invisible string - TJ Morrison

As Astra Stone packed the night before her family's Jamaica trip, a terrible habit she picked up from her older sister, she took the time to reflect on the past couple of weeks.

Just 10 short weeks ago the 18 year old had been in a terrible accident, taking both the life of the driver, her boyfriend Ethan, and her leg . They had been driving back to his dorm at Astoria University after a night out at a club and Ethan had been adamant on driving, despite being drunk. He had forced a tipsy Astra in to the car and it took only 5 minutes for Ethan to crash head on into another car. Ethan was killed instantly, while Astra was knocked unconscious, waking up 3 days later in a confused state.

Her ability to walk was just one more thing to add to the long list of things that Ethan had taken from her during their 5 months relationship but it had hurt the most. Astra's passion was running. She was at Astoria on a scholarship for track and had been running her entire life. Putting in earbuds and going for a run was her escape from reality. Whenever she was stressed she could just go for a run and clear her mind. She held many track records at her old school and was on her way to many more at her first year of college. But of course, Ethan just couldn't let that happen, he had to get the last laugh and destroy the one thing she had going for her.

It was devastating , waking up and finding that only one leg layed on the bed in front of her,and that she couldn't move her other. Her family and friends had tried to cheer her up, bringing all her favorite flowers and movies but despite their efforts she still ended up extremely depressed. Regaining feeling in her left leg couldn't fix it either. After the 3 weeks in the hospital, grasping the reality of her relationship with Ethan, and the weeks of physical therapy she had been enduring to get used to her prosthetic leg and relearn how to walk, Astra didn't know how she was still going on. She was just simply going through the motions, barely there.

Which was why she was surprised to be invited to the family trip that her brother Ben, and his wife Grace were planning. I mean sure she was family but she couldn't understand why they wanted her around, her depression had taken over every aspect of her life and she couldn't imagine she was fun to be with. Nonetheless, she decided to join them on the trip. It was a chance to spend time with her nephew Cal, who's days were starting to seem limited due to his leukemia, and to continue to fix her relationship with her mom, who she had been continuously arguing and distancing herself from recently, and maybe this was her opportunity to finally start to regain control of her life.

So Astra continue to pack, hoping to find some peace with herself in Jamaica while sitting on the beach drinking margaritas, not knowing that that decision would change her life forever.

authors note:
i don't feel like fact checking anything so if any of this seems unrealistic just suspend your belief and carry on. also it's 2am and i have to be up in 5 hours to go to six flags and yet i can't stop writing for some reason this is terrible
also my hand is going numb i don't think that's good