I was sitting in my car fuming. I had never failed an assignment in my life. So why did one picture of a dog in a tux not get a passing grade? I'll tell you why, because the dog would not listen to me, no matter what I tried. He just sat there licking himself as I grew more and more frustrated.

I should probably introduce myself. My Name is Jayde and I'm not the sweetest girl you will meet, but I love myself just the way I am. I am a 21 year old college student, going to school for a Masters degree in photography. Yeah I know what you are thinking, That is such a waste of time and you will never get a good job. And for the most part it really is. But when you are as dedicated as I am, you wouldn't want to do anything else. And I already have a great job that I love. I work for a very prestigious rock magazine. Maybe you have heard of it. Its called Rolling Stone.

Now I should probably explain why I am just sitting in my car. Well as I told you I just failed my first assignment, but not only that. I just found out my mom has had breast cancer for 3 years and I am just finding out about it. You don't even know how livid I was after I got off the phone with her. Why hadn't she told me until now? Well apparently the doctors thought she was in recession but she isn't. She went in for a check-up and they found out that the cancer had come back. The doctors said she has about 7 months left to live.

As I sat in my car I realized it was not the best time to be mad at my mom. She wasn't going to be here much longer and I had to be to work in ten minutes.

I slid the key into the ignition and started my car. It was an old 1966 Mustang with a custom paint job. What can I say I love old muscle cars and my job pays really well. A job that if I didn't get going now, I might now have much longer.

I pulled out of the college parking lot and started my short drive to the office where I had a photo shoot with some band to do. I had only heard of them a few times, but from what I had heard, they weren't all that bad. In fact; they were actually really good.

I stop at a red light and was lightly drumming my fingers on the steering wheel to a nameless tune in my head. I was getting kind of impatient waiting for the light to change green. The next thing I knew, I was being launched forward and hitting my head on the steering wheel. My head was throbbing and I felt warm liquid oozing down the left side of my head. I slowly opened my door and stepped out, cautiously as not to get light headed and faint. As I looked around I saw the tail-end of my baby. The whole end was smashed in by some candy apple red Honda. Clearly worth half of what my Mustang was.

"Dude, did you not see that the light was red?" I yelled at the driver of the Honda, who was getting out of the car. I still hadn't looked over at them as I was surveying the damage that they had done to my car.

"Listen, I am so sorry I was really sidetracked. I have a lot on my mind at the moment." A deep voice said. I looked up at him . He looked to be around 24 or 25 years old. He had sandy brown hair that was kind of shaggy. He had a ring through his left nostril and a couple tattoos scattered down his arms.
"You know you are going to pay to get this fixed right?" I questioned the stranger, gesturing to my car.

He nodded his head yes and looked at me again. "Do you have a phone I can use really quick? I need to call a friend and tell him I'm going to be late."

"Yeah I do, but I need to call my boss first and tell her that I am going to be late also because some idiot doesn't stop at red lights and ran into me." I exclaimed. throwing my hands in the air. I was trying to calm down but this was so not what I needed on top of everything else.

I walked back to my car and dug through my purse till I found my phone. I slid it open and pressed speed dial 3. It rang four times before she finally picked up.

"Hello?" Diana spoke into the phone.

"Diana" I exclaimed, relieved that she didn't sound mad that I was late.

"Jayde, where are you?" She asked clearly annoyed.

"Well some idiot rear ended me about three or four blocks away from the office. I am going to be a little late." I explained trying to stay calm.

"I guess its okay; one of the band members isn't here yet and he's not answering his phone. So you've got some time." She told me sounding more annoyed about that than at me.

"I will be there as soon as I can. Thanks for understanding."

"Just hurry!" She exclaimed and the line went dead.

"Here you go." I said handing him my cell after I walked back over to where he was standing, he was holding what looked like two halves of a phone. "What's your name anyway?"

"My name's Zack. What's yours?" He asked as he dialed a number on my phone.

"I'm Marshall. Jayde Marshall." I said in my best James Bond imitation. As mad as I was, I couldn't resist doing it.

He chuckled and press the call button, and stuck the phone to his ear. He had a short conversation not saying much other than mhm, yeah, and alright. He hung up and handed me my phone. "Well we should probably exchange numbers and insurance stuff so we can get all of this settled." He told me as he pulled out his wallet and got out an insurance card.

"Yeah that would probably be best." I said quickly walking to my car to get my papers out.

"Are you okay? You know you are bleeding right?" He asked with a concerned face as I walked back toward him.

"Yeah I will be fine. Just a small cut" I said dabbing at the cut with some Kleenex from my purse.

As we swapped information I got to thinking. Why did I fell like I knew him from somewhere? I don't think I had ever met him before. But I knew one thing was for sure. This was not the last time I would be seeing Zack.

Notes

Posted this story a lonnggg time ago. Thought I may revisit it!