Chapter One: Wreck of the Day

A Chapter by Kara Brie Slater

"He broke my heart, Paige. He dumped me as if I had some contagious disease...which I don't." I sniffled, cradling the cell phone up against my ear.

"Good God Maddie, you sound like such a soap opera. He's just some stupid boy." My best friend Paige informed me, sounding very bored.

I had just been dumped by my boyfriend of three years, Tom Bonefant, in front of my entire junior and the freshman class. He told me very bluntly that he didn't have feelings for me anymore and that we were just better off not having any communication at all. But the real icing on the cake was when Mariah Stevens, the queen of meaningless hookups, intertwined her fingers with his and gave me a look that said Tom was hers.

I had turned to Paige for advice and words of comfort on the drive home. So far I was regretting that I didn't call my other best friend, Casie, who would have been driving over with five cartons of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream. Casie and Paige were complete opposites. Casie was a vegan and Paige was a firm believer in eating meat. Paige was very straightforward about things and Casie tended to sugar coat. Casie was a perfect student and Paige was lucky enough to get a C. They even looked different; Casie was adopted from South Korea and Paige had dyed her blonde hair black at the beginning of this year and has super pale skin.

I sighed. "Of course I sound like a soap opera. I did just get dumped you know."

"Yeah, I know this is like the hundredth time you've told me."

"What do I do, Paigie?" I whimpered. I wasn't proud that I sounded like a very desperate ex-girlfriend, scratch that; an EXTREMLY desperate ex-girlfriend.

She sighed and I knew she was rolling her eyes. After being friends with a person for over ninety percent of your life, you start to be able to know there every move without having to be there with them. It's a gift and a curse.

"What you need to do, hon, is get over him."

I groaned and pulled into my house's driveway. "But how do I get over him?"

"I don't know; rebound with his best friend, post embarrassing pictures of him on Facebook, spread a rumor that he has Syphilis, it's up to you. Just get over him because sulking does not suit you."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever.” I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “I have to go, see you later tonight at Casie's house? We’re watching the Princess Bride... again."

For the past four years Casie, Paige and I have been watching a movie every Friday. It was like tradition or like a ritual to us and we always

"Yes, but don’t see why we can’t watch Saw." She laughed. "Talk to you later."

I pressed the little red phone and threw my cell into my big green bag. I waved to my next door neighbor, Ryan St. Martin, as I slid out of my white pickup truck.

Ryan and his family had been living next to mine for as long as I can remember; they were like family to me. Mrs. St. Martin and my mom were in the same Lamaze class and they became close friends. When Ryan's parents were looking for a house that could house three kids, two dogs and a cat my parent's told them about the house for sale next to them. Five months after they moved in Ryan was born and a month later so was I. I guess you could say that we were friends before we were born.

"I'm fine, Ryan, so there's no need for you to ask me." I yelled over to him.

Ryan was definitely cute and never had to go stag to any school dance. Girls actually asked him to be their dates and .were always jealous of our close bond. We were the Will and Grace of our high school except Ryan's not gay and we're both seventeen. People never believed us whenever we said that we have never had feelings for each other but it was the truth. Sure, with his messy blonde hair, dark blue eyes and great sense of humor he was cute but to me he was like my brother. Last time I checked dating your brother was incest and it wasn’t approved of in most places.

"I wasn't going to ask you anything, though." He shouted back, trying to not to smile.

"Ha. Ha." I laughed bitterly.

"Hey, what are you doi-?"

"I've got to go get ready for Casie's tonight see you later?" I asked, wrapping my arms around my own waist; giving myself a small hug.

"Oh yeah, its movie night isn't it?" I nodded and he looked a bit crestfallen. "Well, I'll see you later."

I ran up the front porch steps and because the door was unlocked I was able to walk right in. The house was a tad bit messy, but then again it was always like that. As I walked into the coatroom, I fell right on my butt after stepping on my younger brother Josh's skateboard.

"Yes!" I heard Josh say from the top of the stairs.

I looked up the staircase and saw him laughing at me. To my horror, he shook a video camera in the air and I knew that by the end of the day the video would be on You Tube. Josh had dreams of becoming a famous Hollywood director and believed that he would get discovered on You Tube for his so called talents.

"I am going to make you regret you were ever born!" I yelled.

"Oh no I am oh so scared." He said sarcastically. "Like you could do anything after Tom dumped you for Mariah."

Josh was a freshman and had unfortunately witnessed the entire thing. I should've known he'd bring it up; he never lets me forget stuff like this. To this day he’s still reminding me of the time I accidentally spilt clam chowder on the lap of a male customer. To my defense, I was fourteen and the women at the table next to them bumped into me. It was not my fault, but I still got fired that night and haven’t gone back there ever since.

I sprung up from the ground and ran up the stairs. He screamed and ran into his room, locking the door behind him like a little whimp. I laughed, walked back downstairs and into the kitchen. Mom was sitting at the kitchen table with scraps of paper spread across the table; she was scrap booking, an annoying hobby of hers. Ever since Josh was born, Mom's been addicted to creating scrapbooks documenting our lives. She actually plans on giving all of the scrapbooks about us as a gift on our wedding days. She’s already told me this thousand of times before.

"Hey, honey. I'm sorry about Tom. If it makes you feel any better, I never really liked Tom. Whenever I went to the post office I always expected to see his face on the Most Wanted poster. He just always seemed like that type, you know?”

"Thanks Mom for those, uh, words of comfort because every daughter loves to hear that her mom considers her ex-boyfriend a criminal. I mean, who doesn’t want to hear that?” I rolled my eyes and rested my hands on my hips. Just leave it to Mom to compare my ex-boyfriend to a juvenile delinquent.

She smiled and glued a large strip of gold paper to the right side of the paper. She dribbled glue on top of the gold paper and sprinkled gold glitter on top of it. Leave it to my mom to go over the top on one page of a scrapbook. She even put a gold glittered star in the upper left hand corner. I was surprised she didn't just bedazzle and put gold glitter on the entire thing and I was about to suggest that to her… until I realized she just might take me up on my sarcastic offer.

"I’m just trying to make you feel better about yourself. Oh and hon, don't even think about drowning your sorrows with chocolate." She patted the top of my head as if I was her dog.

"I won't because I'm going over to Casie's tonight; we're watching The Princess Bride.” I told her with a big smile on my face. "I've got to go get ready."

I raced up the stairs and threw a few things into a backpack. When my straightening iron wouldn't fit into the bag, I was forced to stuff it into a plastic Wal-Mart bag that was lying around my bedroom floor. The picture of me and Tom was in a picture frame on my nightstand. It was a Friday night that picture was taken; we were at the town’s carnival, we were smiling with his arm wrapped around my waist. Tom had just won me a big, velveteen teddy bear that now collected dust in the back of my closet. That was the night Tom had told me he loved me while we were on the Ferris wheel, looking over the entire carnival grounds. He told me that we’d be together forever and always and that he’ll always love me… look how that turned out.

Next to that picture was another one of us, but this time Paige, Casie and their boyfriends at the time were in it. We were at homecoming game - it had just ended, actually - and Tom had just scored the winning touchdown. God that was taken freshman year and we all looked so young. As I looked closer at the picture, I noticed Paige was wearing glasses (she wore contacts instead now) and Casie had braces (which were taking off right before sophomore year began).

My cell vibrated, furiously, alerting me of a text message from Casie asking where I was. I glanced at my watch and noticed that I was already thirty minutes late.

"Mom, I'm going to Casie's so I'll see you tomorrow." I yelled as I ran out the door, shutting it behind me and hopped into my truck.

***

"Yeah, I'm on my way over." I told Casie and Paige over the phone as I was driving on Route 24.

"Good because all the popcorn is practically gone!" Casie announced between laughs. “I’m not going to mention any names but… Paige.”

"Hey! A girl has got to eat sometime." Paige said and then burst out laughing.

I smiled. "Well, I should be going but I'll see you in a few minutes, bye."

I hung up the phone and tossed it into the backseat of the truck. Then, I turned up the radio and sung along to the lyrics from Pink’s new song. Josh would have loved to get a video of me singing and shaking my head along to the beat of the song, I wouldn't be surprised if it would have become his most viewed video.

The song ended and an old Backstreet Boy song began. I scanned the stations until I found one playing a Taylor Swift song.

“Should’ve said no, should’ve gone home, should’ve thought twice before you let it all go. You should’ve known the word of what you did with her would get back to me.” I sang, rather horribly but I could never sing. I was so horrible at singing that in my elementary school’s Christmas Concert, they had me stand next to the drums so you couldn’t hear my voice.

I reached into my oversized purple purse and pulled out two sticks of spearmint gum, popping it into my mouth. As I drove over a pothole, the car jumped and the purse fell to the ground. I reached over picking it up and threw it on the passenger seat. When I looked up I saw two blinding lights coming right towards me and then everything went black, pitch black.

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