Memory in a Bottle

Jace

Delilah got an advantage, but I know my car is faster than hers. I'll catch up to her in no time. Out of nowhere i see a car that looks exactly like Delilah's swerves and crash into a ditch. I speed past the car and realize its Delilah's car. Shit! I slam on my breaks and make a U-turn. I stop near her and throw my door open. I sprint over to the driver side door.

"Delilah!" I shout. She's sitting there with a mixture of fear and shock on her face. "Delilah!" I open the door and look at her. She has a small cut on her eyebrow that is bleeding like a stuck pig. "Baby, look at me. Hey, what happened?" She tears her gaze away from the windshield.

"I... I couldn't stop. The breaks didn't work. How bad is it?" I look away from her and look at her car. The front wheel has a branch stuck in it. She's probably going to need a new tire on top of a whole new braking system.

"Well, you're lucky that I have a few spare parts for Mustangs." I tell her. She chuckles and unbuckles her seatbelt.

"I still kicked your ass." She says. Confused I look around and realize that we're near the house. If she didn't crash then she would've won. I laugh.

"Oh, Delilah..." She gets out of the car and looks at both of our vehicles.

"I am the closest to the house." She says pointing to her car. I look and see that my car is short a few inches from hers. I laugh again and shake my head.

"You are ridiculous. And you need to get your head looked at." She scrunches her face up in disgust and immediately winces.

"Um, that would be a hell no." She says.

"At least let Dexter look at your head." She sighs and I know she gave in.

"Fine... How are we going to get the car out?" She asks. Good question...

"How about this, let's get to the house and call Dexter and then we'll figure out how to get your car out."

"Okay..."

Ten minutes later we arrive at the house. Mom's car isn't there, so we don't have to deal with her panicking. I tell Delilah to go upstairs while I call Dexter. He picks up on the fourth ring.

"Hello?" He answers sleepily.

"Did I wake you?" I ask looking at the time. It's seven thirty at night.

"Nah, I just woke up from a nap. I was just about to head over there for dinner. What's up?"

"Well... we need a doctor who won't charge us for a small injury." I hear shuffling in the background.

"What happened?" He asks alarmed.

"I'll tell you when you get here."

"Is Delilah-"

"I'm not going to tell you till you get here. Be quick please. I'll leave my front door unlocked." I tell him ending the phone call. I hear a thud upstairs and I quickly rush upstairs. "Delilah?!"

"In here." She shouts from mom's room. I rush in to see her on the floor with towels splayed around her. I rush to her side.

"What happened?"

"I uh... didn't see where I was going and tripped over something. I was putting some of the laundry away. The closet can't hold anymore towels so I figured i could put a few in your mom's closet." She replies blushing with embarrassment.

"Why were you doing laundry?" I ask and her face flushes even more.

"I... I needed to distract myself."

"From what?" She doesn't say anything she just starts picking the towels up. Just as I am about to ask again, I hear the front door open and slam close.

"Jace! You better tell me what's going on! Why is Delilah's new car in the ditch?!" Dexter shouts. I hear his feet stomping up the stairs. I help Delilah up and hand her the towels. She scurries to ma's closet and puts the towels away. "Where are you?"

"I'm in my mom's room!" I shout and he rushes in.

"What the hell, Jace? What's going on?" He asks sounding alarmed.

"I crashed my car on accident and hit my head on the steering wheel. No, it's not Jace's fault, it's mine. I wanted to race him, and I couldn't stop. The breaks don't work." Delilah blurts out. Dexter whips around and stares at Delilah. I can tell he's not playing the brother role anymore he's playing the role of Doctor. I can tell the separate way he looks at her, like she's his patent and not a sibling. She's his patent now so he's searching for any unseen pain, bruises, scratches, etc. Whatever pain Delilah can hide from me Dexter can see it.

"You look like you are okay on the outside except, of course, a few scratches and bruises. I don't know about inside though; I'd feel a little bit better if you got a CAT scan, but I know how much you hate hospitals. So, I won't tell you to. This cut up here needs stitches or staples. It looks deep but it could be the dry blood on it and all around it." He says looking at the cut on Delilah's eyebrow. I sigh and walk downstairs to the kitchen.