Cara stood over the limp, pale body which lay in prickly grass, under the starless night. Alissa and her boyfriend, Jack, stood next to the silver car which reflected the moonlight. Jack hugged onto Alissa while her body violently shook and streams fell down her dust-stained cheeks. Meanwhile, Nathan clambered out of the car, frantically reaching for a phone from his pocket. This was a scene from nightmares. There were no cars on the road at this time, the night was empty and pin-drop quiet. None of the crew uttered a word to each other. All they could do was stare with widened, innocent eyes at the body that lay in the thick undergrowth and then to their mud-stained shoes. 

The body was skinny, and lay unmoving. Cara reached out a long, thin finger to lift up one of the lanky arms that jutted out from the faded, blue shirt over the body's torso. The arm landed next to the body's torso with the same ease of which it lifted up. Cara let out a high pitched, trill and ran over to join the others next to the car that was only steps away from the wooded forest.

"Oh my God, guys! I'm pretty sure he's dead," Cara huffed. She was a thin, dark-skinned girl with braids that dangled just above her chest. 

"N-n-no fucking way! You all, I was driving that car! If that guy is dead then I killed him!" Alissa screamed so loud, if there were anyone around, they would have surely heard her. Alissa flailed her arms around like a mad-woman and sank to the wet dirt underneath her. Her brown curls fell like a mop around her pale, round face. She was evidently distraught. 

Nathan shoved his phone into the pockets of his jeans and yelled something about there being no cellular service in this area. 

"What are we supposed to do? We can't leave this guy out here by himself. What if he's actually alive," Jack questioned, walking around the car to take a look at the body that lay on the side of the road. It was that of a teenager, someone like them. Probably going for a jog, or lost in the wrong area at the wrong time. Were his parents looking for him? What about his friends? Had they noticed his absence? 

"Okay, let's just put the body in the trunk of the car and take it to the hospital," Cara suggested.

"What if they ask us what happened to him? What will we say?" Jack questioned.

"Then, we'll just tell them that we found this random body on the side of the road and we think he was hit by a car. Anyone have any other ideas, or you all agree?" Cara suggested, motioning for the others to help her drag the body to the trunk of the car. 

The rest of the crew nodded in agreement, most of them too overwhelmed to speak. Cara and Jack grabbed the legs of the body, Alissa held the arms, and Nathan stabled the wobbly head where black, greasy locks dangled. They each rested the part of the body they were holding into the trunk of the car and Nathan slammed the trunk shut gaining a yelp from each of the others, who were startled. 

Jack stumbled into the driver's seat and the car started with a purr. He gripped the wheel so hard that his veins showed through his fleshy fingers, and he drove down the quiet, dark road in search of the nearest hospital. None of them spoke to each other and they all stared out of the windows of the car, looking back at the scene and the dent in the grass where the body lay before they put it in the car. 

+++

The disco lights flashed and the music blared and reverberated off of the school gym's walls. Everyone dressed nicely, girls wore flashy, poofy dresses with high-heels and dramatic makeup looks. The guys wore gelled down hairstyles with black tuxedos, shiny shoes, and flamboyantly colored neck ties. Alissa and Jack playfully danced with one another and Cara and Nathan were talking by the punch bar. All of a sudden, their song came on and the whole crew (Alissa, Nathan, Cara and Jack) went to the middle of the dancefloor and sang their lungs out with every lyric on point.

They all exchanged glances and bursted out of the large, creaky doors of the gym, all chattering about how they were going to miss each other at college, and how much they wished they could spend their whole summers together. 

"I have an idea! ROAD TRIP!" Alissa yelled and giggled while jumping up and down, waiting for the rest of the crew to agree. 

"Yes! Right now! Let's change our clothes and get this show on the road, literally!" Nathan agreed enthusiastically. 

Once they had changed their clothes and ripped out of their dresses and tuxedos, they all eagerly climbed into Alissa's Jeep. They did not care that they were missing the last minutes of their prom, they wanted to be with each other and cherish every second that they had left of each other's company. 

They played music way too loud and cracked open a six pack of bubbly soda, while Alissa drove down the dark roads of the night. None of them knew where they were going and they were too entranced to notice the boy who was on the side of the road. The boy paid little attention to them either. He stuck in his headphones and reached a pale, thin hand up to wipe the sweat off of his brows. 

In an instant, Alissa swerved off to the side of the road where the boy stood. She was too distracted with the music and the chants of the others in the car. Once she heard the thump, Alissa slammed brakes and the Jeep came to an immediate stop while the tires hollered in protest. Alissa and the others were still unsure about what had happened, and they all hopped out of the vehicle, thinking that Alissa had hit a deer or ran over a huge branch.

As they all walked in the front of the car, the headlights blinded them and simultaneously illuminated a teenage boy with greasy black locks. His body was sprawled in front of the car and his legs were bent in an awkward position. The boy's black cap had flown off and was now sitting in a pile of brown mud and shrubbery just at the edge of the forest. 

As soon as they saw the body, everyone who was once in the car were now overtaken by an extreme sense of guilt. The music still blasted in the background, as no one had bothered to turn off the radio. Everyone stared at one another, and rubbed their eyes red, trying to clarify what they had seen. When their vision was confirmed, all of the teenagers let out a shrill scream. 

"What the hell! W-what the hell just happened!" Alissa shrieked.

They were sure they had just murdered someone. 

+++

After about thirty minutes of the crew driving silently, Cara pointed out a building in the distance. It was a hospital. Jack pulled the car into the spacious lot of the cream-colored building that had a medical cross painted in its middle. He sped up near the front of the transparent doors to the hospital and did not even bother to turn off the engine. 

All of them raced out of the car and rushed to the trunk. Everyone helped to pull the body out of the trunk and with their hearts racing, they bursted through the entrance and approached the front desk where a thin nurse stood. They motioned toward the body that they held in their arms and the nurse stared confusedly over her glasses at them.

"W-we found this body on the side of the road! We don't know if he is dead or not, but could you please check his pulse or whatever it is that you need to do?" Nathan screeched, speaking for the whole group.

The nurse pulled out a phone and timidly requested help from the doctors on duty that night. 

"Yeah... There is a body down here in the waiting room. I don't know if the person is alive or not. Come check this out now!"

Pretty soon, the waiting room was a sea of people in white gowns, all rushing to take the person and perform on him. The pale body had now disappeared into one of the operating rooms. Alissa, Jack, Nathan, and Cara all sat in the hard chairs of the hospital, expecting the worst news. They prayed for a miracle. Whoever this boy was, he could not die. 

A few minutes passed, which felt to them like ages. Eventually, a nurse approached the group of anxious teenagers. Alissa, Jack, Nathan, and Cara braced themselves for the worst news. Jack gripped Alissa's hand so hard that her hands turned red beneath his. Cara ferociously gripped the ends of her dress, and Nathan gripped the sides of the hard chair underneath his body. The nurse opened her mouth to speak:

"We tried to save him. Unfortunately, he did not make it."