I can see her face begin to turn red, the tears building on the rims of her eyes. She doesn’t know how something so life altering can happen in a matter of seconds. She can only think how lucky she is that it wasn’t her, not yet.

Sammie didn’t fit in very well and to her dismay she had 2 years of high school left. She drove an ugly old car that reeked of mold and dirt, but only on the days Colton didn’t pick her up. Colton was Sammie’s boyfriend and he was the life of the party. His truck was her favorite thing in that tiny town of Kalispell Montana.

Colton was more of a party-all-night-get-drunk type of guy, but so was Sammie. The only flaw to their relationship was the 3 year age gap. A lot of the time her parents wouldn’t let her party with Colton, so like most teenage girls, Sammie snuck out.

Every night Sammie would crawl on top of her old handmade dresser and silently crawl out of her window. She had mastered it and was as quiet as a mouse. She threw on her old camo ball cap and jumped in Colton’s truck that waited at the end of her driveway.

Colton had always made sure to have a designated driver if he were to get drunk, but tonight was an exception. Sammie didn’t take much notice but it didn’t matter as long as she was with him. They did the same old thing and went to a friend’s house and got drunk. It was just their relationship, and they knew the feelings weren’t real.

That night Sammie got in the car knowing Colton was drunk, knowing he wasn’t capable of driving and it was beyond unsafe. She saw that Colton was swerving and all over the road but she chose not to say anything, to not ask him to pull over or if he needed her to drive. That was the biggest mistake Sammie had ever made and the one thing she regrets to this very day. Colton was dozing off and before Sammie could think or speak the glass was shattering, the metal was crunching in and the engine was inches from her side, she looked over at Colton. The engine was on his lap and shards of glass penetrated every inch of his left side, Sammie screamed but there was nothing she could do. It was crazy how something so life altering could happen in a matter of seconds. He was gone and now, all she had to think was how lucky she was that it wasn’t her, not yet.