“Uh huh,” Keith said with sarcasm.
“I guess it’s our turn,” I said.
Darren held up his peach and clinked it with mine.“Cheers.”We both plunged into our peaches.Mine tasted sweet with a hint of tartness.The fur of the peach skin tickled my face.It was ripe, juicy, and did not gush on me.The peach was perfect.It didn’t even need a pinch of sugar.I debated with myself if stealing was worth it.A peach like that was rare.I rotated my torso toward Darren to address him.“How was your peach?”
“It was okay.Tastes like an average peach.”
I wanted to tell him that mine was spectacular and made me feel like life was worth living.I didn’t because Mason frantically tried shoving the key in the ignition hole as his hands shook.
“Are you okay, Mason?”I asked.
“You guys might want to hold on.We have company,” he said, shooting his head back.
“Great, it’s Sheriff Douglas,” Darren said, grinding his teeth.
Mason put his foot on the gas pedal and brought it down to the floor.The bus plowed forward at full speed.Mason yanked the wheel.
Tonya’s body weight slammed into Darren, and Darren slammed into me.I was being smothered.As quickly as we fell, we were jerked to the opposite side.My body felt relieved, because Tonya was holding our weight.
Once the bus was turned around, we gained momentum.We were driving down the dirt path at eighty miles per hour.I wanted to scream.How did I get myself into a mess like that?Before then, I never lied to a cop, let alone got in a high-speed chase.
“I’m scared, too,” Darren whispered in my ear.
Of course Darren was worried.He had unfeasible expectations to live up to, and his dad would be ashamed of him.If Gabriel found out he stole, he would hide Darren in the basement and make him babysit for the rest of his life.Sheriff Douglas may not have known me, but he knew Darren and Darren’s family.Sometimes, I got lost in my problems and worries and forgot the people around me worried, too.
Every turn felt like Mason was beating us with a whisk to make scrambled eggs.I wasn’t even sure that running away was the most successful tactic.We could have lied or hidden again.
Tonya yelled at Mason, “Would you quit giving us whiplash?Do you even have a plan?”
“Yes, I have a plan.Stolen peaches are not the worst thing a cop can find on this bus!”he screamed.I was not an idiot.I knew everyone smoked weed and did drugs, especially rockstars.Still, I liked to think that The Matches were different.Drugs were far from my mind.The only time I thought about them was when my school held say no to drug assemblies, where I was forced to see its dire consequences.
“I didn’t even think about Jesse’s pot,” Tonya said with a sigh.
Keith shook his head.“What’s the plan, Mason?”
“I am going to lose him when the road breaks into two.I am not going to endanger a couple of kids,” he said, focusing all of his attention on the road.
I hated it when people just saw us as kids.I like being naive.I chose to be that way.My sister grew up too fast.Maybe if she didn’t, she would have actually hung out with me.I tried to be a kid for as long as I could possibly be.
When we drove through the fork in the road, Mason acted as if he was going to go straight.At the very last second, he jerked the bus to the other road.The instruments and gear in the back clashed together as the bus’s wheels rose into the air and landed back on the right path.Sheriff Douglas’s car zoomed past us, its lights flashing a warning.He was chasing nothing except the night sky.It wasn’t hard to outsmart Douglas.
“See, I always know what I am doing.I take care of the band,” Mason said.He leaned back in the driver’s seat to take a break and wiped the sweat off of his forehead crease.Finally, he placed his hand on the passenger seat’s headrest, put the bus in reverse, and drove back to camp using the lesser-known roads.
Sheriff Douglas was not the most intelligent creature in Moose Creek, but it was odd that he turned away from us.Maybe he needed more energy to deal with us and fill out the paperwork for the report.Either way, I didn’t want to know.I was just grateful we escaped without a scratch.
“You two, okay?”Mason prodded.
“Yeah.I’m glad we didn’t get caught,” Darren said, breathing heavily.His dad terrified him.
“Yeah, I don’t think that cops are our real problem.Let’s hope that Jesse is calm enough to talk when we return,” Keith said.
