The day ofRyder’s graduation was one of the worst Carly remembered in a long time. Her day started with sending a text to Ryder begging him to talk to her or at least let her attend his commencement. She’d received a terse response. “Don’t ever want to see u. U r not welcome at graduation.” When she tried to reply, she discovered he’d blocked her.
Unable to bear missing her brother graduate, she’d sneaked into the VFW hall wearing a cheap Walmart wig. Then she hid in the back, partially concealed by a pillar, while she prayed Ryder couldn’t see her.
When the mayor started announcing graduates’ names, she listened and waited. The names rattled in her head. Jana Leona Lister. Michael Alan Lutz, Jr. Carly peered around the pillar. Her heart pounding with pride in her brother for all he’d had to overcome, she held her breath, her gaze locked on the stage. Ryder James Maddux.
After watching him receive his diploma, she crept from the hall, tears streaming down her face.
Now tonight, she sat alone on the couch in Reese’s house wearing her pajamas covered with crabs and the words “Crabby in the morning,” her legs curled under her, pretending to watch a predictable made-for-TV horror movie.
If Owen were here, he’d give her the business for watching this one. While she loved horror films, he detested them. For every one he watched, she had to suffer through a shoot-’em-up-action film. Carly glanced at the screen to see the stupid teenager characters taunting the “backwoods hillbillies” in the rusty rattle trap pickup. One particularly brainless female popped through the sunroof, only to get decapitated by a huge branch. She could imagine what Owen would’ve said about that scene,That chick is too stupid to live. She couldn’t hang out the window where it would be safer?Then he’d have turned to her and bet her ten dollars that none of the teenagers survived the movie. Tears filled her eyes. Again. Her phone rang, pulling her away from her thoughts, but when she glanced at the screen, she saw Owen’s name. Her heart pounded with excitement, staring at her phone. Part of her feared answering and finding out why he called. Her phone skidded across the end table. What did it matter why he called she thought as she snatched up her cell.
“Ryder would be ticked if he knew about this, but you and your dad need to know,” Owen said after she answered.
She swallowed hard and her heart shrank as the hope he’d called to ask her to reconsider ending things flickered and fizzled out. He called because of Ryder. Then what Owen said sank in. “Ryder? What’s wrong? Is he okay?”
Owen explained when Dylan went to leave a graduation party, Ryder said he was in no shape to drive and offered him a ride. On the way home, Dylan grew paranoid and insisted Ryder leave the highway to outrun the car he imagined following them. “When Ryder wouldn’t, Dylan grabbed the steering wheel and sent them into a ditch.”
“Are they hurt?” She couldn’t keep the panic from her voice. She couldn’t lose Ryder before she fixed their relationship.
“They’re fine. Thankfully, they were both wearing seat belts. I’ll pick them up and call a tow truck.”
“Where are they? I’ll meet you.”
“That’s not smart. Ryder still doesn’t want anything to do with you.”
“I know, but—”
“I’ve got to call a tow truck and head out. I’ll update you when I get them home.”
Boy, when she messed up her life, she did a first-rate job.
“You meet Ryder. Tell me where he and Dylan are. I’ll call the tow.”
“That’s all you’ll do?”
Crossing her fingers, she said, “I know where I’m not wanted.”
*
When Owen arrivedat old highway fifty-one and FM 653, Dylan was darting around a tree, fending off imaginary attackers with what looked like a broken fence slat, while Ryder hovered nearby. When he joined Ryder, he asked, “What did Dylan take?”
“I don’t know. I asked, but he wouldn’t say.”
“How about you? What’ve you taken tonight?”
“All I’ve had is a couple of beers.”
“Drugs?”
“Nothing. I swear. Not since the bowling alley.” Ryder nodded toward his friend. “When he started acting weird, I couldn’t leave him. Everything was okay until he thought someone was following us.”
“You’re helping a buddy who’s not able to care for himself. That’s a damn fine quality to have.”
“That’s why I called you. I knew you’d get it. The last thing I need is a lecture,” Ryder said.
“I said you can count on me no matter what, and I meant it. Let’s get him in my truck. Then we’ll call his parents and either take him home or meet them at the hospital.”
They approached Dylan still circling the tree fending off imaginary attackers. “Get away from me,” Dylan screamed as he lunged in Owen’s direction waving the wood.
