(A/N): I really enjoyed If I Stay but I wanted more character development and discovery from the story. So, this is sort of what I wanted from the book. I think I'll use the same character names to keep this consistent and coherent.
I liked all the characters in the story—Mia and Adam and all—but I wanted a little more from them. So, here we go :)
I barely remember anything from the crash itself—only the aftermath.
What are you really supposed to remember from a car crash, anyway?
I do remember that Dad had just turned on some classical music, at my request, and Mom was laughing about it. We talk about it on occasion—how I defected from the rock genre of my family to the classical genre and my cello. It's not really a sore spot so much as an ironic one, though I'll admit it's not particularly normal to pluck through a Vivaldi Concerto while your parents blast Metallica on the lower floor. But hey, it's a way of life.
I also remember seeing the truck in front of us. It was massive, and my thoughts scattered immediately when it rumbled straight into our path. Come to think of it, I don't really know exactly what went through my mind when the crash actually happened. Everything dissolved in a blur of white and black, and I remember being jolted—hard—to one side.
From there, the connection between my body and me dissipated.
They took me to the hospital. This much I know, because I was there. I watched them bundle up the bodies of my parents, my mother's hair splayed out on the road like a fan, my dad's pipe in two pieces in his shirt pocket. I watched them take me in their hands, put me in a stretcher, take me to the hospital.
I watched the nurse tell me the words I'd been dreading to hear. "It's up to her. If she lives or dies. She makes the choice, not us."
I make the choice.
To stay without Mom or Dad. To leave without Adam or Kim.
It's all on me.
All on me.