The World Awaits Your Smile

Seeing her dad yawn, Holly leaned forward and looked at him, "Want me to take over?" she asked, referring to the driving.

"Do you mind?" her dad replied, "I feel like stretching my legs. I'll take over reading the map, instead of your mother, though." he smirked, earning a slap on his arm off of Karen.

"Of course I don't mind, dad. Just pull over on the hard shoulder and we'll swap." Holly smiled, unbuckling her belt as her dad pulled off onto the side of the highway.

The change-over was quickly done with everyone moving seats apart from Adam, who sat in his same position in the back. After a few hours of silence, aside from the radio playing in the background, Adam took his earphones out and decided to speak up.

"Can you pull over at a gas station?" he asked, "I'm dying for a piss."

"Adam Richards!" his mother scolded, narrowing her eyes at him.

"What?" he said, "It's only the truth."

"No can do, bro," Holly started, "We only have a couple more hours to go. I'm sure you can hold it in, then go when we get to John's." Adam began to protest and complain, but Holly drowned it out as she heard her mobile ringing. "Hello?" she answered.

"Holly, you know you shouldn't answer your phone whilst driving." her father warned, sending wary glances at her.

Shushing him, Holly smiled as she heard the voice on the other end speak. "Hey, William. What's up?" she asked. Holly tried to listen as he explained that The Academy Is were playing a show in Arizona soon, but all she could concentrate on was the kicking of her chair. "Adam! Fucking stop it!" she exclaimed.

"Adam, your sister is driving. Stop it." Mark demanded, as he kept his focus on the map in front of him.

Ignoring his fathers order, Adam continued to kick the back of the drivers seat, causing Holly to get even more frustrated.

"I'm not pulling over, Adam. Get over it." she growled, moving the mouth piece of her phone away from her mouth. Holly's lack of patience finally got the better of her as she turned around to shout at her brother.

"Holly!" Karen screeched, as the car swerved, narrowly missing the barricade. Holly's heart raced as she regained control of the car, quickly speaking into the mouth piece of her phone,

"William, I'll call you back later." was all she said, before ending the call. Holly looked at her father, who was frowning deeply at her,

"Holly! What the hell were you thinking?" he exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. Holly returned her gaze back to the road ahead of them,

"Tell dumb ass back there to stop kicking my chair and then maybe I can concentrate on my driving." she replied, frowning. Her father shook his head,

"No, Holly," he said, taking her phone that was in front of her on the dashboard and keeping it in his hands, "This was the cause of your distraction."

Holly turned to look at her father again, "No, dad! Give it me back," she said, taking one hand off the steering wheel, putting it out for her father to put her phone in. Mark shook his head,

"No, Holly. Just drive, if anyone calls, I'll answer it."

"That's not fair!" Holly exclaimed, "What if John calls, specifically wanting to speak to me?" she asked, trying to reach for her phone again.

"Then I'll answer it. If it's anything important, you can pull over and take the call yourself. I'm not having you risk our lives right before Christmas." her dad simply said.

"Dad," she sighed, frowning.

"Holly, don't argue with me. Just drive." he said, starting to become impatient with his daughter. Holly let out a small, frustrated scream as she adverted her gaze back to the road once more.

The car journey remained silent for the next half an hour, with the occasional exchange of words between Holly's parents. The sound of Holly's ring tone erupted around the car, quickly catching Holly's attention. She turned to her father, who was looking at the caller ID,

"Who is it?" Holly asked, putting out her hand once more, "Give it here." she said, looking at her father momentarily, who shook his head vigorously.

"It's Kennedy. You can pull over and call him back at the next gas station," her father replied in a stern voice. Holly shook her head, having none of it,

"Pass it here!" she almost yelled, leaning across the gear shift, attempting to grab her phone off of her father.

"I already told you, no, now just--" her dad didn't have time to reply as the deafening sound of metal on metal, ear piercing screams and the sound of tires screeching to a halt against the tarmac filled the air.

Tears began to cascade down Holly's face as she felt the blood trickle down her forehead. "Oh, my God," she gasped, "Somebody help." she whispered, noticing the number of people surrounding starting to increase. People walked up to the car door, speaking to Holly, telling her to calm down as her crying and screams for help became frantic. After only minutes, nearing sirens were heard, followed by the blue lights being seen on the sides of close buildings. Paramedics rushed to the cars, searching for all the possible ways to get people out of the wreck.

"Ma'am, I'm going to need you to stay calm, okay?" the paramedic softly said.

"I can't move," Holly said, "I can't move." she repeated, before she slowly passed out from the pain.