Staring into the darkness, I wondered what had happened. It was awful...
But, I guess I could rewind a little bit before this happened. This is my story after all.
My name's Katherine Lynn Black but most people just call me Katherine. Well, all except for Ian Kane - my best friend who's been with me from kindergarten all the way up to 11th grade, who always feels the need to call me Kat. I guess you could say he's more like a brother than a friend. He's been with me through everything. He's lived next to me for eleven years and been my closest friend ever since he came here.
I remember when he first arrived – his parents car pulled up and all I saw was this blur of shaggy ginger hair as he ran up to me smiling a huge smile with holes were his front teeth should be. His freckled cheeks plump and his emerald green eyes shining brightly in the afternoon sun. His eyes still sparkle now as much as they did back then. After that first meeting, he automatically became my best friend.
Now, as you can guess, I'm pretty much like any other teenage girl - has two nagging parents, way too much homework, and, of course, drama.
Now, as I said before, I have two parents that just love to disagree with me. My mom isn't that bad though. She's forgiving for the most part but, as for my dad, he's a whole other story. He's pretty calm but if he gets mad at you, you're out of luck there.
About a week ago, he got mad at me because I had been sent to the Principal's Office for talking back to the teacher. I had to sit in that uncomfortable chair awaiting my fate for an hour before my mom and dad finally showed up.
As my parents walked in, signaling for me to get up, I felt my dad's hard eyes follow my every move as I stood. Following my parents into the back room of the office, into the Principal's office, we were motioned to sit down in the three chairs in front of my principal's desk. I then sat silently for another twenty minutes while we talked to my principal. The whole time my dad was talking, all I could do was sit there looking at his steel blue eyes that kept glancing back and forth from me to my principal.
After we had arranged my punishment, we left. Heading home in the car together was pure torture. Nobody talked. Nobody made eye contact. No one moved as we pulled into the garage.
Finally, after what seemed like ages, my dad finally spoke.
“Katherine, I want to have a word with you in your room.”
I said, “Sure, Dad,” with my best sarcastic voice.
I dragged my feet all the way up the stairs to my room with my dad following right behind me. As we got in the doorway, he sat me down - me sitting on my bed and him sitting across from me in my round chair. He then started talking to me about how I couldn't talk to a teacher like that and how I would get in trouble and wouldn't go anywhere if I kept talking back like that to people.
As the conversation started to get heated, my mom walked in holding three cups of hot chocolate in her arms. “It's raining outside,” she said, setting down the cups on my desk. She then smiled, showing her shinning white teeth. “It's raining outside so this should warm you up.”
As that point, I was so frustrated. I yelled at my dad to get out of my room.
Now, towering over me as he stood, his black hair-matching mine-slowly shook as he turned toward the door. And, with one last look over his shoulder, he quietly said, “Katherine, I love you. And I only do what's best for you.” He put his arm around my mom, pulling her close as they were leaving.
At the time this happened, I was so heated that all I did was yell back at him an “I love you too!” in my best sarcastic voice. I regret that now...
In the morning, we were all rushing to get ready because we all had errands to run but we decided earlier that morning that we were going to go in the same car just to make it easier.
As we left the house, still a little bitter from the argument last night, we got in the car together.
After a while of riding in the car, my dad started to talk about last night to me and, all over again, I got frustrated. But, suddenly, as we started to yell, out of nowhere, it went dark.
As I started to wake up, I felt the pain of what had happened. I realized that we had been hit by another car. I started to hear the people running around the car but my only goal right now was to get up to my parents.
As I started to crawl closer, inch by inch on my stinging, cut knees, I focused as hard as I could. As the blur of confusion started to disappear, it was replaced with sadness as I saw my parents - crumpled and broken. They were motionless. I crawled to my mom first. Holding her auburn hair in my hands as I held her head, looking down at her once sparkling hazel eyes, now glazed over with death, I felt a deep sorrow take a hold on me. After I laid her gently back down, I crept to my dad. As I looked down at him, I felt all of my remorse force it's way into my mind, causing me to throw up. As I shook from the effort, wiping my mouth, I felt the world close in around me. How could this happen? What now?All the way to the hospital I cried. I was frozen. Numb with shock.
After I had stayed at the hospital for a few days, I had to go to my grandma's house, where I would be living for a while. As I started to come out of my zone and start to kind of return back to normal routines - going to school, socializing - Ian started to talk to me more and more about what happened. He was so nice to me during that time when no one else really was. Sure, people said how sad it was about what had happened but Ian, he actually talked to me and listened to what I had to say.
About a week after the accident happened, on the day my parent's funerals were held, as I sat in the funeral home with my family and friends, I started to feel all that pain and regret of not having said “I love you” before they left. All I could think about was what I had said to my dad just before we were hit: “You don't care about me. I hate you anyway.”
I regretted it so much. I felt horrible. I lost it then and there. I ran out of the funeral home crying. As I got to the parking lot, Ian caught up with me. He asked me what was wrong and so I told him how much I missed them. After I told him, he looked down at me and then hugged me tight. I could smell his cologne as I hugged him, feeling his warmth surround me. After a few minutes, he let go.
I didn't want to go back in to the funeral home so I told him I was going to sit outside for a while.
After thinking about it for a long time, I felt so bad for what I had said. I didn't want to be here on this Earth. I wanted to go and say sorry to my parents. So I decided what I was going to do.
That night I talked to Ian about it. I told him that I had decided that I wanted to die. I wanted to be with my parents. Of course he disagreed and argued with me not to but my mind was made up. I told him I was leaving Atlanta tonight. I had chosen to use a bridge to do it. It seemed pretty easy and painless.
After I stopped talking to him, I packed only one thing - a picture of my parents and I. Now, by the time I started to walk, it was sprinkling outside. It looked like it was going to downpour soon too.
After walking for a while, I came upon a bridge that looked about right. I could feel the rain start to pour down as I heard a car pull up behind me. Soon after, Ian jumped out, yelling for me to stop. As I turned, I saw the fear in his emerald eyes. He ran to me, clutching onto me, squeezing me tightly. As he held me tight, I started to cry, pushing my face into his jacket, wet from the rain. As we stood there on that bridge, all he kept saying over and over again was, “Thank God. Don't ever leave me again...”.
After standing there for a while, he slowly let go of me, looking down at me with soft green eyes half hidden by a wall of messy ginger bangs.
He looked straight in my eyes and spoke softly to me. “I thought you were going to be gone before I got here. I couldn't let that happen.”
Slowly I said, “Why? I'm only one person. One girl. I don't really matter that much. Why did you come?”
His eyes softened as he spoke those words. “Because I love you.”
As he said this, he started to pull me closer to him. I reached up to hug him, smiling and he put his arms around my waist. And, with one swift move, he lifted my face up to his and kissed me.
