What Happened to Aubrey Navarro

Jenna Sinclair was sitting in her office cubicle with her headset on when her coworker, Tiffany, popped up over the cubicle wall, her eyes glimmering with urgency.

“Yes, people run into that issue all the time,” said Jenna into her headset. “Is there anything else I can assist you with, Mr. Davies?” While Jenna was taking in the response over her headset, she put up a finger to let Tiffany know to wait one moment longer. “Sounds great, Mr. Davies. I was happy to help. Have a great day.” Jenna pushed the button to end the call and removed her headset.

“You’re never going to believe this,” said Tiffany the moment Jenna’s headset left her ears. “Aubrey Navarro was just in a car accident. She was pronounced dead on the scene.”

Jenna put a hand over her mouth in shock. She removed her hand and said, “No way. You have to be kidding.”

Tiffany shook her head and said, “Sorry, girl.”

“But she was my favorite InstaFashionista,” replied Jenna.

“I know,” said Tiffany. “She was everybody’s favorite. I wouldn’t be surprised if they told us to go home early today. I mean, everyone’s talking about it, we’ll be completely distracted.”

“Sending us home early?” said Jenna, raising her eyebrows. “You must be out of it if you think that’s going to happen.” Jenna heard a faint ping come from her headset, and a flashing window popped up on one of the monitor screens.

Tiffany looked at the screen and said, “Ugh! They never end.”

“They never do,” said Jenna. She slid her headset back on while Tiffany wandered off. Jenna clicked the green button in the window that had appeared on her screen and spoke into her headset, “Good morning, and thank you for calling TrueCare Solutions. My name is Jenna, and I’m happy to help you. How may I be of service today?”

After a couple more hours of office drudgery, Jenna walked into the break room, pulled her salad she had brought from home out of the fridge, and sat down at one of the tables. Armed with her fork in one hand and her phone in the other, Jenna ate her salad while scrolling through the Buzzbook app on her phone. She saw a post from a girl she went to high school with who was having another baby, she saw a post from a guy she hooked up with a month ago who never called her back, she even saw an add for a concert she had been talking about with Tiffany the day before, but Jenna couldn’t find a single post about Aubrey Navarro dying. As Jenna continued her hunt on Buzzbook, her office mom, Tammy, walked into the break room.

“Hey, hun,” said Tammy. “How’s the day been?”

“It’s been alright,” replied Jenna, looking up at Tammy without dropping her phone or her fork. “Did Tiffany tell you about Aubrey Navarro?”

Tammy placed a hand over her chest, gasped, and said, “Oh my word. Tiffany had already heard about it when I spoke to her. I heard about it through the great vine and couldn’t believe my ears. That poor girl. It’s just unbelievable.”

“I know, right?” said Jenna. “I thought it’d be the main thing people are talking about, but I can’t find anything about it on Buzzbook.”

“Oh, hun. Everyone in the office is talking about it,” said Tammy. “That poor girl. She was just driving along, and some drunk driver smashes right into her car. She was gone before the paramedics even got there. Do you know how old she was?”

“25,” said Jenna. “Same as me.”

Tammy shook her head and said, “Prime of her life. What a shame.”

That evening, Jenna was sitting on her couch, eating a leftover slice of pizza, and watching a sitcom she had seen in its entirety two times before. She picked up her phone and started scrolling through Buzzbook, once again on the hunt for any information on Aubrey Navarro’s accident, and once again not finding a thing. Frustrated and determined to find some comments about what happened to her idol, Jenna left her Buzzbook app and went over to her ReelMe app, searching for videos of people giving their takes and sorrows about the tragic death of such a promising young woman, but once again, there was nothing to be found on the death of Aubrey Navarro. Jenna heard a key unlocking the door to her apartment, and when she looked over, she saw her roommate, Megan, walking in.

“I’m starving,” said Megan. “Is there any of that pizza left?”

“This is the last of it,” Jenna said, sheepishly. “Sorry.”

Megan flopped on the couch next to Jenna, took the slice of pizza out of her hand, and took a bite. Still chewing, Megan said, “You don’t need to be sorry. It’s still good.”

“Uh… wow,” said Jenna, amused. “Hey, did you hear about Aubrey Navarro?”

“Oh my God, yes,” said Megan excitedly, before taking another bite of the pizza. “I hope they lock up that asshole who was driving her and forget where they put the key. He deserves to rot.”

“Driving her?” said Jenna. “Tammy told me Aubrey was driving, and the driver who hit her was drunk.”

Megan blew raspberries and said, “Tammy might have been drunk, but I promise you, Aubrey wasn’t driving. My cousin told me that Aubrey was with some guy who had been drinking for hours, and he forced her to let him drive.”

Jenna looked at her phone and said, “Really? I haven’t been able to find a single thing about it on Buzzbook all day. Did you share anything about it?”

Finishing up the pizza slice, Megan said, “Not yet. I want to say something meaningful, ya know. So I want to think about it a little bit first. Unlike these bitches who start pouring out their hearts the second they hear sad news.” Megan stood from the couch and continued, “I’m going to take a shower,” before walking off to her room. Jenna lifted her phone and went back to Buzzbook.

The next day was Saturday, which allowed Jenna hours to spend intimately with her apps in the morning, hunting for anyone’s comments on the death of Aubrey Navarro, but just like the previous day, she was coming up with nothing. Frustrated with her lack of results, Jenna decided to treat herself for her efforts and walked to her favorite cafe, The Daily Grind. There, she enjoyed a mocha with a blueberry muffin, but that delicious combo wasn’t enough to take her mind off the lack of comments she could find on Aubrey Navarro.

The day was sunny and warm, so Jenna made a detour on her path home and stopped in Meadowlark Park. She walked along the park’s trail for a little while before stopping to sit on an empty bench by the pond. Unable to help herself, Jenna pulled out her phone, went straight to Buzzbook, and scrolled, hoping desperately to find at least one person talking about what happened to her idol. 

While Jenna continued to scroll, an elderly man shuffled up to her bench where she was sitting and said, “Hello, young lady.” Jenna was so focused on Buzzbook that the man startled her. The elderly man continued, “May I sit here?” pointing at the space on the bench. 

Jenna looked up at him, threw on an awkward smile, and said, “I’m sorry. Go right ahead.”

The elderly man nodded, sat down carefully, and stared out at the pond. After a moment, he turned to Jenna and said, “It’s a lovely day to be out, isn’t it?”

Keeping up her awkward smile, Jenna replied to the elderly man, “Oh, yes, sir. I was walking home and thought it’d be nice to stop in the park.”

“Can’t argue with you there,” said the elderly man, “but I can argue with you calling me ‘sir.’ My name is Harold, Harold O’Malley, but you can call me Hal. Everybody does.”

Hal stuck out his hand to Jenna. She grasped it and they shook as Jenna said, “Nice to meet you, Hal. I’m Jenna.”

“Jenna,” said Hal as the handshake ended. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet a fine young lady like yourself, Jenna, on a beautiful day like this. Sitting here, taking some time to soak in life. You know, not all girls your age are like that. A lot of them these days try to speed run through life, like you get some kind of reward for making it to the end faster than everyone else. I just heard about this young woman who was driving drunk and got herself killed. Navarro something. Makes me sad thinking what this world is coming to.”

“Aubrey Navarro?” said Jenna.

“Yeah, I think that was it,” replied Hal. “Sad story.”

“Are you on Buzzbook?” asked Jenna.

“Oh no, “ said Hal. “I’d get lost in all that techie stuff.”

“How did you hear about Aubrey Navarro’s accident?” said Jenna. “Was it on the news?” 

“I wouldn’t know,” said Hal. “I don’t mess around with the news either. They spend all day talking about the same three things. My years are too few to waste a minute on that. I heard about that Navarro girl from just going about my day and talking to people like you.”

“But how do you know what people are saying is true?” asked Jenna.

“I don’t know that it is,” said Hal. “But it sure is interesting.”