The Struggle

"She does, in fact have a concussion Ms. Jones. it isn't too bad though, it is worse than a mild concussion, but she will recover in about 2 weeks or so." The doctor informs Aleyah's mother. 

Ms. Jones' shoulders sag in relief. Her daughter, Aleyah, had gotten in a horseback riding accident the day before. Ms. Jones looks at her daughter and gives a small smile at how peaceful she looks. She sees her daughter's eyes slowly flutter open and her smile turns into one of the biggest smiles shes ever given in her whole life. Aleyah looks around worried, she doesn't remember very much. She has temporary short term memory loss. 

"Wh-what happened?! Why am I in the hospital?" Aleyah exclaims.

Aleyah's mother looks at her daughter with a worried look. "Oh dear. Honey, you got in a horseback riding accident." She replies. Her daughter's eyes start to well up with tears once she realizes what happened. 

                        *                *                *                *

Aleyah smiles at her best friend. "This is going to be amazing, it's our last practice before the big race!"

Amber fakes a smile as she lies, "Yeah I'm so excited!" She had a bad feeling about this, while she was getting out Pokey, (her horse) he was acting weird, she decided that they needed this practice, so she got him out anyways. 

They head out to the track and line up at the makeshift starting line they're using temporarily. Aleyah calls the start and they're off. Amber tries hard to control Pokey making sure he doesn't spook or freak. Surprisingly it all goes well, time for the last turn and both feel confident. Pokey and Amber are in front with Aleyah on their tail. Pokey sees something that looked like a snake (it was a hose) and he rears a little too much, falling right on top of Amber. Aleyah saw the whole thing. Dreamer tried to maneuver out of the way, but ran into the tall grass outside the track. He hates tall grass so he started bucking and kicked her off, she was still trying to help Amber, who was screaming, but then got quiet. Aleyah tried to get up but she couldn't. Her eyesight soon got black. 

                        *                       *                        *                        *

"What happened! Where's Dreamer? Is Pokey okay? WHERE IS AMBER!?!?!?" Aleyah practically screams.

"Dreamer is okay, he ran back to the barn, where one of the ranch hands found him and tied him and put him away, he is okay, Pokey is okay, he has no injuries, but Amber unfortunately umm..."

"MOM!!!" Aleyah yells, wanting to know what happened to her best friend.

"She is in a coma, she is laying on your right." her mother finishes. 

Aleyah looks to her right and sure enough, she sees Amber, sleeping peacefully. She looked just as she did when she was sleeping at their many sleepovers. Aleyah starts bawling not knowing when her friend was going to wake up. 

"Shhhh, its okay sweetie." Ms. Jones caresses her daughter. 

Her daughter keeps bawling and eventually cries herself to sleep.

                        *                        *                        *                        *

"Honey, honey wake up." Ms. Jones says to her daughter.

Aleyah's eyes flutter open.

"The doctors said you can come home early!" Aleyah's mother says excitedly.

Aleyah's expression stays the same. "I don't want to go home." she says short and to the point. Aleyah's mother's expression changed quickly from excited to angry. 

"Why not?" the angry mother says.

"Because then I won't be able to see Amber, she's practically my sister mom." Aleyah says already starting to cry. 

"Alright honey, you can come visit her every day they will allow it, okay?" The mother cooes to her daughter. Aleyah only agrees because she gets to see her every day possible.

                        *                        *                        *                        *

"Hey amber, I really miss you. Umm, I'm sorry." Aleyah is at the hospital visiting her best friend for the last time, it is right before she has agreed to go back to train for the next race. "This is all my fault, if I had helped you, you wouldn't have been in that place that you are now, and I REALLY miss you, if there's anything I can do to help you or get you to come back, i will do it. PLEASE come back!!! I-I'm just, I'm sorry." She finishes as one of the nurses comes in and informs her that visiting time is in fact over. 

Aleyah leaves the room with tears in her eyes. She finds her mom outside waiting in the car parking lot. She doesn't even notice it's raining until she gets in the car because she thought it was her eyes. They get home and she goes straight to her room. She reflects on when she will ever get to see her best friend again.