Yesterday I sent $609 to my Dad's Paypal account. It was the last payment I would ever have to give to my parents for lending me $936 to repair the extensive car damages I caused...
Flash back to the beginning of March, I crashed the left rear side of my best friend's car.
My best friend Elia was heading out of town for a few days and she lent me her car that she always kept on campus– a bright blue Toyota Corolla in mediocre condition. She smelled like cigs and ran a little funky, but she drove like a champ. I remember when Elia handed me the keys I felt amazing, like i could do or go anywhere in the whole wide world. Our college town was simple, with one bar, one post office, and one movie theater. So yeah, any way to journey away from that felt like a dream. I was officially the coolest sophomore. I bragged to the other kids that I had access to a car now and would take any free minute I had to drive it around campus, pumping the music loudly, and swerving around our meager 4 blocks of a downtown.
The first night with the car I drove to McDonalds and got a twenty-piece chicken nugget, large iced coffee with cream, and two chocolate chip cookies. Pure bliss.
Everything about the car felt amazing. I didn't need to walk anywhere- I had wheels baby.
Later that night I decided to go to a late study session at the library. I could leave whenever I wanted to and didn't have to bear the brutally cold Ohio night winds. You could say I was in heaven. That same night I called Elia around 11:45p. I described my escapades and she laughed and told me she was thrilled i was using the car. "Have you crashed it yet?" she teased. "Not yet!" I laughed.
The following day was a Friday and I slept in a little later than usual. I had my precious car to take me to class in less than five minutes! That morning I had to print something out and was running a little behind schedule. In a rush, I put on my clothes and jumped in the front seat, zooming over to the King parking lot right in front of the library. All of a sudden I smashed on the brakes. I had overshot the entrance of the parking lot about a few inches. I took a couple of seconds to assess the situation (little did I know they would be the most costly seconds of my life) and I glanced in front of me, to the right, to the left, and behind me. No one was there. I backed up around 10 mph and reversed backwards. It was at that very second a giant white van, who was actually in front of me, took a left hand turn into the parking lot. For what felt like a scene in literal slow motion I could feel an intense scraping motion of the car smashing into the back of the cute little teeny Toyota Corolla. My mouth hung open and my vision went blurry as I was literally realizing I was crashing my best friends car into an actual cargo van.
In a panicked frenzy I shoved the car into drive and turned right into the next open parking lot. I parked the car in the closest spot possible and began hyperventilating in the front seat. A wave of scary, horrible thoughts flashed through my brain. Elia was going to kill me! I'm such an idiot! I will never have a car ever ever again!
The first person I called was my dad. He was driving at the time and put me on speaker phone since he was with his friends on a music tour. Immediately I start sobbing and screaming
"I JUST CRASHED MY BEST FRIENDS CARRRRRR!"
As I knew he would, he instantly calmed me down. "Just breathe." He said. So I did. Next up was my mom and I really really did not want to call her. Sure enough, "How much is this going to cost us???" She yelled. "Aye niña!!" I hadn't even thought about that shit yet... let alone process what happened. "Just go to the authorities and figure it out." I hung up the phone.
Still frazzled, I assessed my surroundings. The parking lot I had turned into was actually directly in front of the campus Safety and Security building. I thought the best way to figure out who I hit was by letting the S&S office know. Maybe they could figure out what happened, who I hit, and the damages that would ensue.
Sitting alone in that building was fucking awful. At this point I still hadn't even told Elia the damage. I remember just feeling like the worst friend and person in the entire universe. I called up my best friend Molly and she drove over to stay with me and console me. I called Elia's roommate Izzy to tell her what went down and pick up the car from my unlawful and unruly possession. S&S was as helpful as they could be. They basically reported the incident and sent me on my way, letting me know that if they heard anything from the truck driver they would "inform me." I never got a call back.
I was relieved Izzy took the damn car because in that moment I needed to just erase it from my memory. I was so excited literally 1 day ago, eating my nuggets and chain smoking cigs in the front seat. I had a sliver, a touch, a fleeting second freedom and then typical Eva style I just fucking ruined it so hard. I should've kept driving and turned the stupid car around. A few seconds for a thousand dollars worth of damage. I had about $500 to my name when it happened and I didn't even know that in one month we would be in the middle of a global pandemic.
After i left the S&S building, I went to stay at Molly's. We ordered some food that we quite frankly could not afford but I didn't care. We smoked some weed and she consoled me for a good long time. I called Elia up like 10 times but each time it went straight to voicemail. Those hours without her tender voice were complete agony. I thought of every worst possible scenario. She'll hate me! I'm done for! I destroyed her precious car. What the fuck happens with her insurance? How could i do this to her?
It was several hours later when she called me from her girlfriend's car speaker phone. When i heard her voice say, "Hey!" I burst into tears. I was so sad that I crashed her car and so happy to hear her voice at the same time. I apologized profusely. Sorry after sorry.
She seemed completely unfazed, "Bro don't worry, please. We'll get it fixed. Take it out for another spin!" I started laughing uncontrollably. Hell no I'd never take it for another spin lmao. I was obviously I crashed my best friend's car. I was so terrified of losing her. I was so terrified she didn't want me in my friend anymore. In Elia's mind, that wasn't even a thought.
I remember thinking afterwards about what was next? The money, the insurance, the school's involvement, blah blah blah. A month or two later we were issued a statement about the damage costs which totaled about $936. My parents sent the money to Elia and I was to pay them back whenever i could and in installments if needed. I had around $450 to pay them and then I had to get back to work. During the Covid-19 pandemic I got two part-time jobs as businesses began opening up and eventually made a bit over a grand in a few months. I sent my dad the difference in one final installment.
I crashed my best friend's car and it fucking sucked. I crashed my best friend's car and I freaked out. I crashed my best friend's car and I learned something. I crashed my best friend's car and am out a thousand bucks.
But most importantly, I crashed my best friend's car, it all turned out okay.
