The Awakening

Chapter Four

I grinned at him. He sounded like the perfect boyfriend. 

“Anyway, we were really happy. She was a genius and I was… I was smart but not like her. I knew I was gonna marry her. I know it’s crazy, but when you know, you know. Then, one day, she broke up with me. She said that I was too serious and that she needed to focus on her school work or something like that. I was mad at her and had my own rebound. I knew that she hated Vanessa, but Vanessa seemed like a pretty good way to get back at her. Anyway, Jenna told me that she was sorry and had lied to me, that it was her parents that made us break up. I knew it was true, but I refused to accept it. Then, one night, I thought things were okay, but she made me mad and I made her mad and we both got in our cars. I was driving like, thirty miles over the speed limit and all I got was a speeding ticket. She, on the other hand, was just going to her best friend’s house, probably to talk about me.” He smirked. 

“But then I got a call that she had been in a bad accident and by the time I got here, she was already in surgery. She survived the surgery, but-” He was telling the story in a sort of detached way, almost like he was simply narrating a book. 

“She’s brain dead,” I finished.

“No!” He snapped. “There is still brain activity, not much, but there is some. That means there’s still hope. That means that my angel could wake back up.” He looked at me with fire in his eyes. Whispering, he said, “There’s hope.”

I shook my head and stood up next to him. I touched his shoulder and shook my head. “There is no hope,” I said. “She’s gone, Jason. She’s beautiful, and was probably an amazing girl, but she’s gone. It’s time to move on.” I stepped up really close and leaned on him. “It’s hard, I know. It’s hard, and it sucks and it’s sad and unfortunate.” I was crying. “But you have to move on.”

Images of my sister hit me like a ton of breaks. I could see her face in my mind and could hear her laugh. I could see her the night of the crash, the night that I became responsible for my sister’s death.

“Why are you crying?”

 I shook my head and ran out of the room. He just poured out his heart to me and I couldn’t bear to tell him about my sister. I couldn’t have him see me the way everyone else did. Sam was the only one that didn’t look at me like I was a monster, and I just couldn’t handle it.

When I got to the elevator, I collapsed on the floor inside. Thankfully, I was all alone. I rode the elevator three times up and down from the first and last floor. I ignored the people that stared at me and the sympathetic, pitying looks. I ignored all of it.

Jason was holding onto his girlfriend and as awful as I know he felt every time he saw her, I wished I could look at my sister again. I would even take her hooked up to a machine if I had to. “Take your own advice,” I whispered. 

I ran into the restroom when I reached the first floor for the final time to wipe my eyes. I looked a mess. I raked through my hair, trying to comb it out at least a little bit. I dabbed my eyes, but it didn’t make it any better. 

Giving out, I made my way down to my car. Jason was sitting on the hood like he was waiting for me. “Now you’re gonna tell me what that was all about. How did my sob story make you cry like that? You didn’t know her, yet you cried like one of her best friends.”

I shook my head and got into my car. “I’m gonna put my car in reverse, and I’m sorry if you’re in my way.”

He swung around and got into the front seat. “No. Talk to me, Leah. You followed me here, made me tell you and then you ran out crying. What’s up with you?”