Chapter 2
Marissa shivered as she stepped out into the cold January night
and pulled her coat more tightly around her body.
She
followed behind Shawn as he searched for his big old beater of a car. She noticed that he was weaving from side to
side when he walked.
“Hey,
Luke, look at the way he’s walking,” she whispered, nudging Luke in the side
and motioning to Shawn up ahead of them.
“He shouldn’t be driving. Do you
think you drive us instead?”
“I’m
not fit to drive either, Riss,” Luke replied regrettably. Marissa studied him and realized his normally
bright blue eyes seemed dull and glassy.
He had also had too much to drink.
“Neither
am I,” she said, sighing. “Hey, Kae,
what about you? How much have you had to
drink?”
She
shook her head. “Too much,” she
said. “I… I couldn’t drive like this.”
Marissa
nodded.
“Hey,
guys, over here!” Shawn called, beckoning to them from beside his big gray car.
The
three of them walked over to him, all the while hoping that Shawn could get
them home safely.
***
Nick
turned on the radio in Brian’s car. He
found a good rock station and tapped his hands on the steering wheel to the
beat of the song that was playing.
As
he drove, he tried to remember the directions Brian had given him in order to
get to the video store. Where am I
supposed to turn again? he wondered,
as he drove through an intersection. Was
it right there?
He
sighed, glancing around, trying to figure out where he was. He opened he hadn’t missed his turn. He kept on driving, and soon, he found
himself on a country road. The
commercial area had had been driving through earlier was gone, replaced with a
stretch of nothing but an occasional house here and there. “Shit, I must have missed the turn,” he
muttered aloud. “Now what?”
He
sighed, looking for a safe place to turn around. He could make out a house with a long
driveway just a little ways up the road and decided he’d turn around
there.
***
“Uh,
Shawn, buddy, we’re not in Europe. Could
you maybe stay on the right side of the road?” Luke asked, from behind
the driver’s seat, as they sped down the stretch of country road.
Shawn
threw back his head and laughed wildly, even though Luke’s comment hadn’t been
that funny. He jerked the steering wheel
to the right, making the car swerve back into the right lane.
Since
none of them were wearing their seatbelts, they were thrown against each
other. But they all just started
cracking up.
“Hey,
Riss, turn on the radio,” Kaelyn called from the backseat, next to Luke.
Marissa,
who was in the front passenger seat, turned on the radio. Loud rock music blared from the speakers.
“Much
better!” Kaelyn yelled over the music.
“C’mere,
babe,” Luke said loudly, pulling Kaelyn into his arms.
Shawn
glanced back at them, chuckling as he saw them wrap their arms around each
other. “Hey, now, none of that,” he
cried, swatting at them playfully, as Luke lowered his face to Kaelyn’s.
“Stop
it!” Kaelyn squealed, giggling. Shawn
laughed as well.
It
was Marissa’s scream that cut their laughter short. “Shawn, watch out!”
Shawn
whirled around, but not soon enough. He
had unknowingly drifted back into the left lane, and suddenly, a small sports
car was coming up the road, heading right towards him. He jerked the wheel to the right, trying to
swerve to avoid hitting the car. He managed
to avoid hitting it head on, but he didn’t get out of the way fast enough.
As
the car hurtled toward them, Luke caught site of the driver’s face, illuminated
by the headlights of both cars. His
eyes met with the driver’s terrified blue ones, as his car, unable to stop,
slammed into the side of Shawn’s car.
Luke could feel the metal of the car crushing
in on him and the excruciating pain that shot through his body from all
directions. He heard the screams of his
friends, ringing over the horrible shattering of the windows and crunching of
the doors. And then, as his eyes closed
and his body fell limp, he heard no more.
***
Nick
had slammed on his brakes in a desperate attempt to stop before he hit the
oncoming car that was in the wrong lane, but he knew there was not enough
time.
As
his car smashed into the side of the other one, his whole body was thrown
forward, held back from plunging through the windshield only by his
seatbelt. But the seatbelt didn’t stop
his head from banging into the steering wheel with so much force that
immediately, Nick was jolted into unconsciousness.
***
