Chapter 2: Two Collisions

Mason rushes through the hospital’s halls and into the patient’s room where he is told his best friend has been put in. After he heard about the car wreck this evening, he feared the worst and dropped everything to get here ASAP. Unfortunately, Lucas’s father and uncle were already there. CEO and head director, the brothers were twins but because David was born first, Davis will never get to be the CEO.

David looks surprised to see Mason race into the room like a bolt of lightning but his surprise switches into aggression quickly when he finally has somebody he can interrogate. “Did he go see that woman after I told him not to?”

There was an intimidating edge in David’s voice. He was extremely worried about his son but he expressed it in the worst way possible. Mason looks behind David and at his friend who is still unconscious on the bed. His heart twists with worry but he does his best to remain focused. He finally looks at his boss. “From what he told me, yes… but by the sounds of it, he crashed before he could get there.” 

David scowls and looks back down at his unconscious son. Behind the anger, there was a worry so deep that it was breaking his heart. He was already a widower, he couldn’t bear to lose his only child too. Davis puts his hand on his brother’s back. “It’ll be alright. I’m sure he’ll wake up soon.”

The CEO gives a small nod and takes in a deep inhale as if trying to suck in his tears. He then turns back to his son’s best friend. “Mr. Miller.”

Mason squares his shoulders, prepared for his boss’s words, but before anything can be said, they hear a pained groan behind them. Everyone spins around, shocked to see Lucas sit up.

“LUCAS!” David hugs his son tightly, almost leaping at him. Mason lets out a deep sigh in relief meaning Davis says nothing. 

“Who…?” Lucas mumbles confusedly and David leans back right as he speaks again. “Who’re you?”

Everyone’s emotions that had gone from worried, to shocked, then relieved, quickly plummeted into tension. David looked especially startled.

“I’m your father, Lucas… you’ve been in a car crash. Do you remember what happened?” His father asked concernedly but Lucas just looked at us one at a time perplexedly, the look on his face gave them his answer.

“It must be amnesia,” Davis murmurs worriedly.

“I’ll go get a doctor!” Mason bolts out of the room as quickly as he runs in and glances over his shoulder one last time at his confused friend. The look on his face was worrying. Does he have amnesia? How bad is it? Will he ever recover? And what happens now?

At the exact time Lucas’s car flips, Aria is still standing outside the venue, waiting for him. Eventually, the concert starts and she has no choice but to go inside and get ready to sing on stage. But even as the Songbird sings, she still keeps her eyes peeled for that familiar face but she never sees him. As the concert starts to come to an end, it becomes clear that Lucas isn’t coming. 

During the last song that’s being played on stage, Aria and her band sit at the bar and drink. Aria has never been much of a drinker, even if she was down in the dumps.

“I wouldn’t dig too deep, Aria. He’s the heir CEO of the Augustine Company! Someone like him must have piles of work.” Chris tries to comfort his friend.

“He seemed to like you last night. I highly doubt he stood you up. As Chris said, time probably got in the way.” Noah adds in.

“Ahh, who cares? You always got us, Birdie!” Mandy jokes while chewing on more blue gum as she wraps an arm around Aria’s shoulders.

Aria smiles gratefully at her bandmates. “Thanks, guys… you’re the best.” 

“Of course we are!” Mandy gives Aria a little kiss on the cheek before standing up. “Sorry to ditch the party so soon but I got somewhere I need to be. I’ll see you guys later.” 

“See ya, Mandy!” Chris calls after her. 

Aria smiles as she watches her go, being around Mandy always cheered her up. Their attention is grabbed and shoved into a sour situation as a familiar voice sits next to Aria. Of course, no surprise, it was Roxanne.

“Aria! I heard what happened. Are you ok, doll?” The redhead asks kindly. If it wasn’t for the fact they all knew she was a snake, they would’ve believed she truly cared about Aria.

Aria gives a little shrug and looks away. “I’ve… been better. But it’s nothing. I’m fine.” The pretty woman says two words that she says too often, making Noah and Chris frown worriedly. 

Roxanne gently rubs Aria’s back. “I know the feeling. Falling for a man that you thought was love at first sight but then it turns out to be a fling. It’ll be alright, he probably wasn’t worth your time anyway.” Though they were fake words of sympathy, they still made Aria feel even worse when she used the word ‘fling’.

“How about I buy you a drink?” Roxanne asks while summoning the bartender with a wave of her hand.

“N- no thanks, I already had a drink.” Aria declines her offer with a raise of her glass. Roxanne snorts when she sees the kind of drink that Aria had bought before the glass became empty.

“Seriously?! That’s mostly juice! C’mon, one more can’t hurt for the road, right? Well, not enough where we’ll get a DUI.” Roxanne laughs at her joke that neither Aira, Chris, or Noah found funny.

Aria heaves a sigh. “Alright, alright… one more. But the same thing only.”

“Well, aren’t you no fun? Fine, fine, you deserve it after tonight. Here, a toast.” Roxanne lifts her drink as the bartender hands out hers and Aria’s. “To brighter futures!”

Aria finally cracks a smile. “To brighter futures.” She says before softly clacking her glass against Roxanne’s. Chris chimes in with something smart while Noah gives a sarcastic comment and Aria laughs at them for being silly. As the three conversed, Roxanne took that split second to slip some tasteless powder into Aria’s drink and it dissolved so fast that nobody could tell that anything was in it. And within a few seconds later, Aria finishes her drink. Roxanne smiles. 

“Well, the night is nigh and I have a hot date so see you guys later!” Roxanne chirps as she suddenly leaves.

“Good riddance,” Chris grumbles.

“Be nice!” Aria couldn’t help but giggle at his grumpiness. 

The group of three spends a little more time together before they part ways with affectionate goodbyes. As Aria gets into her car, her body becomes dizzy and her vision slightly blurry but she thinks nothing of it at the time because her mind still rotates around Lucas and why he didn’t come to her concert tonight. 

What her friends said about him had to have been right. There’s no way he’s the same Lucas from back in the day when he used to bully and haze her endlessly, right? He seemed changed but she was also so naive that it was hard for her to decide what was the real truth. 

Her thoughts buzzing in fear of being stood up and being drunker than she should be, she starts up her car and drives off. Her vision only gets more blurred to the point she’s swerving back and forth between the lanes. Her unsteady drive made her phone slip out of her purse and onto the floor of the passenger’s seat. Aria was worried that Lucas may try to call or text her, or somebody important in general, so she leaned over to try to pick up her phone without thinking. And right as she turns her head away from the road, she feels her car hit something solid followed by a human scream. It makes Aria jerk her wheel to the side and slam on her brakes, almost making her car flip in the process.

Aria struggles to catch her breath as she tries to register what has just happened. She had run into something and it screamed. She hopes so deeply that it was just a wild animal that she ran over but the moment she opens up her bloodied door, she sees a familiar pack of blue bubblegum. Aria’s heart begins to pound in fear and then devastation as her gaze follows the blood trail that leads straight to the body of the life she just took.

Mandy.