Chapter 2

We were in Dawn's blue Honda civic, a hand me down from her mom, Neenee. I called Dawn's mom 'Neenee' because when we were younger I couldn't say Genie, her moms name, but as we got older the name kind of stuck so now if I try to call her by her real name everyone, including myself, just get weirded out, and so, she's my Neenee. My second mom, and my mom's best friend. Every time we went out together,  people just generally thought I was Neenee's daughter which wasn't just because she was old enough to me my mother but because like me, she was also pale with ginger hair soft features, but her eyes were blue.

Suddenly, Dawn's phone rang and ignoring the fact that was behind the wheel with both our lives in her hands and needed all the focus she could afford on the road she threw caution to the wind, reaching out to grab it. 

She was fast, but not faster than I was and my grip on the phone was steel. I wasn't letting it go before she accidentally killed me on the day I was born. Like she knew what was in my mind, she looked over to me and said coyly.

"Kleo, come on. We aren't even on a free way, it's not like a truck is going to appear and smash us so stop your worrying" I looked at her as though she was an idiot, and then I replied adamantly.

"I am not about to fucking die, young lady."

The expression on her face...This bitch was enjoying this. She knew how uncomfortable I was with car phone calls and she had the nerve to do this and on my birthday, the audacity. We sat in silence for a few seconds then she began with fake seriousness l.

"What if it's my mom? She could be in labour? Or what if George Clooney came to our house and proposed to her?" Disbelief. I stared at her in disbelief.

"Neenee's not even almost pregnant! And George Clooney? Really? Bitch please!" i retorted and her response was her staring at me like I was extremely stupid just like I was her a moment ago.

"Kleo," she started out slowly like she was trying to explain something to a retard, "you can't be almost pregnant. You either are, or you aren't."

"My point exactly. She's not."

I mean, Dawn's a pretty smart girl but in times like this, I feel like she thinks right out of her ass. Or maybe, now that I think about it she might not be all that smart and I just think she is because she's my bestfriend and I do it out of sentimentality, for both our sakes, because if you are who you hang around with then what would that say about me if my bestfriend was dumb.

While we spoke her phone rang again then she huffed into submission and said "Alright," she rolled her eyes exasperatedly at me, "You pick the call then." I huffed and put her password in but this time the call didn't last long and by the time all the contents of the password was keyed in the call ended. 

"Hmm, so fast?" I checked and it was a missed call from Neenee. She must have decided to cut the call thinking that Dawn must have been busy to not answer on the first ringing, being how the girl is always right next to or with her phone no matter the situation.

"Who's the call from?" Dawn asked trying to sneak glances at the screen but from the way I held on to the phone doing that came with its challenges so she had no other choice than to give up or risk the chance of us getting into an accident from her excessive curiosity.

"It's Neenee, I'm calling her back." I said and Dawn nodded in agreement. Not long after the first ring resounded off the phone's speakers Neenee answered on the call, on second ring to be exact.

"Dawn!"

"No Neenee, it's Kleo."

"Kleo," her tone of voice and with ur mood changed "happy birthday sweetheart"

"Thanks Neenee."

"I hope you guys are having loads of fun... Tell Dawn to get you something from me while she's picking up the things I asked her to okay?"

"Yeah, sure..... Bye!"

"Bye, sweetie."

I terminated the call and went to her Instagram, scrolling through the feed of all the interesting pages Dawn was following. Her life was so much more exciting than mine so it was no surprise that her Instagram would also be much more enjoyable than my bleak one was. She followed all the trending news pages, influencers, celebrities and so on.

"Did Khloe get back together with Tristan?"

"Not sure— What'd my mom say?"

"Oh, yeah, she said not forget that she's getting married to George Clooney in a month so you should start fitting for your dress" I said with a much lackluster in me that I redefined the meaning of sarcasm.

Suddenly and totally unexpected on my part she hit the brakes. If not for my body being secured by the seat belt, I would have been thrown forward, head slam into the dashboard, cracked skull, cut on my forehead, blood dripping down to my nose, dizziness and I'm petty sure I would have had a concussion as well by now.

Dawn's main concern, however, was my sacrilegious joke. She let go of the breaks and the car began to roll forward slowly, thank God there were no other cars closely behind us and while that was happening she turned her entire body to face me and said in a grave manner,

"Don't you EVER joke about such things again girlie... DON'T."

Yup and there you have it. That, folks is Dawn, switching from jolly to serious at the mention of George Clooney. I rolled my eyes and scoffed with good because I was already used to it, her fan crazy antics 

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We'd been driving for a while, when we stopped to pick Jodie up. Jodie was another friend. She was Caribbean, in face, body and spirit. She has skin like freshly roasted groundnuts, her eyes were honey brown and her hair was black with a few streaks of blonde in it. Her body was the full Caribbean dream; soft, luscious curves. My friends are beauties really, and I'm the plain Jane.

Jodie had on mom jeans with a baby pink crop top and Nike's on her feet. She walked up to and then into the car elegantly, in her usual manner, but not before she leaned into my window to give me a peck and said.

"Happy birthday, Emerald" That's what she calls me, Emerald. Because of my eyes.

"Thanks Jo." I returned with.

She smiled and got into the backseat. When she was properly seated, she reached over and yanked on Dawn's hair,

"Mother fucker!"

"Piece of shit!"

Yes, those are the names these two fools address each other by. Dawns the mother fucker and Jodie's the piece of shit. How did I end up in this friendship? I do not know. Do I like it? Very much so...

Only after we got past "Uncles Joe's" did  my brain cells realize that we were going to 'Haven', the club Jodie's older brother managed. He probably didn't know about this or else he'd have us at the mall, having a kiddies party. He was over protective of all of us and it was really annoying yet sweet.

By 9.00PM we'd gotten in, spent some hours having a few drinks and gisting when my mom called. That's was rare, she never calls.

I was tipsy but not enough to senselessly answer my mom in a club. I picked the phone then  walked over to the dance floor where Dawn was dancing with a stranger and tapped her.  She looked so care free, and beautiful. Sometimes, I wished I could look like that.

I sighed wistfully and said into hear ears "I'm gonna go out for a second. My mom's calling." I told her this because at the back of my mind I thought she would step out with me.

She on the other hand also seemed to consider the thought of coming out with me but she didn't want to stop her fun she was having dancing then she figured I'd be fine by myself and she said to me without even feeling like she needed a reason to explain her supposed lack of interest "Don't let any strange dudes kidnap you, okay?"

I giggled at her "I'll be fine mom." I replied with sarcasm then stepped out to answer the call which my mom kept making to me relentlessly.

In the cool night breeze of Massachusetts, I answered the phone "Hi mom."

"Kleo, happy birthday." She didn't care to mention the number of times she had called before I finally answered which she would have been justified for if angered by it.

 

"Thanks mom."

Her voice became shy. My mother gets shy every time  she wants to ask a person to do something especially when she knows it would become an inconvenience to them. I smiled fondly at this fact.

"Honey come home, I have a surprise for you."

 I chuckled breezily not wanting to ask anymore questions.

"I'll be home in a bit ma," 

"I love you, Kleo."

"!!" I chuckled, but I didn't say it back.

I stood out there inhaling the night's air, I'd have much rather spent my birthday like this, enjoying nature, with Jace holding my hand as we'd walk through the city at night. We'd whisper lovely secrets to ourselves, and only the stars would know. Unfortunately it wasn't so.

I tucked my hands into my pockets and headed back in. This time I found Jodie at the bar, flirting half heatedly with a good looking stranger. I didn't want to intrude, but I had to. I tapped her on her shoulder,

"Jo, we gotta go. Where's Dawn?"

She swiveled in her chair and pointed to Dawn's drunk frame dancing with yet another guy different for the one I met her with on the dancefloor less than five minutes ago but in a sense the same guy in terms of stereotyping what type of guys she like.

 I sighed "I'll get her"

"I wasn't going to," Jodie huffed.

I walked reluctantly over to Dawn's figure, but she spotted me before I got to her and skipped over to me,

"Kleeeeoooo!" she giggled and well this was embarrassing, She threw her body onto my own like a child but fortunately everyone around were to busy flirting and messing around to care about the both of us.

"Baby, we gotta go. My mom called."

At the mention of my mom she seemed to make an attempt to sober up,

"Alright, yeah, let's go." She sloppily walked over to Jodie who was with her purse, waiting.

"I'm ready" she declared like she was about to take on a new challenge. Jodie rolled her eyes in scorn and took Dawn's hand and dragged her out to the parking lot. I followed behind them, in time to catch them deliberating tipsily who was going to drive. This is just what I wanted to avoid. Being the most sober of us all,  it was clear that I was the obvious candidate.

Jodie's snarky reply came, "Kleo should drive" Both their heads turned in my direction. Oh, if only the ground would swallow me now.

I paused "You guys, I can't,"

Drunk Dawn replied "Yes you can" and since Jodie was siding her, it would be even harder to say no.

"Fine," I replied conceedenly.

"Alrighty, here you have it... Take!" I was handed the keys by Jodie, then I trugged slowly to the Honda civic. Jodie and Dawn got in like all was well, like they weren't worried we could possibly die from my terrible driving.

"It's just a car, you can do this. You'll be fine" I reassured myself, standing arms crossed outside the car giving myself the best and worse pep talk of my life when Dawn's head came out of the back window.

"Driverrrr, we're waitinggg,"

I inhaled deeply and got behind the wheel feeling nervous even about igniting the engine but a slow inhale and exhale helped to calm my nerves before I got the courage and then drove off. 

I'd safely gotten us back to the highway. The drive had been quiet, which kind if relaxed my nerves. We were about to take a left turn when Dawn suddenly said "This is boring, go a little faster."

In my good sense I replied sharply "No!"

After what felt like an eternity of her and Jodie bothering me, I gave in. I stepped on the gas, a little fun right? I mean I also felt a little lighter, and nothing was going wrong.

"Yeah, baby!" Dawn exclaimed, with her hands flying out of the window.

Jodie stretched out her hands to turn the radio on all the way from the backseat, it was "I love you baby" by Frank Cinatra. This felt good. I unconsciously began to hum to the rhythm and before you know it, we were all singing out loud. Our voices filling the cool night air.  It was just like a scene from one of those old movies, until Jodie tapped me.

"Kleo,"

My eyes followed her arm to see what she was pointing at. A freaking truck was headed our way.

"The brakes! The brakes!" she yelled and I stomped on them as hard as I possibly could, multiple times but they weren't working. I could hear Jodie and Dawn screaming, they sounded so far away although being right next to me. Everything was happening in slow motion.

Was this how we were all going to die? Why didn't I tell my mom I loved her?

At long last, the truck collided with our car. The impact sent the car flying. It did a double flip and landed upside down by the hydrant. I heard screams. I saw a white light. Was I about to die? I thought about my mom. I had to stay alive for her. I tried to fight it, I really did. The light had turned to a consuming blackness that enveloped me. 

Then all was dark...