Little Girl | L. Hemmings

thirtytwo - sober

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Our night has yet to have ended, and I had no complaints. On our way to the next destination we jammed to a whole bunch of songs and just really connected.

I felt so alive in that moment. Why? I had no idea. But I liked it.

We had arrived at this quaint little restaurant that wasn't anything fancy or over the top. Think of it like a McDonalds but just a little above it. We received menus and were sat at a table next to the window. We could stare at the high way down below us, red and white lights from cars going back and forth.

     Only a few people were with us in this place, which was pleasing.

Luke and I had decided on getting a pizza because we were starving and we didn't want anything to extraordinary. It was a simple date and what's more simple than pizza?

"Tonight is really great. Thank you, Luke." I placed my hand atop his and smiled at the man across from me.

"I'm glad you're having a wonderful time, little girl." He then took my hand and placed a chaste kiss to it, a tinge of heat rising to my cheeks.

"So... now that we've gotten to the dinner portion of the night, what do you wanna talk about?" I questioned, sitting back in my chair.

     "Whatever your heart desires," he said nonchalantly, leaning his elbows on the table.

     "Okay well... why do you and Ashton hate each other?"

"You go right for the throat don't you?" He asked, I just shrugged.

I could tell he was hesitant to explain this story, and even seemed a little frightened. I didn't want to pressure him into telling me anything he didn't want to, but it was eating away at me to know why the two despised each other.

Before he could open up to me, the waiter came over asking for our orders. It was like a major cock-block. We decided on ordering just a pizza pie and sent the guy on his way.

"Luke if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to," I reassured him. Luke looked at me with what seems like relief but he took a deep breath anyhow.

"No, I think that it'll be better for me to tell you about that night."

I nodded my head and took hold of his hand on the table.

"One night Harry, Ashton, and I were at a party. Typical college party at a frat house, and whatever that's not important. I decided to be the designated driver that night because I just wasn't in the drinking mood. Ashton decided he wanted to bring a girl back with us so he could y'know. I was driving my car back to his apartment to drop him off and this guy from the party as well came up beside us. You could tell he was drunk and that everyone else in the car was hammered also. He challenged me to a drag race and I didn't want to get myself involved because I had just gotten the car, and I had drunk people in the car, it just wasn't a good situation," he took a breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. I smiled at him gently and squeezed his hand.

"After two minutes of fighting over it, I caved in and agreed to the race." A small gasp left my lips, many dark thoughts coming to mind.

"I figured since I was sober I would win instantly. That wasn't the case however. At one point it started to rain heavily. The guy in the other car lost control of this wheel, and he swerved right into us. He hit us so fast and hard I hardly had time to do anything." Luke's voice started to waver and I could tell this was a hard thing to relive for him.

"Luke you don't have to tell me anymore." I stated, but Luke just ignored me.

"My car started spinning and the back end hit right into a light post. The girl had terrible injuries and so did Ashton but not nearly as bad as her considering it was her side that hit into a pole. The kids in the other car made it out okay, and sped off without a thought. I don't know who called 911 but they arrived some minutes later. The girl, Katelynn, died in the hospital."