6. Eli
6
ELI
“ O h, fuck. What’d you do, man?” The guy in the passenger seat gawked at me, eyes wide and shock evident in the panted breaths he let out.
My heart raced as time stood still.
I crashed the fucking car.
I didn’t intend to drive it, but it shot forward when I was revving it up because this dumbass knocked into the gear stick. “Me?” My jaw dropped. “You hit the gear stick!”
“I… What…” He scrambled to open the door and get out, leaving me in the wreckage.
Oh, fuck! I panicked, unable to think straight past the surprise that this had happened at all. I’d just been sitting there, with no plan to move this car at all. And this was how it would go? Crashing a car into a tree? It wasn’t my fault.
Clawing for the door handle, I fought to exit the car. I couldn’t hide. I couldn’t run. I’d have to face the music that I’d crashed this outrageously expensive car! That asshole wasn’t going to take the blame.
Staggering to my feet, I backed up from the smashed vehicle. Finn and Britney were there, staring open-mouthed just like I was. Like that other guy who’d coaxed me into checking out this car was. More people started to crowd around, and I clenched my teeth at how people were videoing it and taking pictures.
Evidence.
They were getting proof of my connection to this destruction.
Outside the car now, it was clear that I’d totaled it.
No. Not me.
“Why’d you hit the gear stick?” I asked the other guy.
“Me?” He pointed at himself as more and more partiers came out to witness the chaos. Preston would show any second. I was sure of it. “You’re trying to blame this on me ?”
“I’m not trying to.” How could he act like he hadn’t done anything? “I’m saying you?—”
“I didn’t do shit. You were sitting in the driver’s seat,” he accused. “I was in the passenger seat. You were behind the wheel, Young.”
“But you?—”
“What the fuck is going on here?” Preston demanded as he walked up. He looked so drunk and shit-faced that he couldn’t resemble a serious person. Not at the moment, despite the seriousness of the moment. The crowd parted for him as he sloppily approached, nearly falling over to reach the car. He was drunk. High. Totally wasted.
“Yo, Preston. Young crashed it, man. I was just looking at it and he said he wanted to check it out.”
“I didn’t,” I argued, damned if I’d be blamed like this. This was bullshit. I wasn’t thinking straight, riled up on adrenaline and shock, but that fact remained clear. He hit the gear stick! “I?—”
Preston held one hand in the air, cutting me off. “Go on, Drake.”
Drake shook his head, still looking shocked as he pointed at me. “He got in the driver’s seat.”
“Yeah, man,” someone else called out. “I saw Eli get in it.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
I tried to breathe through the panic of getting in trouble in such a way that I’d never be able to charm my way out of the consequences.
Finn stood next to me, glancing at me and wearing the same freaked-out expression I knew I was showing him. It helped to know I wasn’t alone, but he couldn’t do anything to get me out of this situation.
“And he must have changed the gears too soon or something and…” Drake gestured at the car with its hood significantly bent around the trunk of the tree. Metal was crumpled. Glass was shattered. Ice clumps had fallen down from the branches and littered the pleated hood of the car from the force of the impact.
All the details blurred. No matter what it looked like, the classic car stayed in place as evidence of this disastrous mistake.
I shouldn’t have even touched that car.
I shouldn’t have made it go and slam into a tree.
But I didn’t put it into gear.
“I didn’t.” Facing Preston directly, I shook my head. “I didn’t move the gears. I just got in and sat there. He begged me to since he couldn’t with his foot recovery. But I didn’t touch the fucking gear stick at all!”
Preston smirked. “Oh. So, it just jumped out on its own, huh?” He shook his head, approaching the car almost too calmly. As he circled the site of destruction, he studied it without another slurred word, just peering at it and quiet as he realized the extent of ruin.
Ruin I’d partly caused.
All the while, he didn’t yell. He didn’t shout. He didn’t seem ready or invested to react at all. Merely walking around the car and drinking his beer, studying the car as if he’d never seen a damaged vehicle before, he kept me waiting in suspense. I was hanging on a thread, bracing for the impact of his wrath. The longer he didn’t speak, the more I freaked out about what would leave his mouth once he snapped out of this stunned silence.
He had to be furious, but he showed no sign of anger.
He had every right to be worried, but he didn’t give any indication that he was sweating it at all.
Surprise didn’t really stay on his face for long, though. He returned to me with something like a cocky, arrogant grin on his face.
A calculating smirk.
This settled it. He was delusional. Preston West had officially snapped. I’d stunned him speechless.
“What’d I say, Young? You’re nothing but a loser,” he taunted. “Only a fucking moron would do something like this.”
“Preston, man. I’m sorry.” I shook my head, doing my best not to let my panic show in my tone. To keep cool and maintain distance from him until he yelled and came after me for crashing his expensive antique. I wanted him to react and lash out about this, like any other sane person would. His pensive quiet was making me nervous and afraid.
“I didn’t shift the gears. Drake did, but I realize how bad this looks and all.”
“How bad this looks ?” He laughed, shaking his head. “You mean how bad this is .” He held his hand, still holding his beer can, and pointed at the damage. “You just crashed my fucking car.”
I winced. But he still wasn’t yelling. His voice was raised, but he sounded more incredulous than upset. He cursed, but not with any heat behind the profanity.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated, hating that I was apologizing for something that wasn’t wholly my fault. Drake grinned, Preston’s back to him. That fucker was laying this all on my shoulders.
“I just got it,” Preston said, almost like he were musing about it aloud.
“I—”
“You’re fucked,” Preston said, cutting me off. “You are so fucked.”
I swallowed, fighting not to show any fear. Deep down, I was terrified of what was going to happen because of one moment in my life. One action.
I didn’t need him to explain how precarious this situation was. This was Mr. West’s purchase for his son. As in the Mr. West who was a chairman on the committee that granted me a full-ride scholarship, the one I could not afford to pay back any time soon.
Finn had just been harping on me about being on “good behavior”, and crashing this car was not anywhere near it.
“You realize that, right?” Preston said, pacing back and forth as he sipped his beer. “You are literally fucked. My parents will come back here and see this, and when they hear that it was you , the ‘star athlete’ they gave that scholarship to, you are fucked .” More laughter followed his warning.
I kept my lips shut. I wouldn’t deny what he said. I couldn’t. But I had no grounds to argue against him. Sweat trickled down my spine. My head throbbed with an instant ache. And my heart thundered so fast as I was thrust in a fight-or-flight response. I couldn’t fight him on that logic. I was fucked. And running away from this wouldn’t do me any good, either.
Staring him down, I waited for him to face me again.
I’d rather he yell and shout.
But instead, he seemed to be debating and analyzing his next move and next words. Like this was just a game.
“How about I make you a deal?” he said at last, strolling up to me like this was just another night of fun for him. Like it hardly mattered if his expensive car was totaled. The notion that such a rare thing could be dismissed blew my mind.
Make a deal? I tensed, not budging as I watched him approach.
His bloodshot eyes made him look crazier, and the reek of booze and smoke proved he wasn’t thinking straight. Regardless, I waited for him to finish.
“I’ll spare you from getting in trouble.” He grinned maniacally. “I’ll tell my parents that I crashed it.” He shrugged. “So long as you…” He rubbed his jaw. “So long as you do a dare for me, I won’t tell them.”
A dare.
I knew he was up to something. I just knew it.
“A dare?” Finn asked, able to find his voice before I could. I was stuck fearing the worst and imagining what kind of bullshit he was plotting. This was how Preston was, evil and sneaky, cunning and always taking the first opportunity to fuck with someone else’s life.
“What kind of a dare?” I asked. I wouldn’t believe for one second that he’d stand by his end of any deal struck with me. But I had to ask.
Preston’s smile grew wider. “I won’t tell my dad that you totaled this car…” He leaned back, resting his butt against the trunk. “If you take Haley Feldstone to the winter dance.” He stood up and got more in my face. “And fuck her there.”
Hoots and hollers came from the crowd. Lots of laughter, too.
What the fuck?
“That’s it?” Finn asked, almost laughing at the weird wager.
No, that wasn’t it. Preston had always had a thing for making Haley’s life hell. Before I did, back when we were just young kids in the beginning grades of elementary school, he’d singled her out. It was almost a morbid fascination, to make her miserable. And as we got older, he seemed obsessed about making fun of her for still being a virgin. That fixation followed us to college.
“Fuck Haley at the winter dance,” Preston repeated, nodding.
I didn’t want to waste a second trying to understand why he’d play this kind of a game. When someone was as rich and spoiled and powerful as he was, it seemed they needed to get their kicks however they could.
“No one’s ever going to want to fuck her,” he added. “So that’s enough punishment right there.” Crossing his arms, he leaned his ass against the car again, waiting for me to react.
I started to shake my head but stopped. I didn’t want him to take that gesture as a no . The instinct to move like that was more out of my surprise and a lack of understanding that he’d choose this as a get-out-of-jail card for me.
“Nah, bro.” Another basketball player came up and stood next to Preston. “Eli’s not gonna do that.”
“Because he can’t,” someone else taunted, walking up as well. “That frigid bitch won’t put out. Not even for him.” He cracked up, getting the others to laugh as well.
“Haley Feldstone? Now that is a horrible punishment.”
“I wouldn’t want to touch her.”
“Are you kidding me? She won’t let him touch her!”
“Dude, that’s impossible. Haley Feldstone?”
I tuned it all out, sticking with one simple equation.
If I went along with this dare, my scholarship would be fine to finish out. I wouldn’t be stuck paying it back for Mr. West’s choice to revoke it. My future would be safe.
Finn stepped closer, catching my attention in my peripheral vision. “Eli.”
I glanced at him, knowing he’d have my back.
“This is fucked up, man,” he said wisely.
Yeah, it was. This whole night was fucked up. It wasn’t normal how I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. It wasn’t ordinary for me to be partially at fault for crashing an antique car.
And it was completely messed up for me to be making a choice about taking Haley’s virginity at a dance she’d just told me she had no intention to attend.
What was the most fucked-up thing about it all was the very real threat that I wouldn’t graduate without any debt. I couldn’t let myself be screwed like this. I couldn’t fail before my life would even start.
“What do you say?” Preston taunted, chin up and looking so smug.
I hesitated for one more second.
Then I nodded.
“Fine.”
I held my hand out for him to shake. “It’s a deal.”