The Accident

by Glasko Klein

  Unless . . . unless he found a way to run into her anyway.

  He remembered the last mysterious message. He thought for a moment before tapping out a quick reply.

  I’m going to have a good summer.

  Another vibration, another new message, and one more thing to worry about.

  We’ll see.

  15

  Just because his friends were still planning on going to the party without him, that didn’t mean he had to spend the evening sitting at home worrying about them. So he settled on a perfect plan of his own. He’d already changed things once, but that didn’t mean that everything had to be different.

  He could still go down to the library and wait out front until he ran into Gloria. He figured that while he was waiting, he’d send off one more text to Charlie and Trisha and see if he could talk them out of going at the last minute. If that didn’t work out—and if he was honest with himself, he didn’t think that it would—he could just stay at the library with Gloria and watch The Twilight Zone.

  It would be fun to talk to Gloria. Maybe even relaxing, if he didn’t let himself think too much about where it might lead.

  It would be good to feel like himself, without Charlie and Trisha telling him who that should be.

  He didn’t want to jinx it, but he was starting to think that no matter how strange, impossible, or unsettling the events of the last week had been, everything just might work out after all.

  Daniel even found himself feeling something he hadn’t felt in a long time—excitement. It felt good to not have to lie to his mom about where he was going, although she still didn’t let him leave the house without giving him a warning: “The Twilight Zone? Well, just make sure that you don’t get too freaked out. I remember the first time we let you stay up for New Year’s Eve and you watched the marathon of that show. It felt like you hardly got any sleep the whole month of January.”

  Daniel felt himself turning red, partially out of embarrassment at still being mothered when he was almost sixteen, but partially because his mom had no idea what he’d just been through. She wouldn’t be worried about him watching a few episodes of The Twilight Zone if she knew he’d been living in an extended episode of the show himself for the past week.

  “Thanks, Mom. I think I’m going to be fine, though,” he said, shaking his head. He stopped when he was almost out the door, then turned around and gave his mother a gigantic hug. She was surprised at first, but after the initial shock she quickly gave him a squeeze in return.

  “What’s this all about, honey?” she asked.

  “I just wanted to say thanks for worrying.”

  She smiled at him as she let go.

  Daniel rushed out the door and pedaled toward the library as fast as he could. Halfway there he realized he was going to get sweaty and gross if he pushed too hard, which wouldn’t be the best move if he wanted to impress Gloria. He went the rest of the way at a much slower pace, thinking about what he was going to say to Charlie and Trisha. He realized that begging them not to go wasn’t going to work any more now than it had when he was right in front of them.

  When he arrived at the library, he locked his bike up and sat down on the same bench he had last week—or this week, depending on how he wanted to think about it. Once his phone was in his hands, he still wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to say to his friends. He decided to keep it as simple and honest as he could.

  Hey guys, I’m not even gonna tell you not to go to the party because I know you’re going to go anyway. Just promise me you’ll be careful. I can’t wait to hear all about the party on Monday.

  He stared at the message for a moment before hitting send. They probably wouldn’t respond tonight. They hadn’t bothered to respond to any of his other messages today, and they probably didn’t want to talk to him about what might go wrong at the party if they were on their way over there right now.

  “Hey, Daniel!” Gloria’s voice rang out from the front steps of the library. “I almost didn’t see you tucked into the bushes back there. What are you doing here?”

  Daniel put his phone back into his pocket and walked over to where Gloria was standing, determined to appear as confident as possible. “Hey, Gloria, how’s it going?” he asked.

  “A Friday without a pop quiz is a good one in my book,” she laughed.

  “Is it really a pop quiz if it happens on the same day of the week, every week?” he asked, smiling. “Anyway, I’m down here for the Twilight Zone marathon, how about you?”

  Gloria smiled wide. “Hey, me too! I didn’t know you were into that show,” she said.

  “Yeah, it used to really freak me out when I was a kid, but lately I’ve actually been kind of into it,” he said. “Hey, if you’re not meeting anybody here, would you want to sit together? I’m on my own tonight.”

  “Actually, yeah, I’m here by myself too. That would be really cool!” Gloria said. “Let’s go! I heard they’re going to have snacks and stuff too—we can grab some before the show starts.”

  Things are already going better than I hoped, Daniel thought, smiling to himself. Things really are going to turn out okay. As the two headed through the doors of the library, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket but decided to ignore it. He didn’t want to think about Charlie and Trisha at the moment, and he definitely didn’t want to think about the mysterious texter. All of it could wait. For now, he was ready to finally get his summer kicked off the right way.

  16

  The Twilight Zone marathon was surprisingly well attended given how old the show was, although that was probably mostly due to how slow the summer had been. Daniel was just happy to be at a social event that had zero risk of the police becoming involved.

  After grabbing some bags of popcorn and cups of punch from the circulation desk, Daniel and Gloria found a pair of seats near the back of the room and settled in. The screening wasn’t scheduled to start for another ten minutes, and Daniel figured he should take the opportunity to make small talk with Gloria. Okay, just be cool, he thought. You can try channeling your inner “Danny.”

  “So, uh . . . do you come here often?” he asked her, just as she was popping a handful of popcorn into her mouth. The pause between his dumb question and Gloria finishing chewing was long enough for Daniel to start losing some of his confidence.

  After finally swallowing the last of the popcorn, Gloria smiled and let out a small laugh, “Well, it’s cheaper than actually going to the movies,” she said. “Besides, it doesn’t take too long to see everything showing at the Valley Vu. If you’re really dedicated you can easily get it done in a weekend.”

  “Oh, I get in for free there. My friend Charlie works as a ticket taker. We get free popcorn too,” Daniel said.

  “So it’s exactly like this?” Gloria laughed.

  “I suppose you’re right, but the stuff being screened is a little newer,” Daniel said. “And the popcorn is a little better too.”

  As they talked, his nervousness started to fade. Actually, being outside of his comfort zone was much more refreshing right now than when he’d been hurtling down the highway toward Mountain Glen in the back of Charlie’s car.

  Gloria popped another handful of popcorn into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully for a minute. “Well, if your buddy Charlie can get one more person in for free, you should think about counting me in next time. I don’t have anything against going to the actual movies, other than not liking to overpay for popcorn.”

  Things really were looking up. Deciding not to go to this party—the second time around anyway—was turning out to be one of the best decisions of his high school career. “Uh yeah, that’d be great,” he said. “I don’t have your number, though.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Gloria said, “just give me yours and I’ll text you.”

  Gloria pulled out her phone, and Daniel did his best to rattle off his phone number without getting tripped up out of nervousness.

  “Okay, I just sent you a message,” she said. Daniel’s phone
buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out to see what she’d said. As soon as his screen woke up, he felt the color drain from his face. In his excitement that things were going so well with Gloria, he’d forgotten about the message he’d received as he entered the library.

  Alongside Gloria’s message, which was just her name and a smiley face, was a new message from the unknown number:

  Be sure to stay in touch.

  17

  “What’s wrong?” Gloria asked, noticing the concerned look Daniel was suddenly wearing.

  “Nothing,” he blurted out, a little too quickly. “I just realized I forgot to call my parents and tell them what I was doing tonight.” It was a more embarrassing excuse than he’d wanted to make, but it was the best he could do on the spot. “I’ll be right back,” he told her. “It’ll just be one second, okay?”

  Gloria smiled at him reassuringly. “Hey, don’t worry about it—I know how parents are. Just hurry back, you don’t want to miss the show,” she said.

  Daniel jumped out of his seat, almost knocking over the cup of popcorn he’d left at his feet. Then he rushed out to the library parking lot, where he quickly tapped out a message.

  What does that mean?

  His phone buzzed immediately with a new text.

  If I were you, I wouldn’t forget about your friends. You should stay in touch.

  All the fear and uncertainty of the last few days rushed to the front of Daniel’s mind. How sure was he that they wouldn’t still get into an accident if he wasn’t there?

  And if they did and he wasn’t there to warn Charlie about the oncoming traffic, how much worse would it be?

  He wrestled with his options for a moment before deciding to send them yet another text. He’d rather seem desperate and turn out to be wrong than have his best friends end up in the hospital—or worse. His efforts might not do much good, but the message had told him to stay in touch. He quickly tapped out a text.

  How’s the party?

  He was about to send it to Charlie but stopped himself at the last second. If Charlie was driving the car, the text message might distract him and cause him to crash.

  Maybe that’s what the mysterious messenger wanted.

  After all, Daniel still wasn’t sure if the messenger actually had his best interests in mind.

  He’d have to contact Trisha. She was more likely to respond anyway—Charlie was stubborn enough to ignore him at least until after the party.

  Moments later Daniel got a reply from Trisha. He let out a sigh of relief, but the feeling was short lived.

  Got a late start, just heading out now. Might pick up my cousin and go to a different party. She says the one we were planning to go to is getting a little wild.

  There was going to be a third person in the car after all, and from the sounds of things, the party was still going to get busted.

  Daniel’s heart started to pound. He couldn’t let this happen. He had to get over there and try to stop them from leaving, or at least delay them long enough that they wouldn’t roll into the intersection just as that pickup truck was coming over the hill.

  Luckily, his mind was racing almost as fast as his heart, and by the time he’d gone back through the front doors of the library, he had come up with a plan. He just hoped that it would actually work.

  Gloria would never believe him if he told her the whole truth, and he didn’t have time to try anyway. But if he told her that his friends were in trouble, she would probably be willing to give him a ride out to Mountain Glen to try to help them. He hoped so, anyway.

  18

  Back inside the library, the lights were low and the opening credits of the show were already running. Daniel hurried toward the back of the room, doing his best not to stumble in the dark and whispering apologies to the people he had to climb over to reach Gloria.

  Once he was close enough to catch her eye in the darkness, he frantically gestured for her to come with him. She looked at him questioningly, but to his relief she stood up and followed him outside.

  “Is everything all right?” she asked. “If you have to go or something it’s okay, we can just hang out some other time.”

  “No, it’s not that—well, yes, it kind of is, but . . . it’s more like we have to go. Um, do you have your car with you?” he stammered, tripping over every other word.

  Gloria’s face alternated between concern and confusion. She nodded slowly and said, “Yeah, but what do you mean? Like I said, if you have to go that’s fine, but I think I’m just going to stay here.”

  Daniel could feel himself starting to panic but reminded himself that if he failed to convince Gloria to take him out to Mountain Glen, something terrible might happen to his friends.

  “You know that guy Charlie I was talking about? Well, he’s in trouble. He and his girlfriend are going to some party out in Mountain Glen. He just texted me and said that he thinks the police are going to come and break it up, and he and his girlfriend might need a ride,” Daniel said. He felt bad about lying to Gloria but once again reminded himself that he would feel much worse if he wasn’t able to get to the party before something terrible happened.

  “I dunno, Daniel, that’s pretty far—” she started, but Daniel cut her off.

  “I know you don’t know me that well, but I really need your help, Gloria. I can get you free tickets to the Valley Vu for the rest of the summer or whatever you want, just please, please help me out here. It’s the only way I’ll get there in time,” he blurted out. It would take some convincing, but he was pretty sure Charlie could swing those free tickets. If not, I’ll just pay for her tickets myself, Daniel thought.

  She looked at the ground thoughtfully for a moment before responding. “You know what? All right, sure. You obviously really care a lot about your friends. It’s kind of cute.”

  Daniel was too relieved to even register that Gloria had just called him cute or to stop himself from throwing his arms around her in a gigantic hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you so much,” he said.

  “Well, like I said, it seems really important to you,” she laughed, cracking a smile. “And don’t worry if you can’t actually get me free movies for the entire summer. We can just say you owe me one and we’ll call it good.”

  Gloria hurried over to her car with Daniel right behind her, and they hopped in. Daniel thought about his week of second chances and everything that had happened to him over the summer so far. He wondered if it was even actually possible for him to change anything. After all, the mysterious texter still seemed to be pulling all the strings. And despite his best efforts, it looked like he would be going to the party anyway.

  He pushed his doubts out of his mind. Worrying wouldn’t do anybody any good at this point anyway. At least some things were different—he and Gloria had started to hit it off for real, and they weren’t breaking any laws at the moment. That had to be a good sign.

  Even if he wasn’t able to prevent the accident, he knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t try.

  19

  Daniel couldn’t help noticing that Gloria was a much better driver than Charlie. He wouldn’t have minded if she went a little faster, but he knew that they wouldn’t be any good to anyone if they got into an accident of their own while they were on their way to Mountain Glen. They were making pretty good time, but Daniel had to make a conscious effort not to tell Gloria to step on it as soon as they hit the neighborhood where the party was happening.

  Just like before, it was obvious where the party was as soon as they turned off the main road. The street was once again lined with cars in front of and across the street from the house, and the music was pumping almost as loudly as Daniel’s heart was. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that the police hadn’t arrived yet. Charlie’s car was still parked a ways down the road from the party, and from the looks of things, there were people inside of it.

  “There, over there!” Daniel said, pointing to the car, “That’s them, just pull over beh
ind them.”

  Gloria slid over to the side of the road and put her car in park. “Hey,” she said, “I thought you said they needed a ride. It looks like they already have one . . .” But Daniel had already leapt out of the car and run over to the driver’s side.

  Charlie rolled down his window as Daniel approached. A brown-haired girl who must have been Trisha’s cousin Laurie was sitting in the back of the car, and she was shouting at Trisha, who was seated in the front.

  “Hey, man, so it looks like you made it after all,” Charlie said. “You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble and ridden with us, you know.”

  As Daniel tried to catch his breath from running over to them, he heard the girls arguing inside the car.

  “You are so pathetic that it’s actually unbelievable, Trisha!” Laurie shouted from the back. “You’re seriously going to come all the way out here and not go to any parties just because this one is a little too wild? I am literally speechless.”

  Trisha glared back at her. “You know, sometimes I really wish you were speechless, Laurie. But listen, we’re not driving another twenty minutes just to find some party you heard the seniors are throwing that may or may not be happening. And this place isn’t just a little wild. It’s clearly a zoo. You said yourself the neighbors already came over and threatened to call the cops, which I’m pretty sure they’ve done by now.”

  Daniel looked at Charlie questioningly, but Charlie just shrugged. “I mean, I’m open to going to the party, but only if you can guarantee we’ve got an invite,” Charlie said. “These kids are supposed to be way older and they’re not just gonna let us wander in.”