Regret.
Adara and I were running to my car.
I saw a white light.
“Why did you do that?” Adara screamed at me in anguish.
“He wanted a fight so I fought,” I said coldly.
“You were going to kill him! He was unconscious and you didn’t look like you were going to stop,” the fear in her eyes was heart wrenching but I didn’t notice it.
I heard sirens.
“Take me home,” she crossed the car to the passenger side door.
“Fine. I was just defending myself,” I scowled.
I felt the cold wet pavement.
“Defending yourself ended when you broke that guys arm.”
My grumbles were drowned out by the sound of me starting the car.
We drove in silence for a while, my rage still boiling and Adara’s fearful anger floating in the air.
“I don’t know where that came from. I never thought you’d do something like that, Beck,” she said stoically.
I smelled gasoline.
“You know what, Adara, I was fighting him to make sure he didn’t hurt you too. I was defending both of us.”
“He didn’t even look at me,” she screeched. “The only time I got close to getting hurt was when you kept coming back over to me, bringing the fight closer.”
My grip tightened on the wheel, my teeth clenched, and we sped up.
I tasted blood.
“Well, I was just trying to make sure I stayed between you and them,” my eyes were locked on the road but it was an empty stare.
“You were being brutish and stupid! How in the hell do you expect me to feel about that!” my antagonizing attitude wasn’t helping quell her anger.
“Fine! Next time someone comes at you I’ll let you fight for yourself,” I said with a scowl.
People were running.
“You’re an ass, Beck. Stop being a dick and be considerate of me,” she crossed her arms and I knew she was done talking.
But I wasn’t. I spun my head around to face her. “You know, I hate it when you do this shit. You twist what I do into something horrible and then tell me to do the very thing I was trying to do in the first place. Be considerate? I was being fucking considerate! I was trying to make sure you didn’t get hurt. Callum almost hit you with that bottle too! But I’m the ass cause I fought him and tried to protect you?” I was on a tirade.
“Beck,” she said calmly.
“No, shut-up, Adara. You have this shit double-standard that always puts me in the wrong. I can’t ever do the right thing and you can’t ever do wrong. How can you do that? Do you not see yourself doing it?”
“Beck,” she spoke in an elevated tone.
“You’ve talked, Adara, now it’s my turn. I’m tired of this!” my eyes were locked on her face to see how she reacted to each of my verbal blows. “Is this how it’s always going to be?”
“BECK!” she screamed and braced herself against the dash.
The impact jolted me.
I never saw what it was.
We were twisting in the blackness; it was a silent and horrible dance. In one fleeting moment I could see Adara’s face—teeth clenched and eyes closed. The next moment, she was bloodied and screaming.
I felt the unforgiving ground crush my body with the help of gravity after I was launched from the rolling car.
Adara was stuck inside the catastrophe that had been my vehicle. It continued to flip into the nearby field and eventually landed on its roof in a peaceful twist of metal and mud.
I saw a white light.
I heard sirens.
I felt the cold, wet pavement.
I smelled gasoline.
I tasted blood.
People were running.
I was in a haze. Quickly, I put a delay on my injuries to keep the damage from advancing more. I even managed to pull back some of the more minor wounds making them disappear for the moment.
Limping as I ran, I approached the wrecked car. I stooped down to see Adara suspended upside down in her seat, held there by her safety belt. The paramedics were screaming but their voices were dull and inaudible. They grabbed me, trying to gently lay me down to examine my injuries.
Shrugging them off, I ran over to Adara’s side of the car.
“Baby, are you okay? I’m gonna get you out,” she was silent, unconscious; a large cut ran across the top of her scalp and blood was pouring out quickly.
My hands held tightly to the crushed passenger side door and I pulled. With adrenaline aiding my already unnatural strength, I was able to bend and twist the door open enough to get to Adara.
I was woozy and tired from such a large delay being put in place but I still ripped her seatbelt off and lightly carried her out of the wreckage. After I laid her down in the field I was overwhelmed and lost hold of my delay and collapsed beside her, unconscious.
