I want him there next game.
The radiator ticked in agreement, and sleep took the rest.
Chapter 8
The Assist
Austen
The check engine light was the first variable to fail.The steering column was the second.
I was somewhere on Route 9, a stretch of asphalt that felt less like a road and more like a river of gray slush.The rain wasn’t falling; it was being driven sideways by a vindictive October wind.
My 2014 Camry shuddered.The dashboard flickered—green, amber, dead—then the engine cut out completely.
Momentum carried me to the shoulder.I wrestled the wheel, tires crunching onto gravel, and came to a stop on the side of the road.
Silence.
No hum of the heater.No NPR.The sound of rain hammering the roof like a thousand tiny fists.
“No,” I whispered, gripping the wheel.“No, no, no.”
I turned the key.The starter clicked—a dry, hollow sound.Click.Click.
Battery?Alternator.Definitely alternator.
I rested my forehead against the cold steering wheel.I ran the numbers.My bank account balance was $842.15.The tow truck would be $150 minimum.The diagnostic fee $90.The part $200.Labor $120 per hour.
$842.15 minus approximately $600.
That left $242.15 to survive until the end of the semester.I’d hoped to stretch my summer earnings across the finish line, but the car gods had demanded a sacrifice in the form of a new alternator.That buffer was gone.I didn’t want the distraction, but I didn’t have a choice.I was going to have to pick up tutoring shifts again.
Panic, cold and sharp, spiked in my chest.I had a plan.My safety net.And now it was scrap metal.
I pulled out my phone to call a tow truck.And I had no bars.Of course, my car would die in a dead zone.I leaned forward and hit my head against the steering wheel.
I got out of the car.The wind hit instantly, soaking my hoodie in seconds.I knew where a garage was nearby, so I braced myself against the weather and started hiking.
Forty minutes later, the verdict was in.The shop was closed.The tow truck was “delayed due to weather.”
I had two options.
Wait two hours for the bus, walk a mile in the sleet to campus, and leave the car to get towed/impounded.
Call someone.
I didn’t have “someone.”I had colleagues.I had professors.I had Maya, but her Mini Cooper was in the shop, and she was terrified of driving in rain, anyway.
I pulled out my phone.My thumb hovered overRoommate (Luke).
