Brandon Zooplack finally had everything going for him. He was the star quarterback of the high school football team, he had an awesome girlfriend, and he was learning how to drive. He settled into the driver’s seat on his dad’s old car, a big grin on his face. His mom was in the passenger’s seat, holding onto the car for dear life. He plugged the keys into the car, and the engine roared to life. “Brandon!”
“I haven’t even done anything yet!”
“You forgot your seatbelt!”
“Oh, yeah.” Brandon quickly grabbed the seatbelt, and clicked it into place. He put his hands on the steering wheel and his foot on the gas pedal. They were in his school’s parking lot, so he didn’t have to worry about backing out of the driveway, or actually driving on the road for that matter. He put pressure onto the pedal, and they shot forwards at 30mph.
“Brandon!” his mom screamed her knuckles turning white she was holding onto the car so hard.
“Sorry!” Brandon said back, and tried again. This time, the car shot forward at 20mph and Brandon started driving around in circles while his mom sat beside him screaming. “Mom! I can’t focus with you screaming in my ear!” His mom put her hand in her mouth to stop from screaming, and Brandon rolled his blue eyes.
After an hour of Brandon driving around and his mom letting out screams every now and then, Brandon got out of the driver’s seat and his mom rushed over to take his spot. She hugged herself, and sighed happily. Brandon rolled his eyes again, and got inside the passenger’s seat. They drove home, his mother still breathing hard from the scares he had given her.
~
The next day, his mom actually let Brandon drive to school, which was only a few miles away. She screamed for most of the way there, and Brandon walked into school with a major headache. A little redhead skipped over to him, a big smile on her face. “Brandon!” she cried, throwing her arms around him. Brandon smiled, and hugged his girlfriend back.
“Hey Gretchen.” The redhead pulled away from Brandon, and studied him.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh nothing. I just have a major headache from my mom screaming at me when I drove into school this morning.” Gretchen threw her head back and laughed.
“I would be screaming too if I were locked up in a car with you in the driver’s seat!”
“Hey! I’m not that bad!” Brandon said with a grin. Gretchen giggled, and took his hand.
“Come on! We’re going to be late for first period!” Brandon rolled his eyes playfully, but let Gretchen drag him to math class. Gretchen reached back and flicked Brandon under the chin. “Owned.” They had been doing this ever since they started dating, and they both found it funny.
Brandon laughed, and cried, “No!! You got me!” He picked the redhead up, and swung her around. Gretchen squealed and laughed along with Brandon. People looked over at them and smiled. A few girls whispered to each other about how cute they were together, and how they never saw it coming. The star of the football team dating the girl from the band? It was completely foreign, never heard of in high school. But those two somehow made it work.
~
A short six months later, Brandon walked out from his driving test, his driving license in his hand. “Yes!” he cried out, throwing his hands in the air. He laughed wonderfully, and walked over to his dad’s empty car. His mom didn’t need to be in the car with him when he drove, much to her delight. He jumped in the driver’s seat, and pulled out his cell phone. He had received five new texts since he had last looked at his phone. One was from Gretchen, wishing him luck on his test. Three were from his mom, wishing him luck and reminders to put on his seatbelt first. And the last one was from his best friend, Jack. It read, “come pick me up when u finished ur test. found a sweet sk8ing park to go to!” Brandon grinned, and wrote back, “be right there!”
Brandon pulled out of the parking lot, much more careful than he had six months ago. He started the short drive to Jack’s house, humming along to the radio. When he reached his best friend’s house, he pulled into the driveway. Jack was outside, waiting for him. The boy bounded over to Brandon’s car, and jumped in the passenger’s side. “Finally!” Brandon grinned, and started to back out of Jack’s driveway.
~
Gretchen laughed along with her band friends, and took a long sip of water from her water bottle. Band practice had just let out, and her friends were walking to Dairy Queen together. Joe was telling the girls a funny story, even though he knew they all had boyfriends.
“So, what are you guys gonna get?” Gretchen asked, grinning.
“Duh, ice cream,” Joe answered, grinning at Gretchen. The redhead laughed, and punched her friend in the arm.
“No, really?” she said sarcastically. Joe laughed, and rubbed his arm. They walked into Dairy Queen together, laughing. They all ordered their ice cream, and walked back outside since it was so nice out. Gretchen pulled her phone out of her jean shorts, and sat down at a picnic table with the rest of her friends.
“Brandon pass his test?” Catherine, one of her band friends, teased. Gretchen laughed and shrugged.
“I don’t know. He didn’t text me back.”
“Woo,” Abby called, grinning. “Is he cheating on you?” Gretchen rolled her eyes playfully.
“Either that or he hasn’t finished his test yet.” She grinned and glanced down at her phone, which started ringing. “Oh what do you know, it’s Brandon.” All of her friends giggled, and crowded around her to listen to the conversation. Gretchen rolled her green eyes, and picked up the phone. “Hello!”
“Gretchen!” a voice sobbed from the other line. “Brandon….blood….Main View….help!” the high voice choked out in between sobs. Gretchen’s smile faded, and her friends looked around at each other nervously.
“What? Mrs. Zooplack?”
“Gretchen…Gretchen…..Main View…come to Main View!” Mrs. Zooplack sobbed loudly, lots of noises coming up behind her. Gretchen stood up, and clicked off her phone. She didn’t have time to say goodbye to her friends, she just took off for Main View, her heart thudding loudly against her chest. ‘No, no! This can’t be happening!’ she thought to herself as she raced to Main View. She rounded the corner and almost broke down right then and there. There were loud noises and bright lights coming from police cars and two ambulances. Two cars were in the middle of all of this, completely banged up.
Gretchen raced over, tears already forming in her green eyes. She ran into Mrs. Zooplack who was crying hysterically. “Mrs. Zooplack, where’s Brandon?” Gretchen asked, afraid of the answer. Mrs. Zooplack just shook her head, crying too hard to answer. Gretchen looked in the center of the mess, which she had been trying to avoiding. The two cars had crashed into each other, and one had spun on its side. It was Brandon’s car. She clung to Mrs. Zooplack, and glanced around for Brandon. She found Jack lying on the ground, covered in cuts and blood, surrounded by nurses. She found two other men, clearly drunk, being pulled away by police officers. She gasped, and glanced around again. Brandon wasn’t there.
Jack choked out, “Brandon…he’s still in there!” The nurses glanced at each other, not sure what to do.
“They’ll get him out. Just relax.”
“No! I can’t relax! Get Brandon!”Jack screamed, and tried to fight against the nurses but he was too weak. Gretchen gasped, hearing what Jack just said.
“Brandon…”she whispered, and tried to get over to his car but police officers pushed her back. A couple of police officers walked over to the car, and the smallest one stepped forward. He was lifted up into the car, and what seemed like hours later, he lifted Brandon out of the car. He looked awful; cuts all over, fresh blood pouring out. There was a huge slash on his forehead, and the nurses winced at the sight of it. Gretchen fell to her knees when she saw him, and started crying too.
The police officer jumped back down on the ground, a limp Brandon in his arms. He rushed over to a stretcher that the nurses had pushed over. They carefully lay the boy on it, and pushed him inside an ambulance. Mrs. Zooplack stepped forward and called, “That’s my son!” A nurse rushed over to her, and started leading her toward the ambulance.
“Hurry, ma’am. We need to get him to the hospital as soon as possible.”
“Gretchen…” the woman called, sobbing hard. The redhead got back on her feet, and followed Mrs. Zooplack, crying plainly. The two got inside the ambulance, and they drove away, the sirens blasting.
~
It had been a week since the accident, and Gretchen sat at Brandon’s bedside, holding his hand. The boy had gone into a coma, and his blue eyes had not opened for a week. She had tears in her swollen eyes as she studied his scratched up face. Some of the cuts healed, but the huge cut across his forehead was wrapped up in white bandages. Gretchen whimpered, “Please, wake up. For me.” Brandon didn’t move a muscle, and Gretchen let a few tears drop. A nurse walked into the room, and patted Gretchen’s back.
“Sweetie, I’ll watch him. You go get something to eat,” she said gently. Gretchen nodded, and gave Brandon’s hand a squeeze before standing up. The nurse took her spot, and she walked down to the cafeteria. She bought a salad, and sat down at an empty table. She picked at the salad, not really hungry. Brandon never left her mind. She sighed after ten minutes of picking and dumped more than half of the salad into the trash. She walked back to Brandon’s room, and was surprised to see the door closed and a doctor standing outside.
“Um, hello?” Gretchen asked cautiously. The doctor smiled gently.
“Hello Gretchen. We have some good news for you…and some bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”
“The good news,” Gretchen said eagerly.
“Well, he’s awake. But he has short term memory loss, meaning he doesn’t remember hardly anything that happened in the last year.” Gretchen froze, her eyes brimming with tears. Brandon had just moved here a year ago from Texas, she had met him ten months ago. “I’m sorry, hon.”
Gretchen just shook her head, and whispered, “May I see him?”
“Of course.” The doctor opened the door carefully, and Gretchen walked in. She looked over at Brandon’s bed, where a sixteen year old was sitting up right. He smiled at her a little, his blue eyes flashing. “Hi. I’m Brandon.” Gretchen almost broke down crying when he asked her, “Who are you?”
“Hi, I’m Gretchen,” she said softly, walking over to his bedside, shaking.
“Gretchen. That’s a different name.” Gretchen just nodded, swallowing her tears.
“Yeah, it is, isn’t it?”
“Why are you so upset?” Brandon asked, watching her with his blue eyes.
“It’s a long story,” Gretchen whispered.
“Well, I like stories. So tell me.”
“No, Brandon. I think it should wait.”
“Okay.” Gretchen sighed, her eyes brimming over with tears. He didn’t remember her at all. They had been boyfriend and girlfriend for eight months, and she knew him like the back of her hand. He didn’t even know her last name. She sighed again, looking away.
“Hey, what’s that?” Brandon asked, looking at Gretchen. Gretchen turned toward him, her eyes filled with tears.
“What’s what?” Brandon laughed softly, and leaned forward. He flicked her under her chin, and whispered, “Owned.” Gretchen choked a little, her green eyes widened.
“W-what?” she stuttered. He couldn’t have remembered that little game they used to play could he? Brandon just laughed. He flicked her under her chin again and whispered, “Owned.” He shrugged and said, “It’s weird. I don’t remember who I used to do that with, but I have a strange feeling that it was you, even though we just met, ridiculous right?”
Gretchen just shook her head, a smile creeping on her face. “No, not at all,” she whispered, her green eyes sparkling. She took his hand, and the two smiled at each other. “You own me, Brandon,” Gretchen whispered. “You own me completely.”