Dying stars are always the brightest. If you looked up the sky right now, what would stick out to you the most? Probably the brightest star that twinkles against the dark backdrop. What most people don't realize is that the brightest stars are already the ones that have begun their journey toward the end. They are destined to die quickly and extravagantly. This supernova, where the brightness of a star increases greatly because of a catastrophic explosion, will be seen centuries after it has happened. Still, every star lives for a finite amount of time, just like people do. 

My life is like a supernova, slowly destroying itself from the inside out. I always knew my life would someday burn out in front of the whole world. Somehow, I didn't think it was going to be this soon. That's the thing about fate, though; you have no control over it once it has gotten its claws wrapped around your life. There is no backing out, slipping away, or escaping from this monstrosity. Trust me, I tried. The only thing you can really do is ride it out and pick up the pieces on a later day. At least, that's what I did when my life exploded. How did it all start, you ask?

The explosion started the day Margaret Hanna emailed me. I think I still have it today. Hold on, let me check. I have all these emails about sales at stores I haven't even been to before, it's hard to find anything in my inbox. What's this one about? Oh, someone's willing to pay off my student loans for me? I'll have to check that one out later. Anyway, I found the email. It didn't really surprise me when I got it. I usually got a lot of emails about people wanting to hire me to drive them or their clients around Chicago, the unofficial capital of Illinois, during the summer.

This one email, though, changed my life. It read:

Dear Savannah Wilde,

Hanna Content Agency is looking to do business with you. Our client would need a week's worth of driving around Chicago. Each day will consist of multiple activities to keep our client busy and out of trouble. The official itinerary will be sent in a follow up email after you agree to this offer. If you don't agree, we will not contact you again.

Hanna Content Agency

Short and sweet, right? It didn't set off any red flags to me, which was good. Most people contacting me about driving them around Chicago usually said something wrong in their emails to throw me off. But nothing about this email really made me think that something was wrong, so I sent them an email back, saying that I would drive their client for the entire week.

"Did you get another email?" my roommate, Scarlet, said as she walked into our small living room in the apartment we rented together. She gestured to my laptop sitting on our coffee table as I contemplated about my answer. "Because you still haven't taken me up on my offer to drive me around Chicago."

"Your offer is for free," I told her with a roll of my eyes. "At least these people are paying me the big bucks to drive their client around."

"It wouldn't be for free, and you know it. I would pay you."

"Not with money, which I desperately need. I don't need food from you because you cook every single night."

Scarlet stuck her tongue out at me as she sat down directly next to me. Her eyes scanned my laptop screen. I didn't bother telling her not to look at my laptop anymore when it was open. Since I started my driving business at the beginning of this summer, I didn't want her to see who emailed me for client confidentiality, but she never listened to me about it because she always wanted to know if it was someone famous or hot. Most of the time, it was neither.

"That sounds like a good opportunity," Scarlet said with a nod. She sounded a little serious, so I braced myself for what she was going to say next. "I'm glad this chauffeur thing is working out for you."

"There's a but coming, isn't there?"

She didn't even laugh at that like she usually did. She was acting very strange right now. "Yeah, there is," she continued. "But I wish you didn't throw yourself into it to forget about the internship."

"I'm not throwing myself into this," I told her with a frown. What in the world was she talking about? I had a lot of free time to spend studying all the things I was missing out from the astrophysics internship I had gotten booted out from. "Trust me, I would be working a lot more at that internship than what I'm doing now."

"You would also be happier at that internship than you are now."

Thankfully, my computer dinged, alerting me that I had another email waiting for me. I opened it and saw an itinerary attached to the email from Margaret Hanna. The itinerary was packed full of things that I had to drive this client to, which was fine with me. The more I drove, the more I got paid. That was all I wanted when I came up with this plan to be a chauffeur this summer. Well, that and because my high school job didn't want to hire me again since I was in college now. I started typing back to Margaret Hanna about how excited I was for this job while Scarlet sighed and got up, leaving me alone in our living room.

Of course, I didn't want to listen to what she was telling me because I didn't believe her at all. I had more chances to do more internships in the future. I had already done an internship for astrophysics at Harvard the year prior. I didn't really need this one, though it would have looked nice on my transcript to apply for graduate school. But I was fine with it. Truly.

---

I had no idea why I was nervous for the video chat with Margaret Hanna and her team. For some reason, I couldn't catch my breath. My heart kept thudding against my chest like it was keeping time for a bomb. Every time I touched my laptop, I left a little trail of sweat on the keys or the screen. Nonchalantly, I wiped my hands on my pajama pant legs, trying to get rid of the sweat.

"Van, I have to get to work!" Scarlet yelled from the living room of our apartment. I was sitting in my cramped bedroom at my small desk I had situated in front of the tiny window that looked into the apartment building next door. "I'll see you later!"

"Wait!" I jumped up from my desk and hurdled over the clothes that had taken place of the floor. Scarlet was still standing at the front door when I made it into our living room. She pointed at her watch while I said, "Do I look alright?"

"That's really what you had to ask me?" she asked exasperatedly. "You're going to make me late to my own restaurant, Savannah."

"You're the boss, it's fine," I told her. "Do I look alright?"

"Are you really nervous?"

"Yes."

"Of course, you look fine," Scarlet said with a nod. "I love how you have pajamas on the bottom and a suit jacket on top. It really works well."

"You should get going," I said, sighing. Her answer didn't really help me much. I was still nervous, and I didn't know why. "You're going to be late."

"That's what I said in the first place."

I turned on my heel and headed back to my room. Something about this meeting felt different than everything else I had done this summer. If I had listened to my gut, I would have realized that this meeting was going to change the course of my summer -- actually, the course of my life -- in ways I had never seen coming. 

Taking a deep breath, I sat back down at my desk. I could do this. I had video chatted a lot of people before about driving them around Chicago. Besides, it was only going to be a few minutes long about us talking about the itinerary and things like that. I could do this.

I clicked on the email Margaret Hanna sent to me yesterday after she first reached out to me with the link for the video chat. It was time for it to begin, which made my heart drop in my chest slightly. The only thing that kept going through my mind when I clicked on the link was: I could do this.

"Thank you for agreeing to drive our client for this weeklong venture in Chicago," the older looking woman said once I joined the video chat. Her gray hair was tied back in a tight knot, but that was the only other thing that told me she was older. There were no wrinkles on her face. "We would have used our previous driving company had it not been for . . ."

I frowned when she trailed off before fixing a smile back on my face. I didn't want her to notice that I didn't like what she just said -- or didn't say to me. Her two younger associates that sat on either side of her both shot each other withering looks, but I pretended not to notice by focusing my sights on the stoic features of Margaret Hanna. 

"Never mind," Margaret Hanna said, plastering a smile on her face. "You, Savannah Wilde, will be perfect for him. I'm sure he will listen much better to you than to someone he hates. You see, we must keep the client on schedule the whole week."

"Yes, you mentioned that in both of your emails," I said with a nod. "I always get my clients to wherever they need to be on time."

"That's what your website said." Margaret Hanna pursed her lips. I couldn't figure out what this woman was thinking, and it scared me a little. "It's very important to keep to the itinerary. Very important. Let's just say . . . it's a make-or-break type of deal. Do you understand?"

I totally did not understand what the big deal was about following the itinerary perfectly, but I didn't dare say that to her. I desperately needed the money this opportunity was going to give me to help pay for my final undergraduate year at school. 

"Yes, I understand, Ms. Hanna."

A full smile appeared on her face. For some reason, she looked a little relieved at my answer. "Thank you, Savannah Wilde," she said to me. "Our client will be on his best behavior once he gets to Chicago. You will get paid at the end of the week once all the things on the itinerary are completed."

"Who am I going to drive around?" I asked quickly. I didn't want to end the video chat without getting to know who was going to be spending a whole week with me. "I don't want to get to the airport when I pick him up and not know who it is."

"Of course." All three of them were so stiff as they shared glances together. Everything about the way they were acting made me a little hesitant to find out who I was going to drive around Chicago for a whole week. Based on their reaction, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this job anymore. "Our client that you're going to drive is Nathan Lucero. He's currently promoting his movie, Worlds Apart, in Los Angeles, and he is going to promote his movie in Chicago when you make sure he follows his itinerary."

Nathan Lucero. That name sounded familiar to me. It was probably because of Scarlet and her obsession with famous people. Her favorite famous people always were in the news about doing strange and wild things, so I assumed that was the deal with Nathan Lucero, especially with the way these people were acting about him. As long as they were paying me the big bucks, I would definitely get him to where he needed to be without any trouble. Hopefully.

At that moment in my life, I hadn't realized just how much trouble this man was going to bring to my world. I can look back now and realize that I still would have done this job, even if I knew what was going to come to my life. I guess that's what happens when the best of what life has to offer comes early. The supernova is now underway.