A/n: Sorry I had to take a break from "Forgetting the Lyrics", but I really got into a car accident yesterday. I needed to sort it all out in my head, and writing it like this sort of stopped this nervous pit in my stomach. I believe everything below is accurate. I don't know if I'll be grounded for this or not. My parents don't really do that, but if I don't update or anything, then you'll know why, at least. My younger sister and my younger cousin were with me. So if it's okay, I'd like to dedicate this to them. They were teasing me about it the rest of the day, while I still actually feel bad.
I want all of you to be careful on the road. USE YOUR SEATBELTS! We did. The airbag actually didn't hurt like I always expected it to.
I do not own Shugo Chara! or Death Note (obvious reference), or Mario Kart.
O~~O~~O
"So, you're going to pick me up tomorrow?"
"Yep. We'll be there around ten thirty-ish."
"Better get my helmet and shin guards then." Utau could tell Kukai was poking fun at her, but it still slightly stung.
"Really, Kukai. I can drive. I've been driving. It's no big deal to get you from your grandparents'. But just for that, you're sitting in the back, since you're so paranoid over nothing."
"Sure, whatever."
O~~O~~O
Utau parked her two-door car on the street. Amu got out of the passenger seat, as Utau grabbed her purse and rolled up the windows. Shutting her door, Utau didn't check to see if she locked the doors. She assumed she did. Her mauve car was bought used, and Utau was quite pleased with the stylish little thing. It was nothing special, but it made her feel responsible, mature. It set her apart from her friends. It made her older.
Eventually, after she got her charges in her car, Kukai slightly cramped in the back, his suitcase in the trunk, and Amu riding shotgun, Utau proudly started her car. Amu brought a CD Rima had made her several weeks earlier, and *NSYNC came on.
"Bye bye bye!" The girls up front giggled. Realizing they weren't actually funny, Amu suggested they turn on the radio instead.
They rode comfortably. The wind blew through the windows, and Utau was careful with the speed limit. Kukai remained quiet in the back, as Utau and Amu filled up the empty air with their words. Utau smiled a bit. She didn't like driving in the early months, to be honest with anyone who asked, but quite recently, she was able to relax and be willing to get behind the wheel. Confidence was something that needed to be built up slowly. Her hands held the wheel loosely.
She woke up from whatever drifting her mind had taken, as the right side drifted over the gravel in the shoulder. It was a narrow two-lane street with a drop beyond her lane's shoulder. It was narrowly more so because it was a busier road.
"Oh, sorry guys." She made a mental note to be more careful with this street.
They passed the last intersection; now she was almost home. She knew up ahead to take a left turn into her neighborhood. Slowing down to a number Utau knew was still too fast, Utau thought to turn before the car coming up ahead reached them. (Amu almost said something.)
She was halfway through the turn when she realized something was wrong. The images replayed over her mind for the rest of the day, but it only lasted for a second. She saw that she took the turn too wide, and she couldn't control the wheel. Maybe her foot stomped on the breaks. Maybe she did nothing. Actually that second was too fuzzy even when it was happening.
Crack! The airbag gusted into her face and the sharp sting of the gas it used ran up her nose. This moment was much more clear to Utau. Her heart in her throat, it took her mind an instant to realize that she was in a car crash. She knew this fact, but it couldn't compute. The smoke sizzling from the airbag in front of her nose told her that this was her reality. She saw the airbag next to hers and the cracked windshield: immediately the weight of the world dropped onto her shaken shoulders.
"Utau, we need to call Mom."
"Are you guys okay? Shit guys. Are you hurt?" Utau looked at Amu and turned back at Kukai. "I'm a shithead. Are you okay? Fuck." She kept reaching her hands up to her throat, over her heart.
They stumbled out of her car and stood on the grass in front of it. She had hit the curb, and her two front wheels were on the grass, both tires flattened. Amu and Kukai's side looked like it had sustained the most damaged, what with the windshield, the hubcap off, and the bumper bent in an unnatural shape.
With her hands pressing her face, Utau turned towards the people whose lives she had endangered. "Guys, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry." She couldn't help blathering. Whatever composure she had was out the window. Countless times she asked the two how they felt, and countless times they reassured her that they were fine. She had that to be thankful for.
"Hey, maybe I can take this as a souvenir." Kukai picked up the hubcap, and he and Amu sort of laughed quietly. Utau grinned weakly. Honestly, Kukai spent most of the time wondering how it fell off in the first place, and being more self-conscious about his height than worrying about just being in an accident. (He felt that since he was taller, people would assume that he was the driver. Utau felt he was being childish. She was the one that actually screwed up.)
Utau remembered she left the keys in the car —still in drive— and turned it off.
A cop showed up faster than it was possible. He must have stopped when he saw the car, maybe only a minute down the road when it happened.
Utau couldn't help being meek and ashamed as she explained to Officer Aizawa how she took the turn too quickly, and lost control. He pointed out the sand on the road, and Utau saw the skid marks leading straight to her car.
She bitterly hated the people staring at the four of them, even though she knew she had gawked at a crash before in her time. She knew she'd still stare in the future. Utau felt it would be more sympathetic the next time around.
The next hour, sitting outside with her mother for the tow, and the policeman in his car, Utau had time to let it seep through. The other two had walked back to her house, and the cop had already chewed her out. He wasn't giving her a ticket, and her mother told Utau to thank the man.
"At sixteen, you think you're a great driver. But you're not."
Utau sighed as she sat on the grass, half in the shade from the blistering sun. One of the worst feelings was that Kukai was right in saying he might need protective gear. She proved them all right. Another statistic. Another teenage driver. Another disappointment. Her mother had specifically told her to be careful with Kukai and Amu in the car. She only knew that her stepfather would be furious, or something of the sort. Now she felt like she aged years.
I can't believe that happened.
She couldn't listen to her mother call up Kukai's family to tell them he was all right. She cringed when she saw the tow man hook up her car and watched the bumper stretch and the hood crumple as the cable dragged her car across the curb and to the truck. She sat in her mother's car, away from it all.
"You're probably going to hate me for it," her mother had started, "but I want you to drive home. In my car. The worst you can do now is become too afraid to drive." Utau nodded faintly and sat in the passenger seat to wait until her mother finished giving directions of a repair shop to the tow man. Utau felt her fear was irrational of causing another accident. She never had to worry about it though, as her mom drove them the next block home.
When Utau arrived indoors, and the three had nothing to do, Amu and Kukai insisted they play Mario Kart.
O~~O~~O
A/n: Okay, so I finished this at 3:43 AM, because I couldn't sleep. I apologize if it wasn't that great, or if you were really mad that I didn't update my story. And although Aizawa worked on the Kira case, I don't think he is a cop in the sense I used him in this story. Please, be safe everyone!