Life With Boys (Emerson Series #1)

Chapter One

I look into the mirror, ready to just completely restart on my makeup and hair. It never seems to go the way I want it to. My hair is flat, my smokey eye is too smokey. There's only one night a week I wear makeup and get all dressed up, and it always goes wrong.

"Come on, Annie. We're going to be late for the movies," my mom calls to me. I turn off my curling iron and bound down the stairs.

"Sorry mom, last minute touch-ups." She smiles and kisses my cheek.

"That's alright dear, but you know you're beautiful enough without all that makeup on," she says, and I smile. She always knows how to make me feel good about myself.

"You look beautiful, sis," my brother, Austin, says as he steps out of the kitchen.

"Aw, thanks Aus." He nods, smiling at me.

"Alright, are we all ready?" my dad asks, twirling the key ring around his finger. He presses a button on the remote, and the car starts up in the driveway.

"Ready!" we say in unison, and pile into the car.

——

"That was a great movie," my mom comments on our drive home from the movie theater. I nod in agreement, a smile on my face. I love family night. We all take a break from our individual activities and choose a place we should go.

We go to turn a corner, when this car comes speeding at us. It slams right into the front of our car, and we flip. Once, twice, three times, until we land in a ditch on the side of the road. I grab my head as it begins to throb painfully. When I bring my hand down, it's covered in blood.

Blood. I've never been good with blood. Everything starts to spin, and I can't seem to get this damn seatbelt undone. My hand drops from the seatbelt, and I can feel the blood rushing to my head.

"Miss, can you hear me?" a voice asks. I look over to see a paramedic. When did they get here? "Miss? What's your name?" His voice turns muffled as everything goes black.

——

"She should be awake soon, Mrs. Emerson," a male voice, that I don't recognize, says. My eyes slowly open, and I try to get adjusted to the bright lights above me.

"Oh! Annie, you're awake," a female voice says, and she hugs me. I hesitantly hug her back, not sure who the hell she is.

"Um, who are you?" She breathes a laugh and pulls away from me, tucking a piece of long dirty blonde hair behind her ear.

"I'm Amy Emerson. You know my husband, Derek Emerson?" she says, then it clicked. "Your dad and Derek were best friends growing up."

"Oh, um, hi. I think I've met you before," I mumble, still confused. "Where are we?"

"You're in the hospital dear. Do you remember what happened?" she asks, her cheery face, turning to one of pain. I shake my head, then wince as it starts to pound.

"Can you tell me your first and last name?" a guy, I'm guessing a doctor, asks me with a clipboard in his hand.

"Annabel Cassidy." He nods and writes something on his clipboard.

"Age?"

"Seventeen."

"Middle name?"

"Elizabeth."

"Move your left foot for me?" I look at him with an eyebrow raised, but I move my left foot. "Now your right foot." I do the same with my right foot, and he seems pleased.

"Anything else?" I ask, still completely lost as to what I'm doing here.

"Do you remember what happened tonight?" he asks, taking a seat next to me.