Chapter 10
ten
I have no words today. ~ from Gen’s diary
GENEVIEVE
When Gen came to, she didn’t open her eyes at first. But it was the smell of smoke urging some part of her brain to WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! like an alarm she couldn’t shut off fast enough.
She blinked her eyes open, not fully understanding what was going on or where she was.
The car. Headlights. Sam swerving.
Sam!
As she tried to turn her head, she winced at the pain even in such a small movement. Her head ached something fierce and a migraine was threatening to bloom.
She coughed a few times, a dry cough that had her inhaling some of the oil-tasting smoke and caused more coughing.
Her chest felt as if something heavy was on it, pressing her down, but when she glanced there was nothing.
A sudden thought overtaking her, she quickly pressed down over her crotch and the felt the seat cushion underneath her.
When she lifted her hand, there wasn’t any blood.
She sighed in relief then, when she looked up, she gasped.
The front window was irreparably damaged. Spider web-like cracks splintered throughout it, and there was even a large hole on one side. Beyond the shattering glass was a person—a person!—on top of the smoking hood of the car.
The memory came back in full then, adrenaline coursing through her body as she relived it. Someone swerving on the road, maybe driving drunk, Sam swerving to avoid them but they swerved at the same time too, hitting them head on.
Sam! She remembered her friend again and turned to look, letting out a cry of anguish at the sight of blood. “Sam!”
Gen groaned as she unbuckled her seat belt—thank fuck they’d both been wearing them—and leaned over, gritting her teeth at the pain in her torso.
She started patting Sam down, but it seemed like most of the wound was her head when it had hit the steering wheel after the impact. She also had some cuts and abrasions, maybe glass from the window.
She started patting her face and squeezing her hand. “Sam? Sam, I need you to wake up. Please, Sam? Please?”
She was crying now, sniffling as she kept calling for her friend with no response.
“You said I get to be a selfish bitch if I become queen, right? Well, my first order is that you wake the fuck up. Don’t you fucking dare leave me like this…
you, you can’t. You have to wake up. All right? You have to.”
Eventually, Sam’s eyes slowly blinked open.
“Sam! Oh my God! Don’t go back to sleep, okay? I know it probably hurts, but you have to stay awake. You can’t go to sleep and you’d better not fucking die, all right?”
Sam huffed a laugh which turned into a cough, which turned into a groan and a wince. “Are you okay?”
“I think so. Your head’s bleeding, try not to move too much. I need to go get help, okay? You have to stay awake and alive until I get back.”
“Gen?”
“Yeah?”
“Something’s wrong.”
Gen’s gut clenched. “It’ll be okay. I’ll run and get help and they’ll fix you right up.”
“I can’t stay awayyyyykkkkeee.”
Oh fuck, she was slurring her words. She started patting her face. “Sam? Sam, honey? You can’t go to sleep.” She was crying again. “Pl-please stay awake. Please!”
“Love you. Love pare…”
Gen was patting her face, her arms, her hands. “No, no, no! Sam, please. You have to stay with me!”
“Ddddddd.” Sam gasped in a breath. “Get out of that house. Don’t be afraid to love him, Gen. Promise me. And tell my parents…”
Gen was sobbing now, her ribs and chest burning like fire with the movement but she couldn’t stop. “Don’t leave me alone. I love you, Sam. You have to stay awake. Please!”
But in the next breath, her eyes had closed again.
Gen leaned over more and felt the smallest bit of air and realized she’d just passed out.
She kissed Sam’s hand, then scrambled quickly out of the car.
The smoke seemed to have intensified, so she stumbled around the back of the car, her feet slipping on the wet road, and carefully pulled Sam out and away from the car.
She checked the other car and found it empty, so she tried to grab the man on the hood, but the car was too hot.
She grabbed a beach towel from the back seat, and the scent of sunscreen hit her nostrils, a reminder her of their last beach day all those weeks ago.
Sam had wanted to go back again but Gen hadn’t been able to convince her mother to let her.
Why? Why hadn’t she convinced her mother and taken the time?
She draped the towel on the hood and screamed as she dragged the man across the hot hood.
She tried not to jostle him too much—his head was bleeding more than Sam’s—but she couldn’t help it.
When she finally dragged him near to Sam, she was exhausted, had mild burns from the hood, and wasn’t sure what to do next.
She looked up and down the street. This late at night, there were no cars nearby but maybe she could find a house or a pay phone.
She ran to grab their purses—she’d need change for a pay phone if she didn’t find a house or another person first—and just as she went back to check on Sam once more before she started walking, the car burst into flames.
She screamed in shock and stumbled back, her ass skidding as she hit the ground, the palms of her hands scraping across the asphalt.
She heard a car coming and turned. She saw headlights glinting off the wet road as a car came up behind them. She screamed and tried to move out of the way, but she needn’t have worried; the car stopped several feet away from her.
“Are you all right?” a stranger yelled out as he ran towards her.
“I-I think so. My friend’s hurt and the other driver’s hurt though.”
The man was in his 20s, clearly on his way back from a night out, but he didn’t seem as if he were coming off a party high; he seemed alert.
“I pulled her out of the car, and the other guy, he was on the hood, but I got him off too. Can you find a pay phone? Call an ambulance? I have change.”
She started rooting through her bag, but the man was already running back to his car. “I saw a gas station a back down the road. I’ve got change. Just hold on.”
She nodded even though the man wouldn’t see it. She sat down next to Sam, held her warm hand, and prayed as the man drove away.
She glanced at the other man, who didn’t move, then back to Sam who didn’t move either.
Please. Please don’t leave me alone here. Please make it through this.
She was crying again, her tears falling onto her now grimy hands. What else could she do?
“Please, please, please be okay. Please, Sam. I promise. I promise everything you wanted. I’ll leave that house, and I-I won’t close my heart,” —sob—“and I’ll do anything you want. Please just wake up and get through this.”