Fairy Tale
And they lived happily ever after.
That's how it's supposed to end, right?
The prince married the princess, monsters were vanquished, and the good guys won. We always won. It said so right there, in those fairy tales that me and Amy used to love when we were younger.
But you'd never find any story there about DUIs and accidents and princes going into comas. And I'm sure there'd be nothing about the stupid-as-fuck best friend who made up a story to save his own cowardly ass.
Yeah, I lied. I lied to the Harts, to my parents and Amy, to everyone in Everwood. It was so easy to hide the truth, and I got so good at lying that I almost believed it myself. But you know what? It wasn't that easy for me to forget what really happened:
I was the one driving drunk.
I was the one who put him in a coma.
It was all my fault.
He was my best friend in the whole world, and I never visited him.
I couldn't. Not when he was lying there on that hospital bed, with all those tubes and machines connected to him.
That wasn't Colin; no way should that have been him.
Because the Colin I knew was always in motion. Like the way he'd zip across the court for an easy lay-up. Or how he'd be all excited as he played tag or hide and seek when we were younger. I remembered him firing snowballs at me last winter . Sneaking up on Amy by her locker. Kicking my ass at video games. Diving into the water at Buck's Rock. Yup, he was always moving; and everywhere he went, we would all follow. That's how special he was. And you would do anything for him.
I'd do anything for him now.
If he'd just wake up and ask.
Sometimes, things got so bad that all I could think about was the accident. The rush it gave me as I drove the truck. The gleam in Colin's eye as he pushed me to go faster and faster. The shared laugh that was cut short as we suddenly drove off the hill. The way his voice echoed as he screamed my name.
Again and again.
Those were the days when I'd wish really hard, I'd wish with all my might that I'd get a do-over. Where I didn't get drunk at all, where I didn't drive, where Colin was safe and sound and awake and alive.
And where we'd all be happy.
Just like how it used to be….
Once upon a time.