Shaun
“Yeah okay Brooke, I’ll see you when I get home… I love you too” I spoke into my phone. As I hung up and placed my phone on my lap, I continued to drive along the half empty road, eager to get home and see my beautiful girlfriend. All of the sudden a girl stumbled in front of my car. I slammed on the brakes as soon as I saw her; but it wasn’t quick enough. As I watched the windscreen of my car crack from her body crashing into it, leaving blood as she fell, I freaked. I didn’t know what to think.
“Oh my god oh my god oh my god!” I repeated as I realized what I just did. I ripped my seat belt off my body and rushed out of the car.
“Ohh god, is she okay?! Fuck, I’m so sorry, is there anything I can do?!” I said as I panicked,
“Shaun you fuckwit, look what you’ve done!” Andy screamed at me. What was Andy doing there?
“I-I didn’t see her, she came out of nowhere!” I said, holding my hands to my head, completely shocked at the situation.
I looked over at my car, the screen all smashed and covered in blood, the bonnet dinted.
“What’ve I done?” I whispered as I assessed the damage.
“Shaun! Wake up!” Andy’s voice rang through my ears as I was shaken awake.
“We’re about to leave for the hospital. Are you sure you want to see her so soon?” He asked, holding his hand on my shoulder. I wasn’t keen on it, especially when she’d most likely have other friends and family there who would want to kill me, but I needed to apologise at the least. I nodded and stood up from the couch I’d fell asleep on, taking a long yawn while I stretched out my tired muscles. I slowly stumbled behind Andy and walked out to his car where Mia was waiting. I was seriously surprised at how nice she was being to me, considering I’d just hit her best friend with my car. I mean, weather it was my fault or not, I hit her with my car; I don’t understand how she couldn’t have at least screamed at me or hit me by now. I sat in the passenger seat, keeping my eyes away from the front of the car. I couldn’t bear to look ahead, the image of hitting that girl ran through my mind every time. As I looked at the window, the image of her boyfriend yelling her name continued to flash through my head, it was eating at me and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could bear staying in the car. When we pulled up into the hospital I sighed of relief, dying to just get out of the car. The three of us stood out of the car and began to make our way toward the entrance, Andy wrapping his arm around Mia comforting her. When we got close to the girl’s room, my heart began to race. She had visitors; I was guessing it was her family. Mia looked at me as I looked through the window of the room, unsure of weather this was such a good idea or not.
“Wait here for a second, okay?” She said before she walked through the door. While I stood there with Andy I watched her talk to everyone, the lot of them glancing looks at me continuously. All of them walked out of the room and walked in the opposite direction of me, not looking too happy. Mia tilted her head and gestured for Andy and me to go into the room.
“Kat, this is Shaun. He came to apologise.” Mia said to the girl in the bed. I wasn’t even sure how to put into words how bad I felt; how sorry I really was.
“I’m seriously so sorry about this whole thing. You have no idea how bad I feel. I’m willing to contribute with your recovery in anyway; even pay for the medical bills” I said, trying to let her know I’d really do anything to take it back.
“That won’t be necessary, I was pushed in front of your car, that’s not your fault” She smiled. How were these girls so kind? I HIT HER WITH MY CAR! If it were me in her position I sure as hell wouldn’t be so calm about it.
“It doesn’t matter whether it was his fault! Look what he did to you!” The boy next to her exclaimed with fury in his eyes,
“Daniel, don’t. How’d you like to be in his position?” Mia snapped.
“You’re defending him? Did you forget that’s your best friend lying in that hospital bed?!”
“Daniel! If I don’t want to hold him responsible that’s my choice. I don’t care what you think happened; don’t start taking it out on everyone else. This could’ve been a lot worse” Kat said, gripping his hand tightly. The fury stayed in his eyes but he kept his mouth shut. Andy stood there awkwardly quiet behind me, just watching the hate being thrown around the room.
“I better go” I sighed, not wanting to make matters worse, “And I’m really sorry; please let me know if I can do anything to help” I said before I left the room. Andy followed me and the two of us walked back to the car. As I sat down in the seat I began to see the flash backs again. I placed my face in my hands and tried to get rid of the mental images; but they just wouldn’t go away,
“Are you okay??” Andy asked me.
I shook my head and closed my eyes tightly, continuously trying to think of something else. Andy stood out of the car and told me to get out, obviously realizing what was happening. I exhaled deeply and shook my head, rubbing my eyes.
“I can’t do this” I admitted,
“What do you mean?” Andy asked me, confused.
“It’s been less than a day and I can’t handle the guilt. I can’t even sit in a car without thinking it’s going to happen again! Every time I’m near the car all I can see is her smashing into the glass” I blurted.
“Those images will go in time, you just need to try and face them for a bit”
I sighed again and sat back in the car, clenching my fist at the flashing images continuously running through my head. As Andy drove I kept my eyes on my knees, once again not knowing how long I could take these flash backs before I cracked. Andy pulled the car up my driveway, I noticed Brooke was there.
“Thanks Andy” I said as I stepped out of the car. When he drove away, Brooke came outside. She’d called me earlier this-morning demanding to know where I was all night but I said I’d tell her when I got home..oh how I wasn’t looking forward to this.
“Where’ve you been??” She asked me.
I gestured for us to go inside and kept quiet; she got the hint and made her way in over to the couch.
“Well?” She said after a minute or so of silence. I sat down next to her and took a breath.
“I..After I got off the phone with you yesterday, I hit a girl with my car.” I told her.
“Oh my god! Is she okay??” Brooke asked, looking less pissed off at me now. I nodded and looked down at the floor; I really didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
“I’m sorry baby” She said as she wrapped her arms around my neck hugging me. I wrapped my arms around her waist, hugging her back as I buried my head into her shoulder. I loved how she could be so understanding; most people continue to ask questions until I tell them every detail
