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No matter what the doctors said or what the monitors indicated, she wasn’t okay. The woman lying in that hospital bed was not my Monica, the woman I had slowly fallen in love with over the last six months.
Shutting my eyes against the memories, I turned down the hall. My steps felt heavy and awkward, like I was walking away from everything.
My wordless prayer went up. I needed a miracle. Another miracle, considering it was amazing that Monica had survived the accident at all. Now, I needed her to remember.
ChapterTwo
MONICA
The first thing I saw when I woke up was my mom was sitting at my bedside. My brother, too. “What’s going on?” I asked groggily. A nurse was on the computer on the other side of the bed.
“Hey, sweetie. I’m so glad you’re awake. How are you feeling?”
I touched my hand to my face. “Ow,” I said, drawing a chuckle from Bryce.
“Yeah, ow.”
“What happened?” I asked, trying to make sense of everything.
Bryce looked confused and glanced up to the nurse.
“It’s very common to not remember the first moments after waking. Especially since we had to sedate her afterward, she might not remember those conversations at all.”
I felt my pulse start to climb. “I’m going to need someone to bring me up to speed. Fast.”
“You were in a car accident. Until a few hours ago, you were unconscious.”
“How long?” I asked, my mind automatically searching for the relevant information to fill in the gaps.
“Thirty-six hours,” replied the nurse when Mom glanced at her.
My eyes widened. I knew the medical definitions. That was a severe brain injury.
“Hey, Bryce, do you have a second?”
I jerked my head toward the voice at the door. It took me a moment, but then I realized who stood there.
“Krystal? What are you doing here?” I turned to Bryce, looking for answers. “What’s going on?”
Bryce’s expression grew serious. “Krystal came back to town today for the auction. Don’t you remember? Apparently, you two planned it all out.”
I shook my head. “There’s no way. I haven’t talked to you in over a year,” I said to my high school friend.
“She’s been home since March,” Bryce said softly.
That was impossible. “No…Stop lying to me!”
What was going on?
“I’ll be right back,” Bryce said as he headed toward the door.
I turned toward my mom. “Mom? What happened? The nurses said I was out for thirty-six hours. Why is Krystal here?” Nothing made sense.
Mom rushed to my bedside, her hand searching for mine between the folds of the blanket. “I’m not sure, sweetie. We will figure this out though. I’ll get the doctor in right away.”
The nurse turned to my mom. “This period is called post-traumatic amnesia. For the next several days, you can expect Monica to act differently from normal. More confused, anxious, and irritable. It doesn’t have anything to do with her previous memories but is simply her brain remembering how to process new information correctly.”
Despite the confusion and disjointed feeling, I could tell something else wasn’t right. Everything was adding up to a conclusion that I was not ready to hear.
