The concert was, of course, amazing. The tickets Aria had managed to get were pretty good. But I just couldn't fully enjoy it. There was the constant, nagging voice in the back of my head. What if you get lost? What if someone steals your phone? What if? What if? What if? I lost track of Aria for a second and my heart started to beat really fast. And I was terrified that everyone near me was judging me.
Other than that, though, I had fun. I finally started to relax a bit and enjoy the concert just as it started to end. Aria and I were laughing as we pushed our way through the throngs of people when I felt the panic rise up in my throat. Aria turned to look at me as I stopped smiling mid-laugh and immediately knew what was wrong.
"C'mon. We'll get to my car pretty soon," she said quietly, grabbing my hand and pulling me after her. I gripped her hand tightly and followed her.
"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay," I mumbled to myself over and over as Aria pushed her way through the crowds. It took a while, but we eventually ended up in the cool night air, standing next to her car. I took a few deep breaths to calm down my racing heart before getting into the car.
"You okay?" Aria asked, concern showing in her voice.
"Yeah." I nodded, even though I was still a bit panicky. "Yeah. I'll be fine." Aria grinned as she turned on the radio and started driving.
It was about half an hour later and we were driving down a road that was empty, except for us. Aria and I had been talking and singing along with the radio, still giddy over the fact that we had seen Fall Out Boy in concert. It was kind of creepy, being the only ones on the road, late at night. Every time we did see another pair of headlights, it was almost comforting, like we remembered that we weren't the only humans left. Occasionally, though, another pair of headlights can mean nothing but trouble.
As Aria crested a hill, we noticed another car, halfway up the hill, in the middle of the road. Aria couldn't do anything to stop or get out of the way as the car smashed right into the driver's side of our car, spinning both our car and the other car towards the ditch.
There was the horrible spinning, Aria's screams, and tires squealing. The crunch of metal and shattering glass. And then it went dead silent, except for a high pitched scream that would not stop. I finally figured out that the person screaming was me, that the car was in a ditch on its side and Aria was defying gravity by staying in her seat, and that her entire side of the car was in the air, and she wasn't moving. She wasn't screaming. She wasn't breathing. I screamed until I couldn't scream anymore, and then it all went black.
