Moving On

Chapter 1: The Aftermath

{Chapter 1: The Aftermath}

I slowly open my eyes. All I see is bright white and everything looks blurry. Once they adjust a little bit more I can see the machines that are all around me, they are all beeping so loudly. My senses continue to slowly come back to me; the room smells like sterilizer, the bed I'm in is smaller than my bed at home and the sheets are rougher. My eyesight continues to adjust and I think that I can finally move my body a little bit more. I slightly turn my head to the left and see my best friend, Sage, sitting in the chair next to my bed. Her eyes are closed and she has really dark bags under them. It looks like she hasn't slept in days. Her eyes fly open a second later, "Honor! You're up; I have to get the doctors!" She quickly jumps up from the chair and runs out the door.

In what seems like a matter of seconds a ton of people come rushing into the room. They start asking me a ton of questions, flashing bright lights in my eyes, and pressing a ton of buttons on different machines that were hooked up to my body in one way or another.

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After what seems like eternity the room slowly clears out, leaving only Sage and I. She looks at me like I'm a fragile little girl and I look back at her with a look of confusion on my face. Once again she sits in the chair that's resting next to my bed.

"Honor, do you remember why you are here, in the hospital?" She asks with a questioning look on her face.

"Well, I remember right before the accident, and opening my eyes when the paramedics were there. Why? What happened that I don't know about?" I quickly ask her, worried about my mom. We might not have the best relationship, but she was all I had around here. My grandparents, her parents, passed away two years ago a couple months apart. My father left before I turned 11, he said that he'd always be there for me but we haven't talked in about a year at this point; I also don't know where, even who his parents are.

"Honey, if you don't remember than maybe I shouldn't tell you..." She trails off looking sad. "Look, I'm happy that you woke up, but I have to go home and do my homework, not all of us got to skip part of our senior year."

"Wait, what?"

"Honor when you and your mom got in the car accident you hit your head really hard. The doctors were worried about swelling so they put you in a medically induced coma. Yesterday they started to wake you up," she answers quietly.

"How long?"

"Huh?"

"I asked, how long did they have me out."

"Oh, It's only been 11 days. And the doctors said that you might remember, you might not. I just depended on how your brain handled the accident."

"ONLY 11 DAYS?!?! That's almost two weeks. I've missed two weeks of my senior year without even knowing it..." I trail off losing myself in my own thoughts.

Sage gets up and hugs me. After the brief and kind of awkward hug she leans up and says, "Honou, I feel bad that I have to leave, but as soon as schools out tomorrow I'll come to visit, okay? I can bring some of our other friends if you'd like..."

"Yeah, that sounds good, I'll talk to ya tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay, bye Honor."

"Bye, Sage." I mumble quietly and she gives me a quick hug then leaves the room.

I knew that she'd offer to bring some people. I don't know how well she's handling all this but I remember her telling me time and time again to call her if things got that bad between me and my mom again. But I didn't this last time, I thought that I could do it all by myself, I thought that I'd be okay; I couldn't have been more wrong.

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After looking around the room I noticed that I had a T.V., a bathroom, and a ton of machines that I thought would never have to be hooked up to me. I can hear the heart monitor beeping and the gentle hum of the other hospital machines in the room. I quickly realize that I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight. The noises might not be loud but they aren't close to the country music that I play at home. I decide to keep looking around and try to notice more things.

Now that I've been awake for more than a few seconds I notice that my room isn't all white like I thought it was at first. It's quite tastefully done actually, around the windows the walls are a deep, earthy green with beautiful wood trim everywhere. The other walls are mostly white but they aren't a blinding white. It's a lot like someone might want their home to be like.

Just then a nurse walks trough the door and introduces herself, "Hi, I'm DeAnn, I'm gonna be your on call nurse tonight. Now, I know that you just fully woke up and you don't really know what's going on but if you feel any discomfort or have to go to the bathroom, anything, call me. Okay?"

"Okay, umm..." I pause for a second and she looks at me carefully, "DeAnn, do they know what happened to my mom?" I ask her in a quiet voice.

Her faces shows a flash of sadness then she quickly composes herself. "Hon, when the paramedics got to the accident scene your mom wasn't breathing. They don't know long it was before someone drove by and found your truck" she starts to talk quieter and a little bit slower, trying to gauge my reaction, "They tried everything they could, but nothing was working. They ended up pronouncing her dead not long after you both got to the hospital. I'm so sorry."

I can't even think of anything to say back to her. Eventually she has to go and tend to other patients on the floor and leaves me to think about everything.

Did all of this really just happen?