It’s around 12 p.m., a hot noon and an abnormally tall figure is sitting under a tree eating his freshly made bacon sandwich. Suddenly he hears a phone ringing. Realizing that it’s his own, the guy picks it up. “Hello, you’re speaking with Louis Boeckx, what can I do for you?” he says. “Hey Louis, guess who just passed his driving test?” half-yells the voice on the other side. He recognizes the voice as his; smaller, a little chubbier built but dear friend Andrean Dimitrov, Andy for short. “Well, I’ll take a guess, was it your mom by any chance?” I say in a joking manner. The first thing I hear is a loud screech, followed by the voice of an older guy saying that shouting is not allowed there. “Did you have to do that?” Andy says after apologizing to the older guy. “Well considering the odds of you failing, yes.” I state. “Come on man” he murmurs. “Don’t worry I’m just joking man, good job on getting your license.” I announce.

“Thanks, so now could I ask you something?” Andy asks. “Yeah of course, what is it?” I reply. “Could you come pick me up please? I really want to get my license verified so I can drive legally.” Andy said and you could hear the excitement in his voice. I put my hands in my pockets and find my car keys. “Yeah, I’ll come and pick you up and bring you where you need to be, as long as we can bring Cristian along so we can go and celebrate your birthday.” I state. “Errr, I wanted to go to the pub anyway.” Andy says. “Alright text me where you are, and I’ll come to you.” I announce. I end the call at that and not too long after that I get his location. I step in my car and turn on the ignition. “Man, that never gets old, does it?” I murmur to myself. Before I do anything, I check if I have everything: a bag of cookies, a pack of condoms in case Andy decides that he’s found a potential girlfriend and 3 chargers for our different phones.

I get my Sat Nav and get his location, the driving school of Olen. I take off and after about 15 minutes I’m there to pick him up. “Took you long enough.” Andy exclaims with a pouting face. “Only fifteen minutes and 23 seconds. If that’s too long for you then you can ask your mom to pick you up.” I state, while being a little frustrated. He gets in the car and takes the front seat next to mine. “Next destination Township Olen, correct?” I ask in a joking manner. “Yes of course my man and after that I’ll drive us to Cristian’s place.” says Andy with a smile from ear to ear. “No, you won’t.” I say while I start the engine again.

“But why?” Andy murmurs with a bit more sadness than usual. “This car was a birthday present from my grandfather, I’m not letting you drive it off a cliff.” I declare. “Okay.” he says. The rest of the drive there is a long silence. After an 11-minute drive we finally arrive at Cristian’s place. Andy gets out of the car, rings the bell of the house, talks to Cristian and about five minutes later the car is loaded with a driver that almost reaches the ceiling, a gremlin-like human, and a chubbier human-gremlin.

“Happy birthday Andy! Now let’s go and get some beer in a pub with some ladies.” Cristian screams, at his usual way too loud volume. “Did you forget you’re not allowed to drink or are you trying to get us into trouble?” I ask. “Let me please have one Louis, come on, it is Andy’s birthday. Just one and I’ll stop, I swear!” begs Cristian. I start driving and begin to get frustrated about this guy who has already consumed more alcohol than I have in my entire life and say one word: “No.” Cristian stays silent for 2 seconds and starts ranting again.

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We finally arrive at the pub, and it takes not too long until we start drinking. And with us I mean that Andy drinks beer until he gets drunk, I only drink a glass of chocolate milk and I order for Cristian, a glass of water. This was my fatal mistake. Andy was drunk after his 5th beer and Cristian went along. After a few minutes they were singing happy birthday with ten random dudes who happened to be drunk as well. I meanwhile began writing a book, not a novel bringing light to the philosophical questions surrounding our system of justice.

At 10 p.m. I decided I wanted to collect the 2 drunk people and go home. I slowly walk up to Andy. He’s sat on a chair so he’s about the same height as me. “Hey Andy, I think it’s time to get going…” I try to tell him. He swings around and smacks my head with a bottle of beer. I faint because of the blow.

I wake up in the back of my car. I slowly sit up right, and I see Andy at the steering wheel with Cristian asleep next to him. “Andy you’re drunk, pull over so I can start driving us home.” I calmly state because I don’t want to startle him into driving us off the road. Now that I look around where are we? All I can see is that we’re taking sharp turns up to a mountain. “No Louis, I’m bringing you to the nearest hospital. It’s just up this cliff.” Andy responds as calm as ever. I check my phone to see that its 11:23 p.m. Then I check my location and see we’re somewhere in Germany. “And how did you get here Andy?” I ask him. “Oh, I don’t know, I’m just following the road.” Andy states. “But don’t worry we’re almost there we just have to nail this turn…” As he says that he turns left instead of right, and we pummel to the ground. The only thing I can see is my friends and me pummeling to what will probably our final destination, as I begin to feel really dizzy.

I wake up. I smell blood. I can taste it. My vision. It’s blurry. I can’t focus. I close my eyes and try to open them again. This time I can see well. My glasses are completely broken, so I take them off. I try to get up again, but it won’t work. I see that my phone lies next to me. I pick it up and check the time. It’s almost midnight. I look up and try to get up again. Still doesn’t work. I have to see if those idiots are okay. I try again. I’m getting up. I begin to feel more pain from moving. I’m up. I’m up. I drag my bloodred body over to the driver’s seat. Andy’s head is gone. I look and his head lies on his lap.

It’s full of blood and glass shards all into his face. His eyes are still open. I try to get the shards of glass out and see the damage that they have done. I can’t get the shards out. Out of desperation I pull as hard as I can with the strength I have left. The shards made it out… But his eyes as well. I decide to move along to Cristian. His face is still asleep. Maybe he’s alive. But then I see the numerous shards in his arms and chest. I put my hand on his heart and feel nothing. I finally break down. I just let the tears take over. I begin to feel dizzy. I don’t care. I just let my friends die. I begin to fall unconscious, I want to say one more thing, not many things but I don’t have the strength to. All I just can do is wait for the sweet embrace of death. I can feel it moving its way up. I just close my eyes.

All I see is black...

Then white…?

Is this what dying feels like……?

I can hear a voice.

“Took you long enough man…”