_stella_

I get a call from Alex around four thirty or so saying that our friend and co-worker Kylie got into an accident on her way home from school today. We were told she hit another car. We were also told that either her passenger or the person she hit was killed. So immediately I start wondering who was killed? Is Kylie okay? Who's mistake caused this? Do I know who got killed? But the details took a while to trickle in. Taylor calls me later from work and tells me that Kylie hit a motorcyclist and that person was killed. The first person to come into my mind when I hear a motorcycle was involved was a guy named Ryan Carelly. He's a friend of my crew and we've partied together a few times, he's a sweet guy. But it was too soon for us to know who it was so we had to leave it alone for a while. It's about 9:58 and I'm sitting in the living room with the parental unit watching the news. Nate texts me and asks if I know know Lil Ryan. My heart sank. I got a sick feeling in my stomach thinking that it was indeed Carelly. Just as he's texting me about the details, I look up at the TV where they are showing the accident. I saw the car, the motorcycle, all of it. It was so sad. I have never felt that type of feeling I got when I looked at the screen. It was the sickest feeling in the pit of my stomach. Ryan Carelly is good friends with Kyle so I text him to see if he knew if it was him or not. Kyle knew about the accident but didn't know Kylie was involved. I apparently had broken that news to him. He was friends with the Ryan who was killed. Come to find out, it was Ryan Golembewski. He was a kid a lot of us knew, and was in my Humanities class last year. I definitely had a huge crush on him too, he was such a cool kid. He was intelligent, funny, cute as hell, and cool as cool can be. So, now we're all in awe that this really happened. And it's such a double-sided tragedy since many of us know both Ryan and Kylie. I can only imagine how she feels, and how his family must feel. This is so much of a reality bitch slap to the face for us kids. So many of us take shit for granted everyday. It's ridiculous. We should revel in the fact that we can take a breath any second, we can smile, laugh, be with the ones we love. This happened for a reason and I hope we all figure out why-or at least keep searching till we've learned a lesson.....
Ryan will be missed, R.I.P.