“They’ll go check it out.” Briggs gets in the driver’s side while I walk around to the door behind Parker, knowing Finn won’t move over for me.
“What happened?” Parker asks Briggs as he drives off.
“Nothing. I just told them to go check it out.”
“So we’re good,” Finn says, swiping through his phone. “Get rid of Ella so we can go to the party.”
I look at Finn. “You’re going to the party? After what just happened?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“We’re not going,” Briggs says. “We need to go home and figure this shit out.”
“What’s there to figure out?” Finn says. “You already called for an ambulance. What the hell else do we need to do?”
“Figure out a plan if the cops trace this back to us,” Briggs says.
“How would they do that?” Parker asks Briggs. “Nobody saw what happened.”
“There could be evidence left at the scene,” I say, remembering some of the cop shows I’ve watched with my dad.
“Like what?” Parker asks.
“Paint from the car,” Briggs says. “If even a small particle of it got on the guy’s clothes, the forensics people would find it.”
“A lot of cars have this paint,” Finn says.
“Yeah, but they’ll match it up to service records. If you bring this thing to a body shop and the cops have an alert out looking for someone getting that type of paint put on their car, they could trace it back to us.” Briggs looks at Finn in the mirror. “Did you check for any damages?”
“No. I couldn’t see. It was too dark.”
“We’ll check when we get to your house.”
“Wait, what about me?” I say. “You need to drop me off.”
“We need to get rid of this thing first,” Briggs says. “We can’t be driving it around. We’ll drop it off at Finn’s house. Parker’s car is there. He’ll drive us back.”
“Then give me my phone so I can at least text my dad so he knows I’m okay. I can’t worry him like this. After losing my mom, he’s always thinking he’s going to lose me next. He’s probably already called the cops and all the hospitals. Please, just let me text him.”
“You’ll be home in twenty minutes,” Parker says. “He can wait.”
“Let her text him,” Briggs says. “She’s not gonna call the cops. She knows we’d turn on her if she did.” He glances back at me. “She’s not going to risk her future like that.”
Parker reluctantly gives me my phone. I text my dad, letting him know I’m fine and that I’ll explain what happened when I get home.
“You done?” Parker asks, reaching back for my phone.
“She can keep it,” Briggs says. “She’s not going to do anything.”
Parker sits back in his seat. “You trust her more than I do.”
My dad calls me, but I send it to voicemail. He’s going to be angry I didn’t pick up, but I don’t want to talk to him with the guys listening in.
“How’d she die?” Finn says as his thumbs move over his phone.
“Are you talking to me?” I ask.
“Yeah. How’d your mom die?”
