Chapter 1 : Crashing Worlds

Luna’s POV

The clock read six forty-one. My last class had just finished, and I was utterly exhausted. I erased the whiteboard and sprayed it with a cleaning solution.

“Hola!” I heard a sweet voice say from just outside my classroom door.

I turned to find Maria beaming at me in the doorway. Maria was my work best friend. We both worked at the New York Institute for Language and Speech. We were hired around the same time and have been inseparable ever since. She taught Greek, Spanish, and French and I taught Spanish and Portuguese.

“Hey!” I said, returning to my end-of-the-day cleaning routine with the whiteboard. “How was your last class?”

“Ugh,” Maria said, waltzing in and making herself comfortable at one of the desks. “It’s like I have to do the work for them.” She said, shaking her head.

“Cut them some slack.” I said, wiping away the cleaning solution with a microfiber cloth. “Don’t forget Greek is one of the hardest languages to master.”

“I know, I know.” Maria said, shooing my comment away with her hand. “It doesn’t make it any less annoying. What about you, how was your last Spanish class?”

“It was alright,” I shrugged. “One of the students has a learning disability, so I always have to remember to go a bit slower with this class. It’s not her fault, but it always drains me.”

“We should do something tonight,” Maria said, rising from her desk with renewed energy. “We work hard, let’s treat ourselves!”

All I wanted to do was go home and take a long, hot shower. Going out would deplete any and all energy I had left in the tank. I wanted to say no, that I was busy and had stuff to do. But I couldn’t think of a good lie on the spot.

“Where were you thinking?” I said, regretting it immediately.

“You know that guy I told you about?” Maria said with a bashful expression.

“Yes,” I said, reading through her smile.

She had told me she met a guy somewhere. From the looks of it, it seemed to be going well. She was beaming from ear to ear. I was happy for Maria. Her last boyfriend was a real mooch. Anytime they went out it was on her dime. I hated that guy.

“He’s got a dj gig at this club downtown.” Maria said. “We should go check him out!”

“A club?” I said, already counting the seconds until I could go home. “I don’t know if I have the energy for that.”

“Oh, come on.” Maria begged. “It’s my first time going to see him at work, and I don’t want to go alone. Pretty please?”

Maria made a pouty face and poked her lip out. I wasn’t sure how she did it, but even her eyes looked rounder and sadder.

“Oh, alright, fine.” I said, going over to my desk to grab my purse.

“Yay!” Maria squealed, jumping up and down like a giddy teenager. Her curly hair bounced. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“It’s only because I love you so much.” I said, happy to make her smile.

I left my car in the employee parking lot and carpooled with Maria. The drive was filled with inside jokes and gossip about the other teachers on staff. Maria kept going on and on about another teacher who also taught Greek. She complained that she was always trying to one-up her with the curriculum and how Maria was sick of it.

She went on about it for a while, every now and then I would interject with a validating response.

Maria was getting more worked up over this grievance than I expected. Her body language shifted, and she was suddenly very tense. She kept looking over at me to get more validation. I was trying my best to agree with her, but I was getting a little nervous. She stopped paying as much attention to the road, every other second looking over at me.

Then it happened. Before I could warn her, before I could even blink - brakes were slamming, tires were screeching, and then a loud boom.

“Oh, my God!” Maria screamed. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I-I think I’m okay.” I said, checking my hands and arms.

“Are you alright?”

“I think so.” Maria said. Her eyes were wide with fear.

“It’s gonna be okay.” I said, reaching over to comfort her.

She nodded and looked forward to see the damage. We had slammed into the back of a black car pretty hard. Maria's car had its entire hood pushed up and scrunched together like paper that had been folded a bunch of times. Smoke was spilling out and I could tell immediately that her car was totaled.

We both unbuckled our seatbelts to get out, but before we could even open our doors, a large burly man with a stubbly beard came banging on Maria’s window and cursing profusely.

“Are you out of your damn mind!” He yelled through the glass.

“What the hell’s the matter with you?!”

“Oh, hell no.” Maria said, with a new fiery anger.

She jumped out of the car and proceeded to have a screaming match with the man. I watched for a few seconds from the car in shock. The man towered over her. But Maria didn’t care. She was the sweetest person I knew, but she was not one to take kindly to disrespect.

I got out of the car to come to Maria’s aid. They continued to scream at each other, rage driving them both into madness.

“Why don’t we just all calm down for a minute.” I said, trying to jump in with logic and reason.

Cars behind us honked, and drivers yelled out their windows that we were holding up traffic.

“Oh, shut up!” The burly man yelled at one of the drivers.

I suddenly noticed his thick British accent. Another driver yelled for Maria and the man to get out of the street.

“Up yours!” Maria shouted back.

Soon, all the cars had found a way to maneuver their cars around Maria and the burly man’s damaged vehicle, each driver flipping the pair off as they passed by. Maria and the burly man continued to go at it while I tried to keep everyone calm.

After a few more seconds of screaming, the backseat door to the burly man’s car opened and a very handsome gentleman in a tailored suit stepped out. He was tall with blue eyes. His blonde hair was perfectly combed and styled to perfection.

“Alright, Geoffrey. Down boy.” He said with a charming smile, placing a hand on the burly man’s shoulder. “I’m sure we can figure all this out.”

His British accent was just as pronounced as the burly man’s, except he had a bit more of a posh formality to his.

“Hello, I’m Lucas Bradford.” The tailored man said, extending his hand to Maria’s.

Maria shook it begrudgingly after giving him a once over with her eyes. Lucas extended his hand to me next and smiled genuinely. His eyes pierced my soul. Something fluttered in my stomach and I suddenly felt very warm.

Our hands were electrified as they touched. I gasped to myself, wondering if he’d felt it too. He pulled out a couple of business cards from his inner jacket pocket and handed one to each of us. Maria rolled her eyes, stuffing it in her back pocket.

I, on the other hand, felt the overwhelming need to study every detail of that card. I needed to know more about this man. Who was he? Why couldn’t I breathe when he looked at me?

The top of the card had a business logo with the name LB Electrics printed on one side. The card was made of the most beautiful cardstock paper, and the words were printed neatly. It was a simple card, just his name and email printed on the back.

“If you give me your insurance information, I can call and discuss the details with them.” the man called Lucas, like a gentleman, said with kind eyes to Maria.

“Absolutely not!” Maria said, wagging her finger. “So you can throw me under the bus and tell them this accident was my fault? I don’t think so!”

“Oh, no not at all.” Lucas said, placing a hand over his heart to show his genuine concern. “I only want to explain to them that this whole ordeal was my fault and I’m willing to take full responsibility.”

“Sir, I apologize but I have to kindly disagree with you.” The burly man said, still clearly peeved. “These girls rear ended us, she wasn’t paying attention in the slightest. She drives like a crazy woman!”

“Excuse me!” Maria said, starting up again.

“You heard me! The Saudi Arabians have it right, women should not be allowed to drive.” The burly man yelled.

“Alright, Geoffrey, give it a rest.” Lucas said, pushing a hand into his chest to create space between them. “Please.” Lucas said to Maria. “Allow me to handle this, and I promise you won’t regret it.”

Maria pouted for a second as she eyed Geoffrey from behind Lucas. He was glaring at her so hard, I could have sworn she killed his cat.

“Whatever.” Maria said, shaking her head.

She walked back to her car to get her insurance information from the glove compartment. I followed closely behind her so we could talk privately.

“Maria, are you sure you want to do this?” I said under my breath.

“Ni siquiera sabemos quienes son estos dos hombres, puede que no cumplan con el reporte.” I said, expressing in Spanish how we didn’t even know these men, and that they could be playing us.

“I know.” Maria whispered. “I’m still going to call the insurance company and make my own report. If anything seems fishy, they’ll have my side of things too.”

Maria walks back over to exchange information with Geoffrey who was now playing the unnecessary role of bodyguard to Lucas.

“What do you think I’m gonna do?” Maria said to Geoffrey. “Stab him with the paper? Idiota.”

Geoffrey rolled his eyes, and they stepped onto the sidewalk to copy each other’s insurance cards. There was a short pause between me and Lucas. We both smiled politely at one another, not really knowing what to say next.

“Your friend’s got quite the wild spirit.” Lucas finally said with a boyish grin.

“Actually she doesn’t. She’s very kind and polite.” I said, feeling suddenly defensive. “She just doesn’t tolerate assholes.”

“Right.” Lucas said awkwardly, realizing he’d stepped on a landmine.

We didn’t speak to each other again. We waited in silence while Maria and Geoffrey finished. After a few more painfully awkward moments, Geoffrey and Maria were finished and Geoffrey escorted Lucas back to his place in the backseat.

“Well I’m sorry we had to meet under such unfortunate circumstances.” Lucas said before heading back to his car, where Geoffrey awaited him. “I promise I will do my very best to smooth this all out.”

“Mmhmm.” Maria said, cold as ice.

Lucas got back into his car, knowing he was not going to land anywhere with her tonight.

“Well goodnight, then.” He said and shut the door behind him.

Geoffrey gave one final disapproving scoff to Maria before returning to the driver side and getting in his car.

“Come on, let’s go.” Maria said, defeated.

“Actually, I think I’ll just walk home.” I said, feeling completely spent.

“Oh, are you sure?” Maria said. I could tell she felt a little hurt. “Yeah.” I said. “I’m only a few blocks away from here and I’m too shaken up to get in a car right now.”

“Fine.” Maria said, too exhausted to fight anymore.

“Do you think you can get it started to drive home?” I asked, looking back at her car. The smoke had stopped but it was badly beaten up.

“No.” She said, flustered. “I think I’m just gonna leave it here and call a cab.”

“Alright, well I’ll wait with you until the cab arrives.” I said.

Maria nodded in appreciation. We sat on the curb until the cab came. I hugged Maria goodbye and assured her that I would help her figure everything out tomorrow at work. She allowed herself to cry for a moment and I hugged her tighter.

“Todo va a estar bien,” I said, giving her a good squeeze.

Maria sighed and ducked her head inside the cab. We waved goodbye before her cab disappeared onto the busy street. I walked home in silence, listening to a murdermentary podcast.

Once I was home, I didn’t waste any time peeling my work clothes off and crawling into bed. I wished to myself that I had never agreed to go out tonight. Maybe Maria wouldn’t be in this mess if I had had the courage to just say no.