Spoiler! :
How did I end up like this? I’m hanging upside down by my seatbelt, coughing up blood and missing a leg. It was a bit of harmless fun, a little white lie. Who would have thought it would come to this?
It all started a few days ago, when my best friend came up to me and said, “Hey, you heard about the party at Sam’s place on Friday? His parents are going out of town and it’s going to be the party of the year!”
“Who’s going?” I asked.
“Anybody who’s anybody,” she replied. “Including Drew,” she teased.
Drew was a hottie a year older than me. I had a crush on him and Lila knew it. “So, you in?” she asked. My teenager instincts told me this party was going to involve a lot of people getting drunk.
“My parents would never let me,” I said.
“But you want to go, don’t you? Lie. They’ll never know. Come on, Em,” Lila pleaded.
Over the next few days, I hatched and perfected my plan. Lila and I told our parents we were going to spend the night at Carrie’s house, but we were actually going to stay at Lila’s place while her parents were at their cabin. We cancelled with Carrie on Friday after our parents had talked about the fake plan and satisfied their nosiness.
So Friday night Lila and I left to walk, but not to Carrie’s house like our parents thought. We went to Lila’s place and borrowed her mom’s car, then took off to Sam’s house to party.
The party was a blast, as Lila promised, and involved lots of alcohol, as I predicted. I only had one drink. It lowered my inhibitions just enough that I went up to Drew and said hi. I flirted with him a tiny little bit, and he smiled. “Walk with me,” he said, and we wandered over to the cooler the drinks were in. He poured translucent liquid into a red plastic cup and handed it to me. (Oh, I guess I had two drinks.) I sort of hung around with him for the next few hours. For once, I felt accepted in the popular clique, but I also felt somewhat queasy.
Meanwhile, my stupid best friend chugged drinks to her heart’s content. She came over to me, totally hammered, and told me we needed to “skedaddle” because “the fuzz” were on their way. She took my hand and dragged me out to the car. She plunked down in the driver’s seat, but I hesitated because of what flashed into my mind.
First, I saw a graphic image from a Mothers Against Drunk Driving movie, with a guardrail piercing a windshield. The nameless faces inside the car were replaced by mine and Lila’s.
“Lila, you shouldn’t be driving,” I cautioned.
“Come on, worry wart,” she said, “I’m seventeen. Besides, look.” She began reciting the alphabet backwards – incorrectly.
“No.” I remembered Mom saying countless times that I could always call. No matter where I am or how late it is, I can always call. I flashed back to two days ago when I lied about my plans for tonight. No, I couldn’t call or they would know I was at the party, and then I’d be in big trouble.
“Hurry up, or the police will be here,” Lila said impatiently. No money for a cab, no sober friends with cars. I was out of options. I climbed in the car and we sped off into the night.
Lila swerved all over the road. I held on for dear life, laughing as if it were an amusement park ride instead of an extremely dangerous illegal activity. Then she veered just a little too far. We flew off the road and landed on our side on a slope. “Well, that was fun,” Lila laughed, and I realized she wan't wearing her seatbelt. I stared at her. How could she be so stupid? We remained sideways for less than a second before toppling over. We tumbled down the hill, turning over and over and over like clothes in a dryer. I prayed to any deity I could think of that we wouldn't die. The car crumpled around us like tin foil, and the windshield shattered. My leg got nipped under the dash. We screamed at the top of our lungs. The car continued to roll, and the dash pinched tighter. I started to cry around my screams. Lila was thrown around the car. Blood sprayed from my leg, now barely attached to my body. The incline was extremely long. Smoke filled the air. We were falling into a ravine, not a ditch. All I could think was, "We're going to die!" I bashed my head on the ceiling. I screamed even louder, and tears poured from my eyes. Lila's screams went silent. I called out to whatever powers exist. We bounced down the slope for what seemed like hours.
Finally, the car came to rest on its crumpled roof. Lila lay in an unnatural position, not moving. She wasn’t breathing. I couldn't reach her. “Wake, up, Lila, come on, wake up," I implored, but no amount of pleading would make her wake up. "She’s dead!” I sobbed, jumping to conclucions. “Oh, Lila, I told you not to drive! I told you, I told you, I told you!”
I gasped for air. It tickled my throat and I coughed up blood. When I stopped coughing, I realized what pain I was in. I screamed, and that made me cough more blood out.
That’s where you came in. A sorry state of a girl, covered in blood, dangling upside down in a car wreck, remembering her stupid mistakes.
Paramedics will come sooner or later, to bring me to the hospital and Lila to the morgue. Mom and Dad will tell me they love me, and they won’t punish me because I’m in enough trouble already.
I hope.
Spoiler! :
Gender:
Points: 368
Reviews: 43