Accidental Attraction

9

I don't know about you, but my 2008 started off better than I could have ever imagined. Ever since the deaths of my parents, I had this idea in my head that I had bad luck and my life would never get any better. Now here I was, nearly 4 years later, happily engaged, I was going to be an aunt, and I had just gotten a raise at my job. We were only halfway through January! With all the drama and loss I had experienced in the past, I couldn't believe that my life would possibly get any better than it was at that very moment. Little did I know that the world had one more not so nice surprise in store for me.

Even though Adam and I hadn't set a date for a wedding (we were newly engaged and not trying to rush anything), his mom had started a notebook of ideas for where we could get married, who we could invite...she had every detail pretty much planned out down to about twenty choices for a dress. The woman was super organized, I'll give her that much. I had decided to spend the day hanging out with Diane while Adam and his dad went out to do some manly bonding. We were looking at pictures of venues and flowers when my cell phone rang. It was Luke.

"Hey there bestie," I said. "Happy New Year. I haven't heard from you since Christmas. Did you enjoy your time away with the family?"

"I did, but that's not why I'm calling," he replied. "Where are you right now?"

"Hanging at the Harris house with Diane," I told him. "Why? What's going on?"

"I need you," he said. "Jamie and I were in a bad car wreck. We're at the hospital right now. I'm in so much pain. And Jamie...I can't even talk about it right now. How fast can you get here?"

"I'll be there in ten," I promised, disconnecting the call.

"Is everything alright dear?" Diane asked.

"You remember my best friend Luke and his sister Jamie?" I asked her. 

"The young man and woman who visited you in the hospital," she replied.

"Well they were involved in a really bad car wreck," I explained. "Luke is terrified, and since he's like a brother to me, he wants me at his side. He wouldn't even tell me about Jamie, which means it's more than likely pretty bad."

"Say no more," Diane said, reaching into her purse. She handed me a set of keys. "Take my car and go to your friends. I'll get a hold of the boys and fill them in on the situation."

I gave her a hug. "Thank you so much."

I ran out the door, jumped in the car, and took off like The Flash. As I had promised Luke, I made it to the hospital in ten minutes. When I got there, I ran over to the desk and asked the nurse where I could find my best friend. She asked one of the other nurses to cover her station while she personally escorted me to the room where they were keeping Luke. I thanked her and then slowly peeked through the doorway. Luke looked like Hell. He had bruises all over his arms, he had a black eye (probably from the airbag), and a nice sized cut on his left cheek. I slowly made my way to his bedside, then bent over to kiss his forehead.

"Hey," I said.

"Oh God, Kara, it was so bad," Luke told me, reaching for my hand. I held onto his tight while he continued. "We were just going to the mall for a few hours, you know? Jamie wanted to do some shopping because she was having a bad day...she had a fight with someone at work...we were almost there and this guy in a pickup decides to run a red light. Our car went flying into a telephone pole and he just kept going! It was like he didn't even care whether he killed someone or not."

"Oh Luke..." was all I could say at first. "And Jamie??"

"Her side of the car had the most impact," he started to tear up. "She was trapped in the car. They had to use the jaws of life. She was unconscious when they loaded her into the ambulance, but she had a pulse. I'm still waiting on any information about her condition."