I slipped on some warm boots, a black v-neck shirt, a grey sweatshirt and red sweatpants. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and grabbed Joey's car keys. Before I leave, I remember to bring the vlogging camera.
"Bye, Joe." I whisper and close the door to Joey's room. I exit the apartment and see the wild wind and rain outside the window and hear distant thunder.
I take out my phone and call Ingrid.
"Hello?" a happy voice says.
"Hey! It's Aria, can I go hang out at your place for a while? Joey's asleep and I'm insanely bored."
"Yeah of course! But I'm at Luke's right now watching some Dexter, come on and join us," Ingrid replies.
"Thanks, I'm on my way!" I say.
"Ok bye," Ingrid hangs up.
The halls are empty and I patiently wait for the elevator. I pull out the camera from my sweatshirt pocket and press record.
"Hello! Joey's sleeping right now and I'm going to Luke's right now to hang out with him and Ingrid. Total third wheeling, I know." I enter the elevator. "But what choice do I have??" I say, exaggerating. "I'm really happy with the feedback on the explanation video. I really appreciate all of you guys that understand, the past couple of months have been really crazy. We just didn't want to document everything. Sorry that we had to lie about some things. I just want to thank you for understanding, ok?" I smile, feeling a bit odd smiling to a camera by myself in an elevator. "Ok. Bye." and I stop recording.
I stop at the front door. Crap. I didn't bring an umbrella. I shove the camera and my phone deep into the pocket of my sweatshirt and cover them with my hands. I push the door open with my back and sprint through the pouring rain. I fumble through the cold rain, stumbling every now and then.
I finally reach Joey's car and quickly jump inside. My hair's soaked, my clothes cold and wet. My clothes barely got a splash of water, but my hair was drenched. I pull out the ponytail and wring my hair out. I check the camera and my phone. They're safe and sound.
I look in the mirror and I look ridiculous. My hair is tangled and messy, how it usually is when it's wet. Perfect tweeting time to share with my very minimal followers.
I take out my phone and snap a picture of myself with a dramatic sad face on similar to the D: face. I tweet it saying "Just got soaked in the rain!".
I start the car and try to figure out how to work the heater, I'm freezing cold. Once I get it working, a notification noise catches my attention. I check my phone and it's a reply on twitter from a person I have never heard of before. Weird. A few seconds later and another reply.
"Lol!"
"Aww! That sucks!"
"Don't catch a cold!"
After 2 minutes, 50 people have replied to my tweet. That's really weird, considering I only have 12 followers. I check my profile again, and I gawk at the numbers. 990 people are following me. What???
Then I realize. Oh. Joey must have linked my twitter or something.
I finally get on the road and start driving to Echo Base.
I let my mind drift away. From thoughts about Joey, to my opinion on Taylor Swift's new song.
I'm deep into my mind, barely paying attention to the road. The streets are pretty empty. The storm still rages on, thunder and lightning becoming more frequent.
I'm thinking about Joey's fans when a see a huge flash of light burst in front of me. A hear a huge ear-splitting noise and I scream as I slam the breaks. The car screeches to a halt and I see what happened. A huge fire is in the middle of the street. Lightning must have struck here. Right in front of me. If I had driven a bit faster, I would have been dead.
I start hyperventilating. I almost died. I. Almost. Died. I start crying involuntarily. I look around on the streets. The people inside their houses come out, wanting to know what made that horrible noise. I quickly back away from the fire. A police car pulls up next to me. He rolls the window down.
"What happened?" he yells over the loud crackle of fire and the rain.
"Lightning- struck, and it- fire," I stutter, still scared to the bone.
"Are you ok?" The officer asks.
I nod.
"You can go now," he says and I slowly drive away.
I hear more firefighters and police cars pull up in the street behind me. I try to ignore them and concentrate on the road with my blurred vision. I blink away tears and park on the side of the street.
I quickly dial Joey's number. "C'mon...pick up pick up pick up..." I whisper.
"Hello?" a sleepy voice says after 5 rings.
"Joey! I almost died right now, I don't know what to do, I'm so scared-" I start sobbing.
"Wait, what!" Joey sounds more alert. "What happened??"
"I was just driving and lightning struck in front me on the street. Right in front of me. If I had driven a bit faster, I'd be dead," I sputter.
"Are you ok?!" Joey says.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit scared." I finally calm myself down.
"Oh my god, are you sure you don't want to come home?" Joey asks.
"Yeah I'll be ok." I assure.
"Ok, just be careful. Be safe."
"I will. Bye," and I hang up.
This would be great to vlog. I turn on the car light and start recording.
"You will not believe what just happened. Lightning just struck right in front of me. RIGHT in front of me. If I had driven faster, I would have died. I was so close to death." I sniffle. "Sorry for crying, this is just so crazy. I almost died. I already called Joey, and I feel a bit better. Let me see if I can record the fire," I drive forward towards the street where the lightning struck. There's a huge mess of firefighters and police cars. I film all of it. "Look how crazy it is..." I film myself again. "Alright. Just wanted to let you know that.. That happened. Alright bye."
I shut the camera off and drive as quickly as I can to Echo Base.
