There was rain\u2014gentle at first, then relentless, drumming like fingertips across the windshield. I remember my mom<\/p>\n
laughing beside me. My fingers tapped the wheel as I rambled about Nate, the guy in my chem class with a crooked smile and too much cologne.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe sounds like trouble, Maeve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then came the headlights.<\/p>\n
Too fast. Too close.<\/p>\n
Then came the screaming.<\/p>\n
I was no longer in the car. I didn\u2019t know how I got out. My knees were soaked in mud, my hands covered in blood that wasn\u2019t mine.<\/p>\n
Mom was sprawled across the pavement, twisted wrong, her eyes wide and staring at nothing. I screamed her name over and over, my voice raw and tearing until the sirens drowned me out.<\/p>\n
I heard someone mention a drunk driver.<\/p>\n
Then another voice said, \u201cThe mother was driving.\u201d<\/p>\n
I wanted to say they were wrong. That it wasn\u2019t her. That it was me. But my voice wouldn\u2019t work. My mind couldn\u2019t hold onto the words.<\/p>\n
Then everything went black.<\/p>\n
When I woke, I was in a hospital bed, blinking against too-bright lights. Machines beeped. A nurse hovered. My body ached, dull and heavy, and in the blur of it all, the door creaked open.<\/p>\n
For half a second, I thought it was Mom.<\/p>\n
But it was Thomas. My father.<\/p>\n
He looked older. More tired than I remembered. He sat beside me and laid a hand over mine, awkward and unfamiliar.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, kid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And just like that, I knew she wasn\u2019t coming.<\/p>\n
Two weeks later, I woke up in a different bed. In a house that didn\u2019t feel like mine.<\/p>\n
Julia was humming in the kitchen. She moved like someone trying too hard to feel normal.<\/p>\n
She placed a bowl in front of me\u2014oatmeal topped with flaxseeds, blueberries, and a hopeful smile. \u201cI added hemp hearts,\u201d she offered, like that might magically make the grief go away.<\/p>\n
I stared at the spoon. My stomach growled, but I couldn\u2019t eat it. I wanted cheap waffles. I wanted pancakes at midnight with my mom at Sam\u2019s Diner, watching the guy who always fell asleep in booth six.<\/p>\n
I pushed the bowl away. Julia said nothing, just slid a protein ball across the table like an offering. I didn\u2019t touch that either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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