You Aren't Who I Thought You Were

A Car Crash and a Comforting Boy

Skye’s POV

Taking a deep breath, I started, “I had just moved here with my Mom, my Dad, and my sister Lexi when I got my driver’s permit. I was allowed to drive, but only if I had a parent in the car and we were driving during the day. It was really bright out, a summer day, and my mom had asked me to run to the store to get some eggs. I was so excited to go by myself and my little sister Lexi wanted to come with, saying she didn't want to hear our parents fighting, as our parents fought a lot. So me, being stupid decided to bring her with me. No harm right? Well,” I sniffled again, “I was fatally wrong.”

“Skye? Will you go to the store? We’re out of eggs,” my mother shouted across the house.

“Really?” I asked, jumping up from the couch in excitement.

“Really,” my mother said, emerging from the kitchen archway. “I can trust you to do this right?

“Of course! It’s broad daylight outside, there aren’t going to be any drunk drivers or anything. The cars will see me,” I reassured her.

“Okay. Remember, eggs,” she dismissed, leaving me to go tend to her garden, as she did every Saturday.

“Can I come too? Pretty please Skye?” I looked down to see my 12-year-old younger sister tugging on my sleeve hopefully.

“I don’t know Lexi, Mom wants you to finish your homework,” I told the small child beneath me.

“Please? We’ll be back in a minute!” she pleaded, pouting at me with her cute puppy dog face.

“No Lexi, I’m sorry,” I held my ground shaking her grip off of my shoulder.  Tears started to stream like waterfalls down her face.

“But Skye, If you’re gone, they’re gonna fight, and I won’t get my work done because of the yelling,” she whispered, lip quivering. I knew she was talking about our parents, my Dad’s company had lost a bit of its value over the last month, and it caused a lot of stress and problems between him and my Mom.

“Fine,” I whispered, not able to resist the tears. “But we’re only getting eggs. No ice cream, no cookies, and no sweets. Got it?”

With a quick nod, she followed me out the door and hopped into the passenger seat of our Ford Explorer, excited to be away from the house.

“Put on your seat belt, I want you to be safe,” I reprimanded.

She nodded in agreement and clicked the shiny metal clip into the hole between the seats. I inserted the keys into the ignition and shifted into reverse, backing out of our driveway slowly. The drive to the store was short and uneventful. We walked in, grabbed the eggs, checked out, and left. It wasn’t until the drive back that things went wrong.

“Will you turn up the radio? It’s One Direction’s song from the X-Factor!” Lexi jumped up and down on the seat excitedly.

Quietly smiling at the little ball of energy beside me, I looked away from the road for a split second to turn the knob for the radio. When I looked back up, the red semi was already too close. A horrible crushing sound erupted from our small car. It all happened in a matter of seconds. I looked over to see Lexi’s head go through the windshield and the side of the car crunched under the opposing force of the truck beside it. I lost track of how many times we rolled. One, two, four, seven. Over and over again until we finally came to a halt. The scene around me was gruesome. Lexi’s head had broken through the protective sheet of glass; her body now limp with death. The last sound I heard was the screaming of a young woman and a child as sirens wailed in the distance. My vision went black.