At the sound of horns blaring and tires screeching across the pavement, the tension returned – sending every muscle in my body into paralysis. The relief I’d so foolishly allowed to disarm me was abruptly snatched away. I instinctively gripped the steering wheel tighter until my fingers nearly became one with the leather. I searched for the oncoming danger that the other drivers apparently saw. I couldn’t decide whether to speed up or to brake. Whatever the threat, I was blind to it.
It was then that I turned to my left to search again. My body became rigid. Shock overcame me and the consuming paralysis finally spread to my brain. Each passing second felt like an hour. It was as though the entire scene was unfolding in slow motion. I could see her smiling as she accelerated toward me with hatred in her eyes. There was no way to avoid the oncoming accident. It was inconceivable – this girl actually despised me enough to risk losing her own life just to end mine. I closed my eyes and braced myself. The ominous silence as I accepted my fate was so heavy that it anchored me to my seat. On impact, the deafening noise flooded my senses. Metal twisted and bowed around me as I closed my eyes. The windows seemed to explode simultaneously, causing glass to whisk through the air, slicing into my skin like searing razor blades.
The last fleeting memory that I have from that day is the sensation of intense pain that engulfed my body. Every dream, every regret, every mistake, every fear, every hope, all of the things that I should have said to those that I love, every apology that I owed, every wrong that I’d committed, suddenly spread through my brain like wildfire – accompanying the physical pain in perfect syncopation.
Instinctively, I held my breath as the car spun and flipped violently across the road and
finally down the embankment. Fear had taken on a life of its own as it choked me vengefully. Life had a score to settle and a balance to restore. As everything began to go dark and silent, I had a moment of clarity, realizing how all of my actions had come full circle. This – all of it – was my fault. It seemed appropriate that I was reaping what I sowed. I’d done enough wrong in the past few months for three lifetimes, and at what felt like the end for me, there was nothing I could do to change the past.
Part I
Chapter One
My last year at John M. Allister Academy was quickly coming to an end. Although it was only October, that didn’t stop me from constantly thinking about life after high school. In less than one year, my friends and I would be spread out all over the country where we’d inevitably get lost in our own worlds and drift apart.
It was the day before Homecoming and most of the teachers were just assigning busy-work because they anticipated our minds being all over the place with the excitement of the dance. By lunch, quite a few of the students had bailed to get a head start on the weekend, which didn’t sound a half bad to me either. However tempting the idea, my parents would never go for it. When I reached our usual table on the far left side of the cafeteria, I wasn’t surprised to hear my girls discussing their agendas for the next day. Some were going to the dance solo; like Kim, Ashley, and Megan – Megan being the only one of the trio who had actually chosen to attend the dance without a date. The others just got tired of waiting for someone to ask. My best friend, Leslie, was going with her long-time boyfriend, Terrance, who she’d been with since the first semester of our freshman year. Kyla and Brian were also attending the dance as an item. Then there was my date……. Antonio Martin.