Dahlia Grace, a 22 year old ambitious young woman, is on her way to begin a new life after having just graduated from college.
She has the perfect job, the perfect apartment and the perfect friends.
But she is hiding something. Her grievous pas...
I have small fragments of reminiscence from last night. No clue where I am right now, or if I'm even alive after that blinding pain, I keep my eyelids closed. But I'm definitely conscious now.
The world had been spinning at full speed, yesterday night, like one of those extremely nauseating roller coaster rides. One moment I was panicking about remembering something I'd never felt before and the next thing I know I'm out on the road with a car hurtling towards me in full velocity.
The ache in my head and stomach was not helping much with getting motivated to open my eyes and find out where the heck I was. But soon I heard voices- familiar ones- and that was enough for me to jerk upwards, my eyes flying open and to gasp loudly.
"Woah." Andrew said suddenly, steadying me with his fingers on my shoulders.
I turned towards him and the sight of something so comfortable and known, made me wince.
"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" he asks innocently.
But I'm too dazed to reply. I shift my gaze on Emma and Charlie and a feeling of love and compassion passes through me, seeing the mix of worry and relief on their faces.
"I'm fine." I repeat twice. Maybe to reassure myself.
I notice there are dark bags under Andrew's eyes and his eyes are heavy with tiredness and lack of sleep. Once my heartbeat has returned to normal, I slowly lie back down.
By this time, I've guessed that I'm in a hospital. What with all the constant beeping and that sickening smell around me, it was almost too easy to guess.
"Dahlia, what happened last night?" Emma asked, concerned.
"I- I'm not sure." I say, with my voice croaking like a frog. Immediately Charlie turns around to fetch me a glass of water. I take it thankfully from him and gulp it down in two long swigs.
"It's okay. You can explain later, right now you need rest. Let me inform the doctor." Andrew orders and that's that.
Soon enough, he comes charging in with the doctor and nurse behind him. I love how he's taken care of everything here and I feel so grateful. Any remaining anger that I might have felt because of everything that happened or I remembered yesterday, washed away in this moment. I made a mental note to myself to thank him later.
"So, Dahlia, do you remember anything from last night's accident?" the doctor inquires.
"Not much. I recall going out onto the street from the bar- "I start but am interrupted.
"Were you drunk?"
"No. At least not so much that I couldn't control my movements. I was actually upset because I felt that I was, um, it was unusual and now that I think about it, quite stupid, so I- "
"Please tell me what was going on, since it will help me with the analysis and kind of medicines you should be on." The doctor pleaded. And so, I told him about the weird memories I was remembering. I obviously didn't explain what the memory was (that would've been highly awkward).
The doctor exchanged a short and nervous glance with Andrew and I'm sure that I didn't imagine it.
Luckily, I got off with a few pain killers and immunity boosters itself. There was no fancy medical equipment on my body, which I was extremely thankful for.
Back home, everything in my apartment was chaotic. Andrew had agreed to shift in to my room for a couple of days so that I could use his at Emma's house, since that was much more spacious and had lesser risks for me to fall and break another bone or two.
Currently, I was instructing, Charlie said threatening but whatever, Andrew not to touch a thing in my room or peep into anything otherwise he would have me to answer to. And he knows that even in this condition, I'd kill him. All I'm looking for now, is some time alone with my girl and sappy romantic movies all night long. You guessed it, it was time for girls' night.
The list ranged from romantic classics like The Notebook to Disney classics like Cinderella. It's time to act like a girl again, and I haven't done that in a long time.
Meanwhile the boys are excited about doing nothing together which they deem to be extremely cool. I'll never get the male mindset.
"Do you want to order pizza or Chinese food?" Emma asked, holding up the phone and a take-out menu.
"Both?" I ask her.
"Right answer." She smiles back and this is exactly what I love about her. She eats as much as she wants without worry of gaining weight. Like me.
Once the food has arrived, which hardly takes fifteen minutes, we begin with a night of endless crying, laughing and of course, eating.
The first movie to go on the television set is my personal favorite, Mean Girls. As the opening sequence starts, with the titles rolling in, I make my way towards the living room with my fully charged phone in my hand. It's so seldom that that happens.
I switch on the screen and am greeted by a slap on the head and one in the face. Literal and metaphorical. On the head from Em, for being distracted by my phone. In my face? Well, 35 missed calls from Dave, and 10 from Erin's mom are enough to freak me out.
Plus, when I open the messages, my box is loaded with messages from Dave.
Where r u?
Pls return calls asap.
Come on Dahls, I need u. Erin needs u.
Is everything ok?
Condition is critical.
Come, please. Help.
HELP. HELP. SHE NEEDS YOU.
And several such messages later, one short and very formal message. One heart-breaking, and soul shattering memo.
In loving memory of Erin Kingston on Sunday, at 11:30 am, at Miles Green in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey.
