They moved here the summer before last, and it was a summer no one will forget. They came here, to Novato, from somewhere in Washington. Our families disagreed on everything, my family was fun-loving and free, his religious and strict.

When the Emerson family moved next door to us they had two kids, Anthony and Dylan. Anthony was 17, one year older than me, and Dylan was 13.

Me and Anthony began spending time together, much to his parents' disproval. We did everything together, and shared everything as well. Soon we were together at every waking moment. We became a couple and soon after we were more inseparable than ever.

But like all good things, something stood in our way. His parents never wanted to stay in one place long, so they announced their next move just three months after they arrived.


Being apart from each other was the last thing either of us wanted. We came up with a plan to runaway together, and not look back. We were going to New York, in Anthony's truck, and would make our own lives there. We planned to leave the day before he was supposed to move to Texas. Our plan took two weeks to prepare, and then it was ready for action.

The night of, I told my parents I was leaving to spend the night at a friend's, and all they said was 'Okay, Lily, have fun.' I went back to my room to get an over night bag ready to make my parents think I was really just going to a friends, and I threw the rest of my packed belongings out of my window, for them to wait for me and Anthony to load them into his truck.

I waited at the corner of my street for about 20 minutes. I finally saw his truck pull around the corner, and a bigger red truck behind him, that was going way over the speed limit. The red truck started to swerve back and forth, in and out of his lane. The man driving the red truck tried to make an illegal pass, and that's when I saw how drunk he was, and I know Anthony saw it too. The few seconds that the red truck smashed into Anthony's white ne seemed to last forever. Both trucks flipped and looked horrid after finally landing.
Some one must have called the police before the accident, to report a drunk driver, because they arrived seconds later, while I was running to Anthony's ruined truck, with him still trapped inside.

They blocked my way when I was just 20 feet from the scene and a cop held me back. By then, neighbors had come out of their houses to see what had happened but I barely noticed as they stared.

The ambulance arrived just minutes later and announced both Anthony and the red truck driver dead on the scene.

It felt like my world had shattered, but I made some major life decisions standing in that spot. My parents would never find out about my plans to run away. And I would move to New York one day to accomplish my dreams as I had promised Anthony I would.