It was a weekend and Eric intended to sleep in, but his girlfriend, Ashley, knew just how to wake him. She placed a skillet on the stove and turned on the heat.  She began to scramble some eggs in a bowl while she waited for the skillet to heat up. Once warm, she began to fry some bacon. It didn't take long for the smell to reach the bedroom.

The greasy scent was enough to get Eric to crawl out of their small, full sized bed. He threw on some cargo shorts and a t-shirt he found on the floor before heading out into the kitchen. 

"You're not going to shower?" Ashley raised an eyebrow as he came over to give her a kiss on the cheek. 

"It's Saturday, I'm not going anywhere," replied Eric as he opened the fridge to grab the carton of orange juice. Ashley rolled her eyes and pulled a glass out of the cupboard and handed it to him. 

"Thanks dear." Eric responded and just as he was about to pour the orange juice into his glass, his phone went off, "Hello?"

"Is this Eric Thompson?"

The voice belonged to a female and sounded familiar, but Eric couldn't place a name to it, "Yes, and may I ask who's calling?" Eric asked and became aware that Ashley was watching him. 

"Sorry, this is Elizabeth, Elizabeth Reynolds, Lydia's mom," Elizabeth's voice shook as she spoke, and when Eric didn't say anything, she continued, "I know it's been five years, but Lydia, Lydia's awake and she's, she's asking for you, but I haven't told her..."

"Wait, what, when?" Eric stammered, his heart was racing. 

"What's wrong?" Ashley asked, but Eric waved her away and headed to their bedroom for privacy. 

"Just this morning, she came out of her coma, she's fine," Elizabeth said in between sobs. She still hadn't been able to take it all in, "I know we all encouraged you to move on and I'm sure Lydia will understand once she's able to adjust, but I just, I just thought you should know before we tell her..."

 "No, don't," Eric interjected, "Don't tell her, I should... if it's alright, could I..."

"She just woke up and doesn't know yet that it's been so long, but yes, yes I think that would be best," Elizabeth paused, "stop by tomorrow, the hospital is..."

"I remember, same room?" Eric quickly grabbed a pen and notepad off his nightstand. 

"No, she's been moved to room 218, I'll call you if anything changes."

"Thanks, thanks for letting me know, I wish..." Eric could feel the tears coming.

"We all do, but you did nothing wrong, you're a good man Eric."

"Thank you," Eric sobbed before hanging up the phone. He feared this day would come, but had persuaded himself that Lydia would never wake up. He had gotten his life back together, met Ashley, a wonderful woman, and now, his first love, his previous fiance had awakened from her coma. What was he going to do?