I opened my eyes to an unknown room filled with medical equipment attached to my upper left body. Everything around me was blurry. I looked around and sighed with relief. I noticed a familiar face lying down on the bed next to me, looking handsome as ever, tall with a perfect body, blond boyish hair, sensually shaped lips, and bright blue eyes looking and smiling at me. What Happened?
“Elena, come on” dad yelled. “Are you ready yet?”
“I am dad, calm down” I shouted as I raced down the stairs to see my dad glaring at me.
He was wearing his old university shirt with jeans ripped on both knees.
“Let’s go!”
“Okay okay” I said as we left the house. We got in the car and took off. He turned on the heater to warm up the cold air. There was an awkward silence in the car the entire way to the train station. We live about five minutes about from the station, so there wasn’t much to talk about. We finally got to the station, just in time to break the uneasy silence.
“Be careful, honey,” he said pulling me very close to his stone muscular chest.
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “I’m seventeen, not seven, dad,”
“I know, sweetheart”, he said. “It’s just that you’re growing up so fast.”
“Dad, I’m going away for the summer, not forever” I said. This was the hard part. The part I had been dreading. I took a step backward to view his face from a more comfortable perspective. I saw the sadness take over his face. This made it even harder to leave.
“I have to go,” I said. “Don’t want to miss my train”
“Okay, goodbye” he said “call me when get you there.”
“I will, bye, love you,” I said standing at the crossing point of the station waving goodbye. I watched my dad enter his small 1999 Toyota corolla and disappeared. A delicate rain had begun to fall, slowly turning the path to mud and weighing down the already heavy pack on my back. I walked into the station and saw a young woman yelling at a police officer. “Let me go.” she said while pulling at his shirt. I got to the stand and handed my ticket to a man who looked like he had been robbed.
“You’re good,” he said “You can go.”
“Thank you”
I got on the train and sat down on what seemed to be a very hard, wooden seat. It didn’t only make me very uncomfortable, but all eyes were on me. I put them all out of my mind and pictured my mother’s reaction when she sees the gift I got her. I hadn’t seen my mother since last summer and boy, did I miss her. My mom was my best friend. I told her everything about anything. I hope she likes her gift was what I was thinking when the gift met the ground and shattered to pieces.
“What--- what is the--”
“I’m so sorry,” the stranger said cutting me off
“Are you blind?” I cried. “Don’t you watch where you’re going?”
“I said I’m sorry,” he said. “What more do you want?”
“I want you to fix it,” I said angrily. “Make it unbroken.”
“Now you’re just being absurd,” he said with an impolite smirk.
“You broke my mother’s gift,” I shouted, “and you’re trying to be a smartass about it?”
“I’m sor—
“Is that all you ever say?” I said annoyed cutting him off.
“Just go and leave me alone,” I cried as he walked over to the open seat right across from me.
“Jerk,” I whispered under my breath. He stared carefully at me while I tried to recover myself. I thought of ways to fix the gift, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. The thought of it made me even angrier.
“I apologize for how I acted earlier,” he said interrupting my blabbing thoughts.
I pretended to ignore him, which I was failing miserably at. I also apologized to him as well for being rude. Since we got of to a very bad start I decided to introduce myself to him. “My name’s Elena.”
“Mine’s Erik,” he said with a perky smile
“So where are you heading?” I said embarrassed immediately.
“Kitty town,” he said quickly
“I am too.” I said when I noticed some pieces of my mother’s gift on the floor. As I reached down to get it, he had already picked it up and stood up to give it to me. He used the opportunity to sit by me. His sparkly eyes met mine and a beautiful friendship was born. He told me about the town, how it has changed. I realized we had so much in common. I noticed how completely attractive he was. I was starting to get anxious to see my mother. My eyes started getting heavy and were harder to keep open by the minute. He noticed and just kept talking. I saw as he closed the gap between us. “You can if you want?” he said answering my thought. “Thanks,” I said. I leaned my head on his shoulder and fell asleep.
The shaking train woke me up. I looked up to see an unnaturally large face blocking my view as I was sitting too close to the door. He was wearing slacks with a long sleeve shirt tucked in it. I recognized the handsome young face. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Erik said. “I can’t see.”
I stood up to take a look at what everyone else was staring at. A train was about to crash into us. I felt an uneasy sensation expanding in my stomach, squeezing my intestines with fear. My fingers automatically tightened the grip on the pack I carried in my hand. “I don’t believe it,” I said trying to make my voice sound firm.
“The train took the wrong track,” Erik said with no sound of fear in his voice. A young woman behind Erik started crying saying, “My good God,” unable to speak clearly, with the collision that’s about to occur.

My heart skipped a beat as the approaching train got closer. The people in the train were starting to flip out. Some were crying and some were in shock. The unexpected despair hit me like a hammer to the head. Millions of troubled thoughts exploded in my head, increased by the screaming, terrified passengers. I tried to pull myself together as I walked over to where Erik was. He was standing by the long handle right in the middle of the train talking with a guy, who looked like he just got off work. He glanced at me and looked away briefly. I noticed my hands were trembling with terror. The blonde woman next to me was frozen with panic. I formed the thoughts, so, this is what a train crash feels like.
“Are you okay?” Erik said studying me very closely.
“You don’t look so good.”
“We’re about to crash into another train,” I said trying not to freak out.
“What do you think?”
The train got closer and closer every second. I felt my heart was about to pop out of my chest. There was a loud crack. Like a gun. But it wasn’t a gun. It was thunder. The sky covered and the world turned sinister black. The train was about to end all our fright and miseries.
But to our surprise, the train shifted. There was another track all along and not anyone, even the driver knew about. We were all astonished. The train operator pressed the brakes without any warnings. It sent everyone flying in different directions. I slammed my head on the train door and embraced the handle by it to stand still. I opened my eyes to see a man flying into the window and cracking it with his head. He had glass hanging of his forehead and face was all covered in blood. The other train riders landed on nothing too hard and weren’t hurt too badly. I searched around with my bruised head, but Erik was nowhere to be found. As soon as I caught sight of him, I blacked out.
I opened my eyes to an unknown room filled with medical equipment attached to my upper left body. Everything around me was blurry. I looked around and sighed with relief. I noticed a familiar face lying down on the bed next to me, looking handsome as ever tall with a perfect body, blond boyish hair, sensually shaped lips, with bright blue eyes which were now looking and smiling at me.
“Oh, honey,” a very well known voice said.
“You’re awake.”
“Mom,” I cried with tears streaming down my bruised face.
My mother tried to focus her teary eyes at me.
“I’m so glad you’re alright.” She managed a small crook in the corner of her mouth that I guessed was her best attempt at a smile. She hugged me very lightly not to set anything off. Her hug was so warm and brought back the invincible feeling I had had for as long as I could remember. “Oh, mom, I’ve missed you.” With those words, my mother started to cry again and I joined her sobbing.
“Who’s your friend?” My mother finally managed to slowly force out in a rocky voice. I knew whatever she was going to say would not be pleasing, but that she would try to tell me in the best way she possibly can.