Crashed

by Eric S. Brown

  She heard Colin slam the car doors, and a few moments later, the engine turned over. She knew he was eager to get on the road, but he would have to wait. She wasn’t ready. Not just yet. Walking through the house, she ran her hand over the wall and stared at the impressions on the floor from where her mother’s china cupboard had been. To this day, she could still remember the telling off she got when her friend Rosie had accidentally broken one of the plates. It had been during her seventh birthday party. Her mother had been so upset by it. She never understood why, not until she was older and heard the stories behind the items in the cupboard; the family history associated with each piece. They were all gone now, packed away in boxes with the rest of her life.

  With her and Tony both going to college, her parents had decided to move to another town also, trading their suburban home for a nicer property on the coast. It was only a short flight away, but Jamie still couldn’t see why they had to do everything so fast.

  Walking up the stairs, she looked left, down at her parents’ room, and then just before it, the bathroom. The linen closet, whose folding doors were opened outwards, exposed the empty insides, like a cadaver put out on display at the end of an autopsy. Everything of importance was removed, leaving just the shell.

  Her room was at the opposite end of the hall. The door was closed, but she couldn’t leave without taking one last look. Jamie knew she was being stupid and overly sentimental, but that was just who she was. Outside, she heard Colin honk the horn of his Toyota, two short sharp blasts, the same way he had done every time he came to pick her up for school, or for a date.

  Her room looked much larger now that everything had been taken away, but so much had happened between those four walls; the tantrums and the sulks, the sleepovers with school friends and as she got older, with Colin. She had lost her virginity in that room, and now, it was just being discarded. She had no place to come home to, to get away from the college world for a while. Sure, she could visit her parents. They were rich enough to pay the airfare whenever she wanted it, but it would not be the same.

  She blinked back a tear and shook her head, realizing even she could go too far with her nostalgic view of things.

  With a heavy sigh, she walked back downstairs and out through the front door. Locking it, she popped her key through the letterbox. Her parents would be along later that day to organize the final departure, but she and her friends would be long gone, heading away for a weekend break in the mountains.

  “You okay?” Colin asked, his irritation dissipating the moment he saw the emotion etched into her features.

  “Yeah, I’m just being silly,” she replied, wiping her eyes. “Let’s get going; otherwise, we are going to be late.”

  They pulled away and Jamie forced herself to not look in the mirror. It’s just a house, she told herself, yet she couldn’t help but chance a look back just before they turned out of the street. It’s strange because now that she had left, it really was just a house, and watching it disappear from view elicited nothing from her.

  “Let’s collect Tony first. He’ll feel better being in the car with just us for a while.” She placed her hand on Colin’s thigh and flashes him a smile.

  “You’re the boss,” Colin replies, flicking the control on the side of the wheel to browse through his Spotify playlist.

  “Ugh, really?” Jamie says when Linkin Park starts playing.

  “Hey, it’s a classic, and I’m driving so I pick the music.” The car picked up speed and as Colin started drumming on the wheel, while Jamie turned her eyes to the world zipping by just beyond the window. She was soon lost not to a daydream, but to the comforting nothingness of zoning out.

  ***

  Tony Gardner checked his watch. They were ten minutes late to collect him, which, under normal circumstances, would have sent his world into a minor spin, but it was his sister he was waiting on, and years of experience had taught him that she would most likely even be late to her own funeral.

  Still, the nerves were beginning to build, and his foot had started to tap on the pavement, an act that seemed to have irritated the man standing beside him.

  Tony checked his watch again. Eleven minutes later, he let out a long, drawn-out breath when suddenly the car appeared around the corner.

  The window opened, and Colin’s head appeared through the hole left behind. “Did you call for a taxi?”

  Tony liked Colin but didn’t always get his sense of humor. He was happy when Jamie jumped out of the passenger seat and ran around to give him a hug.

  She squealed as he closed his arms around her. “Oh, I missed you. How are you? How’s college?”

  Tony smiled and nodded, lowering his gaze to the floor. “College is good. It’s fun. There’s always a lot going on, and the people are cool.” He raised his gaze when he was finished speaking and saw his sister smiling at him.

  “I knew you would like it out there. You should stay in touch more though. I mean, it only takes a few minutes to send your favorite sister an email.”

  “You’re my only sister,” Tony stated.

  “Doesn’t change what I said.” Jamie giggled and hurried around to the back of the car. “Dump your stuff in the trunk and get in. We’ve just got to pick up Stella and Ricky and then we are on the road to a weekend of freedom.”

  From inside the car, Colin gives a clap and a shout of agreement.

  “Stella and Ricky?” Tony asks. “I thought it was just us in the car.”

  He stiffens at the thought of having two people in the back seat with him. Stella was cool. She had been friends with his sister for as long as he could remember, but Ricky, he had only met the man twice and didn’t like him either time.

  “Yeah, we had to change plans. Tammy is heading up in her own car but had to pick up a friend of hers, Susan. You’re going to like Susan, but anyway, they are coming in from out of town, so it made more sense for us to head up as one group. Come on, get in.” Jamie was excited, and her words came faster than Tony could follow, but that was just who she was. She placed his bag in the trunk, quickly arranged the others to make sure there was maximum space left over, and got into the front seat.

  “Hey, Tony, how’s life?” Colin asked. As always, he seemed able to summarize things down to a short, sharp sentence.

  “It’s good,” Tony answered. He liked talking to Colin because it was never complicated or in-depth.

  They pulled away from the bus stop and were on the road again. Tony sat quietly, preparing himself for the company, and the sudden change of plans. It would be fine. As long as Ricky behaved.

  ***

  “Shit, I need to run to the store quickly,” Stella said as she rummaged through her bag.

  “No, you’ll wait here with me. They will be here any minute,” Ricky snapped, glaring at his girlfriend.

  “You don’t understand, I really need to go to the store. Just quickly, it’s at the end of the street,” she said, closing the zipper on her bag.

  Ricky turned to face her, his eyes glaring. “If you’ve forgotten something, then you will just have to live without it. I won’t have you being gone when your friends arrive. So just drop it, alright?”

  Stella lowered her eyes to the ground. “Okay, sorry, you’re right.”

  “I know. I love you.” Ricky leaned over and gave Stella a quick kiss on the cheek. His lips were cold, but she didn’t say anything.

  The couple stood side-by-side in front on the sidewalk in front of a rundown-looking house that was owned by Ricky’s mother. She was out of town, and they had enjoyed the place to themselves all weekend in anticipation of the trip. What that really meant was Ricky had spent the weekend either fucking her or complaining about having to spend time with her friends. He didn’t like the idea of a cabin in the woods and certainly didn’t like the idea of sharing a place with two others, especially two people that knew Stella well, and knew very little about him.

  “It’s going to be fine,” Stella said as Ricky fidgeted.
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  “I know it will. They’re just fucking late. If they are making me head away with them, the least they could do is be on time.”

  “Nobody is forcing you, babe. And besides, you’re doing it with me, not them,” Stella said, nervously, but fell quiet when Ricky glared across at her. “They probably went to pick up Tony first, now that I think about it.”

  “Tony?” Ricky’s head snapped around.

  “Yeah, Jamie’s brother. He is coming too, I told you,” Stella said

  Ricky let his backpack fall to the ground. “Oh great, so the retard is coming too. That’s going to be fun.” Ricky’s rage boiled over in an instant. His face turned a vivid shade of red, and his eyes seemed to bulge from their sockets.

  It was a side of him that Stella had come to know in the past few months. As their relationship deepened, so had his controlling and jealous ways.

  “He’s not a retard. He’s just quiet. I’ve known Tony for years. He’s a good guy, so please don’t hassle him,” Stella asked as she reached to take Ricky’s hand within hers.

  He took it and squeezed a little too hard, causing Stella to flinch. Ricky looked at her and gave a small smile. “He better stay away from me then.”

  Silence fell between them, and the sounds of the street grew. A drill was rumbling somewhere inside one of the nearby homes, while three doors down an elderly man with shorts, complete with knobby knees, a tank top, and beanie hat appeared, pushing an old electric lawnmower, the bright orange cable extending back into the house like a snake. It was clear from the garden that the cable didn’t quite stretch to the very end, where a six-inch strip of grass stood three times taller than the rest of the lawn.

  The approaching car announced itself arrival a few moments before pulling into view. Coming down a small side street opposite as opposed to following the main road, it was clear that Colin had taken the wrong turn, but Stella breathed a sigh of relief when Ricky made no comment on the fact.

  “Well sweet Jesus, they made it here after all,” he cussed at the car as it swung around in a wide arc and clumsily pulled up at the curb, the passenger-side wheel mounting the sidewalk while the rear wheel on the same side was in no danger of emulating the feat.

  “Hey guys, you ready to get this party started?” Colin leaned over from behind the wheel to shout through the lowered passenger-side window.

  “Yeah, I am,” Stella replied, a little too enthusiastically for Ricky’s taste. Another glare shot in her direction from the trunk was enough to dull the excitement.

  Ricky loaded his bag, throwing it haphazardly into the trunk, and stood waiting for Stella to follow suit with her own, giving a sigh of irritation when she began moving his to allow her own bags to lie flat against the carpeted base.

  “You take the middle then,” he growled as Stella ducked down without hesitation and slid across the seats.

  “Hey Tony, it’s been a while.” Stella smiled at her best friend’s brother.

  “Hi,” Tony answered, his eyes darting in Stella’s direction for a fleeting moment of contact before returning to the window. It was an act born from politeness, and an attempt to make contact, rather than a rude display of disinterest.

  “How have you been?” she asked, genuinely interested.

  “Oh, good, good. Busy with school.” Tony paused for a moment. “How about you?”

  Ricky slid in beside Stella and instantly pulled her closer to him. “She’s fine. Are we going to get on the road or what? We’re already late,” Ricky snapped.

  Nobody said anything as Colin put the car into gear and pulled away from the sidewalk, while Jamie took the chance to change the playlist to something more recent. It didn’t take long before she found the list she had secretly installed on Colin’s phone the week before.

  “Hey,” Colin said, flashing her a smile.

  “You didn’t think you were going to listen to that all the way, do you?” Jamie leaned up and over, kissing her boyfriend on the cheek.

  Colin smiled and returned his attention to the road, while in the back seat, Ricky gave a heavy sigh that showed his displeasure at the musical choice. The two girls ignored him and were soon both quietly singing along, slightly out of key and half a beat behind, but they made it work.

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