcing me to the ground.  The rubble poked and tore into the indents in my stomach.  I screamed out in pain, only to choke out thick red crimson wine that poured from my mouth.  I tried to scream out for help, to scream his name, but only hoarse noises came out.  I began choking and crying.
Please don’t let me die here, not like this, I thought to myself.  I tried to force myself up, but the ground pulled me back down.  I felt as if I was suffocating, air couldn't make it farther than my mouth.  I continued trying to scream out his name, hoping he could hear me.  My fingers kept dragging me across the rocks and the rusted train tracks.  After what seemed like an eternity, my body stopped moving, worn and tired, not wanting to go any farther.  I rolled myself over, giving out faint wheezes.  I opened my mouth, letting the taste of my copper blood and the salt of tears mix together.
“Steven…please…”
I was forcing myself to live, making my heart beat, my lungs breath.  I refused to fall asleep, not letting my eyes closer longer than a second.  I pushed my body to make it till he came.  No matter how hard I fought, my body fought back harder to sleep, to just give up.  It felt like someone was pushing my eyelids closed.  My breathing became shallow.  
Every time my eyes shut, I saw Steven and me, all the things we had been through to keep each other alive and to be together.  I knew that all of that was going to be for nothing in a few fatal minutes.  My heart wanted me to fight with everything left in me, I tried, but my body just couldn't handle it.  As I laid there, my vision becoming blurry and fading, I felt a single tear fall down my cheek.  I knew that at that point, in my last tear, was the last of the will power I had to keep living.  I faded away, only having the remembrance of certain noises filling my ears: my heart beating its final beat and footsteps racing towards me.

It is a flutter in your heart
A complex work of art
Making your mind jumbled in thoughts
Leaving your stomach in knotts

It can make you smile
Leaving you in bliss while,
You sit there unsure
If these feelings are impure

It is a flutter in your heart
A complex work of art
Making your mon jumbled in thoughts
Leaving your stomach in knotts

But at the end of it all
The only thing you can recall
Is the pure feeling of bliss
At the simple hand of a kiss

Lumpy Lora was never known
She went through the halls unseen
Because the name brand items, she didn't own
Everyone she met was mean

Fast forward, it's junior year
Lumpy Lora is no more
All the weight she used to fear,
the dorky glasses and acne traded in for

Skinny jeans and crop tops
Micheal Kors and BB Cream
She soon began to pop
Lora became everyone's dream

The popular girls became her "family"
She drove boys crazy
Parties and alcohol became her melody
Everything began to get hazy

Boys wanted in quicker
Pushing for late night fun
When she would say no, they became hastier
They'd whisper, "It's just a good time, ***."

Pills began to be the new game
Late nights in prison cells
People would gawk at her new fame
But at night, her tears would fill wells

Lora didn't want the glam
But simply wanted to know when
She could end the nightmare with a slam
And just become Lumpy Lora again

“Cameron!”
I stopped mid-step, my body rocking back and forth, as Ally continued walking a few steps ahead.  She turned back and looked at me.  I cocked my head to the side and she gave me a wave to go.  I turned around and saw him leaning up against the railing, his arms supporting him.  I made my way towards him.
I felt as if I was seeing him for the first time.  His tan skin stood out against his white shirt; which was my favorite, his brown hair messy underneath his snap-back as usual, but still cute, and his blue eyes watching my every step.  I bit my lip, not wanting the way he looked to destroy the anger that was built up inside.  I came to a stop in front of him.  We were both quiet.
“What?” trying to sound impatient.
“Why are you mad at me?  You asked for the whole truth. I gave it to you,” he replied calmly.
“It’s what you lied about Mike.”
“I never --”
“Yes you did.  You lied during the entire relationship.  Everyone warned me, ‘Don’t go out with him,’ and, ‘He does it every day,’ and so on and so forth.  Then when I asked you about it, you said you did it once and didn't like it, so you haven’t had any since.  Then you tell me earlier, ‘I've been doing it before, during, and after you,’” I gave little air quotes, “So tell me where you never lied?”
“It was one little thing,” he was no longer leaning against the rail, only a foot away from me.
“No, it was a big thing Mike.  You lied about it.”
“I lied.  Big whoop!  Everyone does,” he threw his hands in the air.
“You lied to me during the entire relationship.  I don’t even know if half of what you said to me was true,” my tone rose.
“Like what?” he was becoming agitated.
“Like not going out, been staying out of trouble,” he rolled his eyes to those responses, “Saying that you loved me.”
His head snapped when those words fell from my mouth.  The single foot that separated us was gone.  He was just inches from my face; my nose filled with the familiar scent of his cologne.
“You’re right.  I did lie about all of those things.  But the one thing that I never lied to you about, for a single moment, was when I said I loved you,” his voice was low and filled with anger.  He searched my eyes for a moment.  “I meant that Cameron.  I meant it every time I said it and I always will mean it.  But hey, you don’t believe a single word I say, so why should you believe this,” he walked past me, giving my shoulder a push with his.
I stood there for a moment, rapidly blinking away the tears.  Ally came rushing towards me.  “Cameron are you okay?  It looked like things got really heated between you two,” she put her hand on my arm.
I took a deep, staggered breath in.  “Yeah, I just want to go home,” my voice was cracking.
“Cameron, it’s the middle of the--”
“Can we please just leave?!” my head snapped to her.  Her voice was caught in her throat.  I quickly wiped the tears on my face away.
“Uhhh, yeah lets go,” she guided me towards the front doors to leave.  “Cameron, what happened?  What did he say?”
“Everything Ally, he said everything.”

A tiny black dress
Hands that put me under a spell
Simple movements made to caress

The music makes us press
to one another. So lets not dwell
on a tiny black dress

The temptation makes me say yes
We both know it won't end well
With simple movements made to caress

My thoughts became a mess
I know that everything fell
Even the tiny black dress

The daze became less
All that is left is your smell
And the simple movements made to caress

Trust me I won't confess
Or speak or tell
Of the tiny black dress
Or the simple movements made to caress

It starts with drifting.  Having no time for one another.  Then it's a fight about how they didn't call or decided to go to their friends house instead of being with you.  Words are spoken that have been bottled up for months, just building up; truths are revealed and tears are spilled.  You go into a blind rage.  Breaking everything that comes to your hand, ripping every picture up with him in it.  You scream out into the empty abis about how you hate him and he was the worst.  You no longer feel that empty hole that has been eating up at you for days, the feeling of him not loving you.  It is only filled with hatred and fury.  Then it hits you.  You find your favorite sweater of his that you slept in every night to feel like he was holding you, the smell of his cologne that would cloud your mind, or the first love letter you wrote for him, but never gave because you were afraid that he didn't feel the same.  Everything comes back in floods and flashes.  How his hand fits perfectly in yours,  his crocked smile, the way his eyes shined in the sunlight, how he wiped away the tears when your whole wold was falling apart.  Then in that moment, your eyes blood red, tears soaking your face, you realize no one in the world could love you more than he ever did.