Minute by Minute

Chapter 1

"Cassie! No! Please! No!"

I'm woken up by the sound of my mother's screams. Six months ago, I would've been freaking out. Now, I'm just used to it. It happens at least once a week, every week for past six months. That's when she woke up. The accident did worst for her than it did for me but neither of us got it as bad as Cassie.

Recap: A year ago, mom was driving Cass and me home from her dance recital. Cassie had won top solo performance that day and I can still see the massive smile on her face from when the judges called her name. Anyway, it had been raining that day and mom had a tendency for fast driving. The roads were slippery and we could barely see what was in front of us. Mom realized that she was going way too fast and tried to slow down but she lost control of the wheel instead. The car didn't stop spinning until we hit a tree on the driver's side of the car. Mom knocked out immediately and so did Cassie. I was the only one awake but my right leg was stuck and I could hardly move. I called 911 and they got there pretty quickly. Cassie had woken up by the time we got to the hospital but no such luck with mom. The doctors told us that mom was in coma from the hit and it could be months before she woke up. All I got were bruised ribs, bruised lung and a broken leg. Cassie had internal bleeding but the doctors said she would be fine after a quick procedure as long as she stayed in the hospital for a couple days. But she wasn't fine. The internal bleeding ended up worse than the doctors originally thought and she died the next day. Mom woke up six months later, leaving me to plan Cassie's funeral and tell all our friends and family about what happened and tell her about Cassie. She broke down the day she found out. She's still broken. She blames herself for it. Maybe if she wasn't driving so fast and payed more attention to the road, Cassie would still be alive. But the truth is, it was a freak accident. And it fucking sucks.

I hear mom scream again, louder this time, and decide to wake her. I get out of the comfort of my bed and make my way towards her room. I see her turn in her bed and hear a mumble escape her. She's trying to wake up. She wants to wake up. But the nightmares are too real.

I walk over to the side of her bed and shake her awake. She jolts awake, with tears in her eyes, and behind the tears something else. Fear? Worry? Sadness? I'm not entirely sure but it's all so familiar and I know what's coming.

"Isla? Where's Cassie? Where's your sister?" she asks. Her voice is hoarse from all the screaming and it cracks at the end from all her crying.

Everytime she has one of these nightmares, she forgets about what happened, and I end up having to break the news to her all over again.

"Mom.... she's gone. But you knew that already. Remember? When you woke up from your coma, I told you what happened and I took you to the cemetery so that you could say goodbye. She's been gone for a year," I say sympathetically.

"Oh. That's right. I'm sorry, I forgot. Anyway, have you eaten anything? Let me go make you some breakfast," she says getting up from the bed. I stop her before she gets the chance.

"It's fine, I already ate. I'm gonna go get ready for school. I'm already running late. Go back to sleep."

"Ok. Have fun at school. Love you."

"Love you too."

And with that, she goes back to sleep and I walk out of her room. The alarm clock said it was five o'clock when i woke up which means I have about two hours to get ready for school and stop by McDonald's for some breakfast. I head to my room, pick out my outfit, and get in the shower. By the time I finish getting ready, it's six fifteen so I grab my keys and make my way out the door.
...
Cave Spring High School. Exactly twenty minutes away from my house in Salem. Only three days left and then my friends and I are out of here for good. As much as I can't wait to get out of Virginia in August, I can't deny that I'm gonna miss this place. I'm gonna miss my English class, which is the only thing I was good at, I'm gonna miss the courtyard where we would have lunch, I'm gonna miss the bathrooms where we would go talk shit and vent about whatever the hell we needed to, I'm even gonna miss complaining about Calculus. The only thing getting me through it is knowing that I'm gonna be in Madrid by the second week of August.