Give this a chance. It starts sad as all hell, and doesn't get happy fast. But it will get happy.
I rated this story M for language and adult content (ie suicide). There will be no smut whatsoever in this story. Sorry.
Prologue
Chloe had one hand on the wheel and was holding my hand with the other. Fat droplets of rain pelted the windshield as we left the party and our friends behind. Chloe had a smirk on her face as she watched the road knowing I was staring at her. I couldn't help it. Even after all these years her beauty still knocked me on my ass sometimes.
"Beca, you're staring," she pointed out.
"Can you blame me? You're freaking gorgeous," I replied with absolute sincerity.
"Thanks babe. You're pretty damn gorgeous yourself," she turned and smiled at me and I swear I melted a little bit.
"You really should watch the road you know," I said quickly, hoping she'd miss my obvious blush. Judging by that little grin she now wore she saw it, and knew exactly what I was doing.
"Don't worry Becs, I got this," she squeezed my hand as she looked back at the road. I smiled and looked back out my window watching the familiar sights pass us by, thinking that it had to be against the law to be this happy.
When the world exploded around me, I didn't have time to think about the fact that I must have been right, and that this was the world righting itself again. I didn't even have time to look at the love of my life next to me. Before I could even scream, the world exploded again and stopped abruptly.
"Beca," I heard Chloe say my name as if from very far away. "BECA!" She sounded frantic now, but it didn't touch me. I was floating. It took all of my willpower to look at her. When I did I saw that she had tears streaming down her cheeks and thought vaguely that it was ruining her makeup, and that angels shouldn't cry. "Beca, don't you dare leave me! I need you okay? Stay with me!"
"I love you." And then I was gone.
I woke up slowly to a steady beeping, a massive headache, and what felt like an elephant sitting on my chest. When I opened my eyes, the world was so bright it felt like someone was shining a freaking spotlight directly into my retinas. I winced reflexively as the pain spiked my headache.
"Beca?" I heard next to me, and realized that someone was holding my hand. "Beca, are you awake sweetie?"
The noise I made in response was somewhere between a yes, a cough, and a whimper as my throat protested the fact that I made any noise at all.
"Oh thank God, I'll go get the doctor," and the hand that was holding mine was suddenly gone. I used the time alone to try and get accustomed to the overly bright lights of what I now recognized was obviously a hospital room. I looked around and noticed the TV in the corner of the room was playing a rerun of Friends. There was a window with the shades drawn, and one other bed in the room that lay empty. I could hear the buzzing of the fluorescent lights overhead and the incessant chatter of Chandler Bing.
Next, I took stock of myself. I had a cast on my right arm, countless tubes and wires, an exceedingly annoying thing in my nose that I'm sure was there for a reason, but I ripped it out anyway. I swallowed a few times to try to ease the scratchiness of my throat, so I could at least say words when I was no longer alone.
A very short time later the door opened again and a short middle aged woman walked in with a stethoscope around her neck and a clipboard in her hands followed by a tall aging man with thinning hair and a short beard. My father.
"Rebecca, I'm Doctor Gibbons. I'm glad to see you awake, how are you feeling?"
I gestured to my throat area, and tried to speak. "Like shit."
"Beca, language!" My father admonished me, but he looked so happy to see me awake I could tell his heart wasn't in it. I just grinned at him.
"Where's Chloe?" I asked. Instantly, the mood in the room sobered. I looked at dad, then at the doc, and somehow I just knew. "No."
"Beca, honey, I'm so sorry."
"No!" My world was upside down. Tears were streaming down my face. I felt hollowed out.
"Rebecca, I'm very sorry for your loss. I know it doesn't change anything, but it was painless. She died instantly," Doctor Gibbons said.
That sobered me quickly. What was he talking about? I remember the accident. I remember her begging me to stay. She couldn't have died instantly.
"That's not possible!"
"I'm afraid it is Miss Mitchell. And I'm truly sorry."
"You don't understand. It's not possible. She was talking to me after the accident. She begged me to stay with her," I argued.
My father and the doctor exchanged a look, and the doctor excused herself.
"Becs, how much do you remember about the accident?"
"Not much. I remember holding Chloe's hand and looking out my window. I remember what felt like the world exploding, and shortly after it exploded again. Then I remember Chloe screaming for me to stay with her."
"If you were looking out of your window, why didn't you see the car that hit you?" my dad asked with a puzzled look on his face.
"A car hit us?"
"Yes baby, a car struck the driver's side after running a stop sign and pushed your car into a tree."
"How would I have seen the car coming? I wasn't driving."
"Beca, honey, the only reason you survived that car accident was because you were driving. If you had been the passenger, you would have been the one that ended up wrapped around that tree." With that, the bottom of my world dropped out again, and nothing made sense anymore.
