Planet Riley

• Chapter Nineteen | Addie •

Emma had come up to me, tears streaming down her face. "I just realized. . ." She swallowed. "That the last thing I had said about Riley before the crash was how much of a. . ."

She couldn't even finish the sentence, she was crying so hard.

"And the last thing I said to her was how she didn't have any other friends other than me and Lucas." She wiped at her face and leaned against the wall.

"I feel the same way." I paused, thinking she would yell at me too, but she let me finish. "The last thing I had thought about Riley was how much I hated her mad wanted to leave this stupid city."

"But now she's more likely to never wake up." Emma pushed her ponytail back so her strays were flattened on her head. "I guess I didn't realize I could loose her so quickly."

"You never realize until they're gone." I thought about my dad. And the trips to hospital and the day I had dreaded going there because I knew he was dead the second I had stepped foot inside the building. The nurses had given me these solemn looks and held my shoulder firmly.

I glanced behind me to see Eli waltz back into the hospital, phone out. She was texting someone.

I turned back to Emma. "Can you look up the crash on any websites? I want to see if they have it on the news yet."

In fact they did. We clicked on a video with a blonde female reporter with  bright light flashing in her face and a dark landscape behind her.

"Police say the cause was that one of the teens was texting while driving and the other car had veered off the edge of the road and was sent spiraling." She paused, gesturing behind her. "As you can see there is major damage that has been done to the vehicle and as for the victim of this tragedy, she is presumed to be in a coma." She paused. "More on this story as it develops."

My heart pounded. I felt lonely and guilty and just plain horrible about everything. I had made a huge mistake. And Riley was the victim.