If you've ever had your life flash before your eyes, you would know just how exhilarating, frightening, and life-changing it is. I never thought I'd die this way – I never really thought I would die this young. The feeling I got when I saw those headlights in front of me like two saucers made me want to jump or yell or just do something to help myself. My whole body had frozen, my mind, my legs, and my eyes. I used to yell at people in movies that had more than a minute to move before their death came abruptly. But then it happened to me.

As the headlights blinded me, I dropped my bandana from my fingers and let my hair fall down as I attempted to shield my eyes from my inevitable death on that cold, wintry night.

The car came to an unanticipated stop approximately one foot ahead of me. One foot. There was a loud screech from the tires on the asphalt of this backroad, which brought me back into reality. My body jolted as if I had just been woken up from a bad dream. My first thought was, God was definitely watching over me. My second was, who the hell is this?

The blaring horn made me drop my hands to my sides, and I'm sure my face was something of horror. But I was still unable to move my body which was paralyzed with fear. I dumbly stared in front of me as a figure stood up from the driver's side door.

"Hey, are you going to move or am I going to have to make you?" A deep, male voice echoed across the alley. I couldn't see his face so I didn't know who he was, but by the sound of his voice, I could tell he wasn't from around here.

"Um... I..." I tripped over my own words, hands clutching the fabric of my jacket cuffs.

The boy sighed heavy enough for me to hear him. He tapped his fingers on the hood of his dark blue Chevy Camaro, which, after my eyes adjusted better to the bright headlights, I could now see. He was growing impatient and I was embarrassing myself more and more by the second.

"Um, sorry. I didn't mean to..." I stuttered. My mind was going crazy at the thought of being alive when I shouldn't have been. This boy didn't even care.

"Watch where you're going next time," he grumbled lowly. It was like he didn't want to sound so mean as to make me think he wished he'd have hit me.

I snapped at that. "Watch where you're driving next time," I mocked his grumble except I made it loud enough for him to hear. I didn't hear anything but the slamming of his car door.

I took that as the opportunity to walk out of the center of the road and back up onto the sidewalk. Snow was sprinkling down now, leaving the sidewalk covered in tiny white dots.

I heard his car speed up one moment, then he stopped, opened the door, slammed it shut again, and took off down the road. I wasn't too occupied thinking about why he stopped again, but about the situation entirely. There was no way I could let my dad know about this. God would have just spared my life to have me murdered by my own father for being so careless.

Grumbling and still in shock, I found my house key in a little bird house my dad built that stood by our front door. It was for my mother, but when she moved, she left it here. I pushed open the door and without thinking about it, slammed it shut behind me.

"Who peed in your Cheerios?" I call Reese ask from in the kitchen. I didn't even realize the light was on. Reese was standing there leaning on the counter, shirtless, only in his plaid boxers, stuffing his face with a zebra cake. This was what I had to look forward to every day of my life.

"I'm not in the mood for your sarcasm, Reese," I said glumly. For some reason, the fact that I was as careless as to walk out in front of a car made me feel sick. I was never that irresponsible. I was surprised that Reese even noticed my bad mood. Twin instincts, I guessed.

Reese's smile faded a little. "It was a serious question. What's wrong, sis?" He tossed his plastic wrapper in the trash and sat down on the other side of the bar on a stool.

I gave him a long look to see if he was playing around, then gave in. I tossed my jacket and backpack on the floor and made my way over to my brother. It was times like that that I was happy to have him around. Other times, not so much.

"Promise you won't tell dad? I did something really stupid." I held my pinky out for him to promise with. That was something we always did as kids.

I had a feeling I knew what he was thinking.

"You can't use this as blackmail. It could get me and you both a long lecture," I told him. He knew that if I said that, then he really couldn't. Reese sighed and stuck his hand out, wrapping his pinky around mine.

"Okay, what is it?" He asked in anticipation. He loved seeing me get in trouble, as I did him. I sighed and rubbed the haziness out of my eyes.

"I walked out in front of a car on accident. And the guy barely even stopped! He was such a jerk about it..." I rambled angrily. Reese's jaw fell open.

"Are you stupid?" He deadpanned. I watched as his face turned bright red, like it did when he went into overprotective-brother-mode. I didn't know how to respond to his outburst. "Or blind, or so you just not know how to walk?" He went on, arms flailing. I frowned at him. Is this what I looked like when I got mad? Even when he was angry and moving his mouth from his words, the dimples in his cheeks made an appearance.

"I didn't mean to! Gosh, it was an accident!" I stood up and crossed my arms over my chest. This kid really knew how to push my buttons.

"Jasey, you don't just randomly walk out in the middle of the road without even glancing at either side," he scolded me.

"I wasn't watching where I was going, I know," I snapped at him.

He shook his head disapprovingly. "Why not?"

"I don't think I have to answer to you. You're not my parent." I scowled at him and pushed his bare chest to make him fall backwards. He only stepped back a step, still towering over me.

"Well dad is, and I don't think he'd like to hear this," he said with all seriousness. I turned back around to look at him in his bright hazel eyes that were much like mine.

"Why are you freaking out about this so much? I didn't get hurt, it's fine," I said a little more quietly. I never expected a boy as reckless as Reese to lecture me on looking both ways before crossing the road. I could put money on the bet that said he'd done it before, too.

"Because, Jasey," was all he said to me before turning and waltzing to his room to ignore the world for the rest of the night.

"Wait, where's dad?" I asked Reese before he disappeared completely.

"He had to stay out tonight," he murmured.

Hanging my head low, I scampered down the hardwood floors to my bedroom in the same hallway as my dad's and brother's. After grabbing my clothes for a shower, I hurried to the bathroom to get my nice, hot shower. Then I remembered the conversation Amanda I had, and it slipped my mind once again.

*****

"What do you mean you almost got ran over?!" Lilly squealed as her eyes darted from me to the road.

I let her drive this morning so we could get to school faster and so I wouldn't have to hear Reese complain. He was such a whiny baby sometimes.

"That's what I thought. How stupid could she be?" Reese butted in, shaking his head disapprovingly. As usual, he was sitting in the middle seat of the back. He had his arms crossed childishly and his seatbelt holding him in the seat.

"I didn't mean to! I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking. Sorry I'm not perfect like you, Reese." I grumbled, leaning back in my seat. My curled hair bounced around my face.

"I'm not perfect. But I wouldn't just walk right in front of somebody, especially if they were driving a car," he stressed. "I think Lilly deserves an apology from me, you, my friend, are the real blonde."

"Can we drop it? I'm still here, uninjured, so let's shut up about it, okay?" I said as I kept my eyes straight ahead.

"Fine. But we are discussing this later, okay? I want to know who the dude was that almost killed my best friend." She bit her bottom lip to keep from cursing.

"Sure, sure." I nodded my head and waved her off. Lilly pulled my little silver Buick into the parking lot and parked it close to the school. As we got out, one thing caught my eye; a dark blue Camaro. It was the car that almost killed me.

Once we entered the school, Reese leading the way, we all went down the same hall to our lockers. Lilly was close by since her last name wasn't far from mine. Sadly, Reese was right beside me.

"Can you please stop telling people about that? It was completely an accident and I know I should have been watching where I was going," I begged him. I was just tired of hearing about it. He grabbed a rough-looking binder from his locker and shoved it in his backpack.

"Look, Jasey. I know we fight all the time and whatnot, but that doesn't mean that I'm not gonna care when you do something stupid. Usually it's me doing to stupid stuff." We both chuckled at that because it was true - usually I was the one in his position and he was in mine.

"Well, thank you for caring," I told him honestly and gratefully. Before he could protest, I stood on my tippy toes and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Best brother award goes to..." I started to say just as I felt something wet in my ear. I squealed and cringed away from Reese as fast as I could, slapping his hand in the process.

He just gave me a wet-willy! Of course he did. Way to ruin the sibling moment.

"Grant," I said our older brother's name, "it definitely goes to Grant." I smacked Reese's shoulder one more time before walking off down the hallway and away from his cheesy grin.

That's when I got the first glimpse of him. I didn't know who he was, but for some reason, I happened to be the one to have eye contact with him. He had dark, very dark, brown eyes, disheveled brown hair, and he was the most gorgeous boy I'd ever laid eyes on.

It felt like we were the only two people in the hallway having a moment like they do in movies. He never smiled once. I finally realized I was staring and that I had stopped walking. With a jolt of surprise, I shook my head away from the mysterious boy and walked to my class. When I craned my neck to look at him one more time, he'd disappeared.

With a disgruntled sigh, I continued walking to class.

I found myself searching for the same mysterious boy that had my heartbeat quicken its pace every time I made eye contact. Which so far, had only been once, yet felt like a million times.

Whenever lunch rolled around, I searched the cafeteria for Lilly. We usually sat at our own table in the back with a few other kids we didn't know very well. When I finally did find her, I almost ran. But then I remembered she'd be asking me about my dilemma I had last night. We didn't have any classes together because the universe hates us.

I had to decide quickly if I wanted to be questioned. But I also wanted to tell her about Mysterious Boy.

"Hey," I said as I sat down across from her.

"Hi. Okay, spill your guts." She leaned on the table and raised her eyebrows in eagerness.

Sighing, I made the decision to get it over with. "I walked out into the middle of the street. On accident, of course." I added. "And the guy gets out and is so rude to me. I yelled back at him and he was just... He woke up on the wrong side of the bed." I shook my head at the memories from last night.

"See? Not much of a story. Now, do you know who the new boy is?" I asked her in hushed tone.

"Um, what new boy?" She asked me as if I was insane.

Just when I was about to describe him, someone sat down one seat away from me. I looked over, eyes wide.

"Him."

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Thank you for reading!

Edited as of 1.21.16