Not Your Average Prep

Chapter Three

written on mobile, unedited

***

The next day at lunch, I swing my purse around my shoulder and tap Miranda's shoulder. "Let's go," I say impatiently.

"Fine, I'm ready if you are," she says.

We walk out the doors of the school and step into my car. Immediately, I blush. Miranda's car was so much nicer than mine.

Two minutes later I park the car and enter the building. "Do we have time to eat here?" Miranda asks.

I look down at my phone, checking the time. "We have 15 minutes until lunch is over. I think we're good."

A waitress points us to a table, and we sit down. "What do you want to drink?" the waitress asks, pulling out a notepad.

"Do you have Budweiser?" Miranda asks in a low whisper. The waitress' eyes widen.

"Sorry, I can't serve a minor alcohol," she stutters, and Miranda groans.

"Fine. Give me a Mountain Dew."

The waitress scribbles something on the notepad. "And you?"

"Same."

The waitress walks away. "The hell was that?" Miranda asks, leaning back in her seat.

"Dunno. I thought this place was cool. Apparently she's a dork."

Miranda snorts and pulls out her iPhone. I look at it jealously- an iPhone 5. She's so lucky. My parents are uncaring idiots, and refused to get me the latest iPhone. Instead, I'm stuck with a dumb old 4s.

I pull out my phone too and open the Facebook app. I update my status; 'Anyone wanna chat? ;)'

A few seconds later, my phone buzzes. 'Josh Raque has responded to your message,' the app tells me. I press the notification and look at the reply.

"Hey sexy, where u at?" It says, and I smile. The Josh Raque called me sexy. I can't believe it!

I quickly type back, "eating out at pizza hut, wbu?"

The waitress comes by and sets our drinks on the table. "What would you like to eat?" She asks.

"A small pepperoni pizza," Miranda says, not looking up from her phone.

"Is that all?"

"Yeah. Buh-bye," Miranda says, waving her off with her hand. The waitress blushes and leaves.

My phone buzzes-Josh responded.

"at a sick party ;)" the message says. I smile.

"aww, was I not invited? last party not good enough eh?" I type.

Miranda looks up from her phone. "You know what we had to do in English today?"

"What?" I ask. I should know; I have English a couple periods after lunch, and I'm not in the mood for surprises.

"We had to pick through the whole freaking Huckberry Finn book or whatever and find examples of figurative language. Like, really? I don't even know what that is."

"Ugh, really?" I complain. "I hate English."

My phone buzzes again. "well, last time u skipped school u got he phone taken away and didn't respond to my messages :(." I frown. I didn't have any Facebook notifications when I got my phone back.

Before I can respond, the waitress comes back with the pizza. Miranda and I eat in silence, and when we're done she excuses herself. "I have to pee, and I'm not going anywhere near the school bathroom," she says, and I nod.

I pull out my phone to respond to Josh's message. "sorry , got my phone back but didnt have any fb notifications," I type.

The phone buzzes, and Miranda comes back from the bathroom. "That was fast," I say, standing up.

"Yeah, well I'm fast. Let's go."

I shrug and walk out to the car. Once I sit down, Miranda mutters, "One sec," and reaches for something in the back.

"To get us through the school day."

Miranda holds up a packet of beers. She twists open a lid and hands it to me.

"I don't know..."

"Don't be a dweeb," she snarls. "What, little baby afraid of the law?"

She makes a dumb face at me, and my blood boils. Everything in me screams, 'don't do this, idiot!' But I take a sip anyway. Why?i don't know. I know it's wrong, so why do I do it? To impress Miranda? I don't even like her that much!

I shove the keys into the ignition blindly, chugging the bottle until it's empty. Breathlessly, I mutter. "Another."

She grabs one, twists off the cap, and hand it to me. "Y-You know what? Let's not go to school. Let's drive around a little." I took another swig and pushed the petal of the car.

I swerve recklessly out of the parking lot, going about 25 miles above the speed limit. I narrowly dodge other cars until we get to the freeway. I finish another bottle and go even faster.

My vision is blurred, and I turn the wheel, not knowing what I'm doing. I keep drinking and drinking until I lose count. The radio blares some pop song, and I turn the wheel, not even looking at the road.

"Hey, look out!" Miranda's voice seem fuzzy and far-away.

"For what?" I slur, looking out through the window. I squint my eyes, not able to see through the thick layers of alcohol.

"The other cars, retard!" She screams, reaching for the wheel. I smack her hand.

"H-hey! I'm tha driva, and I'm tha one missin' tha cars!" My words are barely distinguishable now, and even if you can tell what I'm saying they make no sense.

"Alana-"

I scream, turning the wheel randomly. It seems while I was screaming at Miranda, the road became packed. We swerve, narrowly missing a few cars, until my guessing can't save us anymore.

I turn the wheel to dodge a white Sedan, without even looking to my left. Beside me is a huge delivery truck, going about as fast as I am. We collide, the front of my car slamming into the side of the truck. Miranda and I scream as the glass of the windows shatter and the airbags deploy.

All I can remember is pain. Earth-shattering pain, ripping my bones and my skin and my flesh apart until it feels like someone's lit my muscles on fire. Blood stains my vision, and I can't feel my legs. For that I'm glad, because I can see through the tears and blood long shards of glass piercing my skin. I try to tilt my head to see Miranda.

She's not moving.

I try to move my arms, to claw my way out of the mess of glass and blood and the airbag, but I can't breathe, can't move. Blood sticks in my throat until I'm drowning, drowning in pain and sorrow and regret and blood.

Black spots jab at my eyes, taking over until I see nothing. It's not like in the movies,where people can tell right before they pass out. It's more like falling asleep; you can't remember the exact moments leading up to it, your thoughts, or even it happening at all. It just happens, and then there's nothing.