Tied to My Fate

1. Going Up and Coming Down

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The streets of my town are too packed with people going wherever they're going to expect not to get a few bruises on the way to school. I used to complain about walking the half mile because it meant I'd have to wake up early, but life tends to give me no shortage of things to complain about. I'm so freaking sweaty that even in winter, I need to hit the showers just so my morning BO doesn't scare off my classmates.

My walk this morning is no different except that I've slept in a little too long, so I won't have time to shower when I get there. I'm at the rear of a crowd of random people I usually see when I'm commuting late. College students mostly, since the campus is across the street from my high school. The light is taking forever, which is to be expected when every second counts.

I check my phone and elbow a boy next to me as I try to shove it back into my tote bag.

"Sorry," I say to him, but he only brushes his shoulders and redirects his focus to the phone in his hands. I recognize him. He lives a street over from me and graduated from my school last semester. Zachariah is the name I remember being announced over the intercom when he left. We're the same age, but he's one of those smart types that rack up credits during the summer. Like he was in a hurry to achieve whatever dream he's had his whole life. I can't imagine being that sure of...well, anything. I have no idea what I'll do once graduation is thrust upon me in a few months. I'm not anything now, I'm not sure how that'll change in a few years, college degree or not.

The light goes green, but the crowd doesn't move. A few sirens are going off in the distance.

Of course.

Once a police car speeds by, the crowd begins its crawl across the street. The red hand is already blinking frantically.

Running out of time, it says.

As if I didn't already know that.

Finally, the back row made up of me and Zachariah, gets to the curb, but by then the red hand is already solid. The light for oncoming traffic is still red. I don't have time for this, I won't even have time for a whore bath with my Victoria's Secret body spray at this rate. I begin my run across the street before the light can change, but I notice Zachariah leave the curb behind me, his attention is still on his phone, and other cars beginning to honk.

A car flies by. Zachariah is still making his way across the street. I turn back and race for him. When I reach him, surrounded by sirens and honking cars, I try to pull him to safety. He looks at me, wide-eyed, like he doesn't understand what I'm doing. He grabs me and tries to pull me in the opposite direction.

The direction that traffic is moving.

I push through his resistance and force us both to cross towards the non-moving side.

I should have trusted him. Even with headphones in, even while blocking out the whole world, he always knew where he was going. He was a smart kid, one that could graduate early. That had everything planned out. Priorities straight. Not like me. I'm wild and impulsive. Certifiably stupid. That's what everyone says.

We fall just as I notice the ambulance barreling towards us.

My hands are still on his elbows when we wake up in darkness. He's completely passed out, surrounded by black earth and tufts of blue glowing grass. Wherever we are, it's impossible to see anything but black in all directions. It's not that it is a type of darkness that makes it difficult to see, like if you're feeling your way through your home at 2 am. This darkness is absolute. My eyes don't adjust. They see just as they're supposed to. Everything is black nothing except for the eerie blue foliage.