Permanent in the Stars

1: Aurora

If karma is real, why do bad things always happen to good people? I've lived my life at the service of others. The people pleaser of the group; I've always put others before myself. But what's the point if all of us are going to die anyway? Maybe we're good for a peaceful death, but as my car flips in the air all I can think about is what was the point?

    The coins from my center console fall in front of my face, everything moving in slow motion. I'm about to die. Oh my god, I'm about to die right now. My car impacts hard, my body whiplashing in motion. My shoulders are flexing as my hands grip the steering wheel, but it doesn't stop my forehead from slamming against it. There's an intense pain in my ribs as the seat belt presses hard against my body. And then everything's still. The radio is static and my car is beeping in anger.

    It all happened so fast. One  minute I'm minding my own business, driving home from my environmental club meeting and the next, some idiot on his phone is swearing into my lane. I remember slamming my palm down on my horn, and swerving hard to avoid collision. My tire hit a bump and my car went flying, flipping what felt like two times and landing back down on my tires at a slant.

    My first instinct is to look for my phone, but somewhere in between the chaos, my glasses left my face and at the moment, I am unable to locate them. I unbuckle myself, groaning at the soreness in my muscles. Looking on the brightside, I've landed on the side of the road, so I don't have to worry about other cars hitting me. Bad news, I'm at a tilt and at risk of going down until I'm at the ground of the surrounding forest.

    I open my door slowly, the slope isn't too steep and I position my body to hop out of the car and climb up a short distance to the side of the road to get the bigger picture of things. My left rib is in so much pain that I struggle to stay standing. It hurts so much that I almost don't notice the sting in the side of my stomach. When I look down, I see a thick shard of glass tearing through my shirt, soaked in blood. Fuck.

    The headlights of a car slowing down and stopping behind the wreckage, blinds my sight further. A tall silhouette gets out of the car in a rush. I can hear a deep voice, but his words are muffled and I can't understand what they're saying. Based on the large stature, I'd assume it's a man which makes me a little nervous.

    When he approaches to stand in front of me, I make out a guy who looks like he might also be a college student. He has dark hair and dark eyes and a face filled with concern. "Holy shit, are you ok?" he asks.

    "I can't find my glasses." I swivel my neck looking around for them, grabbing my head in pain as I do so. "Or my phone," I grunt out.

    "I've called an ambulance, they'll be here soon."

    "He was on his phone and then he was coming right at me. I just swerved and then hit something and went up in the air." I look at the state of my car for the first time. It's a blurry mess but I can see that my back window has been shattered completely and the side mirror is hanging on by a thread. The entire body of the car is stuck in the dirt, headed downward towards the roots of the trees.

    The man is walking down towards the back of my car. He bends down and grabs something. I can barely make out what he's doing from the distance but as he walks closer towards me, I can see my glasses dangling from his hands.

    "One of the lenses is kind of busted." He extends them towards me and despite the state of them, I put my glasses back on my face. I can see the man's face more clearly. He looks familiar and I swear I've seen him on campus. "You should sit down," he suggests. "You're bleeding a lot."

    "The glass from the window got me in the side." I gesture to my injury. "It doesn't seem to be very deep, but I'm scared to take it out."

    "Fuck." He looks at the blood that's now dripping down my leg. "Yeah, don't take it out." In the distance I hear the signs of the ambulance and can see the flashing lights of the truck approaching in haste. "Oh thank god." My legs feel like they're going to give out and before I start my journey to the ground, the stranger is holding me up by the shoulders. "You're going to be ok, the paramedics are here. Just hold on to me so you don't fall over, they're bringing the stretcher over now." His words are fading out and I can see the paramedics running towards me before I black out completely.