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�Road To Nowhere� Chapter 25: Tired Of The Road Dan awoke the next morning with a feeling of distress. When he was fully awake and aware of his surroundings, he realized why he felt so sad. Courtney was on her way to Orlando and he would not see her today, tomorrow or even the day after that. His heart hurt like someone had broken it in two pieces. Maybe someone had. Maybe someone had given half of his heart to Courtney. And then again, maybe they hadn�t. School went by in a blur for Dan. Matt and everyone else tried to ease his pain by offering encouraging words. Dan listened to the words but didn�t hear them. Nothing would ever be able to fill the emptiness inside of him. Nothing at all. He walked into his English class feeling empty and miserable. Courtney was not in her seat and never would be again. He felt as though someone had taken his heart and stomped all over it. He felt terrible that he hadn�t been able to convince her to stay. He knew it wasn�t anything that he did or didn�t do; it just had to happen like that. Fate had a way of wounding what had already been healed. Dan knew that all too well from past experiences. �Court, I miss you,� Dan whispered to her empty chair. �I miss you.� Matt and Chelsea shared the misery of losing their best friend. They hurt, but not as badly as Dan did. They could only imagine what torment he was going through. Courtney had done a great job of making him fall in love with her, but no one could have guessed that something like this would happen. So they couldn�t blame Courtney, they couldn�t blame anyone without having to blame themselves. It hurt that badly. * * * * Courtney stopped somewhere outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. She needed gas and something to eat. She sat in her car finishing off the sandwich she had bought. She couldn�t take it anymore; she needed something to make her feel closer to home. She dug around for the letters from her homeroom. She found them and pulled out Dan�s. She stared at the folded sheet of paper awhile before opening it. Carefully, she opened the paper. In Dan�s neat handwriting was a page long letter. Courtney blinked the tears from her vision and then she began to read. �My dear Courtney,� Dan�s letter began. �I know I have done all I can possibly do to make you stay. And I do not regret any of it. I just hope that you know how much you mean to me. You have inspired me to be a better person. Never again will I try to be someone I am not. Just being in your presence makes me strive to be better. My love for you reaches far beyond looks or personality. It reaches down into the soul. When I am with you, my soul is complete. I can feel it in my heart. When I am not with you, it hurts to breathe. Everything I do, I do it because of you. I wrote you a song to tell you what you mean to me. I hope you enjoy it and I wish I could be there to sing it to you. Here I am/Broken wings/Quiet thoughts/Unspoken dreams/Here I am/Alone again/And I need her now/To hold my hand/She's all, she's all I ever had/She's the air I breathe/She's all, she's all I ever had/It's the way she makes me feel/It's the only thing that's real/It's the way she understands/She's my lover, she's my friend/And when I look into her eyes/It's the way I feel inside/Like the man I want to be/She's all I'll ever need/So much time/So much pain (but)/There's one thing/That still remains (It's the)/The way she cared/The love we shared/And through it all/She's always been there/She's all, she's all I ever had/In a world so cold, so empty/She's all, she's all I ever had [She�s All I Ever Had ~ Ricky Martin] So my dearest Courtney, I wish you the best in whatever you may choose to do. My love will remain with you and never will it fade away. You are a beautiful person, stay that way. Don�t let anyone ever change you. Courtney Evans, I love you now and I will love you forever. Yours truly, Dan Miller.� Courtney�s silent tears turned into sobs. Her body shook. If there was ever a doubt in her mind as to where she needed to be, it was erased with that single letter. She wiped the tears away with the back of her hand and violently turned the car around. She headed straight back where she had come from, hoping that it wasn�t too late. * * * *
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