Ten Years

Trigger Warning: mentions of death and car accident



Loey knows how time works, at least she thought she did. It was ten seconds, however, it felt like ten years. The frigid air around her was a tell-tell sign that she was still alive. The bright blue sky above was bluer than ever and she knew that she would live another day to see it again. The car was going incredibly too fast and she was walking too fast. How could she have possibly seen it with her face buried in her English Literature notes?

A blaring horn had brought her attention from the notes. Before she even realized it, a car was hurtling towards her at 60 mph and she was crossing the street. She froze in fear, shock, and the thought of knowing that that was it, Loey was about to die. The horn became louder as the car got closer to her frozen body. She was like a deer caught in headlights. Her legs just would not carry her away.

She thought of her English Lit exam first, she studied all night and at that exact moment, and she was going to miss it because she was caught in a front windshield. She always had an obsession with school and grades, so that thought did not surprise her. Loey's younger brother being second in thought. The thought of never being able to play with his curly brown hair again or tackle him in their backyard when they play football. Not watching him grow up into the incredible young man she knew he would become. She did not want to think about his reaction to her death.

Next, she thought about her sister. Her small baby sister was never going to know her. Would see pictures of some girl whom her parents called their first daughter, that stupidly got run over by a heavy foot driver. Which then strung up the thought of her parents. She imagined their reaction to the death of their first-born child. The tears and heartache they would face for years to come. All because she did not mind to regard the road as she crossed it. Her best friend then stole her thoughts. That would be the worst part about dying. Leaving the other part of herself all alone in this cruel world. He would not be completely alone, but he would not have her. Jack would be devastated when he found out his best friend died in such a painful way.

Getting hit by a car of all ways to die was not the way Loey thought she would go. Old age, she hoped. In her sleep, she hoped more. She was not one for pain, but most people are not. Illness, falling from a building, murdered, drowning, or any other way to go still would not have chalked up to in her sleep. She never thought she would have to even think about this, death. For something that should have been over by now, it sure felt like forever, waiting for the car to finally smash into her body.

Thoughts still raced around in Loey's brain. Her sixth birthday when she got her first roller skates. The first time she won the spelling bee. When her dad took her ice skating for her eighth birthday. Her first kiss, which was with Jack, and when they ultimately decided to stay friends. At her high school graduation, all the people watching her walk across a stage to grab a piece of paper she worked 14 years for. When her mom bought her those shiny diamond earrings for prom. The day her baby sister was born, one of the most chaotic but happy days of her life. The time she accidentally ran over Mrs. Matthews flower bed, which she had to spend the entire summer replanting; however, she did not mind that much. She made Jack help her anyway, at which he did not protest. Her other immediate family, which will attend her funeral, tears will be shed, and speeches made. She was a bright young girl, well not that bright of a girl if she was to blatantly disregard the "look both ways before you cross the road" rule we have all learned before we could talk.

As she stood waiting for the car to get to her, she was not coming to terms with the thought of death as much as she thought she would. She was frozen in fear, but her mind was still racing. Instead of thoughts of what has happened in her life, she was consumed with thoughts of things that will never happen. The future overtook the past. She thought of all the adventures Jack and her had and all the ones that they would not. She would be forever stuck in her sophomore year of college. She would be stuck there in the middle of the road where a car flew into her helpless frame. Loey thought of the fact that she would never meet someone and get married. Never have a kid. Never graduate college. She had always wanted to travel the world and now there was no chance of that, as she was about to become roadkill. She would never become an author or a dancer or anything for that matter. She would never see her siblings graduate or grow up. Loey would never be there for them when they needed her.

All the work she has put into school and her job at the restaurant at which she worked, would be for nothing. All the savings, studying, and working, wasting away her life to be ended like this. She would fail her English Lit exam and not because she did not study. It would be because she got kind of caught up on her way to campus. Caught up in the tires of a silver Tahoe going way too fast on a 45 mph street. Her mind then focused on the sounds around her. The yells of strangers, and the continued sound of a car horn.

Fast footsteps and yells could be heard from her right and a body crashing into hers knocked the breath out of her. Her eyes were closed as she heard a car whirl past her and the body in which pushed her out the way. The frigid air around her and the arms tightly wrapped around her waist was a tell-tell sign that she was still alive. She opened her eyes to see a bright blue sky that she knew she would live to see another day. Relief warmed through her chest and the pain in her side from the fall was forgotten. Her English Lit notes were scattered all around the pavement and the owner of the arms around her was speaking. "Hey, are you okay," the deep voice of a boy not much older than her faded into her eardrums. She nodded slowly to reassure him.

Loey thought she knew how time worked. It was ten seconds of utter hell, the thoughts of dying and all; however, it felt like ten years.