You'd never really think it'd happen to you.

I spent 17 and a half years watching television, playing video games about disasters. I had always taken somewhat of an interest in this, but I also had a fear in the back of my mind of these. I had a fear that one day someone would come up while I'm sleeping in physics class and shoot me. I had the fear that I'd be sleeping and an earthquake would come and destroy everything I owned. I feared that a car would just come and smash into me, killing me instantly upon impact.

You never really think that those kind of things happen to "real people", though. Those are just things that happen in areas so far away from us. Those kinds of bad things would never happen in our lifetime. I assumed that I'd never have to go through any kind of pain inflicted by the world or by others. I've never had a broken bone, I've never been in the hospital, nobody in my family had ever been majorly sick, and I've never spent any time dancing with death.

That was until the New Year's Eve party.

I didn't really want to go. Neither did my brother. But we had to go, because we were the children and the parents were the parents. My mother and father sat in the front, while my brother and I sat in the back. My dad wasn't the greatest of people, and would often drive erratically to show his dominance, that he would show his children a good time and have fun, even if they didn't want it. He was like a child. He was a portly man, with a chubby face that reeked of child-like style. Not the style that is mostly associated with children, with purity and hope. This was the face of the bully who would call you names because you didn't have the latest toy or were smart. That's exactly what he was, except he filled his bullying with sarcasm and hypocrisy.

My mother, on the other hand, was. . . different. Imagine her as an average 5'6 woman who got sat on (probably by my dad) and is now 4'11'' (and three quarters, according to her), and that would describe her physical stature. She was a caring mother who devoted her entire life to us, but she always had an issue with self-praise. She would do things for us not for our benefit, but rather so we could thank her and tell her that he is the best. She would yell at us if we didn't give any sort of praise to her for doing basic acts. She was a good mother, though. I don't know why she chose to be with my dad, it was pretty stupid.

My brother could have dealt weed if he wanted to. He was eighteen, and always seemed to have a scowl on his face, as well as an untrimmed neckbeard. He could have been in college, but was denied from every school he applied to. He didn't care much, though, he just wanted to get back to DOTA2. That's what his life was. If he wasn't playing it, he would be watching videos about it, learning how to get better and stronger. Somehow he always seemed to have money, though. He WAS the favorite son, since unlike me, my brother took an interest in my dad's business and was more patient with him, so that might be why. Anyways, he was one of the closest people to me that I had known in my life.

Which reminds me. Hi. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Joseph Strickland. As I said, I was the ripe age of seventeen and a half, a senior at Pali High School. If I could describe myself, I was the odd combination of a seemingly normal person and a perverted 4chan browser. I was about 5'10'' at the time and had a pretty average build for my age. My neckbeard was starting to grow, but my chinhair as well as my mustache were fully grown. Apparentley I had some sort of innocence in my generic brown eyes, but I didn't really see it. For some reason, I was oddly popular at school for my sense of humor, but I still took an interest into many things that people would find odd. . .

For instance, ponies. I was a fan of a show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic." My brother had introduced it to me, and, after some time, I took a heavy interest into it. Right now was probably my highest time of interest. My iPhone background was of one of my favorite ponies, Rarity, and I was thinking about the fanfiction I was writing at the time with my ex-girlfriend.

My ex-girlfriend. . . Pauline was her name. She was a great looking woman. She wasn't the "ideal blonde" that everyone thought of, but she was still great. We met on a pony group, and she fell for me and asked me out. Sadly, she was three hours away from me, so it was a struggle to stay together. I put in my all. . . but she broke up with me the day after Christmas. I was never really too sure as to why, but that was just life. That's how people worked relationships. . . or at least people that weren't me, as I fully intended this relationship to be serious and long lasting.

But enough about my life. The car trip. I was dozing off out of boredom. My brother and mother had fallen asleep, and I had no real connection with my dad. Traffic during this time was always pretty high, especially right now at 6PM,. My dad was playing. . . some station, I don't remember, something about politics, which he pretended to be interested in. Anyways, he had completely missed our exit. We hadn't passed it, but the carpool lane was pretty far from our exit, less than a mile away. My dad, desperate to show us a good time, saw an opening that would lead straight to the exit.

Wrong move, dad.

Nobody really even realized it when it happened. But everyone that was sleeping had immediately woken up as they felt our car spin around in circles, crashing into the cement every so often, the boxes of tools that he used clanking and crashing along with the grinding metal. I heard a scream from my mother, a scream that I wish never to hear again in my life. My brother. . . I don't remember, but he was out of his stupid apathy for once. I too, was frightened, and thought about what would happen if this was it. Dammit, I spent thirteen years in school to die right before I graduated. I didn't even want to go to this. I'd rather be online with my friends. But my dad wanted to take us to a party. Nice going, dad.

I looked to my right as we were spinning and noticed the cement heading closer and closer to me. We had stopped spinning, and at this point, it was the final impact. I could see the broken glass going closer and closer to me. I always had a fear of getting broken glass in my eye. It came closer and closer. . . too clo-

Darkness.

"Hey, get someone quick! There's someone lying here!"