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Sure, I didn’t have a lot of experience driving, but I had my license.
My hands shook as I unlocked the car, my fast breaths visible in the cold night air. I glanced up at the house, half expecting to see him standing in the doorway, but he wasn’t there.
Tugging open the door, I slid into the driver’s seat. My blonde hair bounced over my shoulders, and my skirt danced up around my thighs. I sucked in the cold air, feeling a heady rush, but I was ready to do this.
Wasting no time, I turned the key in the ignition. The car gave a throaty roar, the sound deafening in the silent night. The dashboard lights lit up, and I killed the lights for now. I didn’t have time to second guess myself or to be found.
All that mattered was Emma.
I reversed out of the driveway, the wheels crunching on the gravel. As I sped down the street, flipping the lights on, I glanced one last time at the house. He wasn’t coming out, shouting at me. I breathed easier, focusing on the drive.
The trip was a blur.
Overfilled trash cans littered the curbs, and streetlights gave the silent streets an eerie vibe. The purr of the Charger’s engine had morphed into a low growl, mimicking my mounting panic.
My hands trembled, knuckles bone-white against the dark leather-wrapped steering wheel. Each breath I took was a fight, my heart pounding against my ribs. I wasn’t a reckless driver, but all I could think about was getting to my friend.
I hit the gas pedal harder.
I understood her fear. My stepdad left me alone at home for weeks on end while he traveled for work. He didn’t have a nine-to-five job and always had people coming over all hours of the day and night. I never asked what he actually did and didn’t want to know what he was involved in.
Speeding along, a corner loomed ahead. I took it a bit too fast, the tires suddenly skidding, and the world started to spin on its axis around me. Crying out, I held the steering so hard it hurt while the car careened sideways.
Then I saw it—the white wooden fence to Emma’s house, standing in my path. Time seemed to slow. I screamed, stomping down on the brakes, the tires screeching louder that time, but it was too late.
With a brutal crash, the Charger tore right through the fence, splintering wood flying in every direction. The car finally lurched to a stop in the yard feet from the front door, the engine’s growl dying.
Stunned and almost in tears, I sat there, my hands still with a death grip on the steering wheel, my heart trying to break through my ribcage.
Fuck. My stepdad was going to murder me and make me suffer for eternity when he found out I crashed his car. And I destroyed Emma’s fence, leaving a gaping hole in the middle of it.
“Oh God, oh God,” I whimpered. I’d made things a million times worse.
My reflection in the rearview mirror belonged to a stranger—someone terrified and pale-faced. Someone I didn’t recognize because the reality of how bad I’d made things was almost too much to bear.
Everything was happening too fast.
The front house lights flipped on, and the front door of the cottage-like house suddenly flew open.
Emma’s uncle emerged, his face twisted in anger, a towering figure with a grizzly mountain man’s body and a full beard streaked with silver. His red-rimmed gaze grew wide, and it was clear he’d been drinking—just as Emma had said.
He stood there frozen at first, staring in disbelief at the wreckage and at me in the car. Recognizing me, his gaze transformed into something darker, more dangerous. He’d never been a nice person, seeming to detest me when I normally came over to visit Emma. Icy eyes narrowed on me, jaw clenched, and he stepped closer.
Trembling, I unbuckled my seatbelt and pushed open the door, knowing I had to face him. Standing up, my legs felt like jelly.
“What the fuck have you done?” he slurred his words, his hands clenched at his side, and “Why are you here in the middle of the damn night?”
I was very aware of how close he was, how much he scared me.
“I-I…” The knot in my throat threatened to choke me. My mind spun, scrambling with ideas about how to protect Emma without sealing her fate. “I lost control of the car,” I admitted truthfully. “I’m so sorry. I promise I will pay for the damage, Mr. Henderson.”
His response was a snarl, cutting through the night. “You’re going to pay for every last cent to get this fixed, along with the trauma you’ve caused my niece and me,” he grunted. He kicked a loose piece of his fence. “For scaring us half to death that you were going to crash into the house and kill us.”
His accusation left me reeling. Was he kidding me?
“That’s a bit extreme,” I blurted, which gained me a sneer.
Amid the chaos, I noticed Emma slipping outside, her face pale and her glistening gaze filled with terror as she took in my accident. Her dark red hair was a tousled mess, and just below her eye a fresh bruise was already purple against her fair skin. Her gaze clashed with mine, a painful expression on her face.
