Chapter 13 #2
“What are you going to say?” Parker asks, but Briggs closed the door before he heard him.
I jump out and meet up with Briggs at the pay phone.
“Get out of here,” he says, picking up the receiver.
“I want to know what you’re going to say.”
“Ella, I’m serious, get back in the car.”
“No. If I’m part of this, I need to know what you’re going to tell them.”
He shakes his head. “You really fucking piss me off.” He takes a breath, then dials the number.
“Yeah, I have an emergency. I think I saw a guy passed out on the road, but it was dark and I couldn’t really tell if it was a guy or an animal.
I didn’t stop because I wasn’t sure if it was safe.
Anyway, I just wanted to make sure if it is a guy, that he gets help. ”
Wow, he’s good. He doesn’t even sound nervous.
I wonder if he just came up with that story or if he was thinking about it while we were driving here.
He gives the person on the phone directions, but isn’t too specific, making it seem like he just saw something by the road as he was driving and can’t really remember the exact spot.
But he knows where it is, and so do I. All four of us do.
That part of the road will be burned in our memories forever.
“Yeah, like I said, I don’t know exactly where on the road it was,” Briggs says. “It was too dark to tell. It’s maybe ten miles outside of town. There’s a sharp curve right next to where I saw it.” He nods. “Yeah, okay. Thanks.” He hangs up. “Let’s go.”
“What’d they say?” I ask as we walk back.
“They’ll go check it out.” Briggs gets in the driver’s side while I walk around to the door behind Parker, knowing Finn won’t move over for me.
“What happened?” Parker asks Briggs as he drives off.
“Nothing. I just told them to go check it out.”
“So we’re good,” Finn says, swiping through his phone. “Get rid of Ella so we can go to the party.”
I look at Finn. “You’re going to the party? After what just happened?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“We’re not going,” Briggs says. “We need to go home and figure this shit out.”
“What’s there to figure out?” Finn says. “You already called for an ambulance. What the hell else do we need to do?”
“Figure out a plan if the cops trace this back to us,” Briggs says.
“How would they do that?” Parker asks Briggs. “Nobody saw what happened.”
“There could be evidence left at the scene,” I say, remembering some of the cop shows I’ve watched with my dad.
“Like what?” Parker asks.
“Paint from the car,” Briggs says. “If even a small particle of it got on the guy’s clothes, the forensics people would find it.”
“A lot of cars have this paint,” Finn says.
“Yeah, but they’ll match it up to service records. If you bring this thing to a body shop and the cops have an alert out looking for someone getting that type of paint put on their car, they could trace it back to us.” Briggs looks at Finn in the mirror. “Did you check for any damages?”
“No. I couldn’t see. It was too dark.”
“We’ll check when we get to your house.”
“Wait, what about me?” I say. “You need to drop me off.”
“We need to get rid of this thing first,” Briggs says. “We can’t be driving it around. We’ll drop it off at Finn’s house. Parker’s car is there. He’ll drive us back.”
“Then give me my phone so I can at least text my dad so he knows I’m okay. I can’t worry him like this. After losing my mom, he’s always thinking he’s going to lose me next. He’s probably already called the cops and all the hospitals. Please, just let me text him.”
“You’ll be home in twenty minutes,” Parker says. “He can wait.”
“Let her text him,” Briggs says. “She’s not gonna call the cops. She knows we’d turn on her if she did.” He glances back at me. “She’s not going to risk her future like that.”
Parker reluctantly gives me my phone. I text my dad, letting him know I’m fine and that I’ll explain what happened when I get home.
“You done?” Parker asks, reaching back for my phone.
“She can keep it,” Briggs says. “She’s not going to do anything.”
Parker sits back in his seat. “You trust her more than I do.”
My dad calls me, but I send it to voicemail. He’s going to be angry I didn’t pick up, but I don’t want to talk to him with the guys listening in.
“How’d she die?” Finn says as his thumbs move over his phone.
“Are you talking to me?” I ask.
“Yeah. How’d your mom die?”
“She had a heart attack.”
Parker turns back to me. “How old was she?”
“Thirty-one. The doctor said it’s rare at her age but it can still happen.”
“That sucks,” Briggs mutters.
I look out the window and see we’re back in the city, surrounded by cars. None of them knows what we did. We might’ve killed a guy tonight, and nobody knows.
Only the four of us will ever know what really happened tonight, assuming the police don’t figure it out.
That can’t happen. I can’t get arrested for this.
I have my whole future ahead of me. It can’t just end because of this, something I didn’t mean to do.
Why didn’t I call for help before Parker took my phone?
Why did I leave the scene? I could’ve stayed behind.
At least then I wouldn’t have looked guilty.
Now if the cops find out, they’ll assume I was in on it — that I was trying to cover up a crime.
“No fucking way,” Briggs says, looking in his mirror.
“What?” Parker says.
“Look behind us.”
We all look and see the flashing lights.
“Oh my God, they know.” I try to breathe, but can’t.
The cops know. Why else would they be pulling us over? Briggs wasn’t speeding, and he stopped at every light.
This is it. The end of my future. It’s barely started, and now it’s over. I can’t believe this is happening!