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“Because we’ve been on this campus all year and never do anything but study and work. We’re in college, for goodness’ sake. We should be having fun, too.”
I liked my life. It was safe and predictable. Wasn’t it? After the weird lunch I’d had with Axel yesterday and seeing how Jeanette looked at me like it was completely inconceivable that Axel would actually be interested in me, maybe there was a part of me that did want to venture out and live a little. Of course, I never would’ve gone out without my bestie, Lizzie Goldman, convincing me to go. Well, she was a dramatic arts major and was very persuasive when she set her mind to it.
However, accidentally throwing the car into drive instead of reverse was not on my agenda tonight. “Ohhhhh, god. My mom and dad will kill me if they find out.” My parents had given me this car when I turned eighteen, and I’d already had two wrecks in the past six months—in my defense, one wasn’t my fault—but my dad had complained about how the insurance premiums shot up after each one.
If they found out I’d hit a parked car, they would take away my car and forbid me to drive again. Not to mention if they knew where it happened… at the Sky Lounge, a twenty-one and over club. Lizzie had hooked us up with fake IDs. I’d never ever been to a party, much less a club. I was a goner.
“Come on, Nat. Maybe it’s not that bad.” Lizzie opened the passenger door, and I followed suit, squinting my eyes in fear as I crept forward. My optimism nosedived when I heard her say, “Oh, no. It’s bad.” She gnawed at her bottom lip. Both of our cars were smashed together like a front-end sandwich, and the debris from the headlights was sprinkled all over the pavement like confetti.
I dropped my head and rubbed my eyes. “I can’t believe this. What am I going to do? I’m screwed. I’m so screwed.” I fought the tears threatening to fall. “I can’t tell my parents about this. They’ll jerk me out of school. They’ll keep me locked up in my room, and I’ll never…”
“What the fuck happened?” a deep, familiar voice growled from behind me.
My head popped up, and confusion settled over me. What was he doing here? I watched warily as Axel slowly prowled closer. He pulled up beside me with a hand at his chin, and his eyes zeroed in on the damage in front of us. He seemed far more concerned than an innocent bystander.
“Please tell me this isn’t your car,” I croaked, somehow knowing it was.
He exhaled sharply and stepped closer, slowly scanning the damage to his sleek BMW and the bashed in hood of my practical Toyota sedan. Broken plastic crunched under his shoes. He stood frozen for a few seconds before he asked quietly, “Are you going to tell me what happened?” He smoothed a hand over the bashed front end of his car before he casually turned back to me, waiting for an explanation.
Hoping for a miracle, holding out hope that this was only a bad dream, I gazed at my friend, who watched silently like a deer caught in headlights. So much for my lifeline helping me out. Time to face the music. I licked my lips. “It was an accident.”
“No shit,” he rasped. “You hit a parked car directly in front of you. How the hell did you manage that?”
I was so distraught; I ignored his sarcasm. “We were leaving the club, and I thought I’d put the car in reverse… I’m not used to driving in these heels, and my foot slipped… and I guess I put the car in drive…” I was babbling like an idiot, but it was the truth. “I’m sorry. I promise it was an accident.”
“Hold up. Hold up.” By now, he was facing me with a hand in the air, halting my words. He took a minute to study me from the top of my head, to my strapless minidress, and down to the high heels I wore. “You were here tonight?”
Oh, god. Was he going to use this against me? What if he found out I was underage? My heart was racing, and he kept staring at me like I was some weird specimen. Maybe he was going to call the police and keep me here to file a report. “Were you?” he stressed.
I smoothed a hand over my forehead. “Yes.”
He took a few steps closer and tilted his head. His expression was impartial, and his voice was calm. “I didn’t know you were someone to frequent a club.”
“I’m not—not really. This was my first time.” Why were we discussing this? Shouldn’t he be shouting at me for wrecking his expensive sports car?
“Your first time…” His voice was gravelly as he continued to study me.
“My first time to go to a club, and I was leaving. Then this happened.” I held out my hand in hopelessness, like I was about to lose the battle of holding in my tears. I rubbed at the corner of my eye, certain I smeared the damn eyeliner I had on. “I’m so sorry.” I choked the words out, hating how I sounded so pathetic.
“Mm-hmm,” he murmured in thought. “It was an accident, right?” He lifted a shoulder as if it wasn’t a big deal and spoke in that calm cadence he always seemed to have. “Just give me your insurance information—”
“No!”
His brows drew in, probably thinking I was crazy and desperate, which I was. “You don’t have insurance?”
“Yes. I do.” I licked my lips nervously. “I do have insurance.”
“So, what’s the problem?”
My shoulders slumped. “I don’t want my parents to find out.”
He stood silently for several moments, and my anxiety rose with each passing second. I felt a tear dipping down my cheek, and I turned away before he could see. Gah, why was I so emotional? Because I was about to lose my car and my college life at Hillside. I was being slightly dramatic, but it seemed like a real possibility.
“Why? It was an accident.”
“Because…” I shook my head. “They wouldn’t understand,” I breathed out. “I’m done here if they find out.”Why did I tell him that?
“What do you mean?”
