What She Left Me

Chapter 1-After the storm

3 week later and my face no longer showed any sign of the accident, and my leg was fully healed. The doctors said that I was lucky the break hadn't been as severe as they had believed, otherwise, I would have started my junior year with a cast and crutches...I was lucky...

I looked at my face in the mirror, not a single place discolored. My eyes glanced over to the pictures I had stuck to the edges. Teresa and I had met in kindergarten and had never been apart ever since. The pictures on my mirror showed almost every adventure we had gone on. From trick or treating, to when I went with her on her family trip to Hawaii, and our first high school dance. My eyes stung, but I refused to let myself cry after the first week. What have I really lost, I get to wake up every day, I get to graduate high school, go to college, get married...? I pulled my hair up and secured it, then I grabbed my bag and went to tell my mom I was ready to go. I had just earned my restricted license and gotten a car, but the accident had totaled the car beyond repair, and I had not sat behind a wheel since that night. I don't know if I ever would again.

"Mom, I'm ready to go." My mother looked at me taking in my first day of school outfit. Usually I would have tried, I would have worn the outfit I picked out a month ago. I would have posed with my best friend in front of my car and smiled ready for my junior year. But instead, I just put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Nothing new, nothing exciting.

"Ok sweetie," she said, trying to smile like she didn't know anything was wrong, or different. She grabbed her keys, and I followed her out the front door, placing myself in the backseat. I buckled myself and laid my head against the window, not really watching as the trees and houses blurred by. I sort of blanked out until my mother turn to look at me from the front seat.

"We're here." I move my head to look at the front of the school. A few other people are walking in, some just sitting and talking out front. I take a breath in and let it escape. The place seemed less... I don't know. Just less.

"You know, you don't have to go today. Dr. Graham said, it might take a little time before you feel ready to..."

"It's fine mom, I'm fine. I'm not going to hide in my room all day. I don't get to do that." I said, unbuckling and putting my backpack on my shoulder. "I'll see you later."

I exited the car and walked a few paces forward. I tried breathing like my therapist taught me. Long breath in, long breath out. It would keep me from getting anxious. When I entered the school, my feet carried me on their own accord to the locker I had had for two years now. I stood at my locker and turned my head to look across the hall. One locker covered in pictures and flowers stuck out. My eyes stung again, but it was becoming normal. I opened my locker and it remained the same as always. Pictures of Teresa and me smiling and little notes still clung to the door. I let out another long breath.

I closed the door and went to go to my first class of the day. I noticed a few sympathetic looks from people, some whispers of condolence, but I just tried to ignore it all. The rest of the day blurred by, and before I knew it, I was sitting in the back seat of the car driving home. Mom didn't ask my how my day was, we just went inside, and I walked up the stair to my room, took off my shoes and crawled into bed.