The black pavement glistened with blue hues as the sirens flashed, seeming as a  continuous reminder of magnitude of the tragedy. But what really brought it to life, was the realism of the red pools that snaked in between the cracks of the pavement and seeped into the edges of the grass.

It all happened so fast; within the blink of an eye. You know what they say, “It could never happen to me” but, it did.

I had just had the best day of my life or so I thought.  I wasn’t at some bar, or at a big party, I was out to dinner with my boyfriend. As a senior dinner dates always seemed to be some spectacular event. Mark and I had just had dinner at the Olive Garden in Keene and had a great night. I ordered the never ending pasta bowl and of course my Shirley Temple drink. Shirley Temples were the only drinks I ordered at these types of restaurants because they made me feel grown up. He fooled around trying to steal the last noodle like in the movies. Whenever I was with him I had a giant smile plastered across my face and it never left. Mark always picked up the bill and no matter how much of a fuss I put up he never let me pay, but even after a great night we had to say our goodbyes. Who would’ve thought that this would’ve been our very last date, last time laughing, our final goodbye.

Out of the parking lot we went our separate ways. He went right towards his old victorian apartment on the outskirts of Hillsborough, and I went left headed back to my house way out on a dirt road in Peterborough. Mark wanted me to spend the night with him, I should have just said yes. I was too worried my parents would find out and I would get in major trouble. If I hadn’t been that worried, and maybe went against my parents ways just this once, none of this would’ve happened otherwise. The traffic on 101 at 9pm wasn’t too bad, but the sky was black. The rain clouds were coming in heavily, and created an even darker feeling than it should have been.

At about the time I came into Dublin the skies opened up and it started downpouring. It was raining so badly my windshield wipers couldn't keep up. Though with the NH weather I knew it would let up any minute, so I pressed on driving.

It was only a little down pour and before I knew it, it was just  a heavy rain-it was drivable. The raindrops that fell and hit my windshield didn't even have time to sit on the windshield. This was the normal rain people drove through everyday, it was nothing out of the ordinary though it was a few minutes ago.

My phone lit up as I rounded the first corner on Dublin lake. The road around the lake was like a snake. It had sharp turns everywhere and the speed limit slowed to 25 mph. Accidents happened here all the time but I wasn’t worried because I drove the road so often.  I saw that the text was from Mark so without hesitation I went to reply back.

Thats when it happened.

All it took were those few seconds to look at a text that said “I love you” and for a old beat up chevy blazer to ram into the front of my car, plowing me into a tangled mess of trees and metal.

Now the whole stretch of 101 is blocked off. There is no way to go to keene or through back to Peterborough. Apparently a car trailing me saw the whole thing happen. They slammed their brakes and swerved to avoid adding a third car to the mess. Once everything came to a halt; my car finally landed, his stopped skidding, and everything came to a false sense of “calm” they called 911.

Within 7 minutes the police and ambulances were there. I could see the lights flashing, but I could also see blood stained glass, pavement, grass and dirt. I’d love to say I was in pain, or I could hear the voices and had hope that everything would be okay-but I didn’t. Nothing seemed real. I couldn’t feel my body, I couldn’t hear people yelling for me trying to find me, I couldn’t tell them I was there. All that was left of me was a single tear with a pink shine to it from the blood smeared across my face rolling out of the corner of my eye.
Then, it was over.

  If I could’ve chosen how I wanted to die, this definitely would not have been one of my top 3. I can’t change it now though, what's done is done-but the driver of the blazer, he’ll have to live with the pain of what he’s done. He’ll live with the regret of being 3x over the legal limit, going 53 mph in a 25mph zone in the middle of a rain storm, and taking my life.

From where I am now I can see it all. My little neon was a green mess. From the impact there is no longer a front end, its completely crumpled into the dashboard. Somehow when I  hit the guardrail I ended up flipping onto my side so that anyone passing by  can only see the underside from the road. All of the windows were shattered and then I saw myself.

The memories fell down my face and I was almost unrecognizable. My seat belt had broken, or become disconnected somehow and I was ejected from my seat. My head had pierced through the windshield upon the initial impact, but then when I hit the guardrail I was then thrown into the passenger seat and my head went through the window and my legs were both snapped at the waist. A metal object was lodged into my side, I could only partially feel it there. The pain was not unbearable, it was more of just an ache reminding me that it wasn’t good. It reminded me of the severity of the event and how unlikely I was to come out of it at the end.

The drunk’s blazer’s front end was also crumpled just like mine, but the terrible part is that he lived- HE STUMBLED OUT OF HIS CAR SINGING. He made such a scene that the police had to get him under control before they could start looking for me which  took too long.

My breathing was shallow and faint, it was barely even there. It had a raspy sound to it, much like that of a 60 year smoker. My eyes had become swollen and the single tear wasn’t enough to keep them from drying up. I must have blacked out at some point because I woke up to pastel colored hospital walls and my parents faces looking in through the ER window. Surgeons dressed in blueish green scrubs talked in worried voices.
A jolt went through my body as they tried to revive me. My heart was too weak though, there was nothing left they could do. I took one last blurred look at my parents faces and that was it. My eyes fell shut and the fight was over, I lost the battle, and everyone I loved.