"Are you ready?"
As I stay quiet, contemplating whether it'd be a good idea to seem them again. To see any of them again. They finally have something I couldnt give them.. stability, and parents. Carli looks at me, concern in her eyes. Everything started coming like a flood. I want better for them, and I know I'm not going to be easy. I'm not the same person they knew and loved, I'm broken. As I look back to the day it all happened.. realization dawned on me. I knew who they buried..
"I don't think I can do it"
.........................................
"It just doesn't make any sense"
"Alex"
Ignoring her name being called, she walked into her room and slammed the door shut. She walked to her desk, looking at newspapers and pictures. It killed to see Sage's truck but she had to investigate. None of it made any sense as she started to notice some things off.
"Why did Sage have a picture of another girl.. in high school" Alex whispered to herself as she stared at an ID that was inside a ziplock bag. Carrying other things in Sage's possession. She started looking through other pictures, she kept seeing a beaten up bike by the edge of the bridge. One no one seemed to acknowledge. Alex grabs her computer, lurking through her files. Pulling up a video that was released only to the family of Sage, if they wanted to see. As Alex looks intensely at the video, a girl in a bike with headphones on is by the sidewalk of the bridge. When the driver hits Sage's truck, who sways off the road.. the girl in the bike is no where to be seen.
"Holy shit.."
Alex searches up, bike death related accidents of Portland news. Showing varies of cases, she scrolls down till she gets to the year the accident happens. She stops when she sees the girl, the one on the high school ID.
Alex's world stops.. every hope she had revives.
".. High school senior (no name because couldnt think of it) was tragically killed by a truck that scored off the road. Autopsy showed severe skid marks on her face, broken ribcage and punctured lung..."
............................................
"She hasn't let go has she?"
"Have we?" Ash asked Ali, as they sit down on Alex's couch. They have a spare key to her home, considering Alex would sometimes have episodes. Ash and Ali were the ones to be there to comfort her. Like Kling has been there for Tobin, when she has panic attacks. Something that any of them couldnt believe the Tobin, who cracks a contagious smile, put together could ever go through.
"What if she's right Ali? What if Sage is actually alive, wondering why we moved on without her. Why our lives moved on without her.. when she's been alive?"
............................................
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not in the right mindset to take care of them.. Carli.. I killed someone.. and sometimes.. I wake up, seeing her before I hit her.. how can someone mentally unstable take care of them?.."
"You what?" Carli asks sadly.
"I didn't see her, and when I was hit. My wheel went one way before I could fully react in time.. I hit this poor young girl.. and I think that's who you guys buried.."
"Oh Sage.. that wasn't your fault" Carli pulls me into her arms, and holds me close. Tears running down my cheek, she moves her arm to wipe them.
"I took her life away.. she was so young. And I'm expected to live life.. like I didn't do anything?"
"No Sage.. you're supposed to live life being thankful that you're alive. Things don't always work it out the way we want them too, and we don't have control over that. It's not your fault, just sometimes we find ourselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. We don't always get to choose our fate, because it was already written for us. She would have wanted you to live life, the one you still get to have.. for her."
"You think they still-"
"They never shut up about you, come on Sage. They need you more then you think you need them" Carli tells me, she gets up out of the car. Walking to my side and opening the door for me. I take the hand she gestures for me to grab, and she helps me up. We walk hand and hand, to the front door. My heart beats faster by the second, when she opens the door. Connor and Savannah are coming down the stairs. They stop when they see me.
..................................................
"Alex.. chill for a second"
"We believe you" Ali tells Alex as she grabs her hand, holding it. Alex burst out of her room showing them evidence, stammering over her own words too. Alex felt something she hasn't in a whole, relief. Like a weight was taken from her shoulders. She knew she had to call Tobin and Carli.. even Mykayla. Mykayla hasn't talked to them in a while, she distanced herself from them during camps and tourneys. They worried about the young girl, but knew she could handle her own. That's what Sage would say.
"Where do we start?" Ash asks Alex, letting her know they really do want to help. Because they believed her.