PLEASE READ THE AUTHORS NOTE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER, THANKS! 

And now I’m sitting in this uncomfortable chair answering questions I don’t want to answer by people who don’t care about my well being, all well wondering about Sam . . . I miss her so much. I just want to hold her hand and tell her that everything is gonna be okay. That she’s gonna make it out of this alive. That I’m gonna make it out of this okay.

“Hello. Hello. Hello!” I snapped my head up, locking eyes with the questioner. His hard gaze shifting into hatred. “Did you purposefully hit the semi?”

“W-what?” Taken aback by his words I stared at him with confusion. “I didn’t . . . he swerved and fell on top of my car!” My voice suddenly rising with anger.

My aunt, who was in the room at the time, chimed in, “He doesn’t have to answer any more questions correct?”

“No, he does not.” His head gave an affirmative nod, looking at me with stone-cold eyes.

“Then we are leaving.”

My aunt, Cathy, grabbed me with her slender fingers, pulling me from my seat and into an upright position. Confusion swirled inside my mind.

Hitting the semi? What . . . no, I didn’t hit the damn thing. It fell right on top of my car, how, why would they think that.

A million thoughts boiled in my mind, making my head spin with fever. Clouding me in an array of swarming dark colors, drowning me in their depressive state. Telling me how worthless I was, how inconsiderate I was for hitting that semi, even though I know I didn’t. My mind was struggling to stay above the water, struggling to keep the truth inside and keep the lies out.

I dragged my feet as we left the police office. Policemen were sitting in their small cubicles, some laughing away giddily while others had monotone voices and expressionless faces as they worked on their endless stacks of paperwork. I ogled in curiosity. It seemed so foreign to me, to see these people laughing and smiling when their jobs were deadly and dangerous.

Everything seems to blur past me in a haze. My eyes expeditiously scanning the drop ceiling lights, creating an atmosphere of discomfort and terrible lighting. My blue Nike sneakers with black bottoms squeaked against the ugly off-white tile. Probably covered in grime from years and years of not being cleaned.