8 Hours and 45 Minutes

Crash

8 hours and 45 minutes. That's all it took to ruin my life, not the 12 years that it took my to put it together again after my parents died, but the 8 hours and 45 minutes it took to wreck it all.

"Ya, I'll be down in a minute! CHARLIE WAIT JESUS!" I yelled down to my brother who I was 7 minutes late to drive him to school, oh high school, the easiest yet most embarrassing years of our lives.

"Well if you had set your alarm correctly this wouldn't be happening!" I heard him shout back up the stairs to the bathroom where I was brushing my teeth.

"Well if you didn't WANT to go to school, we wouldn't be in this mess!" I yelled sarcastically to Charlie, my brother, the straight A student who wouldn't miss a day of school even if it were the end of the world.

"Maybe if you HAD gone to school you would be able to get a stable job! And I would have my own car so it wouldn't be so hard for you to drive me to school in the mornings!" Then silence greeted the both of us, but it wasn't that calm silence you're used to especially when you just want someone to shut up, no, it was a silence that couldn't be forgotten, a silence where we both knew we were wrong...  "Sorry, I didn't mean that, you know it's been hard after mom and dad..."

"No, no, you're right... I do need a job... How about I go out and apply for some today? Does that work with you?" We were both now headed out the door stepping into the car. "Now, let's get you to school!" We started the 5 minute drive to Quincy Adams High. As we pulled up we noticed nobody was outside, so we assumed the class bell had already rung. "Bye Charls! Good luck on your first day!" I watched as he stepped out of the car and gave me the nod of approval to leave, but if you have ever been a parent, or taken care of someone you get the feeling that you have to watch them step into where they are supposed to go, and then you can leave.

I started pulling out of the school's drop off zone, when I noticed a car speeding way above the speed limit, not wishing to sign a death warrant I stayed put waiting for them to pass me so I could pull out and take a different route home. Soon enough they passed me and I left to go home. While taking this new route of mine I noticed that there were way more cars out than there should be at this time... I pulled up to the stop light waiting for it to turn green again. I saw the light turn green and slowly drove forward, there was nothing going on until I saw them again... The same guys driving way above the speed limit, there was no time to react.

 I had just been hit. The pain, it was unbearable. I couldn't feel much, but what I could felt like over a thousand tons, falling down on me, crushing my lungs making it almost impossible to breathe. Then I was out like a light.

I woke up in an ambulance, with paramedics yelling, "GET ME MORE ANESTHETIC STAT!" That's when I saw her, I know it sounded stupid, how I had met the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, in an ambulance trying to drug me... It sounds stupid when I put it like that. Although I was probably seeing things, she was the most gorgeous living thing on the planet. Only then did my eyes start to black out again on me...

I woke up again my forehead bandaged so I wouldn't touch my injuries. Along with my bandaged forehead my abdomen was as well. I saw my brother at the side of my bed, waiting for me to wake up... Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. The sound of my heart rate monitor was already driving me nuts and I have only been conscious for less than a minute. I stared at my brother, I tried to say Charlie, but nothing came out... I couldn't talk... I felt trapped in my head, nobody to hear me ever again? This isn't going to end well. How am I supposed to find the lady who saved me?  How is my brother never going to hear me call his name again? How was this possible?