The time was ticking down. My friends, Haley and Libby, and at the time basketball teammates and I couldn’t wait for the time to get down to zero. Time felt like it had come to a complete stop. On the court next to us the other half of our team was warming up to play after us. Time was slowly ticking away as we got more and more exhausted. Finally the buzzer went off and we flew off the court. I waved good luck to my friend Sarah who was playing next, and ran off. It was the day we had all been waiting for, the opening night of The Hunger Games.
Haley Libby and I sprinted around the high school we had played at scouring every door for the bathroom sign. Adrenaline was coursing through us and we were moving so fast no one could have guessed that we had just played a whole basketball game. Once we found the bathrooms we started switching into our Hunger Games gear frantically. It was finally the day we had been waiting for. As we rushed past the mirrors we didn’t even glance at how bad our hair probably looked. We didn’t care.

As we were searching for our parents I was filled with pure excitement. A million questions were running through my head. Will we get good seats? Will it be packed? I’m starving; I wonder if anyone has food? Are we going to get there on time?

As we piled into the minivan, Libby’s mom forced some food into our hands and waved goodbye. We gulfed down the food and we were just bouncing off the walls with anticipation. The night was going to be perfect. 20 of our friends sitting together to watch the movie we had all been counting down the days to see.

We pulled into the parking lot and before my mom had the chance to fully stop the car we were out. We sprinted as fast as we could straight to the theater. Everyone was already there. The theater was packed like sardines! Luckily our friends had saved us three seats. So we sat down and were getting all situated when I noticed the only person not here was Sarah.

I told Haley, “Sarah’s not here…. She should have been here by now.”

Haley replied, “Yeah, it’s probably nothing she’ll be here any minute,”

We were just discussing what we thought would be left out of the movie and just bouncing in our chairs waiting for it to begin. Our toes were tapping and our hands were shaking. Haley and I decided to turn our sound off on our phones so that’d we’d have something to do. We both had coincidently also then just left our phones on our lap.

A few minutes later both Haley and I’s phones vibrated in complete synchronization. We sort of looked at each other suspiciously and opened our text. Both of our jaws dropped. Literally. Our eyes couldn’t believe what they had just seen. The text was from Sarah who still hadn’t showed up. It read, “On the way to the hospital I think I broke my foot.”

As we looked around all of the red seats and walls turned gray. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that everyone was reading a text and they all had very similar reactions.

I turned to Haley and whispered, “No…. it can’t be broken, what? How? Just no. It can’t be.”
Haley jokingly said, “Maybe it’s an early April Fools prank,”

I tried to force a laugh but I was in shock a little bit. The whole rest of the time until the movie started all we could say was; “Well now I’m depressed.”

Eventually the lights started to be dimmed and all thoughts of Sarah and hospitals left my head and I was in my own personal bubble. I was completely 100% focused on the movie and nothing else.

Towards the middle of the movie one of everyone’s favorite characters died. I glanced to the right down at all my friends. Libby had tears rolling down her face, Haley and I both noticed and looked at each other at burst into an uproar of giggles. Libby shot us an angry look and wiped the tears away. Haley and I were smiling for the rest of the movie because once it was over we knew Libby would have something to tell us. Right when we got out of the movie Libby yelled, “You guys are so heartless!”

Of course this only made us laugh harder. As we were standing outside just chatting getting ready to go, my phone started ringing. I looked down at the bright little screen and saw Sarah’s smiling face pop up. I answered the phone and yelled, “Saaaaaarrrrrrraaaaaahhh! Where are you? Are you okay? How did it happen?”

Sarah answered quietly, “I’m fine, and I’m on my way home from the hospital. It’s broken.”

I answered, with less enthusiasm, “No! You’re my soccer buddy! Oh well I guess I can forgive you, so how’d it happen?”

In a monotonous tone Sarah replied, “During the game a player on the other team stepped on my foot and I tried to pull my foot out and it popped.”

I sadly said back, “Oh I’m so sorry! I’ll call you later.”

I filled everyone else in on Sarah and then it really sunk in how tired I was. The whole night had just flown by and the entire time I just had a feeling that something was missing. Or to be more exact someone. Who knows what the night would have been like if Sarah hadn’t broken her foot, maybe someone else would have gotten hurt. All I learned was when something, or someone, isn’t there who normally is even if you don’t think about it; a piece of the puzzle is missing.