CIRCE - THE PAST
Receiving a text from Kiresa that they were on the way over, I was anxious, nervous, and excitedly prepared to say the least. Moving to the sundeck of my room where the door opens up to the grounds, I gather my clutch, phone, and a lip gloss, in case I need to repair my look throughout the evening. As I’m stepping out, my phone rings. It’s my mother.
“Hello?” I don’t know if she can hear my trepidation or fear, but I hope to hell I don’t garner any attention. I don’t want her to feel she needs to visit my side of the house.
“Darling. Your father and I have talked again about the circumstances from today…” She pauses. As she paces back and forth, I can hear her heels clicking on the Italian tiles in her room. “I’m sorry you feel we aren’t giving you a fair shot at living your teenage life. Your studies and lessons must come first if you are to receive any Olympic invitations.”
She’s probably had an in-depth conversation with my father about allowing me to go, and his answer never changed. She’s the softer of the two. I can usually count on her siding with me, and I’d really hoped she would. Unfortunately, I think she agreed wholeheartedly with him.
“I get it, Mom. If I want to be the best, I need to give the best I have. It just sucks I have to give up being independent and adventurous at the same time.” I slowly close the doors of my patio, exiting into the moonlit night. “Don’t worry about me. I have to get up extra early anyway. Meme wants me at the rink at five am. I probably won’t see you until after lessons.”
She’s stopped moving, probably sitting in her favorite lounger off her en suite. “I love you, Circe. I just want the best for you. Taking the high road instead of arguing the point further shows your character. I’m proud of you.”
Fuck. Way to make me feel worse about what I’m doing. “I know, Mom. I’m gonna go, okay?” Closing the door, it clicks silently.
“Night, Circe. I love you.”
“I love you too.” Hanging up the line, placing my phone in my clutch, I feel like a horrible daughter.
Moving down the side of the house and hopping into the waiting car, Kiresa is first to pipe up. “Your parents said no. And you, Circe, are still doing it?”
“I really need you to start the car before security notices something.”
“Circe, you never defy your parents,” Shelby says over her shoulder as we drive down the long winding road toward the city.
“I defy them. I just do it in my own way.”
“You kill them with kindness? Or is it that silence is golden?” Kiresa’s smirk is gleeful.
“You know it’s going to cost you, right?” Shelby pipes in, bringing the car to a stop at the light. Turning on her blinker, we wait for the red light to change. Turning, she glares at me with that knowing smirk, the one that tells me not only will I pay for this from them, but also because I defied my parents. She now knows she can make me do it on a whim with a wink, a nudge, and a pretty dress.
“Yes. I know you’re going to use this as ammo for the next time you get me to break the rules.” Picturing the next insane act of defiance that she’ll think up, I shake my head and smile. Bungee jumping? Sky diving? Maybe racing. Or she’ll have me speed dating with older men. This could be dangerous.
“Shel, light’s green.” We head down the freeway toward the hotel.
“I can’t be out past twelve or I’ll be a wreck for tomorrow’s training. If I can’t land that quad again, I won’t be off the ice until I’m an old hag.” As they both laugh, giving me no answer about the curfew, I know this will be a dangerous night. I’m not entirely sure if it’s because they doubt I’ll be on time, or if they think it’s funny I’m setting us one. Either way, I hope they take me seriously.
There’s a ton of traffic tonight on the freeway as we hop on the express toward Venice Beach. One of the girls, Joanie so-and-so, her parents own this massive hotel. They gave her the run of the high-end palace for the weekend, and I can see danger looming in the near future for many. Probably a police officer or two as well.
“BTW, Circe. I did tell you that dress was vintage, right?” Kiresa informs me.
“Vintage, huh? I didn’t know that.” I smile weakly.
Shelby merges into the next lane like a boss, making it look so easy. I envy her. I haven’t even had a chance to drive. Skating has taken up too much time to allow me any moments behind the wheel.
“Circe, can you pass me my lip gloss? It’s in my bag on the seat beside you.” Deciding when I got in to sit in the middle, I reach into her clutch and pull out the gloss. The last thing I wanted to do was wrinkle the dress with the chest seatbelt. Leaning forward to be within their conversations, I hand up the small tube.
That’s when there’s an ear-splitting shriek and a peeling noise, like metal being pulled apart. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. As the sky falls, the ground comes up to greet me. My head bounces off the seat where my friends are. I feel like a pinball. It’s jolting and jarring as my teeth rattle against each other, causing me to nip my cheeks numerous times before I pass out.
Coming to, I find it hard to comprehend the carnage. Shelby’s head sits at an unnatural angle against the dash, lying by the radio. A song pipes through the speakers still, wailing about a party. Blood slicks the screen and debris surrounds us. Kiresa is leaning against the bare ground. Her window is shattered into a thousand pieces as blood pools around her tangled and dirty platinum hair. Seeing her body hung up in the window frame as we lay sideways in Shelby’s mangled Mercedes, I know this isn’t good.
I move. I need to make sure my friends are alive.
“Shelby, can you hear me? Kiresa?” Neither answer. Not a moan, not a groan. Nothing.
I try to remove my seatbelt, but it won’t budge. It’s stuck. With my face pushed up against the seat tightly, I lean in to reach Kiresa. Hanging sideways, pulling myself forward on her seat, she’s far enough away I can only just reach her. Feeling for a pulse, I expect movement on her skin, but there’s none.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
There’s no chance Shelby’s alive, not with her head at that angle, but I feel for her pulse anyway. She’s like loose rubber, bendy and soft. Touching her neck gently, near the spine, it’s crunchy feeling. Both of them are dead, I know it.
“Hello? Are you okay in there?” I hear someone call out. They’re not right beside the car, but they’re close.
“In here!” Yelling back, my voice cracks as I begin to cry.
There’s scrambling against the underside of the car, like someone’s trying to scale their way to my door. A man, about twenty years old or so, peers through the top of the smashed window.
With a smile, he looks down at the girls. “How are you? How are your friends?” he asks as he tries to hold onto the door and open it at the same time, breathing heavily.
Sighing, I can’t say it yet. If I answer that they’re dead, then it becomes true. “My ears are ringing and my head hurts.” I yank on the edge of my strap. “And my belt’s stuck.”
“Hold still,” he says. “Let me get the door open.” Jerking hard, he yanks on the door until it swings free, upward and away.
“Let me see if I can get you out, then we’ll get your friends.”
Leaning in, so that his body hangs upside down inside, he’s suspended by his torso. “I’m Jack. And you are?” A wicked grin paints his features.
“Circe.” I’m trying to work the buckle, but it won’t budge.
“Well, Circe. Let’s see if we can’t get you free. Move your hand away from the side. I’m going to cut the strap.” Scooching my butt over a bit, gravity pulls my body away from the seat belt strap. Pulling out a tool, Jack runs it along the belt a few times until I hear a pop, and feel a lack of tension.
“Can you move, Circe? I’d hate to see you stuck after all this work.” He winks. Like, actually winks, then smiles once more. It’s an electric grin.
“Are you hitting on me while trying to play the hero, Jack?”
“Nope.” Again with that smile. “I’m just trying to occupy your mind. You need to keep calm, and if a smile does it, I’ll keep doing it,” he grunts. “Hold on a second, okay? I’m just turning around.”
Jack disappears, and as I feel the car shift, his feet appear. Dangling close to where my face is, perching himself, he holds onto the edge of the driver’s seat for support. “Okay, Circe. When I say I need you to let go of the seat, wiggle your legs. We’ll get you out of here so we can look after your friends, all right?” Nodding, I reach for his hands, one at a time.
“Here we go,” he says, very controlled. “On the count of three, I’m going to pull you up. I need you to use your feet to rise. Use the back of the seat as a ledge to lift yourself up.” He leans forward until I can grip his hands tightly.
“One. Two.” I prep myself for the jolt when he pulls. “Three.” I lift my left leg to rest it on the headrest.
“That’s good, Circe. Now, the other leg.” I look down to my feet and where I need to put my other leg. It’s right by Kiresa’s head, or rather, where Kiresa’s head should be. She should be leaning on the headrest, laughing, joking, smiling at me, and winking at this good looking older guy helping us.
Taking a deep breath, pulling in my courage, I attempt to lift my right leg. It doesn’t move.
“Circe, I need you to put that other leg up. Can you put it up there, please?”
“I—I can’t, Jack. I can’t seem to lift my leg.” My voice sounds shaky and warbled.
That’s when I freak out. Like, truly, fully, unbelievably freak out. My pulse is racing. My heart feels like it will jackhammer out of my chest, and I can’t move my right leg.
“Circe, I need you to stay with me. Work with me. We’ll get you out of here, okay? Help me with getting you out.” Jack sees the panic and fear in my face as he’s trying to keep me upright. If I fall now, I’ll be against the window frame, lying in a pool of Kiresa’s blood with shards of broken glass.
“Look, there’s no turning back.” Jack's voice is very commanding, and he makes me turn to him. “I’ll pull you up, but you have to help by lifting as well. I can’t do it all.”
Breathing deep, I look up at Jack’s cool, calm, greyish eyes to answer. “Okay, let’s go.”
Nodding, he pulls me up. As I lift off from the headrest with my left, together we pull me out the open door. Other people have now gathered. They too are helping lift me out of the wreckage, laying me on the ground below.
A makeshift pallet has been setup with a grey blanket someone has placed on the pavement, along with a first aid kit and flares that are lit on either side of the car. People are scrambling everywhere, panicked. With help, I sit down on the blanket, stretching out my right leg. The bone is broken right above my knee, causing it to rest abnormally. There’s no feeling in it. Either shock or adrenaline is rushing through me, as I’m numb to the pain.
Watching Jack disappear a few more times into the car to check on Shelby and Kiresa, he’ll find exactly what I already know, and it frightens me.
Why am I alive?
Pulling up a seat beside me on the ground, the sullen face of Jack makes it apparent. Everything is different now. I take a look around at the carnage, and the shocked and scared faces that surround me. I don’t know what’s going on, and I was there. Some even ignore me, hopping back into their cars as they try to erase the pall of death they’ve just viewed. Losing two friends...I can’t erase that.
The cops will call Shelby and Kiresa’s parents, telling them about the accident and their deaths, all as I’ll be on the way to a hospital, without my parents knowing I was even out.
OH.MY.GOD! My parents have no idea I’m here. They’ll get a call in the middle of the night that their daughter was in an accident, that someone died. They’re going to freak.
“Um, Jack? Do you have a phone I can use to call my parents?” Turning, he reaches into his pocket and hands me his cell.
Dialling, it rings a few times before the first click.
“John Matcheson, speaking…Hello? Who is this?” He sounds groggy. He must have been asleep.
“Daddy, it’s me.” Tears start to flow down my cheeks.
“Circe?”
“Yeah. I, um, I need your help.”
“I don’t understand? Whose phone are you calling from?” He sounds perturbed.
“I’ve been in an accident with Shelby and Kiresa.” No matter the outcome, I know this won’t go well. My parents will be so upset, so disappointed in me.
“Circe. It’s ten thirty. Where are you, sweetheart?”
“We were on the Interstate, and I’m just waiting on the ambulance to package me up.”
His voice is tight, stern, and fearful. “What hospital are they taking you to?” Weighing heavy in the pit of my stomach, I feel the dread of it in his voice. My father’s not afraid of anything.
Pulling the phone away, I turn to Jack. “What hospital will they be taking me to?”
“UCLA, I believe.”
Placing the phone back to my ear, I hear my father’s reply. “I heard him, dear. Your mother and I will meet you there shortly.” There’s a pause on the line before he speaks. “Are you safe for now, Circe?”
“Yes.” I pull the rough blanket closer to my chest. It’s a warm night, but I feel chilled. Death walked across my soul.
“We’ll see you shortly.” With that, my father hangs up.
I pass it back to Jack. “Thanks for that. Actually, thank you for everything, Jack.” Trying to smile only starts a heavy round of tears.