From A Car Crash To A Crush

"Life is a gamble. You can get hurt. But people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day." ~ Muhammad Ali

I had just put my seat-belt on right before it happened. I was in a 2004 Pontiac Grand Am on my back from shopping at the mall for my seventeenth birthday with my friends Miranda, Hunter, Ivy and, Ian. We were just laughing, having a good time, and enjoying the beautiful day outside.

"Truth or Dare?" Miranda asked me.

"Umm..Truth?" I replied.

"If you had to date a teacher, which one would you choose?" Hunter answered looking at me in the rear view mirror before Miranda even had a chance to ask her question.

"Mr. Vega!" I said rather loudly. I knew I had answered way too quickly because they all went into hysterics. My crimson cheeks were a dead giveaway that I wasn't kidding about my crush on our history teacher who was a good seven years older than me.

"Shit," Hunter yelled.

My friend Hunter saying his last word and the sound of shattering glass is the last thing I can remember hearing before the car went airborne, ejecting three of my best friends, and changing my life forever..

~~~~~~~~~~~

Miranda's screaming. Her painful scream is the only thing pushing me to wake up. After a few seconds of blurriness I focus on Hunter's bloodied face near inches from mine. His eyes are open but that's as much as I see before my stomach clenches and empties in the backseat of the car. A far away blood-curdling scream drags me from my mess, and there's only one person whom it could belong to, Miranda. Just then, a stranger's face peers in through the broken out window. I can see his mouth moving but I can't make out any of his words.

A few seconds of silence passes but Miranda's latest screams startle me into action. I try to open my door but my arm isn't cooperating and it won't budge. The stranger reaches his hands in and begins to help me out. I try to help ease the difficulty but keeping conscious is a struggle enough as it is.

I fall into a pile on the asphalt and begin to search for my injured best friend. I see blood everywhere but none of my friends. I try to make it to my feet as I spot her sprawled out down the road about 100 feet. If it weren't for the stranger's strong arms I would've fell right back down again.

I look up into the bright blue eyes that belong to the kind stranger and listen to his assurances that everything would be okay as I again drift off into unconsciousness.

~~~

The sound of someone sobbing nearby rouses me from my deep slumber. I tried desperately to escape the pounding inside of my head but the crying isn't helping anything. The more I try to go back to sleep the more I get a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach. Where am I?

I finally decide to brave opening my eyes, finding that I was laying in a hospital bed with my crying mother drenching my blankets with her tears..

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Author's Note:

That little car is the one that Morgan and her friends were riding in.

(That's a real picture of the car my sister was in when she was in her crash)

Lots of Love, Ashley.