Stranded

• Essay

								
	“JANE! I swear if you don’t do a better job at DJ, I will pull this car over and smack you!” I shouted, jokingly. 
	“Maybe if you drove a little faster and less like an old lady, we’d get to this concert on time, Reagan,” Jane replied, laughing hysterically. 
	“Oooooh this is my song. Turn this up!” Lilah said as she reached over the center console to turn up the music. 
	“I hate this song,” I said, going to switch stations. 
	“Reagan! Focus on driving and not on our music.” Jane commented, turning it up even more. 
	“I COULDN’T BE THERE EVEN WHEN I TRIED…!!” Lilah scream-singed, Circles by Post Malone, the concert we happened to be attending. I mentally rolled my eyes, as I heard a large bang. I screamed and immediately swerved the wheel. My instincts kicked in and probably increased the risk of injury. We slid off the highway and were thrown down the side. The car tossed and turned like a merry-go-round. All I could feel was being tossed and thrown, as we rolled, no matter what I did I couldn't get in control of the car. That’s when the car stopped but all I heard was screams and the breaking of glass. Glass went everywhere. I could feel it piercing my skin. But why did the glass break is the question? What happened, I tried to turn my head to look back at Lilah and Jane to see if they were okay but that’s when I heard Jane scream.
	“OH MY FREAKING GOSH!!” Jane said as she screamed, basically breaking my eardrums. I whipped my head around as my heart filled with dread and panic. I could feel it filling me up like a balloon, but weighing me down like a sack of bricks. I didn’t want to look but I had to, so I did. I want to bleach my eyes, Lilah was stuck under a tree branch but the sight was gruesome. Her face looked like someone played tic-tac-toe with a razor blade, blood was everywhere, soaking her clothes. Her arms were pierced and stabbed, bloody cuts everywhere. I didn’t even want to look further down, but I had to. Her side was impaled by a tree branch. It looked like a tree was growing out of her stomach, like those sayings you say to little kids about watermelon seeds. I was going to puke. I could feel the bile rising in the back of my throat. 
	“What are we going to do?” Jane cried, panic apparent in her eyes. I sat there frozen in shock and disgust. I tried to respond but my mouth was paralyzed like the rest of me. In this moment I realized how it felt to be completely still and alone. My body was frozen but my mind wasn’t. My thoughts were spiraling, creating a vicious tornado of negative thoughts. ‘What if she dies?’, ‘Is this my fault?’, ‘I don’t know what to do.’
	“REAGAN!” Jane screamed, hysterically, breaking my tornado and snapping me out of my paralyzation, starting a river of tears. I screamed and analyzed my surroundings. Jane had a nasty-looking bruise forming on her head. I could see the blue, purple, and tints of green creating a swirl of what could be a pretty painting but instead, it was a nasty reminder of what just happened and a reminder that I had no clue if Lilah was even alive. Dread fills me up instantly, taking over my whole body.
	“CALL 911! Please!” I sob as I watch Jane reach for her phone but I can’t sit there and do nothing. I climb out of the car in a blur decision and go into the back seat. Glass is everywhere, leaves are everywhere, blood is everywhere, but I don’t care. I reach for Lilah and hold her hand. She groans and tries to move but she can’t. I scream in panic and concern. As I hear her murmur. 
	“We’re-going to miss the concert, aren’t-we?” Lilah whispers, breathlessly as if every word took all her effort. I laugh at the sheer randomness of that statement. 
	“Lilah…are you okay? Does it hurt?” I cry, tears filling my eyes, blurring my vision.
	“I’m—” Lilah struggles to say. Hurt and worry fill me up, making me feel like a fire was lit in my heart, but it doesn’t bring warmth; it brings destruction. 
	“It’s okay; you don’t have to speak. We’ll help you, okay?” I say, trying to be strong for her. It might take every single ounce of my strength not to cry, but I owe her this. This is all my fault.
	“REAGAN! They put me on hold!” Jane shrieks, hysterically. 
 “THEY PUT YOU ON HOLD!” I screamed in utmost disbelief, 911 doesn’t put you on freaking hold. The tears were slowly stopping and in their path, my rage set in. I know it’s stupid but my best friend might be already dead for all I know and the people who are supposed to be ‘lifesavers’ put us on HOLD! 
“Jane, how charged is your phone?” I asked as I checked mine. 1% is just great, it's no use. ‘Dang it’
“Mines at 10%,” she said, barely getting it out over the tears. Her face was swollen and a tad bloody. I touched my face in curiosity but no blood was there. My ribs were sore but I wasn’t in any major pain. If Lilah dies and I survive this without more than a paper cut from a leaf I'll never forgive myself. “Continue calling 911 until someone answers, if they answer and put you on hold, you hang up and call and call, be a freakin thorn in their side,” I say to her anger, guilt, sadness, and fear brewing inside of me making a nasty potion. Jane seems fine, I might have just finished a volleyball game for all I know, but Lilah seems to be seriously hurt, if 911 isn’t answering we need to get her help. I groan at the thought of explaining this to my aunt, I completely totaled it, I realize as I see the front of the car looking like a stepped-on soda can, and all the windows broken.  She’s going to kill me, it doesn’t matter if I paid for this car and its insurance. 
“Reagan! They picked up! Here,” Jane screams excitedly, practically throwing the phone at me. I catch it and bring it up to my ear as I hear the operator say, “911 what’s your emergency?” 
“My friends and I are involved in an accident,” I say trying to maintain my calm exposure.
“Is anybody hurt? How many people are in the car?” the 911 operator asks, calmer than I could ever be.
“Yes my friend is what appears to be severely hurt-” I have to take a second before I can continue with tears filling my eyes. “It’s 3 people, me, Jane, and Lilah. Lilah is the one hurt.” I say surprisingly calm. 
“Okay,  do you know where you are?” she asks in reply.
“Oh yes sorry we are somewhere off the M-80,” I say as I look at Jane. She looks like I just gave her a new car. Before I can stop myself my eyes skirt back to Lilah, she looks like she’s in so much pain, I can almost feel it myself. Lost in thought I almost forgot the phone call, “Hello”
“HELLO!” I say more frantically this time looking down at the phone, dangit it died. All the hope I didn’t even know I had left my body and in its absence, I was filled with even more fear and anxiety. I looked over at Lilah as tears brimmed my eyes daring to be released but I knew the second I let one past the barricade the whole dam would come flooding out. 
“We need to do something,” I say trying to act bravely. “We have to stop the bleeding.” 
“How?” Jane whispers, barely getting the words out.

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