"How Alcohol Changed My Life."

As long as I could remember everyone thought I had the perfect life before the big accident happened. I mean sure I didn’t have blonde hair, blue eyes, perfect skin, and a perfect boyfriend but that didn’t mean much. I had a good life and my best friends with me. My name is Sarah, I have brown hair and green eyes, I’m kind of short, and I am now twenty- five. I have been drinking alcohol since about the age of sixteen. I had been planning on moving out as soon as I went to college but that didn’t happen. I live with my mom and dad who take very good care of me. My mom’s name is Jessica and my dad’s name is Lucas. I remember the night everything happened like it was yesterday. I didn’t remember much for a while and but now everything has come back to me. I regret what I did that night and most importantly because I ruined one of my best friend’s lives. I’ll never be able to forgive myself for what I did.
So far I have remembered much more than I have in a while. The one thing I do remember very clearly is everything that happened that night. It was the night me and Lexi had turned twenty- one. Lexi is my best friend; she had blonde hair, blue eyes and was a little taller than me. We had always celebrated our birthdays together for as long as I could remember. Her birthday is June 14th and mine is June 15th. We have always alternated each year at whose house we have the party at. Both of our houses are pretty big so this year we decided to have a really big party at Lexi’s house. I know before we turned twenty- one I had started drinking a little bit but I didn’t think it was a huge deal. But I guessed wrong and that night will always be in the back of my mind.
Lexi said, “I want to have a really really big party this year since were both turning twenty- one.”
“Yes we totally should, but whose house should we have it at?” I said.
“We could have it at my house this year and since were finally twenty- one we can have alcohol at all of our party’s now,” said Lexi.
“It’s not like we haven’t before, but now we can buy it ourselves and not steal it from our parents,” I said excitedly.
“Well then we better start getting ready now if we want this to be a success. Call everybody you know and tell them to be at my house tonight at 7:00 sharp, not a minute late.” Lexi said.
I left Lexi’s house and went back to mine to get ready. Then we both met up and bought all of the food and drinks we needed. Then we went back and waited for all of the guests to show up.
“Well well well it’s about time you didn’t steal alcohol from your parents,” Adam said jokingly.
Lexi and I laughed and then went back inside. Adam has been best friends with us for as long as we can remember. A little after 7 all of the guests have shown up and the party can officially start. It was a lot of fun and everyone was having a good time. I remember that Adam and I had started drinking more and more each time to try and beat each other. Lexi had walked away to go to the bathroom and me and Adam walked outside.
“Adam! Sarah! Where are you guys!” Lexi shouted over all of the music and talking.
I then remember Adam and me getting in my car and we started driving down the road. It was almost pitch black with the dim street lights. It started raining really hard but we kept going. We were going about sixty mph on a back road street. The trees were creaking and the electric lines were blowing in the wind. Adam and I were just talking and talking and neither of us paying attention to the road. All of a sudden we heard the crack of a tree that fell and I let go of the steering wheel. We veered over to the right and hit the trunk of a tree that fell. I screamed as the car started flipping. That’s the last thing I remember until I woke up to the sound of sirens and my body laying in the middle of the road. I started to panic but I couldn’t move my body at all.
Lexi said sobbing “Are you okay! Please talk to me; please I can’t live without you!”
I just remember staring at her no words coming out of my mouth, there was so much rushing through my brain. Then I blacked out as I was being lifted into the ambulance. The next thing I remember is waking up in a hospital bed. I kept my eyes shut but I could hear people talking. Finally I opened them but only to see my parents in the hospital room with me. I had no clue what happened until they told me where I was and what they had heard happened. It all started rushing back to me; it was like one big nightmare. I could tell that my parents were worried that I wouldn’t remember much considering I had not done much talking. I had fallen back to sleep and I remember having these horrible flashbacks of what happened and it kept playing the same thing over and over again. I was screaming as the car was flipping and Adam was lying on the side of the road. I finally woke up screaming, but nobody was in the room. I had sat there for a while just looking around trying to piece everything together but I barely knew what had happened. As I was sitting there I started looking around the room since there had been nothing better to do. The walls were a crème color; there was a small window to the left of the bed that looked outside on to the highway, and a window to the right that faced the hospital hallway, both windows and white curtains to cover them. There wasn’t much in the room but a nightstand next to the bed, a sink, and a toilet behind a curtain. I heard someone turning the door knob so I hurried up and shut my eyes to make it look like I was sleeping. I heard whispering and talking but I couldn’t make out the voices so I opened my eye up the tiniest bit so that I could see. There was a girl there talking to my parents. She had blonde hair and was a little taller than me. I still could not recognize who she was, but she must have noticed I had my eye open because she started walking over to me.
“Hi Sarah, how are you feeling?” Said Lexi
“Umm, fine I guess,” I said hesitantly.
“Well I better go check on Adam now and I’ll be back over here later,” Lexi said. She walked out and I just sat there.
“Are you okay?” asked my mom.
“Yes, I’m fine, just a little confused,” I said.
My mom asked “What are you confused about?”
I said “Who was that girl?”My mom just looked at me, then my dad walked in and my mom walked over to him and started whispering. They both just looked at me for a minute then my dad walked over. He sat on the edge of my bed and put his hand on mine.
My dad said, “You don’t remember who that girl is?”
“No, should I know who she is?” I said.
My dad said, “Well she is your best friend; her name is Lexi and you two have been have been best friends since elementary school.”
I had started crying because I was struggling to try and remember things but all that kept coming back was the nightmare of the crash.
“It’s going to be okay, you’ll remember everything soon, and the doctor said this is happening because you had hit your head very hard multiple times.” My dad said comfortingly. I wanted to get out of the bed but my dad told me to just stay lying down.
“Do you remember who the boy was in the car with you?”My dad asked.
“Well of course I do,” I said. “It was Adam, where is he at anyways?” I said.
“Don’t worry about him right now, why don’t you just lay down,” said my dad with a worried look. I knew whatever happened to Adam wasn’t good, but I guess I would have to wait to find out. The next morning that Lexi girl was back in my room and of course she was talking to my parents again. She kept looking over at me as I stared at her, then all of a sudden she started crying. I don’t know why but she just did. She walked over to me and introduced herself.
Lexi said crying “Hi Sarah, I know you don’t remember me right now but my name is Lexi. We have been best friends since elementary school and no one was ever able to break us apart. I hope your memory starts to come back because we have so many memories together that we could never get back.”
In shock I said “I’m sorry that I don’t remember you, but I do believe you that we were best friends. I hope my memory comes back too so that we could be best friends again and just so I can remember the memories I had.”
Lexi who had started crying again said, “Well I have to go now I hope you feel better.”
“Where are you going?” I said wanting company.
“I have to go visit Adam to see if anything changed,” Said Lexi.
“What’s wrong with him?” I said confused.
“Nobody told you, did they?” Lexi said upset.
“No,” I said.
“Well after the accident his head had smashed through the windshield and then they said they found him fifteen feet from the car so he was flung pretty far. He’s in a coma and they haven’t figured out how long it will last yet,” Lexi said worriedly. I looked at her for a long time trying to piece everything together but my mind was racing. I started crying and so did Lexi.
“Everything will go back to normal and be okay soon just don’t worry about it just work on getting better,” Lexi said. She left the room; I had decided to try and sleep to calm myself down. As I was laying there I started to fall asleep then I had a dream about me and Lexi when we were younger. I woke up and there she was sitting there just looking at me.
“Hello,” I said quietly.
“Glad to see you’re finally awake, “she said.
“I had a dream about you,” I said.
Lexi said, “Oh really, what was it about?”
“Nothing much but I can’t really remember all of it,” I said, “It was just us when we were younger.”
“Oh well, I’m glad to see your starting to remember me a little bit,” Lexi said quietly.
“Maybe you and I could go down to the hospital cafeteria and talk,” I said. As I started to pull the blankets off of me Lexi grabbed my hand.
“You don’t want to go down there, “she said, “There food is gross, why don’t we just stay up here.”
“Well I would rather be somewhere other than in this bed eating it,” I said laughing.
“Well that’s kind of a problem,” Lexi said sadly.
“Why would it be a problem?” I said.
“The doctors and your parents haven’t told you yet but you are paralyzed from the waist down. In other words you can’t move your legs. So the only way your able to move is by wheel chair, and you parents planned on getting you, your own customized one. Please do not tell anyone I told you about this!” Lexi said worriedly.
I was so overwhelmed, what was I going to do? I was supposed to have this so called perfect life where everything went my way but it’s not happening. There was so much rushing through my mind I mean just everything. I was thinking about how I’ll never be able to walk, run or just do anything normal again.
“Listen everything will be okay we will all help you get through this,” Lexi said cheerfully
“Okay,” I said just staring at the wall.
That night my parents came in and told me everything they expected me to start crying but since I had known I didn’t.
“When will the wheel chair be here?” I asked.
“They said by tomorrow it should be here,” said my mom.
“Well I need one now because I am going to visit Adam whether I use a wheelchair or drag myself there,” I said firmly.
“Here let me grab you one, “said my dad.
Everybody helped me get into the chair. It took me a couple minutes to figure out how to use it but I finally got the hang of it. I wheeled down to Adams room to find him laying in the hospital room and Lexi sitting next to his bed. I came into the room and Lexi turned around and hugged me. We both sat next to Adams bed and stared at him as doctors came in and out of his room. Waiting for him to move or wake up but nothing happened. We had ended up staying there all night without realizing it. We woke up to the sound of beeping over and over again. The nurses and doctors started running in and talking but me and Lexi had no idea what was going on.
“What’s happening?” said Lexi frantically.
The nurse wheeled him out on the hospital bed and Lexi and I were right behind them. They took him into a special room which we weren’t allowed into. They slammed the door in our faces and closed the blinds. We both waited outside of his door until either a doctor or nurse came out. Finally after about 4 hours a doctor came out.
Lexi said quickly,” What’s wrong with him?”
“He will be just fine but his heart had started beating irregularly but we fixed that,” The doctor said.
“When will he wake up?” I said.
“Well we don’t know for sure yet he is in a pretty deep coma and is not responding to anything but that does not mean he will die,” said the doctor.
Lexi and I went back to my room. The next day my new wheel chair came and I had been let out of the hospital. They said my memory should slowly start coming back and it had. I had adapted to the life of living in a wheel chair and not being able to use my legs. I am twenty- five now and my memory has fully recovered. Lexi and I are best friends again and we will be for many years from now. Now for Adam that’s a different story. It’s been 4 years and he just got out of his coma 2 years ago. He isn’t even close to the same as he used to be. He can’t really talk and he needs help learning. The doctor said his brain damage is too far gone for him to ever recover from it. Lexi and I usually go up to his house everyday to check on him. I will never be ever to live what I have done to him. I have completely destroyed his life forever. I have nightmares every night of what happened. As for Lexi she went on to pursue her dreams in what she wanted to do in life. I know go to schools and talk about the tragedy I have caused on other people and myself. I try to get it into many teenagers and adults heads that drinking could ruin your life in a matter of seconds. It took me until I ruined someone’s life to realize I need to stop abusing alcohol.