A Cruel Fate

Paige’s POV -“Everything was fine. Until it wasn’t. Things didn’t exactly turn out the way I expected them to, hoped for, or dreamed of. But who am I to question fate? Even though, it is a cruel fate indeed.” *** ”Is everything packed already?” My mom asked as I walked down the stairs. “Yes, I’m pretty sure I have all of it,” I said as I kissed her cheek. “I can’t believe you’re leaving tomorrow,” she said getting all teary. I’m leaving for college tomorrow and my mom is not very keen on letting me go. “I will be back every other weekend, I promise,” I said as I grabbed the piece of toast she nearly burned while making it. “I wouldn’t expect anything else,” she said taking a bite of her own. “Maybe we should order pizza tonight if you’d like?” she asked me, pushing her plate to the side. “Sure,” I laughed. My mom couldn’t cook even if her life depended on it. My dad used to handle everything that had to do with a kitchen. He died almost a year ago, so we were still trying to get used to not having him around anymore. The day of his death still haunts me. One day everything was fine and the next… The next I had to watch my dad die. He had left for work early in the morning with the promise of picking me up after my practice with the choir. “How was practice pumpkin?” My dad asked when I got in the car. “It was great! Mrs. Caitlyn told me I’m going to be the lead singer for next week’s show,” I bragged. “I’m so proud of you, you know,” My dad said as he glanced at me. “You’re doing well in school, you never miss practice and you have your reading clubs.”“Book clubs dad. It’s called book clubs,” I laughed. “Yeah, yeah smartie pants,” he chuckled. “Book clubs,” he repeated in a mocking tone. “Were you going somewhere with this?” I asked, trying to get him back on the topic. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I was. But you will see it when we get home,” he grinned. “See what?”“It’s a surprise,” he said, trying to keep a straight face. One thing my dad was terrible at, was surprises. He always wanted to tell me right away and he had a hard time saying no if I gave him the famous puppy eyes. “Daaaad,” I said in my sweetest voice possible.“Nope,” he said, popping the p. “Not this time.” “But…”“No. You will have to wait and see,” he chuckled.I sighed in defeat and focused on the headlights that came towards us. Suddenly the entire street turned dark. “What the…” I mumbled as I sat up in my seat. The next thing I knew, the headlight coming towards us, got even closer. Closer than they were supposed to. “Dad, look out!” I yelled as the car in front of us swerved into our lane.It felt as if gravity had disappeared. The ringing in my ears wouldn’t stop. “Paige!” I heard someone say.I had a hard time opening my eyes and when I was finally able to, I wish I hadn’t. Our car was laying upside down. I placed my hands on the roof of the car to support my weight. “Paige,” the voice said again. The ringing in my ears began to fade little by little. I turned my head slowly to the side. “Dad…” I croaked out. “Are y-you ok-okay?” he managed to ask. “I don’t know,” I said with panic in my voice. “What happened… why… what happened?” “Paige… I need you t-to look at me pu-pumpkin.”And I did. For the first time, I looked at him. Blood was everywhere and he was being squashed between his seat and the steering wheel. “You ne-need to hang in there,” he staggered out. “Dad,” I whispered as I noticed his breathing became ragged. I hadn’t even noticed that we weren’t alone until someone bend down by my window and told me that help was on the way and that I needed to stay still. “Did you hear that dad?” I cried. “Help is on the way,” I sniffled. “We will be fine. We will be home with mom soon.”When he didn’t respond, I held my breath. I turned my head again to look at him. His eyes were open, starring into oblivion. His ragged breathing had stopped. “Dad?” I whispered. “Dad!” I yelled out with a cry reaching out for him even though I already knew that he was gone. I looked around in panic, trying to find a way to get out. My right hand grabbed the broken window to my right, not caring that it was filled with shards of broken glass. “Help me,” I whimpered to the man that was still crouching by my side. When I didn’t get a response, I looked up at the man’s face with begging eyes. My eyes went wide as I stared right into the face of my dad. “How did you…?” I panted as I turned around to look at the driver’s seat.My dad was still there. Or at least, his body was. When I looked back to the window, I saw my dad giving me a sad smile before turning around and leaving with two shadows by his side, disappearing into thin air. That memory replayed itself in my nightmares every night. I never told anyone what I saw that night. A part of me believed that what I saw, really happened, but the rational part of me blamed it on my head injury or the adrenaline that ran through my body. It had later turned out that the driver of the other car was drunk and because of that, he got so startled when the power out happened that he lost control of his car. The drunk driver survived with a few scratches here and there, but my dad died from his injuries on the scene and all I got was a concussion and a few broken ribs. After his death, my mom was a shadow of herself. It was like when he died, he took a piece of her with him. A piece she did her best, to not show us that she was missing. My brother who had always been my rock, moved away after dad died. It was too hard for him to stay in the house, and I didn’t blame him. Everything became different after that. Our whole life was turned around and now it’s just me and mom. That is why me leaving for college is such a big deal. Then it’ll just be her. I had pushed college back a year to stay with her after my brother left, but now as much as my mom doesn’t want me to leave, she wants me to take every moment I’ve got and make the most of it. Like we learned with dad, every moment is a gift. A gift that can be taken away so easily. “Paige?” My mom snapped her fingers in front of my face snapping me out of my thoughts. “Did you even hear a word I said?” She asked. “No, sorry mom,” I mumbled as I tried to shake the image of my dad’s dead eyes out of my head. “What did you say?” I asked as I regained myself. “I just wanted to know if you wanted the usual or wanted to try something new,” she said as she gave me a worried look. “The usual is fine,” I said forcing a smile while I got out of my chair.