“I DON'T KNOW WHY I EVEN BOTHER WITH YOU!” Alex could feel her so-call friend’s saliva spray on her face. She felt the urge to yell at her but she knew that would just make things worse. Alex doesn't say anything. She simply turns and walks away from Jamie. She isn't worth her time anymore. All Jamie wants you to be is a carbon copy of herself. She wants you to have her dirty blond hair and you can only listen to her favourite type of music, pop, which is also the only kind of music she listens to. So when Alex decided to dye her hair a nice shade of blue, she was completely aware that her friendship with Jamie would be over. Although Alex and Jamie had been friends for years, Alex wasn’t phased by the ending of their friendship. In fact she felt a weight being lifted off her shoulders.

Alex walked up the narrow staircase of her school and continued to walk down the hallway to her locker. The hall still had a few people roaming around though school had been over for almost an hour now. Alex repeats her locker combination to herself so she wouldn't screw it up, like she has done so many times before. As her locker swings open, it is like a door opening to her true self. The inside is plastered with pictures of her beloved family and her favorite bands. The door is coated with little post-it notes with various quotes and song lyrics written on them.

Alex reaches up to the top shelf to get her Ipod and presses play. She can't hear anything but the vibrations of the guitar chords and drum slams. It’s almost like the lyrics wrap around her and tell her that everything will be okay, no matter her much the darkness consumes her.

Alex looks at the time and is shocked back to life. She was late for her friend’s band practice. She was their manager. Alex gathers all the books she needs and slams her locker shut. The sound echoes throughout the now empty hallway. She jogs down the coral marble steps and out the metal front door of the school. Alex could barely hear the honking coming from her friend Derek’s midnight blue Mustang that was parked across the street. She continues to jog over, waving her arm signaling that she was coming. Her music that once saved her and inspired her to reach for impossible things was now covering her ears, making it impossible for her to hear the horn blaring from the rusted pickup truck that was barreling into her. Derek noticed the truck and tried to scream her name, to warn her but it didn't do any good. Alex didn't hear a thing.

Alex’s book bag exploded and her notebooks ripped and scattered all over the coal colored asphalt. But her Ipod remained in her ears play Amelia by Tonight Alive. Derek hopped out of the car and sprinted over to Alex. He was panicking. He yell at the driver of the truck to call 911 but the white driver with a baseball cap and sunglasses panicked as well. The driver quickly got back in his truck made a U-turn and just left Derek there in the dust with Alex’s seemingly lifeless body at his feet.

He frantically dialed 911 to get professional help for his friend. They said they would be there as soon as possible. When the operator said to check for a pulse around her jawbone. He couldn’t feel one but her chest rose and collapsed at a steady rhythm. He gave a sigh of relief as he ran his hand through his chocolate brown hair.

“She’s gonna be okay. She’s gonna be okay.” he kept repeating softly to himself.

Alex’s emerald green eyes shot open. She found herself laying in the middle of a Starbucks, which is odd because she knew that there wasn’t any starbucks near her neighborhood. Alex quickly rises to avoid bringing more attention to herself.

“Hello Alex.” She jumps from the sound of the emotionless, almost robotic voice coming from behind her. Alex turns around slowly and steadily to see a man that seemed to be in his mid 20s, wearing a black suit and tie.

“uhh…. Can I help you?” Alex asked slowly, she isn’t really sure why she said that, it was the first thing that came to her mind. His lips formed into a smirk not like a boy at school, more like a villain from one of her comic books. He chuckled a little,

“oh Alex. Do you really think you can help me? I’m here only to help you.” Alex’s confusion only grew.

“You don't know where you are, do you?” he said. Alex opened her mouth to answer but he stopped her,

“I don't mean this Coffee Shop, you stupid girl. I mean you don’t how you got here.” She slowly nodded, she is extremely freaked out at this point.

“Ummm I’m gonna go.” she pointed towards the door and started to walk that way. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Alex shook off the presence of the mysterious stranger. The golden bell attached to the door jingled like christmas bells as Alex bolted out of the Starbucks. She was frozen in her spot right outside the see-through glass doors. There was nothing, absolute nothingness. All that Alex could see was white. There wasn't a landscape, no bushes with evergreen branches nor birds flying to a new world above the clouds. There wasn't a marvelous sunset of oranges and pinks, that would warm her when the cool summer breeze made her shiver.

But there was a brightness of some unrealistic sort that was just over the horizon. It wasn't the sun, she knew that for sure, the light didn't give off the gentle comfort like the sun. Alex took a few slow cautious steps into the void of nothingness and turned around to see the Starbucks still standing there all nonchalant, completely oblivious of its surroundings or lack thereof.

Once the ambulance arrived Alex’s chest stopped moving and Derek was freaking out, now he really regrets not taking those CPR classes like his parents suggested. They quickly get her into the back of the vehicle and started CPR immediately.

“She is flatlining!” they said very assertively. Every minute or so they shocked her in hope to restart her heart. Derek stayed with Alex on the way to the hospital, he wasn't gonna just leave her to fight all on her own.

She was pale white, she looked dead, and the longer they keep trying to resuscitate her the more Derek believes that she is in fact gone. They also mentioned that she had a deep tissue bruise from the truck that might have cause internal bleeding but they can't really tell for sure until they get her to the hospital. If she makes it there. In the ambulance, She didn't look like herself with all the machines hooked up to her, tube coming out of numerous places. Derek was shaking, he was still hoping that this was all a dream.

Alex frantically looks around for something, anything to prove that she isn't going completely insane. That's when she heard footsteps behind her. She doesn't turn around, she is too afraid.

"I told you not to." He said, she could feel his smirk only growing. Alex doesn't say anything, she just throws her arms in the air displaying the confusing surroundings. He only laughed.

"DO YOU FIND THIS SO AMUSING!?!? WHERE THE HELL AM I?!?", her screams echoed off the sides of the new world. She jumped when she heard the echoes of her own voice. The man's laugh only grew.

"You really don't remember anything do you? ....You know, you should really look before crossing the street.?" He said between chuckles. She was confused at first, but then almost immediately her memories were returning like a flood. Her fight with Jamie. The car crash. Derek. She felt a tear fall down her cheek. How could she have been so stupid? The next question that came to her mind was the most important and that scared her the most.

Am I dead?