Crash!!!!! My body leaps forward, head jerking, flying through the air.  Little did I know that once I left my house this morning that I wouldn't come back for a long time, if ever.  I didn't even do anything wrong.  I was driving down the road, at about 11 o'clock at night, when a car on the opposite side of the road swerved into my lane. The last thing I saw was the lights of the car as it crashed into me.

Nothing.  I can see nothing, feel nothing, do nothing.  I lay there motionless, not knowing where I am or who I’m with. The blackness in my mind is broken by the sounds of a new voice ringing through my head.

“Your daughter’s in a coma,” the doctor said ever so slightly.  “She got in a car accident, and we don’t know how long the coma will last.  We are doing everything we can to try to make your daughter okay again.”   

“Thank you so much,” they said in unison.  Their voices sound so familiar. 

Think Kristen, think.  Who are they.

“Mr. and Mrs. Solano, we need your permission to do some tests on your daughter to see if we can wake her up,” the calm doctor stated. I heard the chairs creak as my parents got up to sign the papers.  How I wish I could just give them a sign that I’m here, I'm really here. 

The time I spend just laying here doing nothing is consuming me. It feels like years. I want to go back to being a high school student, and living a normal teenage life again.

“We can't afford to keep her in here forever, Tom,”  my mother said with her voice of an angel.
“She deserves a chance to live.  You never know what can be going on in that brilliant head of hers, and anyways she has only been in here for 2 days at most.  Give her time to lick her wounds,” my brilliant father states.
I here the footsteps of a new person walk into the room, push something down, count to ten and say,  “The results will be ready in 2 hours.”

Two hours.  Two more hours until my future is determined.  I know I can wake up and all I need is someone to believe in me, someone that 100% knows I'm coming back.  Unfortunately, I  am afraid that no one believes in me like I do.  I guess that test will just have to come back positive.

The next two hours were the quietest I have ever heard my parents;  not one word came out of either of their mouths.  All I heard was my dad pacing back and forth across the room, and my mom chewing her gum obnoxiously loud.

The lady walks purposely back into the room.  I can feel the nerves running through everyone’s body. I want to scream.  I want to wake up and tell them I’m fine.  I want them to know that I am right here. 

“I am sorry to say this, but your child’s test results are indecisive.  We are doing everything we can to figure out what is going on in her mind.  I’ll give you some time alone to talk.  Other nurses will start to come in, in about thirty minutes,” the kind nurses said with sorrow in her voice.

The chair squeaks as my parents get out of their chairs.  My bed moaned as they sat down on it.  Thoughts start ringing through my head.  What are they going to do? Are they going to say anything?  The silence rang on for what felt like forever.  Minute after minute went by with no one saying anything. For the first time I feel a tingle go through my body as my mom rubbed her fingers through my hair.

“I love you,” my mom says in a sad creaky voice, and at that moment, when my mom said I love you, the lights flood back into my eyes.  The smell of the food sitting next to my table rushed into my nose.  The taste of the medications clogged my throat. The feeling of my dad holding my hand so tight, began to hurt my body.  The sight of my parents filled my eyes with tears.

And at that moment I could finally say back to them, “I love you too.”