Crashing Into You Read online

  “Oh yes! Yes! Oh, Evan! Oh—”

  The driver’s side door shot open, and someone sat in the front seat.

  When the door slammed shut, I accidentally kicked Evan in the shoulder. “What?” I shouted. “Is someone there?”

  Someone turned on the ignition, and started backing up the car.

  “What the fuck?” Evan said.

  I pulled my underwear up, just as the driver hit the brakes and catapulted Evan's head against the back window.

  “Oww!” he screamed, and landed on top of me.

  I tried to push him away. He was too heavy. “Evan! Evan, get up! We have to get out of the car!”

  But it was too late; the driver pulled out of the parking lot and floored my Sportage down the main road, toward the university exit. I reached for the side door handle. Locked.

  “Everyone just calm down,” a voice said from the front seat.

  I looked up at her. “No. Oh no, no, no—”

  “Hi Sydney,” Michelle said. She shot me a crazed smile, as she reached back, and patted the top of my head. “Let's take a little drive.”

  Chapter 34

  “Unlock the door, Michelle!”

  “No.”

  “Unlock the door right now!” I screamed.

  “I don’t think so.” She sped up. I looked out the windshield, as she blew through a stop sign. The rain pounded against the car. She had the wipers on full blast.

  “Michelle, stop the car! You don't have to do this!”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, still slurring her words, still drunk off the tequila. She glanced back at me for a measly second. “Did I just ruin your little moment?”

  Evan leaned against the driver’s seat. “Michelle. Please. Think about what you're doing—”

  “Shut up, Evan. I know exactly what I’m doing.”

  He pounded his fist against the center console. “Stop this car right now, goddammit! You’re gonna kill us!”

  “Good,” she said. “You deserve to die for what you did to my sister.”

  “But I didn’t do anything!”

  “Liar!”

  I rolled down the window. Thought of jumping out. But we were going too fast. I looked to my left, at the signal up ahead.

  “Michelle! It’s a red light!”

  “I see it,” she said.

  “You're gonna stop, right?”

  “Nope.” She pulled hard against the steering wheel, and veered the car to the left, onto another street. The speed limit must have been 25 MPH, but she was going at least 40.

  Evan grabbed the headrest with his left hand, and wrapped his right arm around Michelle's neck. “Slow down, Michelle. Take your foot off the pedal.”

  She laughed. “Yeah? Or what?”

  “I'll break your neck, that's what.”

  “Oh, I fucking dare you, Evan,” she said. “You already killed one sister. Why not the other?”

  “Goddammit, that's enough!” Evan screamed. He started climbing over the center console, toward the passenger seat. “Stop the car! I'm not gonna say it again!”

  “Gladly.”

  She hit the brakes.

  The car stopped so fast that my head struck the back of the passenger seat, and Evan’s whole body flew up into the air, struck the glove compartment, and tumbled back down.

  For a moment, I forgot to breathe.

  “Evan?” No answer. “Oh my God, Evan?”

  I reached my hand toward him, but then I glanced to my right; this was my chance. I propelled myself forward and started crawling out the window.

  Michelle jerked her head toward me. “I don’t think so!” she shouted.

  She shoved her foot against the pedal, and the car zoomed back into motion. I slipped back inside, and knocked my forehead against the door handle.

  “Oww!” I screamed.

  I glanced up toward the car ceiling. Blinked a few times. I saw James again. He was crawling back on top of me, a grin on his face, a Corona in one hand and a Bud Light in the other. “Never drink and drive!” His words seemed to echo from miles away. “Never, ever, ever, ever!”

  I shook myself out of my daze, as Michelle made a right on a busier street, and swerved around a large truck.

  “Michelle, stop this—”

  “No!” She had tears in her eyes. “Not until Evan tells you the truth!”

  “Oww...” Evan whispered. He sat up, rubbed the top of his head. He was shaken, but hadn't been knocked out, thank God.

  I saw another signal in the distance. This one had a green light.

  “He thinks he can just kill my sister and get away with it?” Her voice was deep and focused; she didn’t sound drunk any longer. She didn't even sound human.

  “Michelle, please stop,” Evan said, softly.

  “What was that?” she yelled. “I can't hear you, Evan! You're gonna have to speak a little louder!”

  When I heard him take a confident breath, I knew he was back. “Louder, did you say?” He reached his hand toward Michelle. “STOP THE FUCKING CAR!”

  He grabbed the steering wheel and jerked the car to the right, all the way up onto the sidewalk. Michelle screamed, and I pushed my hands against my sweaty cheeks. I didn't know whether to close my eyes or keep them open; I was powerless in the back seat.

  “Let go of the wheel!” Michelle screamed. “Now!”

  “No!” Evan shouted. “Not until you stop! You’re gonna run someone over! You’re gonna hit somebody!”

  “I said, let go!”

  I looked at the signal again. The green turned to yellow.

  Michelle jerked the car to the left, back onto the road.

  “Stay away!” she screamed.

  Evan grabbed the wheel again, and pulled it to the left, with all his strength. The car bashed against the curb and flew up onto somebody's lawn. Michelle wasn’t fast enough to swerve back onto the road, and the left side of the car started mowing down a white picket fence. The pieces of wood split every which way, onto the lawn, the street, the windshield.

  I scooted closer to Michelle. Why couldn't Evan put a stop to her?

  “I swear!” Evan shouted. “This is your last warning!”

  “Or you'll what?” she said. “Kill us all? Let me!”

  She sped up even faster, and aimed for a five-foot-wide palm tree at the end of the sidewalk.

  “Turn the car, Evan!” I shouted. “For God's sake, do something!”

  “I'm trying!” he screamed. “Michelle, get your hands off the wheel!” He tried to pry her away, but it was no use. Michelle pushed her chin against the steering wheel. Focused on the tree, and nothing but the tree.

  “Oh God,” I said.

  Evan pounded his fists against her hands, but she didn't scream, didn't cry out in pain. She readied herself to take all three of us down.

  “Tell her, Evan,” Michelle said.

  “Tell her what?”

  “The truth!”

  “But I already have!”

  “That's the wrong answer!”

  She drove straight for the tree. We were five seconds away. Four seconds.

  Nothing was happening. I couldn’t just sit there.

  “I'm sorry, Michelle.” I jumped behind the driver’s seat, and clasped my hands against her throat.

  She leaned her head back, and for a quick second took her hands off the wheel. Evan grabbed hold of it and swung the car off the sidewalk, back onto the road, just barely missing the tree.

  “Let go of me!” Michelle said, trying to talk as I choked her.

  “Not until you stop the car!”

  “Sydney… I can't... I can't breathe…”

  Evan pulled against her right leg. “Take your foot off the pedal!”

  I looked out the windshield. The signal was close. It was a red light. No cars were stopped at the intersection, and no cars were passing through it, either.

  But then I saw them.

  An old man and a little girl, walking from one side of the street to the othe
r.

  “Oh no. No, no, no.” I pushed against her throat even harder. “Michelle, take your foot off the pedal now!” I screamed. “Right now! Do it!”

  The man stopped first, pulled his umbrella down, and put his arm around the girl. We were seconds from colliding. And Michelle wasn’t stopping.

  James. The red light. Kyle, and his mom. It all came flooding back.

  Was I going to let this happen a second time?

  “Hell, no,” I said. I brought my hand down, and formed it into a fist. “Not today.”

  I leaned forward, against the console, and punched Michelle across the side of her head.

  Chapter 35

  Michelle's head slumped against the window, and her foot slipped away from the pedal. Evan grabbed the wheel, pulled to the right, and veered the car into the last driveway on the street.

  We didn't hit the curb, didn't hit a fence or a lawn.

  This time, we headed straight for a garage.

  “Holy shit!” I screamed, and pointed. “Evan, stop the car!”

  He saw it, too. “I got it! Hold on!”

  He stuck his leg out, and slammed his foot against the brakes. The car came to an abrupt stop, just inches from the garage door.

  I fell underneath the seat. Evan put his arms out and blocked his head from hitting the glove compartment a second time. Michelle's forehead struck the steering wheel so hard I heard what sounded like a bone snapping in two.

  Then all went silent.

  I pushed myself up. My heart was racing. I took three deep breaths before I even let myself consider the consequences. Was my car totaled? Had we hit anyone? Was everybody okay?

  I looked out the back window. The old man and the little girl had made it to the sidewalk. The grandfatherly figure stared at my car for a few seconds, obviously irked, but he didn’t confront us; much to my surprise, nobody did. I waited for the police, the neighbors, all to come speeding toward us like a gang of hungry zombies. But the scene stayed quiet.

  Michelle leaned her head back, started to come to.

  “What...” she said. “How...”

  “No you don’t!” I shouted. I wasn't going to wait one second for her to back out of the driveway and start this madness all over again. I pushed myself out the window, all the way to the hard cement ground.

  I jumped to my feet, scooted around the front of the car. It was banged up a little, with some dents across the fender and a broken headlight, but it could've been worse. I opened the driver’s side door, and Michelle spilled right out. Her forehead was covered in blood.

  “Oh no,” I said.

  Evan joined me at my side, gave me a quick hug. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” I tapped against his chest, and pointed at Michelle. The rain pounded against her face, sending the blood down to her cheeks, her chin. He brought his hand to his mouth. “Oh God.” Evan and I were banged up, but in no way like Michelle.

  “We have to get her to a hospital,” I said. I leaned down and helped Michelle to her feet.

  “No, that'll take too long. Let's go to urgent care, on campus. It's two minutes away.”

  “Okay. Good idea.” I leaned her up against the car. “Here, help me get her in the back.”

  He clasped his hands against her armpits, and started pulling her onto the back seat. “What the hell happened to her?” Evan asked. “I mean... she just snapped.”

  “I don't know,” I said. I grabbed hold of her feet and pushed her all the way in.

  “Where... where am I...” Michelle said, like a frightened little girl. She was totally out of it. She sat up, and rested her head against Evan’s shoulder. The blood immediately seeped into his jacket.

  I sat in the driver’s seat, turned on the ignition. But I didn’t pull back onto the street, not just yet. I idled for a moment, and stared at Evan in the rearview mirror.

  “That could have been worse,” I said.

  “A lot worse,” he added.

  “What are we gonna do with her? Should we press charges?”

  “I don’t… Syd, we need to hurry—”

  “I mean, she tried to kill us, Evan. This is serious.”

  “Let’s get her to urgent care,” he said. “And then we'll talk about it.”

  I bit down on my tongue, and loudly sighed. “Okay. But as soon as we get there.”

  I put on my seat belt, backed down the driveway, and headed toward LMU. I turned on the windshield wipers, started driving slowly, but when I passed by the destroyed fence, and saw a scary middle-aged man jumping up and down on his porch screaming into a cell phone, I sped up.

  I didn't stop until the next intersection. I knew the neighborhood we were in, but Michelle had taken one too many turns.

  “Evan... shit. Do you remember which way to go?”

  “Uhh, left, I think.”

  I looked both ways. Pulled onto another street.

  “Syd?” Evan said.

  “What? What’s wrong?” I glanced in the rearview mirror. Michelle was shaking.

  “You have to hurry, I don't know what's wrong with her.” He pulled her closer to his chest and blotted at her forehead with his jacket collar. “Don’t stop in the parking lot, just pull up to the front. I’ll bring her in.”

  “Okay.”

  “Can you go any faster?”

  I leaned my head closer to the steering wheel, narrowed my eyes. The rain was still pounding the windshield, and I struggled seeing very far in front of me.

  But I nodded, and said, “Uhh, yeah. Sure.”

  I jammed my foot against the pedal, started going 30 MPH, then 35. When I saw Loyola Blvd, and the university up on the right, I sped up even more.

  “Yes!” I shouted. “There it is! I see it!”

  “Oh, thank God,” Evan said. “Hurry.”

  I made a right turn, and came up to a car that was going painfully slow. I pulled a Michelle, and swerved around it. The girl had almost killed me, and now I was risking my life to save her. The irony.

  40 MPH. 45 MPH.

  The LMU gate was up ahead. No cars blocked the entrance. I was almost there.

  I looked in the rearview mirror again. Michelle’s head was still pressed against Evan’s shoulder, but now he had his arms wrapped around her. Her eyes were closed, and the expression on her face was not one of pain, but of longing. I saw her lips brush against his shoulder—and Evan didn’t push her away.

  I narrowed my eyes, tried to remember the innocence I was looking at.

  But my thoughts roamed to the inevitable anyway. In the back wasn't my boyfriend and some injured girl I barely knew; it wasn't the guy I loved trying to care for someone who meant nothing to him.

  It was Evan and Melanie, the loving couple, the perfect pair who would never be torn apart—not even in death.

  Evan's eyes shot open, and he pointed past me. “Sydney! Oh my God, look out!”

  “What?”

  I looked away from the rearview mirror—and saw the headlights.

  My head struck an exploding air bag. The seat belt jerked me back as the car spun out and came to a quick stop in the middle of the road.

  I blinked. Licked my lips. I heard a loud ringing in my ears, and my whole body started trembling. What the hell happened? I blinked again. All I saw was white.

  “Evan?” I whispered, then coughed, twice. “Evan, can you hear me?” I swatted the air bag away, and reached for the door handle. When I pulled the door open, I tried to find my balance, but I just fell, right out onto the pavement. I pushed against the wet ground with my hands. But then I stopped, glanced down, at all the little shards of glass sticking out of my palms.

  “Oh shit…”

  I looked back up at the car. Listened for voices, watched for movement. There was no sign of Evan or Michelle.

  “No. No, come on.”

  I looked down the street, at a car pulled to the curb. A woman was standing beside it, on the sidewalk, pulling her hair as she talked into a cell phone. Was she calling for help?

 
Indeed, she was. Five seconds passed, and I heard it, the sirens in the distance. I tried to sit up, but couldn’t. I rested my head against the pavement. And looked to my left.

  The car I struck head on was barely twenty yards away. The front of the vehicle was crushed. The fender rested against the curb, and the hood shot straight up toward the sky. Someone kicked the driver’s side door open—and a young man toppled to the ground.

  He had short brown hair. A white collared shirt. Brown Corduroy pants.

  The lenses in his glasses were shattered.

  I crawled forward. “No.” I blinked a few times. It was all in my head, right? This was just a sick nightmare... right?

  He slumped over on his side. The blood on his face and neck mixed in with the rain.

  “Lukas?” I said.

  He took a deep breath. “Sydney?”

  “Hold on. I’m coming.”

  I pushed myself toward him. Every inch of me ached, but the pain didn’t slow me. I crawled across the street, toward my roommate, toward my best friend. He reached for my fingertips, and I stretched out my arm to touch his. I was so close, so very close.

  The ambulance pulled up, and the paramedics crowded around me. When they blocked me from Lukas, I started weeping uncontrollably.

  They sat me up, shined a light in my eyes. The rain continued to pound against my face, like it never wanted to stop, not for the rest of my life.

  I glanced at Lukas, at his smashed-up car. Then I turned to my Sportage, and gazed toward the back seat. I saw Evan and Michelle, both slumped against the side window.

  They weren't moving.

  “Ma'am,” one of the paramedics said. “Ma'am, are you all right? Can you hear me? Say something if you can hear me.”

  I didn't say a word. I just took one deep breath.

  And started screaming.

  Chapter 36

  The images flashed in and out of my mind. I blinked, and Lukas sat up. I blinked, and Evan pounded his hand against the window. I blinked, and the paramedics put me on a stretcher, wheeled me inside the ambulance, and slammed the door.

  “Where’s Lukas? Where's Evan?” I remember asking, over and over. “Are they okay?”

  “Shh,” one of the paramedics told me. “Just relax. Everything’s going to be fine.”