Girls Chase Girls | #1 [COMPLETE]

Girls Chase Girls

Reading the extended summary before you begin is highly recommended.

+++ denotes a switch in POV

--- denotes the same POV at a later time

Enjoy!

+_+

Xia

They began with a head-on collision.

Horns blared, the world spun on its axis like it might wobble off its orbit and spin free into the great unknown. Metal crashed, crunched. Glass shattered in tinkling musical notes timed to the melody of her gasping as splinters cut her face. She swallowed an airbag. Felt her second right molar crack. Had her skull slammed against the headrest with such force it thunked up a notch.

Click.

Click.

Finally, finally, the earth stopped moving.

Hazard lights flashed.

Xia tasted blood and nylon.

Something burned like gas.

The rear of her car exploded, and Xia began to scream.

---

Xia woke up to an oxygen mask over her face and a steady beeping beside her head.

Her parents stood at the end of her bed, both in tears, and praying. She couldn't figure out which language they were crying in; it all sounded like ringing in her ears.

"Mama..." God, her jaw throbbed when she tried to speak. The inside of her mouth was hot and dry. Her breath tasted of smoke and unleaded gasoline, a trace of coppery blood trapped under her slack tongue.

Drugs, the good kind, had knocked her for a loop and left her eyes crossing when she tried to catch her parents' eyes. They didn't need to cry for her, she was all right; couldn't they see?

It was forty-eight hours before she could speak clearly enough to be understood. Her left wrist was sprained, so writing was out of the question. Probably for that best considering who walked into the room once each day.

Phaedra Barlowe had lumbered into the general ward of Morrissette County Hospital reeking of halomethane ten hours after Xia was admitted. Soot was smeared on her brown cheeks and her infamous leather jacket hung off her shoulders in soaked panels like she'd gotten caught in the blast radius of a pressure hose. Maybe she did, Xia thought. Her dad had told her who pulled her out of the car. Her memory after the collision was a terrifying blank.

"Hey, kid. You okay?"

"I-" Xia hissed and reached for her dose pump. She knew better than to talk, but it was instinct to answer when somebody called. They said she'd be fine once the initial trauma had passed. Bruised, black and blue, but fine. She didn't feel fine.

The sodden greaser girl winced. "Sorry. I didn't know how bad it was. You want I should call the doctor for you? Maybe your mom. I saw her outside."

Xia held up her call button, trying to smile as much as her jaw allowed. Even her teeth were giving her twinges.

Phaedra bit her lip, shifting in her squelching boots. "You got real lucky, girl. If you hadn't got out of there..."

Xia lifted her chin a bit. She'd be as lost for a response with her jaw in working order. She knew she was lucky, that this could be worse-that it could have been her in a morgue instead of an uncomfortable bed with scratchy sheets. She was aware, she was just also in more pain than she'd ever been in.