“Beth! Beth!” I woke up to my mom calling my name. I rolled over and grabbed my phone. “8:07”, my clock read. “Shoot!” I jumped out of bed and ran to my bathroom. I did a simple makeup look, just some foundation, powder, eyeliner, and mascara and then threw my hair into a classic top knot. I put on a wildfox sweater and some leggings and then attempted to put my converse on as I ran down the stairs. I grabbed a banana and got in my mom’s car. We arrived to school just as the bell was sounding. I waved to Ava and Roxy and then went to my classroom. I noticed a boy, who I had never seen before, walk into the room. “Class,” Mrs. Rabanovochi said, I’d like you to meet Connor. His cheeks turned red. We locked a gaze, smiled, and looked away.
School came and went as it normally did that day. Sadly Connor was in none of my other classes. I guess it wasn’t meant to be, I thought to myself. My mom drove me home and we stopped at Dunkin Donuts. When I got home, I sat with Winnie on the couch and watched the new season of Pretty Little Liars. I went upstairs, took off my makeup, and put on my old Vidcon shirt and a pair of pajama shorts. I lay awake in bed thinking about the day and slowly drifted off to sleep.
The next day was Saturday. At 11:00 A.M. precisely, I flicked on my filming lights and, with the help of my sister Briddy, filmed a morning routine. Winnie was due for a checkup so we decided to take her down to her appointment. I flicked the radio on to 99.7 and my favorite song, Stay High, by Tove Lo, came on. We talked about school, YouTube, and everything else we had to catch up on. My mom was so involved in the conversation that she didn’t see a small blue Honda Fit honk, swerve into the wrong lane, and crash into the side of our white Prius.
I don’t remember what happened at all. I caught a glimpse of our car, shattered and smoking, being towed away. I saw my mom speaking to a police officer, who was trying to ask her questions. When I got in the proximity of her voice, I could see she had no idea what was going on and couldn’t seem to remember anything. I looked around for Briddy. The paramedics were loading her into a gurney. I walked up closer and saw that her eyes were closed. A paramedic told me, she’s in a coma. She’ll have to remain in the hospital on life support for 3 months or more. Suddenly, I couldn’t take it anymore. I broke down crying on the freshly paved highway. The paramedic attempted to help me up. “Don’t touch me!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Miss, calm d-” “Don’t you DARE tell me to calm down. How would you feel if your mom doesn’t remember your name and your sister won’t wake up for THREE WHOLE MONTHS! To add to that I can’t call my dad because he’s in a place with no cell reception. All I have is me right now, and you’re telling me to calm down! You are one messed up person. Messed. Up. Person.” I fell to my knees and cried all the water out of my body on the cold, gloomy asphalt. The police and the paramedics tried to pick me up. I would have run but I was too weak to move.
After I had been given some cold water and sleeping pills, I woke up drowsily in a hospital room sitting on the chair in the corner. I got up to look at the person in the bed only to find my sister. My eyes welled up but I managed to hold back the tears. Still unable to open her eyes, I pulled up a chair and sat beside her. I put my hand, nails freshly manicured in Essie’s Mint Candy Apple, on hers and kissed her cheek. I whispered to her, “Things will get better.” A single tear dripped down my cheek. I walked slowly into the lobby to find my mom, where some staff were asking her some questions such as “What is your last name?” “What color is your toothbrush? “Why are you here?” She couldn’t seem to answer any of them. I went up to my mom. “Who are you?” She said. I couldn’t take it anymore. I sprinted out of the hospital only to realize I didn’t have a car at the moment. I went back inside and used the hospital phone to call an uber to come pick me up.
After about 15 minutes of waiting outside, a black GMC with “UBER” plastered on both sides of it showed up. I hopped in the car and tried to make conversation with the driver when all I wanted to do was curl up in my bed and take a nice long nap. When I got home I brewed myself a cup of “Aveda Rest” tea and brought it upstairs with me. I finally fell asleep for three hours and finally woke up to my mom in my doorway. “Bethany?”
“Mom?” “Bethany, I remember you!” I rushed over to give her a big hug. “I missed you.” She said between tears.. “I thought you were going to be gone forever.” “I need to call Dad!” I remembered. My mom handed me her phone. As the phone was ringing, I showed my mom pictures of our family to try to jog her memory. “Hello?” My dad said. “Dad!” “Hey Beth! What’s going on?” “That’s a long story. Where are you?” He replied,“I’m on my way home because the police called to tell me there’s been a family emergency.” “Dad, Briddy’s in the hospital and she isn’t getting better.” “I lost my memory but just got most of it back,” my mom chimed in. “We got in a horrible car accident.” “Well, Beth and Tammy, my flight is about to board. We’ll talk about it at home.” “Fly safely.” I blew him a kiss.
I guess I must have jinxed it because the next thing on the news was “Boeing 505 crashes into Los Angeles stadium. Only survivor fatally paralyzed.”  My mouth was open for so long that I was surprised a bug didn’t fly into it or something. I prayed to God that my dad was the safe one. We went down to the hospital and he was checked in to room 10A. “Hi dad.” He looked over at me and gave me a weak smile. “How are you feeling?” My mom asked. “Well,” he said, “I can’t feel my legs!” He tried to laugh it off but I could tell that he was in pain. We went over to talk to the doctor in his room. “His legs from the hip down are paralyzed. We will put him through tests , amputate his legs, and make him some prosthetics.” My mom nodded. I went over to my dad and gave him a big hug. The loudspeaker blared, “Room 10A to the surgeon.” “Well, that’s you Dad. See you later. Love you.”
I startled awake the next morning to a ring. I heard my mom on the phone, and it sounded like she was in tears. I ran to her room and stood outside her door. “That’s amazing!” She said. I slowly entered her room. She gave me a big hug. “What’s going on?” “You know the Sinclair Project right?” “No...” I replied. “Well,” my mom went on, “It’s a study to try and reconnect people’s nerves after they’ve been paralyzed and it worked for your dad!” I was speechless. I was so happy that tears of joy started to stream down my face. “He’s going to be able to walk again.”
The next day at school Connor was sobbing hard. I went over to his desk and asked him if he was okay. “My mom died yesterday.” He said. I was in disbelief. “Yep. A white Prius hit my mom while she was driving to get groceries.” “I’m so sorry,” I said. I could never tell him that I was the cause of his mom’s death. I couldn’t stop blaming myself. It was all my fault.
That night all I had were nightmares. Connor kept yelling at me. “It’s all your fault!” I woke up, as if I was falling from a building. I didn’t get much sleep that night. I startled awake when I had a dream that he crashed his car right into me.
The next morning I overslept. I went to my mom’s room and told her I didn’t want to go to school because my stomach hurt. Sure, it was a white lie, but after what happened yesterday I really felt sick to my stomach. I went downstairs and made myself an egg but only ended up poking at it. Me and my mom drove down to the hospital to go and see my sister, but when we got there, the sign above her room had changed from “occupied” to “vacant”.
We went to talk to the workers at the front desk. “Where has Brittany Wiley gone?” My mom asked. The worker’s heart appeared to sink. “I don’t know how to tell you this, ma’am, but there was a break in last night. Somebody pulled the plug on your sister, and the two rooms on each side of her. I’m extremely sorry to tell you this, but your sister, Brittany Nicole Mota-Wiley is dead.”
I turned on the camera in my room. “Hey, guys, this is going to be my last video.” I tried to hold back the tears. “My sister, she… she...” I couldn’t take it anymore. A tear fell down my cheek. “She’s dead.” “Please don’t forget about me. The mota fam will live on forever.” I buried my head in my hands. “I love you guys, but the stress of these past few weeks has really just put me over the edge.” I proceeded to tell my viewers about what happened to my family, the car accident, and how I would no longer be going to school. “I need your support during this tough time.” I sat there in silence for about a minute. “You don’t know how hard it is for me to upload this.” I came to the conclusion that I had nothing else to say. “Well, I guess that’s it then.” I turned the camera off.  I layed on the ground and stared into space until I drifted off to sleep.
1 month later
I had just gotten the greatest news from my mom. We were moving to New York! I grabbed my suitcase and started to pack up my stuff. Our family was still grieving over Brittany’s death. Luckily, my dad had made it home safely. Oh, we had a lot to catch him up on! Folding my last shirt into my suitcase, I closed it and heard the satisfying “zip!” I rolled it down to the bottom of the stairs. I changed into my airplane outfit, a Cal sweatshirt and some Lululemon leggings. I smiled at myself in the mirror and went downstairs. Man, was I going to miss this place. “Bethers, let’s go!” My dad called up to me. I walked downstairs with my carry-on bag and my computer.
After we got to the airport, checked in, and went through security, Me, my mom, and my dad went down to find a spot in the lobby. When I had settled down, I walked over to Starbucks and got myself a green tea frappuccino. As soon as they called out, “Bethany, your drink is ready,” the intercom was telling us to board our flight. Happy but sad at the same time, I took a huge breath and walked onto the plane.
I took a nap on the plane and woke up to our plane landing. When we exited the plane, we grabbed our stuff and had a limo drive us to our new house. When we got out of the car, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a huge, mediterranean-style mansion, at least 15,000 square feet. The driveway was in a big circle, complete with a fountain shaped like 10 fish. I gasped. “Wait, mom, dad, this is the wrong house.” My mom replied,“No, sweetie, it’s for real.” “What? How?!” I jumped out of the car and went to explore the inside. Big kitchen, bigger living room, even bigger staircase? What was my room going to look like? I ran up three flights of stairs and finally got to my room. It was a room fit for a princess, minus all of the pink. A king sized bed with a canopy on top, with cream colored walls topped off with a simple, yet elegant, chandelier. I went into my bathroom. There was a steam shower and a tub with jets and chromatherapy lights. I ran down to give my parents a hug. We cooked dinner on our new Wolf stove and then sat down in the home theater to watch a movie. I snuggled up with Winnie, who I was so thankful to have, and then went up to my bathroom to brush my teeth and take off my makeup. I went downstairs to kiss my mom and dad goodnight and when I got under my covers I instantly felt happier than I’d ever felt before. I replayed the past few months in my head and smiled when I got to where I am now. Despite all of the chaos that happened, I felt that I was in an amazing place and I thought of how lucky I was to have what I have. I whispered, “Thank you.”, and as I drifted off to sleep I finally felt alive.