Silence to the Surface

Accidents happen

"Where's the driveway?" I whispered.

"This way." he said nervously, shortly after we saw an opening in the woods and tall mountains complimented the dark blue sky. He ran to his black car and the lights blinked.

"Get in!" he said. As the engine roared and he reversed out, loud music blurred through his speakers, the same in the party. We were speeding through the sandy desert blowing dust everywhere. It was quiet besides the faint music in the car. An awkwardness filled the silence and I felt as though Jaden was mad at me, for risking us getting caught, especially by his father. But then Jaden surprised me again.

"YEAHHH!" he yelled as we sped through the desert, trying to get back into town, my heart was louder than the bass line rumbling the car interior. "That was awesome!"

I looked over at him, sweat beating off his face, eyes blaring. "We almost got caught by the cops, idiot, how is that awesome?"

"The whole escape was awesome, we didn't get caught!"

"What if someone talks? What if they say that it was your party?"

"They won't!" he laughed

"What if- what if they saw me?" I gasped. "JESS! I left Jess!"

He looked at me like I was crazy, he quickly pulled out of the desert onto a real street. "She's fine! I'm sure she's safe with her friends!" he remarked all a matter of fact.

"How do you know? She was drunk, what if she's in trouble with one of those creeps at the party!"

"Those my friends." he said

"Yeah and they're creeps!" Jaden was speeding down the street as if he wanted more attention to himself. "Would you slow down!"

"No one comes around this part, it's late and empty and why are you yelling?"

"I'm scared!" I roared. I pulled my phone out, nothing from Jess but at least 30 from my mom.

"Where are you? Ena it's late. You are supposed to be back two hours ago! ENAMA CALL ME NOW!..." Delivered 15 minutes ago.

I'm safe. Send.

"Okay but yelling about it and panicking isn't going to help anything, so just calm down!"

"Don't tell me to calm down! What if she's in trouble?" I sent Jess a bunch of texts, watching her side of the screen to see if the speech bubbles pop up, nothing. "This is all your fault!"

His mouth fell open. "Me? How!" Now he was yelling as if we were an old married couple.

"YOU threw this stupid end of year party, YOU made the cops come technically! If you didn't throw it, none of this would've happened! I could be at the library making 15 dollars an hour instead of this shit!"

I wanted him to apologize but all he did was silently shake, he was laughing!

"Why are you laughing!"

"The library!?" he laughed out loud now.

"Oh shut up! You are so dumb!" I angrily shouted at his red face laughing at my job at the library, of course that was funny to him. His car seemed to get faster and faster, like our argument was fueling the fire. 

"Hey, you didn't have to come!"

"You invited me!"

The sidewalks were empty and the streets were even more so.

"Okay but why did you come? It seems like you didn't even want to! This is also your fault!"

"Me?"

"Yes!" the angrier I got, the angrier he got. "If you would have just stayed at the stupid fucking library maybe I wouldn't have almost gotten caught, or maybe you would just be better there or whatever! I regret inviting you."

"Oh, fuck you! If you wouldn't have threw such a loud party in a public place, maybe your stupid party wouldn't have been busted!"

"I-" 

"If you were going to throw a party in the woods, wouldn't it make sense not to have such loud music and a million drugs and illegal shit happening!"

"Welcome to what a fucking party is, my God!" He scoffed.

"You are so fucking stupid." I felt bad as soon as I said it. There was a slight silence from him for a moment and I thought for a second that the fight was over. 

"You didn't have to come!" he said, sounding both defensive and hurt. We were speeding down an empty street. "And another thing, I don't ever want you at another one of my parties.

"Jaden slow down!" 

 "I don't ever want to be your friend, okay? 

"Slow down!"

"You are such a bitch!"

"Jaden, watch out!"

As soon as it happened, it happened. Slamming on his brakes as soon as I screamed wasn't enough to stop the impact from hitting this person and throwing their body forward then running over them, with a loud and sudden crunch! The car jerked forward stopping in the middle of the intersection. The faint music in the speakers was the only noise we could hear. The silence among us made the whole conversation we just had, seem completely pointless. Our breathing was synched rhythmically. I wanted to pretend nothing in the last 10 minutes just happened, I wanted so badly to crawl in a ball and pretend it was all a dream, to leave and never look back, but I couldn't stop myself from saying:

"Back up." I whispered.

Jaden obediently backed up revealing the now dead body we ran over. No one said anything and the heavy silence made tears grow to the surface of my eyes. I glanced over at Jaden, his hands were tightly gripped around the steering wheel and his chest was moving fast, I heard his breathing, still synched to mine. He clicked his seat belt and popped the handle to the door, slipping out. I watched him slowly move over to the body in the middle of the street observing it carefully slowly turning back to me, I saw the glare in his eyes, the glossy texture. I slowly moved out of the car towards where Jaden was looking to only see something so much worse, the dead bodies face, which just so happened to be Mr. Rosenburgh. I looked at Jaden and he looked at me and then back down again.

"Fuck."