Alice gripped the steering wheel of the Mini tightly, replaying the argument over in her head.  Tears were welling up in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.  She looked impatiently up at the red light, the light blurring slightly due to her unshed tears. 

I can’t believe we had another fight.  It seems like that’s all we do lately.  Why?  Am I really smothering her?  But why does she keep flirting with Lara?

Alice sighed to herself and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.  I will not cry anymore.

She knew logically that the argument wasn’t fully either her or Dana’s fault; it truly did take two people to have an argument.  She did know, however, that they had been fighting much more often lately, and that both were independently guilty at instigating and encouraging different arguments at various points in time.

Alice was too clingy for Dana’s tastes, while Dana wasn’t completely over her ex.  These two facts, coupled with numerous other factors of their environment and relationship, seemed to be at the root of the majority of the couple’s problems.

As the light turned green, Alice pulled forward into the intersection, still biting back tears.  When the sound of squealing brakes and screaming tires met her ears, Alice’s head turned to greet the sound, her eyes widening in horror as she saw the giant semi barreling through the intersection toward her.

The semi smashed into the driver’s side of the Mini and kept going, the little car stuck to its front end.  Alice’s scream was drowned out by the sound of the truck coming to a shuddering stop, sending the Mini flipping end over end into the air.