I cringed and pushed him slightly to fall back into his own seat.

“Let me drive, please,” I said pleadingly.

Isaac laughed as he turned to Bristol who was sitting in the middle of the backseat, staring at us giddily.

“I knew y’all would make such a great couple!” She cheered, clapping her hands like she was a seal at Sea World.

I wanted to flip her off, but it took two hands to maneuver Isaac’s huge truck.

Did I mention I hated driving it?

He had huge tires on it.

They were so big that they came up to my waistline.

His truck was the size of a tank on steroids.

His daddy bought it for him the day he turned eighteen.

Now, two years later, it still looked brand new because he took such good care of his ‘precious baby.’

Three years ago, when I got my first car at eighteen, it’d been because I’d saved money, since I started working at fifteen.

Although my parents were great, they weren’t the richest.

In fact, they weren’t even middle class.

We were the ‘barely making it’ class.

Even now, with me out of the house, they were still struggling to make ends meet.

But they did have four other kids besides me.

So it was understandable.

But it was also probably why I’d be in debt until I was fifty.

Paying for my bachelor’s degree in nursing wasn’t very easy. Thank God for student loans.

Although they wouldn’t be my friends once I graduated.

“Why are you going so slow, Sawyer? I feel like we’re crawling!” Bristol yelled, leaning forward on the console.

“Put your seatbelt on or I’ll pull this truck over,” I said with as much venom as I could.

Neither one of them ever wore seatbelts. And it drove me nuts.

I heard two clicks, and I turned accusing eyes onto Isaac.

He knew my rule!

“Why is it so hard for y’all to follow that rule? I mean, seriously, it could save your life if we were in an accident!” I growled, turning back when I saw lights flash in front of me.

I couldn’t stop.

The car that’d pulled out in front of me did it at the exact wrong time.

Under normal circumstances, had he done that, I would’ve missed him.

But I was in Isaac’s huge truck, which was hard to slow since it was so big.

I was also driving at night. In the rain.

Which meant that, instead of stopping when I slammed on the brakes, the truck didn’t stop.

It slid.

The brakes locked.

Tires squealed.

Isaac, Bristol, and I screamed.

And we hit them with a deafening crash.

It was terrible.

I saw the whites of the man’s eyes before the truck t-boned him.

Saw the woman in the front seat turn to someone in the back.

Then nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

I couldn’t make my brain make any sense.

And I wouldn’t know it until days later... but I killed every single person in the vehicle I hit.

And it would all be my fault.

***

Six months later

“After the evidence has been heard, and the defendant’s testimony, we find the defendant guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter,” the spokesman for the jury said.

My world came to a stop.

All my time.

All my dreams.

Gone.

Every one of them.

Four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

I looked to my mother with tearful eyes.

She looked back at me with the same.

And I closed them, a single tear slipping down my cheek.

“Sawyer Ann Berry, you’re sentenced to eight years in Huntsville. Dismissed,” Judge Abbott declared, finalizing that statement with a slam of his gavel.

My heart hurt.

I couldn’t breathe.

Eight years.

I’d be nearly thirty when I got out!

“Don’t worry, Sawyer. I’ll get you out. We’ll appeal it. I promise you,” my father’s good friend and my attorney, Donald Barber, promised.

I looked at him and shook my head. “Just…just take care of my parents. They’re going to need you.”

He smiled at me sadly. “I will, pumpkin.”

My only hope, once the appeal was denied, was that I’d make parole.

I looked over at my best friend, who understandably felt horrible, and my boyfriend…whom I hadn’t broken up with because he’d become my rock.

Maybe not as much of a boyfriend anymore as much as a huge support system.

The two of them had become my soul reason for making it through.

They’d stayed with me, despite what I’d done.

And I couldn’t thank them enough.

***

Four years later

“Parole denied.”

My eyes closed, and my heart ripped in half.

The last thread holding it in one piece was gone.

Most likely forever.