CHAPTER 6
701 Words
They said I was lucky to be alive.
I didn’t feel lucky. Not in the slightest.
I felt… empty. Incomplete.
Like whatever made things matter had been left behind in the wreck.
The hospital discharged me two weeks later.
No broken bones.
No permanent physical damage.
Just observation notes and quiet conversations that stopped when I walked into the room.
“She’s unresponsive emotionally.”
“There’s a disconnect.”
“If it builds up, it could result in an outburst.”
'Outburst.'
I held onto that word longer than I should have.
It sounded… violent.
They asked me questions.
About the accident.
About my mother.
About how I felt.
I answered none of them.
Not because I couldn’t.
But because I didn’t see the point.
So they gave it a name instead.
A condition.
Something clinical enough to make everyone else comfortable.
I called it silence.
School didn’t feel real anymore.
The halls were louder than I remembered.
The people… softer.
They looked at me like I had already died.
Some of them whispered.
“That’s her.”
“I thought she didn’t make it.”
I kept walking.
Then I saw my friends, at least that made me happy.
They called everyday for a couple of days then stopped. They probably thought I was a goner.
Aria and Pat didn’t hug me when they saw me again.
They hesitated.
Just for a second.
But I noticed.
I notice everything now.
They talked the same.
Laughed the same.
But something underneath it felt… off.
Like a conversation I wasn’t part of anymore.
Classes went by in a blur.
I’d hoped no one would pry but they just kept asking and it sickened me.
The dinner party had been postponed.
“Out of respect,” they said.
For me.
For what happened.
I didn’t ask for that either.
My therapist suggested I attend when they rescheduled it.
“It could help,” she said.
“Reintroducing yourself into normal environments.”
Normal.
I almost laughed.
Instead, I nodded.
I wore a simple short black dress, strap heels reaching my calves.
My makeup was just right and complemented with a simple set of jewelry.
A small smile appears on my lips as I replay the event when my mom put in so much effort in making my middle school prom dress.
“its perfect” she said.
Your next prom I’ll make you another one she promised.
She promised.
My dad was even still around then. He left much later.
I would’ve said that’s a story for some other time but I barely remember.
A sigh escapes my lips.
I arrive at the school hall 30 minutes later.
The decoration looked like they were arguing between an underwater theme and an actual teen décor.
It's not pretty.
I walk around a bit looking for the snack table and to find my friends, but I stop in my tracks when I see them.
I wasn’t supposed to see it.
That much was obvious.
The way they moved apart too quickly.
The way her hand dropped from his arm like it had been burned.
David didn’t look at me.
Aria did.
Just for a second.
And in that second—
she knew I knew.
No explanation.
No denial.
Just silence.
Funny.
I wasn’t the only one who knew how to use it.
I didn’t stay long after that.
David tried to explain while aria pretended to apologize.
I sat in my car for almost an hour, waiting.
Waiting for the right moment.
I had a bottle of alcohol in the passengers seat, half drank.
I didn’t really drink it, just slushed half of it on the street and took a sip just to give the impression that I was drinking.
Aria, pat and David just left the building.
Going home to f**k I presume.
The moment they touch the road I hit the accelerator and with full speed I hit all three of them.
They’d probably think I was drunk.
High on meds.
Mentally unstable even.
But they’d do nothing.
After all I just got out of the hospital right.
Now I know what he meant by outburst.
Unfortunately three other people do too.
- Writer
