She was thirty minutes late.
Usually, he wouldn't be worried about it. She was thirty minutes late, it wasn't a huge deal; it could have been blamed on traffic, or her hair didn't cooperate when she went to fix it, she could have misplaced her keys. It could have been anything, but that wasn't the feeling he had in the pit of his stomach. Something just didn't feel right.
After all, she was his sister, and he knew her better than anyone. There was no way Lenora Neville, the girl who was always on time, would be late to her own birthday party.
It was supposed to be a surprise party, but it went spoiled when he accidentally spilled the beans about it. He looked around at his friends and her friends; each one of them seemingly getting more antsy by the minute. In a fit of worry, he pulled his phone out of the inside pocket of his coat and quickly found his sister's phone number and dialed her. It rang seven times before going to voicemail. As if the feeling in the pit of his stomach couldn't get any worse, he frantically tried again, and again, and again, and on the fourth try, he finally got through.
"Sorry Adrian," she said as she answered the phone. She sounded out of breath, like she had been running around trying her hardest to get there as quickly as she could. "I had the music up and I didn't hear the phone ringing."
He sighed at her voice. "You had me worried there, Len. Where are you?"
"I'm on the road. I'm so sorry I'm late, I'm just- Shit!" Adrian heard a thud. "Hang on, I dropped the phone."
"Don't worry about the phone, just drive carefully and take your time." He replied, even though he knew she couldn't hear him if her phone was on the floorboard.
"Okay," She sighed. "I got i-"
Her voice was cut off by a loud scream and a series of horns honking. Adrian yelled into the phone for his sister, but only heard the sounds of tires screeching on the pavement, shattering glass, and twisting metal.
"Len!" He called into the phone, but heard nothing. He had attracted the attention of the crowd now. "Lenora!"