“Fuck!”
Hang on. Ride it out.
I glance over at my Dodge, thanking my lucky stars that sheparked right next to me, reaching for my phone as I hit the gas, but it’s no use. She’s not picking up. I call again. And again. I overtake everything that stands between me and her, closing the gap between us and pummeling the horn, trying to pull ahead—anything to get her to stop and listen.
I hit dial again, and when her voice comes booming through the speaker, my heart skips a beat.
“Leave me the fuck alone, Lewis!”
“Stop!”
She’s not slowing down. If anything, she’s going faster and faster now, and if she doesn’t cut it out, this could get dangerous. She flips me the finger.
“You need to stop!” I yell, pulling closer behind her. “We need to talk.”
“There’s nothing left to say.”
I breathe in sharply. I need to get her to hear me out. What she heard—what shethinksshe heard… My world has been turned upside down, and I can’t even think how to start. I feel… What do I feel, exactly? Helpless. Guilty. Full of regret that I let things get this far.
“You’re mad!” I yell. “I get that—and you’re right to be. But you need to slow down. This is out of control; you can’t drive like this.”
She doesn’t reply. I glance down at my phone to check, and she’s definitely still on the line.
“Say something, Amy!”
“There’s nothing I want to say. I just want you to forget all about me.”
We’re approaching an intersection, and as the light turns red, this is my one shot at catching up to her.
Why won’t she just slow down?
“Amy, don’t do this…”
She doesn’t listen, and I watch in horror as the Pontiac blows straight through.
“Fuck!”
I close my eyes for the smallest split second. And then I follow.
“You’re fucking insane!” I yell. “This isn’t worth risking your life over. You want to end up like your dad? You could kill someone!”
“Shut the hell up!” she screams. “Who thefuckdo you think you are? If I’d known the real you, I wouldneverhave opened up to you about my dad!”
She sounds different now.
And that’s when it hits me.
She’s crying.
Something inside me breaks, my heart filling with everything I was so sure I never wanted to feel.
She heads for the freeway, veering off at the next exit onto a wide, empty road. The distance between us is stretching wider and wider as she pushes the Pontiac hard, and with every inch I fall back, the sense that I’m losing her deepens. I’ve never chased a girl before, but that’s exactly what I need to do now. I can’t let her go. I just can’t.It finally happened to you, too, Conley.
“I fucked up. But I thought—”
I don’t have time to finish my sentence. A spine-chilling bang echoes across the line, and my blood turns to ice.The tires. What did RJ say about the tires…
I hear Amy call out, and a second later, my worst nightmare comes true when the Pontiac lurches left, Amy wrestling with the steering wheel as her head snaps to one side; the air fills with screams and the whole world stands still.
