I saw myself speeding across a freeway with a smile on my face in my nineteen seventy-one Chevelle. I was nose to nose with a blue Nova. The nova slammed on his brakes and shifted toward me. He barely missed the tail end of my car, spun a few times, and came to a screeching halt on the opposite side of the road, pointing the direction we were coming from. My best friend, Cody, jumped out of the car after it stopped and started running in my direction. He didn't even close the door. I was sitting with my face on the steering wheel in my demolished car. Cody drug me out of the car and lie me on the ground. He positioned his hand underneath my head and sat on his knees by my side. The look on his face was worrying; it was full of tears. His mouth moved like he was saying something, but I never heard any kind of sound.
Another car, maybe an impala, was sitting quite a way from mine. Grace and another woman were standing at the driver door of the car. Grace was covering her face with her hands. The other woman was trying desperately to open the door of the car, but was not succeeding.
I heard an unfamiliar male voice yelling, "what were you thinking?"
I replied to the voice screaming, "I don't know! I don't know! I'm sorry! I'm so-" I sat up.
I looked around to see that I was in fact in my bed. I looked at the time. It was 3:47 A.M.
Mom barged into my room, "Matthew, are you okay?"
"I must have been dreaming," I said.
She shook her head and then closed my door. I noticed a bloody towel hanging from the side of my bed. I pushed it the rest of the way off with my left hand. By doing that, I realized I had a gash on my arm. I started feeling sick to my stomach as I remembered how my arm was wounded. I never thought I would ever do anything of the sort as cutting myself.
I got out of bed and walked to the bathroom to pour peroxide on my arm. It hurt almost like a bee sting. That feeling jogged my memory to the night I was in the hospital.
I was lying in the bed, when a nurse came in to clean my skin. She rubbed a prickly brush all across my body, except for where my shirt and pants would have been. I was wearing a blue gown, and had so many wires connected to my body. I heard the sound of a man screaming; his voice sounded the same as the voice that woke me up. I saw nurses run past the door to the room I was in, then I heard the sound of a heart rate machine beat faster.
I heard a woman say, "he's doing it again," then a doctor put a needle into my skin.
I opened my eyes, and there I stood in my bathroom with the bottle of peroxide in my hand. I replaced it and went back to my room. I lied there for a long time, just thinking. I started feeling drowsy, so I closed my eyes.
It seemed like as soon as I closed them, mom was waking me up, "come on, now, Grace and her parents will be here in an hour to pick you up."
I rolled out of bed, still with my eyes closed and felt my way to the bathroom. I got in the shower before giving the water time to warm up. The cold water really got me moving. I was definitely not sleepy then. After I got ready, I was having second thoughts about going to church. I didn't even own a bible.
After many minutes of making up excuses, I finally decided to just go. I waited outside for them to pick me up. Grace's dad was wearing a suit, her mom was wearing a dress, and she was wearing a dress. I looked down at myself to see that I had chosen to wear my faded Wranglers and my Justin's boots, which were God knows how old.
Grace's father rolled down his window and said, "you look fine, come as you are." I had no idea what he was talking about. I guessed it was a compliment and that he was telling me to get in the car, so I did.
"My name's Matthew," I said.
He smiled, and turned to look at me in the back seat, "well, it's nice to finally meet you, Matthew. I'm glad you didn't call me sir. And don't even think about calling me Mr. Miracle. My name is Isaac, and I won't acknowledge any other name."
"Don't let him scare you, Matthew. He's real soft once you get to know him," Grace's mom said, "my name is Sarah. You can call me mom if you want. All of Grace's other friends do, so I'll allow you to also."
They were very kind. We hadn't even left the driveway yet, and I already felt like I knew them. I held my left hand out for grace to grab it.
"What's that?" She said as she pointed toward my arm.
I scavenged for something quick to say in my mind, "I got too close to a piece of metal in the garage." That seemed pretty reasonable to me.
"Aww you poor thing! Lemme kiss it to make it better," she said as her lips drew near to my arm.
Isaac looked at me through the rear view mirror. I was pretty sure he could see through that lie.
