**[Flashbacks will be in bold]**

You have to lose yourself in order to find yourself.

My friends were taking that saying way to literally. Olivia was whispering furiously to James, who sat in the Captains seat. They found the map, and were trying to find out where we were.

If there’s one thing I can say about them, they do not work well under stress. Sadie was biting her nails as she kept reloading the screen on her phone.

“It’s not gonna work,” Austin said. He was sitting beside her, looking tired. He had driven the first couple of hours and passed out as soon as James took over. He must not have gotten enough sleep.

I didn’t either.

I tuned out their bantering and looked towards the front of the car. The Andersons were up front, looking over at a large map on the dash board.

Apparently, James didn’t have his eyes on the road because a horn blared in front of us.

“Look out!” I yelled. James jerked and turned back forward. “Shit!” He swerved the wheel to the right and got back in our lane.

Zephyr and Austin had stopped talking, and Heidi came out of the bathroom looking shocked.

“What. Was. That?” Heidi squeaked out. She stumbled over to her seat and we all heard the click of her seatbelt. I couldn’t answer. All I could think about was the night my mom died.

**It was a normal fight with my mom. I was being a brat. I know that now. **

**“I don’t want to go to some ****_stupid_**** family reunion!” I shouted. I huffed and leaned against the door. The only thing going through my mind was my friend party. **

**My mom sighed. “Sweetie, we have to go. Your grandmother wants to see you.” She really went there. My eighty year old grandmother lived in Georgia. It was almost and entire days drive. Let’s just say that we didn’t see her a lot. **

**I groaned and dropped my head. “I don’t care about seeing those assholes. They hate us anyways. This is the first party Heidi’s mom is let her have. I want to go to that.” There wasn’t any changing my mind. **

**“Emerson Elizabeth Moore! Langauge! You may not like it or them, but we are going and thats fi—“ A loud honk cut her off. Seconds before the truck slammed into us. **

I remember jerking forwards in my seat. My seat belt locking. My head snapped back. It was painful. I got a concussion. The doctors kept me in the hospital for a week. They said it was ‘just in case’.

I was vaguely aware of someone shaking my shoulder. My gaze focused and I could see James standing in front of me. Olivia was hovering over his shoulder and she looked concerned.

I shook my head to clear it. “I’m fine.” I was not fine. Cars still scared the hell outta me.

“You’re not fine. You’re crying.” He cupped my cheek and brushed his thumb under my eye. It came away glistening with tears. I gently pushed him away and stood up. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Damn. That was just great. All of my friends were staring at me while trying to make it look like they weren’t. “I’m gonna go lay down,” I said. I didn’t want to be here anymore. I ignored James’ hurt look and walked towards the bedrooms.

I collapsed onto one of the bunks as soon as I entered the room. I heard footsteps and looked up to see Liv. Tears flooded my eyes again.

“Oh, Emmy.” She came over and pulled me into a hug. I cried into her shoulder for a long time. At least until we felt the tire deflate with a loud _pop!_

[Hey! Hope you’ve had a great day. Should I do a part three?? 🩵]