Torn

Chapter 9: One Question

The trip to Disney went by in a blink of an eye. It was their last night at the fancy hotel they stayed in for 7 days and 6 nights. Thomas agreed to let his parents take the front seats of the car on the ride home.

"Tommy, I just wanna say thank you, for this whole thing. It was truly amazing."

"You're welcome. And I'm glad you liked it." he continued to pack before he continued on. "And um, I'm sorry about, you know, that thing I did, to you."

"No, it wasn't your fault. It was mine."

"Are we actually going to talk about this again?"

"You brought it up so, yeah."

"Come here, you rascal." he said picking her up and tossing her over his shoulder.

"No! Thomas! Put me down!" She started thrashing on his shoulder but his grip was a little too tight.

"Alright, as you wish." he said dropping Jacqueline onto the bed.

"You have to be careful with me. Remember? Otherwise, I could lose the baby."

"Right. Would that be the end of the world, though?"

"I always thought you wanted to have children with me. We planned that whole thing when we were 10 and 11 years old. We even planned our entire wedding. I think I still have that book in the basement, somewhere." Jacqueline said slyly.

"Don't try to trick me into anything. But..."

"But what?"

"Nothing. I'll just ask you when we get back."

"I have to wait 6 hours before I can know what you were going to ask me?"

"Fine. I'll ask you now." Thomas got down on one knee and asked her a very simple yes or no question.

"Will you, Jacqueline Andrea Beatrix, marry me, Thomas O'Brien?"

"YES! Of course, I'll marry you! But, after graduation, right?"

"Of course! I'm so excited. Wait. Won't people expect you to be pregnant if you're getting married?"

"Probably. I won't tell them though."

"I love you, J."

"I love you too."

They kissed and decided to tell Dylan all the news that night.

As they were driving back, it was Thomas' dad driving, his mom next to him, and in the back it was Jacqueline in the middle with Dylan on her right and Thomas on her left. Around 10:00, his dad started falling asleep and drifting into the lane over, where oncoming traffic was coming right at them.

"Uh, Dad? Dad? DAD!" Thomas yelled loud enough that Jacqueline felt the car shake. Thomas' dad gasped at the realization and immediately shook himself awake.

"I don't have a good feeling about this." Dylan whispered into Jacqueline's ear.

"You know, Dad, maybe I should drive. Just pull over and we'll switch."

"No, no, no, no. I will be fine, I can handle this."

"Are you sure? I rarely see you awake at 10:30. Mom's always watching Netflix but she's asleep. And I definitely stay up past 12:00 every night."

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Well okay, if you're sure." he relaxed back into his seat and let out a shaky breath.

Jacqueline looked over at Thomas as if saying you should've switched no matter what. He's going to fall asleep any time soon and crash the car.

But Thomas just looked back at her. It's fine. He's not going to crash.

Jacqueline had the same feeling as her brother, that something was gonna happen more towards the bad side anyways.

"Okay. Dylan, if the car does begin to crash, and there are barely any other cars around us, I want you to dive out as fast as you can okay? I don't want you to get seriously hurt again."

Dylan just nodded nervously, positioning his hand on the seat belt, ready to unbuckle at the slightest bit of danger.

Thomas' dad stayed awake for another 5 minutes before it was extremely visible that he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. They started to swerve into the other lane when the car suddenly jerked back into the right lane. Jacqueline sighed of relief when he woke again. Out of the corner of her eye, the street lamps on the highways was bright enough to light up Dylan's concerned face. Then she felt it again, the car swerving into the oncoming lane. When she finally came to her senses, Thomas' dad had dozed off while Thomas was trying to shake him awake and take control of the steering wheel. The car started speeding up from the relaxed foot of his dad. Thomas caught sight of a rock ahead of them.

"Oh, shit!" he muttered under his breath.

Jacqueline looked back at Dylan and gave him a nod. He looked out the window, unbuckled his seat belt while unlocking the car door. Dylan gave it a few more seconds as they approached the problem before diving out of the car, rolling out and onto the highway, sprinting for the edge. Jacqueline formed a smile across her face, knowing that Dylan would be safe.

"Well, we're screwed." he groans continuously reaching for the brake pedal.

"Thomas! You gotta get out of here! You might suffer some serious injuries!"

"I'm not gonna stop!"

"Thomas..."

Then it happened, the tragedy that Jacqueline had been anticipating finally came. She took in a deep breath, and she felt it. The car bumped into the rock, tipping over, further and further towards the front. Then it flipped. Jacqueline held onto the seat belt while the car remained upside down. The blood was rushing towards her head and she slowly felt unconscious.

"Jacqueline!" Her vision faded to black, and the last thing she heard; was the sirens, just like 2 years ago.