(This is in Ami's PoV, she's seventeen here. And I didn't write the song featured in here, even though I say Ami "wrote" it. I give all credit to the band, but you'll have to read to the bottom to find out who it is.)
I'm not sure how much more of this I can take. My mother's been getting sick a lot lately, and it was today, three years ago, that Takashi was killed. I looked up at the bright hospital light and sighed as I heard someone's footsteps coming closer to me. The footsteps stopped and I felt someone sit down beside me. I looked and saw a man with blonde hair and blue eyes. It was my father. "When did you get here?" I asked.
"A few hours ago," he replied. "How's you mom?"
I shrugged. "I'm not sure. They won't let anyone in to see her." I sighed and closed my eyes, opening them only when I heard someone say my name. I looked up at Koji, who was standing in front of me. "Oh, hey." I smiled slightly.
He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "Maki wanted to know if you could drop by his house while the rest of the band is there. He said it was okay if you couldn't, but he still wanted to know."
I looked at my father. He nodded. I stood up and said, "Yeah, okay." Koji and I left the hospital and started walking towards Maki Yoriito's house. Maki was a seventeen year old boy with brown hair and chocolate eyes. He was also the bass player and founder of our band, "The Destined." The way he saw, everyone on the planet had some type of fate waiting, and it was up to each person to find his or her own destiny. He thought our destiny was music, hence the name. Koji and I went around back to a large shed behind our friend's house. Maki and two other boys, both with red hair and green eyes, were outside. The two other boys were eighteen and nineteen year old brothers, Ino and Chaki. They were the other members of "The Destined". Ino was the drummer, and Chaki was the guitarist. I was the singer, as well as being the only female and the youngest, since Maki was almost a year older than I.
"Hay, you made it!" Maki said happily. I nodded. "Is everything okay on the home front?"
I had to smile at that. Maki could make you smile no matter what. "I think so. Why did you need me?"
"You still need to let us hear your lyrics."
"Oh, right." We had recently been working on a new song, but I just couldn't come up with anything. "I'm sorry guys, but I'm got complete and total writer's block. I really am trying, and I've got the notes, but nothing sounds right. I can't write good enough lyrics for this one." Chaki started to say something, but I never knew what it was, because my cell phone rang just then.
It was my father. "Ami, you need to get back to the hospital," he said. "Mei and your stepmother are here now, too. Your mother's heart is failing, and she wants to see you before..." His broke, but I knew he meant "Before she died."
"I'll be right there. Sorry guys, I need to go!" I turned and started running as fast as I could back to the hospital, not stopping until I was in my mother's room. I walked to her bed and stood next to her. She grabbed on of my hands and held it tightly. I held it just as tight.
"I'm sorry," she said, "For leaving you like this. Your father got transferred back here, so you can stay in the life you know so well." She tried to smile, and I tried not to cry.
"Don't say that!" I said, choking back tears. "You'll be okay, you'll get through this. You have to..." I stopped speaking as I felt her hand go limp. I looked at her, and saw my mother was dead. I hung my head as tears started slipping down my cheeks.
Koji had followed me. He hugged me from behind and whispered, "I'm so sorry." I turned and hugged him tightly, burying my head in his jacket. After a few minutes, I had calmed down and said something about having to go. It was raining now. I went home, and took out a notebook and pen. I started writing, and once I had finished, called Maki.
"Hello?"
"Maki? I got the lyrics finally," I said. "Are Chaki and Ino still at your house?"
"Yeah, they are. Hey, is everything alright?" he asked.
"I'll tell you went I get to your house, okay?"
"Alright. Want me to get anyone else to come too?"
"Just Koji," I said.
"Okay. I'll call him. Seeya soon." We hung up. I grabbed my notebook and started to his house. When I got there, everyone was set up and waiting. Koji came in a few minutes after me.
"Ready?" Maki said. I nodded and started to sing.
"I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house. That don't bother me. I can take a tear to shed now and them and just let them out. I'm not afraid to cry every one and a while even though going on without still upsets me. There are days every now and again I pretend I'm okay. But that's not what gets me. What hurts the most, was being so close. And having so much to say. And watching you walk away. And never knowing what could have been. And not seeing that loving you, is what I was trying to do. It's hard to deal with the pain of losing you everywhere I go, but I'm doin' it. It's hard to force that smile when I see our old friends and I'm alone. Still harder getting up, getting dressed, livin' with this regret. But I know if I could do it over, I would trade give away all the words that I saved in my heart, that I left unspoken. What hurts the most, was being so close. And having so much to say. And watching you walk away. And never knowing what could have been. And not seeing that loving you, is what I was trying to do. What hurts the most, was being so close. And having so much to say. And watching you walk away. And never knowing what could have been. And not seeing that loving you, is what I was trying to do. Not seeing that loving you...That's what I was trying to do."
I stopped singing, the song was over, and I felt much better. The other in the band, they figured out my mother had died just by the ways I sang that first time. Koji jumped up from where he was sitting and pulled me close. I rested my head on his shoulder and knew that nothing would be the same from now on.
(For you who don't know, "What Hurts The Most" is written by Rascal Flatts.)