Beautiful misery

Prologue

Not all scars show, not all wounds heal. Sometimes you can't always see, the pain someone feels.

~December 27th 1999.~

"Hey! Don't take that from me!" I looked at my best friend with big eyes as if he were crazy to even think about snatching my stick away from me.

"But I saw it first!" He said.

I looked at him in disbelief... "Fine, I'll find a better one anyway!" I searched a few seconds for a better stick for the hut we were making and found one quite easily. This was a forest after all, there was bound to be a good stick somewhere.

"When is your mum picking you up, Maya?"

"Um, I don't know... Soon?" I answered while planting the stick in the ground so that it would stay up by itself.

"Aw! Don't you want to ask her if you can stay the night at mine?" My best friend asked.

"She won't want me to, it's a school night remember?"

I took a step back to admire our work. The sticks we planted in the ground formed a half circle. The plan was to close the circle, leaving a little space for entrance, and then create a roof using an old blanket I would bring over the next time, covering it with leaves to create the perfect hiding place where we would then tell each other all of our secrets. I smiled at myself in pride.

"OK you two little builders, time to head back home," Dar, my best friends mum said, walking over to us.

"No mum, just a little bit longer! Please."

"I'm sorry, you're going to have to wait until this weekend to finish up your little construction. Maya's mum is going to arrive soon and I don't want to keep her waiting."

My best friend and I exchanged glances, clearly not ready to leave yet, before following Dar back to the house.

A good 20 minutes later we were back home, waiting for my mum to arrive. She was late... 

I guess I was quite glad to be able to spend some more time with my best friend but then again, my mum was never late; and if once in a lifetime she was, she would call for sure.

I tried not to think about it too much but I had an uncanny feeling in the pit of my stomach telling me that something wasn't right.

We were up in my best friends room playing with his play-mobile when the door opened up slowly. I quickly turned around, hoping to find my mum standing there smiling at me but instead I saw Dar looking very troubled, phone in one hand.

"Maya... You should get your stuff packed up. Meet me both down stairs in 5 minutes." She said implored. When she left I looked at my best friend with big eyes. He had the same expression on his face.

"W-what do you think's going on?" I asked him.

"I'm not sure."

I quickly got up, grabbed my stuff and ran down the stairs, my best friend following. We joined Dar at the bottom and ran out together to the car.

"Dar?... Where are we going?" I asked.

She took a deep breath, pulling out of the drive. "To the hospital..."

A flood of anxiety made it's way up to my stomach."W-why?"

"Well, honey... your mom had an accident." She looked at me with a sad look in her eyes.

I swallowed hard. "Is she... is she okay?"

She turned her head to look out the window before answering. "I don't know."