English Accent (The Accents #1)

... And then it hit me

We were going to be late.

We had had forty minutes to get to the airport. And we were going to be late.

I was driving nearly 20 miles over the limit, trying to get my Giulietta to reach her maximum. But unless a miracle happened and she turned into a Batmobile, there was no way we were going to make it to the airport on time.

"Come on, come on, come on... " Sierra rocked back and forward in her seat, her eyes focused on the road.

"Shut up, Sierra. You're making me nervous."

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just a hundred dollars and my life at stake. No pressure."

I rolled my eyes.

"Maybe we would make it if you didn't run around the house three hundred times, grabbing all your stuff in a hurry."

"Oh, shut up." her eyes narrowed. " I wonder how you would look like if you got to know you had to be on a different continent in two days, smiling and ready for one of your dozen cousin's wedding."

I didn't say anything because I knew she was right. Two days ago Sierra got a call from her mom telling her one of her countless cousins was getting married and she had to come back home quickly. She said him and his fiancee got engaged last week and wanted to get married as quickly as possible. Turns out that if they didn't want to wait until next year, they had to do it next Sunday. And since Sierra was Spanish, she and her family took things like that very seriously. Well, maybe just her family. My best friend thought love was stupid and weddings were useless (just like I did), but even she didn't have enough balls to stand up to her mother. Esperanza Hayes wasn't the kind of woman you discussed with. And she sure as hell wasn't the kind of woman you pissed off if you wanted to keep your head on the right side of your body.

So here we were, on our way to the airport, speeding as crazy but still late as fuck.

Welcome to my life, an endless rollercoaster of unexpected events and stupid coincidences.

I was just changing gears, trying to overtake some Smart, when I head Sierra's scream:

"Watch out!"

I instinctively slammed on the brakes, but something told me it was already too late. A terrible shudder rolled through the car and I gripped the stirring wheel so tight my fingers turned white. A second later I heard a loud crack and I couldn't see what was happening because the safety pillow exploded in my face.

"Si? Si! You alive?" I felt panic rising in my throat.

"Fuck!"

Against everything, I felt the urge to grin. Oh yeah, she most definitely was alive and alright.

The quick flash of good humour instantly passed, though, when I realized what has just happened.

"Christ, damn, shit, fuck..." Sierra was singing her usual litany and bursting out of the car before I could even unbuckle.

Making sure I could move every part of my body, I unbuckled my seat belt and rolled outside.

When I saw what was happening, I wanted to come back in the car, and never leave it again.

There was a black SUV in front of my car. Or rather, on the front of my car, since half of the front mask was shattered and plastered to its bumper.

Oh, no, no, no, no...

Ignoring the cacophony of horns blasting out around me, I rounded the car and assessed the damage.

Fuck.