The river.
It floods back into my mind, and it’s too overwhelming, too much to handle as my brain works through the events—out of order, scrambled, and blurred.
From what I can recall … I lost control of the car, and we rolled down a small hill and through the barrier into the river.
I see a flash of the empty front passenger seat.
Carly.
That’s right; Carly had already gotten out somehow.
I was alone when it went down.
My head whips back to my mom, and I ignore the pain that follows the jarring movement. “You guys found her, right? She wasn’t in the car. She got out before me. Is she in a different room?”
My mom swallows hard and her face contorts with anguish. “Jensen …”
My chest tightens, and my eyes burn as I fight the truth staring me in the face—the truth that’s been there all along that I desperately want to ignore.
“Carly … didn’t make it, baby,” she whimpers and cups her mouth, indescribable pain threaded in her words. “She went through the windshield when you crashed. She was unconscious when she went into the water …”
“No,” I state matter-of-factly, shaking my head side to side, ignoring the pain that’s throbbing in my skull. “No. No.No.”
She’s lying. She’s wrong. Carly’s fine. She has to be.
I don’t know why my mom would do this to me, but this has to be some cruel prank. It’s my fault that we ended up in the water. She has to be okay. There’s no alternative.
“Carly!” I cry out her name at the top of my lungs. “Carly, where are you?!”
Silence roars in my ears.
I try again, but Carly doesn’t answer me.
“You’ve got to calm down, sweetie. Take a deep breath,” my mom whispers, but I ignore her.
I need to find Carly. This game needs to end.
When I sit up in bed, my ribs catch fire, but I push through the pain and throw the blanket off my legs. “Carly!”
A nurse frantically walks into the room and asks a question, but I don’t bother to listen or pay her any attention.
Scooting to the edge of the bed, I start to slide off when the nurse stops me, grabbing my shoulders and pushing me back.
My focus shifts to her, and we lock eyes, anger flooding me. “If you’re not going to take me to my sister, then get the hell out of my way.”
“Lie back down for me, okay?” she asks politely as my mom yells at me to relax.
I don’t have time for this, for any of them.
“Carly!” I scream again as I try to stand up from the bed, my legs shaky and weak, but I try over and over until I find my balance. “Carly!” My voice cracks, and a vision crashes into me, my shouts blurring with the flashbacks of the accident, my cries blending together until I can’t tell if I’m in the car again or in the hospital.
“Sit back down, Jensen,” the nurse orders me, but I step forward toward the door as a stinging pain cuts into my hand from the IV.
Two other nurses walk into the room, blocking my path. But I don’t care. They’re not going to stop me. I take another agonizing step.
Striding forward, I hear my mom cry out behind me again. I know she’s upset, but they can’t keep Carly from me.
“JD, come on, man,” Luca, my best friend, pleads firmly yet gently as he walks over to me, positioning himself between me and the nurses.
