“I just… I need…”
Tempest grabs my shoulders and makes me look at her. “What happened, Callie? What did he do? What’d he say to you?”
I look at her, into her gray eyes, so much like her brother’s. “I love him.”
Sympathy overcomes her features. “I know.”
“He used me.”
“What?”
I have to wait for this pain in my chest to pass before I can speak. “H-he said he used me. Against Ledger. He did it all to mess with him. So he could win at soccer.”
Her eyes are wide. “Oh God.”
“I don’t… I don’t know how to stop this.”
“Stop what?”
“This pain,” I whisper. “I don’t know how to make it stop hurting.”
She hugs me then. “Oh, Callie. I’m so sorry. I’m…” She moves away from me. “Listen, Callie, my brother, I love him, okay? I love him to pieces, but he has a major self-destructive streak. He can be… toxic and –”
“Will you bring his keys to me?” I ask, cutting her off.
“Keys to his Mustang?”
“The thing he loves the most.”
She studies me for a few seconds before nodding with determination. “Yeah. I will. Just wait here.”
And I do.
And she does too.
She does bring me the keys after a few seconds and I don’t ask her how she did it. How she swiped her brother’s keys.
All I do is get inside his car and despite my many protests, Tempest gets inside too. All I do is start his car and drive away.
I’m sixteen now so I can get my driver’s license.
In fact, Con was going to take me for my test next weekend and he’s been teaching me for the past few months. Ledger has been teaching me too.
Him too.
He’s the one who taught me to drive stick. He’s the one who taught me that in his Mustang.
So this isn’t the first time I’m driving this car.
Although this is the first time I’m driving it to this place.
I’ve been to this place before. With my brothers and a couple of times with my friends.
Never with him though.
I regret that.
It would’ve been poetic. Me driving to a place in his stolen car that we used to visit together.
