•Sara•
I wake up and look to the side of me, my parents are sitting on the long couch by the window, their hands clasped together. My mom's head on my dad's shoulder. I smile at the love between them. I wipe my eyes and look around the room again. It's so weird, these hospital rooms look nothing like the last time I was here. They're totally different. There's different wallpaper, and the chairs are sleeker, more modern. This entire room is modern. Maybe they put me in a special room or something.
I hear the couch shift and look over to see my dad smiling at me, he nudges my mom and she wakes also.
"Well hello gorgeous!" My mom says, getting up and taking one of the chairs next to my bed. "How are you feeling?" She takes my hand as my dad takes the other chair.
I smile, "I feel fine. A little groggy, like I can't seem to wake up fully, but fine."
My dad pats my knee, "Honey, that's just the medication the doctors are having you take, to help with the pain."
I nod, "Okay." They look at me, and I crook my head. It's time to get some questions answered.
I sit up straighter and look my mom in the eyes, and then my dad. Praying that they see how serious I am, and won't just brush it off, telling me to get more sleep or something. I need to know what's going on.
"I'm confused. I'm so confused as to why I'm even here in the first place. My leg is in a freaking cast, I have this huge headache, my stomach hurts, I can't see properly, and on top of it all nothing really hurts because of all the meds they're making me take. Do you know what this feels like? I feel like a huge elephant is on my body, it's like a ghost of the pain that's struggling to get through. It feels horrible, and I don't even know what happened to me! Please, just please tell me how I got hurt." I finish my rant and look at them expectantly.
They look at each other, having a silent conversation. My mom nods her head and turns to me. "Honey, before we tell you anything you need to promise us something, okay?"
I nod wearily, not sure as to what I would have to promise. This should be simple. I probably just fell and hit my head really hard or something, and the after-coma amnesia is fogging up my memory.
"I need you to promise that you'll hear us out, alright? The things were about to tell you, honey, they're going to seem crazy. Absolutely ridiculous, but just know that we are not lying to you. At all. We would never lie to you." She's looking at me with a worried expression on her face.
My eyes are wide, too wide, by the time she finishes and I'm honestly scared. I don't know what to think now.
My dad sits up and brushes my hair out of my eyes, "First though, we need you to tell us everything that you remember, okay? Be specific."
I look down at my hands, fiddling with my fingers. "I'll tell you everything that I told the doctor. We live in South Dakota, I'm fifteen years old, I'm going to be starting High School soon, or maybe I've already started. I don't know." I lay back on the pillow, looking at the ceiling, and continue. "And in addition to that, my best friend is Chris, we have a dog named Hanna. I've never had a boyfriend because I'm socially awkward," I say for a little comic relief in this situation, and I hear them chuckle. I smile. "Everything else is just left to the basics. I mean," I look at them. "What aren't you guys telling me? Your turn." I look to them.
My mom leans back on the chair. Her short, brown hair unruly around her face.
"The doctor said you had a case of simple, after-coma amnesia. He didn't know at the time, honey, that it was something much more. You don't have that, you have amnesia. Plain and simple. Sweetheart I'm just going to rip the bandage off, okay? You lost four years of your life, baby girl." She take both of my hands, as my eyes get impossibly wider. "It's going to be okay though, he said you have an eighty percent chance of getting it back within the next few weeks! The next few weeks, sweetie, and that's huge! There is hope, and you don't have to be scared." She's rambling. My own mother is rambling, and she's the strongest person I know. She rambles, and tends to go on and on when she's scared. Like now. I don't notice the tears running down my cheeks until I feel the wetness. My dad pulls me into his chest gently, whispering comforting words in my ear.
"I lost four years of my life? What are you talking about? Four years, four... what? You're joking, please tell me you're joking." The tears are free falling down my face now, and I can feel my self begin to hypervenilate.
My mom takes my face in her hands, "Sara, look at me." I do as I'm told, my chest rising and falling rapidly. "Breathe. Calm down. Everything is going to be okay, sweetheart. I promise you. I know it's a lot to take it right now, just breathe... breathe."
I close my eyes, and try to listen to her. I take deep breaths and count. How in the world did I just lose four years of my life? Four years. That's too much.
I open my eyes, "Dr. Fell said it's an eighty percent chance that I'll get my memory back within the next few weeks. What about the other twenty percent mom? What if the other twenty percent takes over, and I never get it back?"
She opens her mouth to speak, but gets interrupted.
"That's what I said."
I turn at the familiar voice, and look towards the door. Chris is standing in the doorway.
"Chris!" I try to get up, but then realize quickly that it's useless, "Get over here, now!" He laughs and walks over, engulfing me into a comforting hug.
We pull back and I get a good look at him, If I didn't believe that I lost four years, I would now. As he stands up, he's easily at least a foot taller than I remember. His voice is still high, like always, but I can tell he's older. He looks older. He sits down in the chair opposite my parents and smiles at me, underneath that smile I can see the anxiety.
"You had me so worried, girl. You don't even know. It's been two freaking weeks! I didn't know if you were going to wake up." His voice cracks in the end and I pull him towards me, hugging him again.
As we pull away for the second time, I hear my parents get up. My mom looks at Chris, and he nods. She smiles at him greatfully and kisses me on the forehead. "Honey, Chris is going to explain the rest to you, because he can explain certain things much better than we ever could. We'll be right down the hall in the waiting room though, okay? Is that alright?"
I nod, "No problem." She smiles, my dad hugs me, and they leave the room. I look at Chris.
"You look old, dude." I say, and he bursts out laughing, looking relieved.
"Look in the mirror missy, we're the same age." He grins.
I stop smiling at once, and his face sobers as well. "I'm sorry, Sara I didn't mean-" I cut him off.
"No, no it's fine. Do you think you could find a mirror for me? I really do want to know what I look like." He looks at me for a second, and then nods and leaves the room.
Of course I've aged, I mean it's been four fucking years. I touch my face, and stare down at my legs. It's hard to believe, that's for sure. I touch my hair and look down, I've let it grow. I have blonde freaking highlights now. I remember mom wouldn't let me get them because it was too revealing or something.
But I'm eighteen now. No wonder.
Jesus.
Chris comes back into the room and hands me a small, hand held mirror. I take a deep breath, and hold it up to my face. My mouth pops open, and I stare wide eyed at the girl in the mirror. She looks like me, only older. Much older, it's like looking a somewhat younger version of my mom. I'm making no sense. This is weird.
I put down the mirror and push it away, it clatters down to the ground and Chris takes my hand and chuckles. "You don't look that bad." He smiles.
I look at him. "How did this happen, Chris? How did I lose four years of my damn life?"
He leans back in the chair. "You were in a car accident."
I look down. "Go on, please. Just tell me everything. Everything that I've missed. I won't interrupt, I need to hear it. I'm tired of being in the dark. Don't leave anything out. Just tell me." I look at him, pleading. "Please."
He nods, settling in his chair, and begins.
"I'm only going to tell you the absolute things that you need to know, okay?" I start to protest, and he stops me. "Doctors orders! He says too much can overwhelm you. Maybe stop the process of recovery even, and I'm not taking that chance." He looks me sternly in the eyes as he says this, and I nod. He continues, "We moved to Cali when we were fifteen. It was like the highlight of our lives. We still to this day don't know how we did it. We actually convinced our parents to move. I mean, from South Dakota? That's huge. They just decided it was the best thing for us I guess, we still don't know their thought process on that." We laugh. "When we got here, it was hard to adjust at first, everything was so much different. I mean, this is a huge step up from South Dakota. Naturally, we had to figure out how to fit in. It was great though, we went to Disney land for the first time, that was amazing." He stops. He look down at his hands.
•Chris•
I don't know how to tell her the really important things. I don't know how to tell her that she's forgotten our best friends. I don't know how to tell her that she's dating her celebrity crush, and I don't know how to tell her about me. I don't know. I can't. I can't do this.
She takes my hands, seeing my conflict. "Tell me. Tell me what I need to know. I can handle it. Or at least I'll try."
I take a deep breath. She's right. I have to do this. I can. I'm the only one.
•Sara•
"A little while after we got here, we met a few friends. Two people actually. We were in a mall, shopping, and we just kind of ran into them." He looks at me, finally. "Lea Michele and Darren Criss." I stare at him. "Do their names ring any type of bell?" I can see the hope diminishing in his eyes, and it's horrible. I can't lie to him though.
"No. Not at all. Are we really close?" He nods.
"They're our best friends, Sara. We met them almost as soon as we got here. They helped us through the move." He pauses. "I'm dating Darren."
I look straight into his eyes, in shock. "Did you...?" I ask, trailing off and he nods, smiling.
I almost squeal, pulling him in for a hug. He had finally come out! He's known he's been gay since elementary school, but never had the courage. I'm so freaking happy right now.
I pull away and almost squeal, but try to contain myself. "I'm so happy for you, Chris. Really. I can't wait to meet him." I recoil in on myself. I have met him. I just don't remember.
Chris takes my face in his hand. "You will remember. Just give it time. We have to have hope, or we're screwed."
I nod and try to get back onto the topic at hand. "So, is there anything else?"
He laughs, but it's the type of laugh that says this is anything but funny. "You have no idea. So much has happened, that was a good start though. I had to tell you about our best friends." He looks at me. "They're out in the hall. If you want to..." He trails off and my eyes get wide.
"No, maybe later. I'm sorry, I don't think-" He cuts me off.
"Okay." Taking my hands, he nods hurriedly. "Whenever you're ready. We don't have to rush anything. I'm just glad your back with us."
I pull my hand out of his. "Tell me the rest."
He nods again. "After we got here, we both turned sixteen, and we met them. We instantly became friends. Both Darren and Lea were inspiring singers, like we were. They also liked to act. Their parents are in the business, and they got us jobs. Simple gigs, you and I would sing together. Darren and Lea would support us. We got into this duet type of thing for a while. Occasionaly getting solo jobs. It was great. I mean we were only sixteen. It was huge." He stops, letting me process the bit of information he gave me.
"It was always my dream to be a singer, but... we actually got into it? Seriously?"
He breaks into a grin. "Sara, we're still doing it. The only reason we're not right now, is because of your accident. It's amazing. I mean, we're famous Sara. We did it."
I gasp. "What do you mean famous?"
He laughs, "I mean it, exactly how it sounds. Once we got into it, it just kinda took off. We're mostly doing our own things now. We aren't really doing the duets anymore, but we're both very successful in our careers. I'm actually on a T.V show now, It's called Glee. I've been on it for about two years. It's gotten very popular, and I'm so blessed. Dare & Lee-Lee are on it too. Don't tell them I just called them that though. They hate the nicknames we gave them." He chuckles, his voice getting a little higher. "They actually gave us nicknames as well, Chrismess and Sara Bara." I wince at the stupid nicknames and he busts into laughter, I join in, clutching my side.
"Those are horrible!" I laugh.
"I know!" He replies, we laugh for a little while longer, and then calm down. I smile at him.
"So a T.V show huh? And it's huge?" He nods. "That's amazing Chris. Darren and Lea are on it too? Ha, so that means all of my best friends are huge stars. Wow." I try to process this and it just goes right past my head. How did this happen? This is just... wow.
Chris snorts, and I look at him. "Sara, don't think you aren't. You're famous too, if not even more big than Lea, Darren, and I put together."
I roll my eyes. "Yea. Right, okay." Sarcasm clear in my voice.
Chris smiles, "You don't believe me? Okay... You know Demi Lovato? We used to be absolutely obsessed with her remember?" I nod wearily. "Look in your phone Sara." He hands it to me, and I gasp. My phone is a huge, sleek black thing.
Chris laughs. "It's an iPhone 5. The newest addition. I'll teach you how to use it and everything, don't worry."
"Jesus. How advanced did technology get in only four years? God." I ask, my voice rising an octave.
The smile never leaving his face, he takes my phone and I assume, opens my contacts for me. "Very advanced, just look through your contacts. You'll see what I'm talking about."
I do, and with each contact, my eyes get wider, my pulse quicker.
There's hundreds of contacts, but a few stand out.
Adam Levine
GaGa
Demi Memi Temi Lemi
I look up at Chris, shocked and confused. "'Demi Memi Temi Lemi'? What is with that?"
He laughs, "Inside joke between the two of you, no one knows."
I look at him. "It says Adam freaking Levine in here Chris. And GaGa. GAGA CHRIS. Don't tell me-"
He smirks, cutting me off, "Yep. GaGa. As in, the Lady herself. And Adam and you are good friends. You haven't even been through half of the list yet. It gets better."
I look down at "my" phone and continue reading, this is so hard to believe.
JoeMoe Jonas
I stop. I can't fucking breathe. No... way. My head slowly turns to Chris. He raises his eyebrows, "Which one?"
I tap on the contact, and give the phone to him quickly.
He smiles at me. "Yup. We met them." He gets this weird look on face. "There's something I need to say about that as well."
I furrow my eyebrows at his pause. "Go on. Please."
He opens his mouth to talk and gets interrupted.
My phone starts ringing.