the road to truth

-the party

All I remember from that night was the flashing lights. The strobe lights at the party where the whole crowd was dancing in the living room to the beats the DJ was playing. The lights when Candace turned them on in the kitchen shocking people awake to tell them to go home. And when the lights came on once Drew started up the car, putting the key into the ignition… drunk.

“Honestly Drew,” I sighed putting a hand on his shoulder, “don’t you think that I should drive home?”

He looked at me before shouting “NO.”

I took my hand of his shoulder quickly and slumped further into my seat. “I just think that since…” I started, looking around the mess he called his car. Coke bottles and old homework papers littered the floor as the stench of sweat and guy lingered. “Liv I’m fine!”he said again, this time a glimmer of anger was in his eyes.

Right then and there, I should have done something. I knew at that moment, something was going to happen. I guess it was my intuition or my conscious or something... but whatever it was, it told me to grab the keys. It told me to call 911. It told me to run back to Candance's house. It screamed for me to get out of that car. But of course, none of that happened. I stayed right in that tattered chair and closed my eyes, putting my head on the cold window. I felt the icy frost send a chill through my spine as the car started to move down the road, bracing myself for what came next.

I first noticed that he was swerving. In and out, over the yellow lines, from right to left.

“Drew,” I whispered. “Drive straight please.”

It was stupid for me to say that. It wasn’t like he’d say, “oh sorry Olivia, yeah I’ll drive straight now,” or something like that. He was drunk. And when your drunk, there's nothing that you can do...but hold on, literally.

He was so drunk in fact that he started to doze off.

I quickly shook him, “Drew eyes on the ROAD!” I screamed and he jolted awake and stared at me.

“Shut the hell up Liv!” he shouted as if nothing had happened and pushed me to the side of the door, so hard that I thought that I was going to fall out.

Drew was so strong from all of his football training that he could take me out with one hand let alone one arm. He quickly shifted his gaze to the road and started blink his eyes. It was when I started to re-buckle my seatbelt that I saw it. Flashing lights blurred my eyes, the screeching sound of metal and a soft, “what the hell?” filled my head as I let myself go with the car. I forgot about the things that were in my mind; Sectionals, bio, Alyssa’s Sweet Sixteen…I even forgot about the Homecoming Queen elections, i've spent months planning; until I felt arms pull me out of the totaled car and lay me down on a patch of grass beneath the shattered pieces and glass. It was then that I jolted awake to the sounds of an ambulance and the hushed words from the medic, “I can't find a pulse...”