Emilie laid on the bed, still lost in her slumber. Her naked body wrapped in the soft comforter. The sun light shun through the cracks of the closed blinds, gently caressing the side of her face. The morning was still, quiet. That was until Emilie was abruptly jerked out of her dream world by the distinctive shrieking of a dirt bike engine. Realizing Jeff was not beside her, Emilie shot out of bed threw on some clothes and ran out to the front yard. And there he was, sitting on his red dirt bike, shirtless and no protective gear except for a helmet. He looked over noticing Emilie and waved to her.

"Hey Em!" he yelled "Watch this!"

"Jeff don't!" she screamed but it was too late. He took off down the track hitting the first single jump and landing safely. He hit the second and third jump, making a safe landing again. He went for the first double and landed without a hitch but he was quickly taken off guard by the single that followed immediately after. Emilie watch in horror as the bike flew out from under his legs sending him crashing to the ground. Without hesitation Emilie took off in a dead run towards her fallen lover, praying with everything in her soul that he was okay. She let out a deep breathe of relief when she saw him sitting up.

"Woo!" he hollered as he removed his helmet "That damn jump gets me every time."

He laughed as he rose to his feet, brushing off the dirt from his pants and bare chest. He looked up at Emilie who was staring at him with an unexplainable look of rage on her face. It was a look he had never seen expressed on her beautiful features and frankly he was a bit confused.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he approached her.

"You...you could have been kill!" she yelled.

"Yeah but I wasn't."

"This time! This time you weren't but what about next time?! Or the time after that?! How many times will you do this to yourself before you break neck?!"

"What's wrong with you? Why are you screaming?"

"Because you think you're immortal. You think you can do anything you want and nothing will happen to you. But it doesn't work that way. You can't keep doing these things Chris!"

The words had barely left her mouth before she realized what she had said. Her eyes grew wide as she fell to her knees and began to weep. Jeff ran to her side, throwing his arm around her, embracing his love. Finally things began to make sense. Whatever happen to Chris left such an emotional scar on Emilie that she unable to let go of the past. Jeff knew he didn't have to say anything just giving her a shoulder to cry on was enough. They sat there for hours as Emilie just sobbed uncontrollably in Jeff's arms. She cried for Chris, but mostly she cried for herself, she cried for the past three years of bottle up emotions and suppressed pain.

Jeff took the tea pot off the stove and poured the hot water into a cup. He unwrapped the tea bag and dunked it into the water until it turned a dark shade of brown. He sliced off a piece of lemon squeezing it into the cup followed by a spoon of sugar, just the way she liked it. Taking the cup he walked into the living room where Emilie was sitting, with her knees pulled up to her chest, on the couch. She had yet to washed the dirt off her body and her eyes where still puffy and red from crying.

"Here" Jeff said handing her the cup "Careful, it's very hot."

Emilie brought the cup to her lips, gently blowing on it before taking a sip.

"So, are you ready talk?" Jeff asked but Emilie just silently looked down at the cup in her hands. "Look Em. You can try and shut me out and you can keep bottling up all these feeling inside but eventually they're gonna surface."

Jeff waited for Emilie to say something but she remained silent.

"Okay. When you're ready to talk I'll be here."

"I was there." She whispered breaking her silence "I was there when he died."

"What happened Em?"

"It was the summer before I turned nineteen. I met Chris at a club, he was a friend of a friend, and we hit it off right away. We liked the same music, the same movies, the same everything. But he was a dare devil. He was always racing around in his Camry, and when he wasn't trying to break the sound barrier he was on his motorcycle. That damn bike, I was terrified of that thing but Chris loved it so I didn't complain. One day he finally convinced me to get on, god I was so scared I just clung to his jacket but it was fun. At least until some bitch ran a red light doing 65 and crashed right into us. I don't remember much after that but they say that I was thrown into meadow beside the rode. When I woke up I was in the hospital, my mother was sitting in the room with me. She looked like she had been crying for days. I thought it was because she was worried about me but that wasn't why she was crying."

Emilie paused for a moment, attempting to fight back the tears that appeared in her eyes. But it was no use. She good feel the tears running down her check. She took a deep breathe before she finished her story.

"She told me that Chris had broken his neck when he landed. She told me that he had died on impact. I was so angry at her. I just begged her to take it back, to make it not true, but she couldn't. After that I just completely shut down. I promised myself that I would never feel that kind of pain again. I never talked about it, I never mentioned it, I wouldn't even let myself cry over it. I just figured that if I forgot about it I would stop hurting but I never did. But by that time I had already put up such a solid wall around myself that even I couldn't get through it. That was when I got the tattoo. I guess I thought it would help me grieve but it didn't."

"I'm so sorry Emilie." Jeff said "I had no idea how much pain you were in."

"Don't be sorry. You're the first person to get through to me. You've made realize that there is a whole world out there to experience. Until I met you I thought life would never get any better then it was. And I have absolutely nothing but gratitude for you. You brought me back to life."

Jeff couldn't help but tear up at Emilie confession. He moved over to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Emilie rested her head on his chest. A small smile formed on her face as she listened to the rhythmic beating of his heart. There was no where else on earth she'd rather be then in Jeff's arm. That was when it finally hit her. It was so clear, why could she see it before?

"Jeff?" Emilie whispered.

"Yes?"

"Ya tebya lyublyu." She said in Russian.

"What does that mean?"

Emilie lifted her head off his chest and looked directly into his beautiful green eyes.

"It means I love you."