Hit and Run | Part 1

It was November 20, 2009. I’ll never forget that date because that’s when The Twilight Saga: New Moon came out. I was never a diehard Twilight fan but 12-year-old me would never turn down a night out with friends.

My 2 best girlfriends, Lana, Natasha, and I decided it would be fun to go see the new movie with a group of friends. Natasha even offered up her older sister to be our chaperone. So of course when all of our parents heard chaperone the night was a go.

We were so excited. I invited my nephew Darius and he brought his friend Derick. Darius and I are only 4 months apart so we grew up like brother and sister. We did stuff together all the time because we practically knew the same people.

With horrible planning, we all met up at the front of an AMC theater with no idea what time the movie would start. The ticket clerk told us that we would have to wait until the last movie which was at 10 pm. Our parents didn’t like it but it was a Friday so it wasn’t like we had school the next day or anything.

What our parents didn’t know was that our chaperone wasn’t going to be available until she got off of work… which was at 10. She worked in the same complex of the movie theater about a 5-minute walk up the strip, so technically she was close. Right?

Without supervision we decided to walk from the movie theater to her job, not to go in because they were closed but to fool around outside in the parking lot. Lana and I thought it would be fun to play tag and so we did.

“Run! I’m gonna get you!” Lana says playfully.

Since we were in the parking lot it was near impossible to run with all of the cars so I started to speed walk weaving in and out of the parked cars. Laughing and listening as my Uggs stomped against the concrete.

“TIANI LOOK…” Cried, Lana

That was the last thing I heard before everything went black.

BOOM. Lights out.

I woke up on the cold ground. I was confused. My pelvic area hurt really bad. Where was my left Ugg boot?

“ARE YOU F*UCKING KIDDING ME!” yelled the man that hit me as he stormed out of his car.

“I..I…” I had no words. I was in complete shock. Lana was screaming in the background and the rest of the group who wasn’t with us came sprinting down the parking lot to see what was up.

“WHAT THE F*CK WERE YOU THINKING? ARE YOU F*CKING STUPID!” yelled this angered scary man with long braided salt and pepper beard wearing a long white butcher coat.

“STOP YELLING AT HER” yelled Lana.

“WELL ARE YOU F*CKING OKAY?” he said.

“I..I… I am okay” I said while crying my eyes out hunched over holding my private parts in so much pain. “Where is my shoe?” I thought to myself. Clearly, I was not okay.

I finally see my nephew Darius sprinting towards me in shock trying to come to my rescue. It was too late. The man who hit got back into his car and sped off faster than I’ve seen anyone speed off in a parking lot. All you heard were the loud screeching tires.

*skkkkirrrrrrtttttttt*

“HEY! HEYYYYYYY!” screamed Darius at the top of his lungs while he darted after that car. He couldn’t catch up. That man was OUT.

Natasha and Derick found my boot across the parking lot practically ripped in half. Lana and Derick helped me walk to the curb to sit for a bit.

You’d think someone saw anything with all those cars around but nope not a peep. No one called the cops or ambulance. I didn’t want to ruin the night for everyone else. So instead of doing the right thing, we all walked (I limped) over to the Wendys that was pretty close to grab a bite to eat. I carried on like nothing ever happened. We enjoyed our meal and by the time we looked at the clock, it was time to head back over to the theater. I know what you’re thinking. Who in their right mind wants to watch a movie after being hit by a whole vehicle!? Me. That’s who.

We met up with Natashas’ sister at the theater and went inside. Our seats were so trash since it was opening night and we got there so last minute. We got the neck-breaking seats. The ones all the way in the front that you have to strain your neck to be able to watch the movie.

Not even halfway into the movie I started getting this unbearable headache. It was like I had just been hit by a car or something. Oh, wait… I did! It got so bad I could barely keep my eyes open. Lana noticed and she convinced me that it was okay to leave. That we had to go home. I started to cry as we walked out of the theater. I cried more and more as the minutes passed. Natasha called her dad to come and pick us all up.

He arrived and immediately asked what happened to me and why was I crying. I didn’t want to say but my friends spoke for me. He was in shock and immediately drove Darius and me home first. Darius and her father helped me to my doorstep and rang the doorbell. My 2 older twin brothers opened the door confused as to why their little sister was crying hysterically being held up by a man and their nephew. I really didn’t want them to know. I didn’t want anyone to know. Surprisingly no one said anything.

I came into the house and brushed it off like I just had a bad night with friends. I told them I didn’t want to talk about it. My mom was out on a date at the time and I didn’t want to interrupt her. I was scared to tell my mom because I thought she would be mad at me for being unsupervised and getting hit by a car. So I called my older sister who lived 45 minutes away.

“Tricia, I have to tell you something but please whatever you do, don’t tell mom.” I said while still weeping.

My sister sounded so concerned and confused. As she should be. Her litter sister called her at almost midnight crying her eyes out.

“I got hit by a car tonight and I’m in so much pain… I don’t want to bother mom.”

Click. The phone hung up. Guess who called me right away? My mom! She was enraged that I didn’t let her know what happened right away. She reassured me that it was going to be okay and she was on her way.

She got home so fast. Her face alarmed. She just wanted to hug me. We got in the car and drove straight to the hospital.

I mentioned in my interview that I suffered from PTSD and this is where it stems from. It doesn’t stop here but I decided to save the rest for a part 2! Did you enjoy the story? If so let me know down below so I know to do more storytime posts! Ya girl has lots of stories.

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Interested in being interviewed for Mothers & Mental Health?

Your voice and your story matter. Send me an email at tianiangelax@gmail.com with the subject INTERVIEW and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

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As always, thanks so much for reading! Questions, comments, and feedback are always welcome. If you enjoyed this post, please comment, like and share! Make sure to check out my Instagram; @tianiangela_ and my latest video on Youtube💋