Understudy Read Online Free Page A

except for the music still playing softly in the background.
    Just say yes,
    Coz I’m aching and I know you are too…
    And everything turned black.
     

Chapter Three
     
    It happened quickly.
    I watched as Adam bent down to pick up his phone when something blurred past us. We both jumped, startled, and Adam lost control of the wheel. I pressed my hands over my ears to block out the screeching tires and a blaring horn. Everything after that was a blur. There was a deafening crash and the world turned upside down. Shards of broken glass flew everywhere and I remember squeezing Adam's hand just before my head hit something and I passed out.
    I woke up three days after the accident. No one told me what happened to Adam until the day he was buried. When my mom told me the news, I just stared at her.
    Her words didn't make sense. How could Adam be dead? He just turned eighteen. Surely, there was a mistake. But the way my parents looked at me gave me all the answers I needed.
    I wasn't able to attend his funeral, and I don't think I would have even if I could. Why would I? Wasn't it enough that he died because of me? Wouldn't it be cruel to remind his parents that I survived and their son didn't? I knew they were not the kind of people to think like that, but I couldn't help it. Not when I knew that I had the chance to prevent the accident from happening.
    The doctor told us that the reason why I survived the crash was because I was wearing a seatbelt, and Adam wasn't.  I got off with some broken ribs, bruises and a minor concussion, but other than that I was fine, though I was sure that I would never be normal again.
    I didn't cry. I expected myself to, but tears eluded me. The doctor said that I was probably in shock. That it was my mind's way of protecting me. I agreed with him, though I believed that the reason why the pain hadn't got to me yet was because I still hadn't truly acknowledged the fact that Adam was gone. I couldn't.
    People from school came to visit me. Sara visited me, as well as some of my relatives. It was a series of blurred faces, of different people telling me the same thing. Mom told me that Adam's parents visited me too when I was still unconscious, and that they were happy that I survived. I wasn't.
    People began asking me about the accident as soon as I was discharged from the hospital. I told them I couldn't remember, though every time I closed my eyes, everything was as clear as day. There was a big difference between remembering and hearing it out from my own lips. Saying it aloud would have made it real, and I wanted to believe that it wasn't. That perhaps I just dreamt it all.  That I would wake up one morning and everything would be back to normal. Adam would come pick me up for school and I would tell him all about the silly dream of us being in an accident and how he died. He would've found it funny.
    I was allowed to sit out the remaining month of the academic year, which also meant that I missed prom. Not that I had any intention of going. Not when Adam wasn't around to pin my corsage and tell me how beautiful I looked in my dress.
    I spent my days in my bedroom with Mom and Dad constantly checking up on me. I felt bad for them, especially when they were being extra nice to me. Sara visited once in a while but she would end up crying her eyes out and I'd be the one to console her. I wanted to cry. I wanted to drown the pain with tears, because I knew that the more I prolonged the inevitable, the more painful it would get. Pain is like a one-sided relationship. You fight very hard to break away from it, but it clings to you like a psychotic ex.
    I wanted to talk to someone. To share the things that troubled me. I would grab my phone and dial the number I knew by heart. No one answered, no one would. But I still waited ring after ring, hoping that Adam would pick up and I'd hear his voice again. He didn't have voicemail.
    It took exactly twenty−seven days before the pain finally set in. I