The Ride of My Life (an Ansel Elgort story)

Chapter 54

Lucy's POV

We are at the hospital, all crowded in my mom's small room, waiting for her to wake up. The doctors gave her some complex medicine and said she should wake up within the next hour.

They said it will take time for her to remember who she is, where she is, and who we are. Her waking up is the only thing I care about.

Brandon has fallen asleep in the chair next to the bed. Sleep sounds really good right now.

After a while of silence I see movement in the corner of my eye. It's my mom. She moves her hand slightly and slowly her eyes flutter open.

The doctors said she'd be drowsy for a while, wanting to do nothing but sleep for days.

"Debbie?" My dad says.

The only response he gets is a groan. I couldn't tell if it came from Brandon or my mom but then I see Brandon is awake, so it had to be my mom.

My dad gets really excited. The nurse comes in and she seems excited too, but soon my mom is back asleep. At least she is conscious.

The nurse said they'd wake her up every two hours and ask her questions: "What's your name?" "What year is it?" "Where are you?"

I'm thrilled that my mom is recovering, but unfortunately I have to get back to normal life. I have to leave the hospital to meet up with Kat. She's going to help me catch up on my homework.

We meet up at a cafe on the busiest street of town.

"Hey! I've missed you!" Kat says, giving me a hug. "Our room has been really lonely."

"I've missed you too! It's been crazy lately. I promise I'll be back soon."

"How's your mom?" She says as we walk inside and stand in line.

"Better. She woke up today. Just for a few seconds. I guess she has to take baby steps."

"That's awesome. I'm happy she's getting better."

After we order and receive our drinks we sit at a table.

"So what happened with you and Cory?" I asked. I've secretly been dying to know.

"Oh, I don't know. I guess we just didn't connect. I do have my eye on someone different now, though."

"Really? Do tell."

"Well, I'm trying to keep it under the radar. There's no way I'd ever have a chance with him." She sighs.

"Why not?"

"He has a girlfriend."

"Oh, that sucks. But don't worry. There's plenty of fish in the sea!" I say, automatically regretting saying such a cliche thing.

It's true though. There's tons of people out there. Before I met Ansel, I never knew how only one person could be 'the one'. There's 7 billion people in this world, it just makes logical sense that you aren't just compatible with only one person. It overwhelmed me. The media says there's only one love of your life. I was afraid if I didn't find that person, I would be unhappy and just settle for someone I didn't really believe was 'the one'.

You're so pressured to find that one person that your judgement may get clouded.

That was before Ansel.

When I met Ansel, all my worries went away. I'm not overwhelmed anymore by the stress of finding 'the one', because I know that I've already found him.