It was usually three of us but on this day one of my friends invited another. I knew this new guy fairly well from HS. We hung out in some of the same groups but were never really friends.

He had gotten into a heroin habit, eventually spent a year or two in jail and had gotten out sometime within that past year. Pretty sure it was illegal for him to have a firearm. I wasn't super comfortable with him coming but this other friend was trying to reach out, help him, be there for him, whatever. So I didn't say anything.

We pick him up and he rolls out of his parents house, not with a .22 rifle like the rest of us, but a .40 cal revolver. I'm thinking in my head WTFreak? but only crack some joke about him trying to tag a rabbit with it.

Fast forward to the end of the night and we're ready to head back home. We unload our rifles, put them back in their cases and get ready to roll. I swear I watched him unload his revolver and place it back into the holster but I wasn't paying that close of attention.

As we start making our way towards the main road there is what seems like a massive explosion. Glass goes everywhere. It was so loud and stunning (felt like I had been knocked out for a split second) and it took me a minute to realize what was going on. My hearing is slowly starting to come back and I hear him in the back seat profusely apologizing thinking he had hit one of us. We're all still stunned trying to make sense of what had happened and now checking our bodies for holes and blood.

He claims it was empty and the safety was on (I don't remember the model but I'm pretty sure it didn't have a safety.) Since he thought it was safe he pulled it out of his holster just to look. It was a bumpy dirt road and BAM!

How one of us didn't get tagged? I don't know.

He swore he'd pay for the damage (bullet went through a seat and out the drivers side door, shattering the glass as well) but disappeared shortly after.