We literally almost died.

I realised I haven’t been blogging a lot lately. It’s somewhat of a sin that brings guilt to mind, because I’d usually document every single bloody thing that had happened to me no matter how drearily dull it is. But then again, day in and day out, all I’ve done is a routine of going to college, rarely ever doing homework (the most relaxing semester of the two I’ve been in), updating Hidden Street with its new Zipangu town and a torrent of items and monsters and maps, and—
I don’t know if you could classify this as emo-ish or not (hell what are its definitions anyway?), but I’ve been through a smattering of sensations lately: of melancholy, of thrills, of pride, of the zeal in wallowing in remorse.

bq.. I don’t quite know,
How to say,
How I feel

A stanza from Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars which quite aptly describe how I feel. Sometimes within the turbulence in me, no words in the vast world of vocabulary can ever describe what I really want to express.

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Bryan and I had lunch with Heng yesterday at Asia Cafe after the latter wanted to meet up, while Andy went with the girls in our class to watch Happy Feet again, something I felt wasn’t worth re-watching it unless, ‘course, it’s free.

At night at about 9.45pm, Shawn picked me up right on time where I brought my London dry gin with me (or what’s left of it from my Tioman trip), and headed to 7-Eleven to choose a proper drink to mix the gin with.

After much indecision we finally settled on our resident hospitality student’s recommendation: a Sprite Remix. I bought a bottle of it and after Heng had his quick late dinner at the mamak next to 7-Eleven, we went all the way to KTM Subang Jaya station to pick up Esther, who SMSed me while we were in the 24-hour shop earlier.

When we finally reached Court 7 (encountering death episode to be detailed soon), we were sitting around on the floor (since the apartment is still ‘new’ and had no furniture whatsoever) practically lepak-ing.

Sitting on the floor, talking, playing cards, drinking gin + Sprite Remix.

Andy and Ding arrived at nearly midnight, and after finishing a round of Happy Family, we played Truth or Dare with the Sprite Remix bottle.

Huhu let’s just say it had all of us laughing especially with those who chose dares (ranging from doing starfish on the ground, biting Esther’s strap to kissing Shawn on the cheek), and some pretty dark secrets, which I don’t think all of us would want to know, in the open.

We went back at 1am plus after cleaning up and almost had our cars clamped after Shawn deftly spotted the guards from the windows near the kitchen, where we rushed downstairs immediately. The girls supposedly stayed overnight or something.

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If by any reason (maybe I bore you with my words) you decide to just skim through this entry, jengjengjeng let me bold the following words: we almost died. And I do mean that quite literally. Like yes, had it not been some amazing, lucky circumstances I wouldn’t be sitting here blogging about how um, [insert inexpressible adjective] I felt earlier and some other really dumb things that made you sometimes feel (WARNING CLICH? AHEAD) how lucky we are to be alive.

And again I do mean that quite literally.

So right after we picked up Esther, Shawn was speeding all the way as usual and he used the SS19 way to get back to Court 7.

Take this illustration shoddily drawn with Photoshop:

This happened at the traffic lights before reaching USJ 9, where on the right would be USJ 13 and the left USJ 11.

Shawn was going fast on the right lane (which is a fast lane) and we were still chatting quite amicably. Traffic lights turned from green to yellow, and Shawn sped wanting to beat it, thinking that the SLK in front of his Saga would beat the lights as well, since the SLK was moving fast too.

The SLK braked immediately for god knows what reason, and Shawn likewise applied his breaks as he wanted to stop behind the SLK (illustrated in number 1).

Number 2 illustration: Shawn noticed that his car wasn’t braking at all and was still moving quickly towards the SLK. He swerved to the left and found himself moving towards the tebing with lotsa flowers with a horrible, loud skidding screech, and by some really lucky heavenly intervention, he calmly moved the steering wheel to the right and pressed on the accelerator faster to keep the car moving as the brakes were jamming up.

All this while, Esther who was sitting behind with me crouched on the seats, closed her eyes, hands on her ears or sommat, and I instinctively shielded her with my skinny arms around her in her foetal-like position, all the while my eyes looking ahead on the road. Not like this would help if we did crash, with me dead, with Esther dying in my arms wtf choi touchwood (to both the death aspect and Esther dying in my arms thing huhu).

Anyway the fucking SLK, after braking earlier, continued going against the red light (wtf!), while our Saga had to beat the lights to actually survive this quite eerie ordeal. All this happened in a split 5 seconds so you have no idea what would happen had Shawn not reacted quickly.

We pulled over shortly after to check the tyres, and had to make an early conclusion that the road leading to the traffic lights earlier must’ve been really wet, despite already rained a few hours ago.

It quite shook us up, and I could still clearly remember how calm I was when the car was skidding, all the while with my hands around Esther (not chow sui la who wants to wtf). I’d have to say the silly phrase of “life flashing before my eyes” thing was quite untrue because the only thing that actually flashed before my eyes was the image of the car heading straight for the tebing on the left and the car that immediately swerved back to the right to keep on track.

I don’t think that, given the reality of the situation and in the heat of that particular moment, the thought of death ever crossed my mind. It was only that when it was actually over (when we pulled over) that I thought I would have been gone by now, not sitting in front of the laptop documenting this, no more Clem, no more me.