"Elizabeth! C'mon take a shot," said Jordan as Elaine poured the shots out for everyone on the table.

"No, I have to drive you guys home you know," I said. I swear, everytime we go out Elaine & Jordan get totally drunk & I have to be the responsible one. However, I'm the youngest so I don’t think I deserve to have to babysit them all the time.

After they realized I wasn't going to take the shot, I snuck off to the patio of the party. It had a nice view of the pool and all the people outside. I watched the party from there because I wasn't much of a party person. I get invited but I usually stay home and hang out with my brother or help my sister with her homework. I don't actually have time to waste on parties when we have SATs & I have other things to do.

As the party progressed, I checked my watch. 12:47. I looked down to see Tyler dancing with Jordan. I flew down to the poolside to find Elaine and I told her to wait by my car. I grabbed Jordan as she was walking away from him. Tyler was bad news and everyone knew it.

"What was that Jordan," I said as I grabbed her hand.

"What," she slurred as she wobbled in place attempting to stand still.

"We're going home. Let's go," I said as I yanked her towards my black BMW.

I drove home as Elaine and Jordan giggled and made drunken noises in the back. "Shut up!! Please," I said, frustrated at them.

Then I saw fire. It all happened so fast and the next thing I know, I'm in a hospital bed with four doctors standing over me. "W-what happened? Why am I here?"

"You suffered internal bleeding in your head and you had to have surgery ma'am. Your left leg is broken and will take six to eight weeks to recover. You were in a car accident on the bridge towards Nottingham. Your car fell off and you and your friend are lucky to be alive," one doctor said.

"Friend? There were three of us," I said to him, attempting to sit up. My head started pounding and my hand rose to my forehead. I felt bandages and hissed in pain.

"It's best if you don't try to sit up and don’t touch the gauze," a female doctor said.

"I don't care. What happened to my friends," I said, raising my voice.

"Ma'am please calm down," the male doctor said.

"Just tell me already," I shouted before I took a deep breath, "please, just tell me," I said camler.

"A miss Jordan Everson suffered a punctured lung and shattered rib cage which pierced her heart. She died instantly. A miss Elaine Landers suffered whiplash from the impact of the car's motion. She also hit her head on the window and it shattered, causing an immense amount of blood loss. She also has a fractured arm," he said.

I was already bawling by the time he finished and my mother rushed into the room. "Are you okay Ellie," she said stroking my hair as I cried into her shirt.

I couldn't even form a full sentence. I stuttered "Jordan" over and over.

"Her pressure is rising. Her stitches might burst doctor," said a nurse in ugly orange scrubs.

The doctor placed a mask over my face and everything faded to black. When I eventually came to I kept my eyes closed and listened.

"The doctors said Elaine and Jordan were drunk but Ellie was practically sober," said my mother. "We raised her right."

"But how did they crash," asked a male voice I assumed was my father.

"The cops said another car with an intoxicated driver crashed into them but they weren't harmed. The driver was arrested but he made bail," said my brother Brandon.

"Mommy, what happened to Lizzy," said my sister Katie. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

A few tears slipped down my face. I can't believe this! I killed Jordan. She was always telling me to relax. If I hadn't overreacted we wouldn't have left so early and we wouldn't have crashed into that car. I opened my eyes and sat up. This time it wasn't so hard or painful.
But I just can’t believe that I lost my best friend because of some stupid drunk driver. And he got out on bail. He deserved to die just like Jordan. I was so angry that I couldn’t even hear all the talking in the background. I just couldn’t believe my best friend died.


I opened my eyes to watch everyone move cautiously around me as I silently cried. “Can I go see Lainey,” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

“You’d have to use the wheelchair provided,” the female doctor said.

“Brandon? Would you mind,” I said to my silent brother who was standing near the window.

“Sure short stuff,” he said as he lowered me into the chair and whisked me towards Elaine’s room.


When we got there she was crying as she sat in her bed with a huge bandage around her head. When she saw me she cried even harder and attempted to form a sentence, “Liza, I-I can’t e-even remember wh-what happened at all th-th-that night,” she cried into my shirt. I rubbed her back soothingly.

“What are the chances this is all a sick joke,” I said as my eyes started to overflow with tears also.

We stayed like that crying for some time until Jordan’s sister walked in. She was 19 with a short haircut and golden brown skin. She looked so much like Jordan that it sent us back into hysterics. “You killed her,” she said to me. “YOU KILLED MY ONLY LITTLE SISTER!”

I cried even harder after hearing those words. Then Brandon swooped in to my rescue. “Janine, you have no right! You yell at her like that but do you see her. She can’t even walk and her damn forehead is literally hanging by a thread. A drunk driver crashed into their car. It wasn’t under anyone’s power to stop it. This is a worst case scenario but you want to point fingers at my little sister? You’ve got some nerve” he said to her.

Her jaw grazed the floor in a shocked expression. With that Brandon whisked me away to my room. I cried. I cried for a long time. About two weeks after her death there was the funeral. I still couldn’t understand how Janine could accuse me of such a thing.

At the funeral, a boy rose to the podium to speak. I had a puzzled expression because I’d never seen him before in my life. “My name is Calvin Jones. Most of you don’t know me but,” he paused and took a deep breath, “I killed Jordan. I was drunk and I wanted to drive. Everyone told me not to but I did and now you all are paying for my mistake. Most of you hate me at this moment, but I wanted to pay my respects to Jordan. I’m sorry and I had to pay my respects before I went to prison, not because I have to but because my parents were killed by a drunk driver and I understand the feelings of hatred and mourning. I’m sorry,” he said before stepping down and walking to an officer who led him out of the church and into a cop car.