Unpredictable

Chapter 19: Blank-Faced

I didn't sleep at all that night. After the high of getting to go shopping with the girls, who I was now on much better terms with - something that didn't happen a whole lot in group homes - I had remembered something very important: Dylan, who had broken my heart, or I had broken his, was going to FaceTime me.

And Evie had conveniently forgotten to tell me what time, so I stood there staring at my phone, probably looking awful. I missed Evie, who would have snapped at me to pick myself up and forced some makeup on me and picked out an outfit for me.

But I was still at the group home, and Evie was still at her own house, and Dylan had his evaluation, and what the hell was I supposed to do?

And then, at 3:20 in the afternoon, Dylan FaceTimed me, and I quickly answered, not wanting to keep him waiting. 

"Sophie," he said, his voice relieved. I couldn't really see him, since he seemed to be getting out of his car, but he sounded incredibly stressed. That made sense; he might lose his daughter, if this evaluation didn't go well. I was praying that Andi was able to pull some strings.

After all, this was all my fault to begin with.

"Hey, Dylan, listen. Just be yourself..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, and it'll all be fine," Dylan finished my sentence. "That's what Edward and Doug have been telling me."

"Oh." I paused. "So what did you need me for?"

"I missed you," Dylan said, finally standing on the ground and holding his phone up so I could see his face. He was biting his lip. "Soph, about what happened...I didn't know..."

My heart seemed to clench all over again. "Look, Dylan, it was my mistake, okay? I shouldn't have gotten so close to begin with."

"Soph, please," begged Dylan. "I know you're going to Halloween Fest, Evie told me you went shopping. Who's your date?"

"I don't think I have one," I mumbled. "Evie said she'd get dates for everybody else, or something, but I'm apparently the single one. I don't think she considered how lonely that would make me feel. And Dylan, shouldn't we be talking about your evaluation?" I really didn't want to be discussing our mess of a relationship right now.

Ethan may have been drunk, yes, but he'd still said that all Dylan wanted to do was sleep with me, at Homecoming. 

Dylan had still said all those mean things to me.

And I'd still caused this evaluation to happen in the first place.

I was leaving, as soon as I turned eighteen, and nothing was going to prevent that. I'd been a horrible burden to this amazing family, and it just...it wasn't good.

"Look, Sophie, I've been talking about my evaluation ever since it got scheduled," begged Dylan. "I don't want to talk about that."

"Then you tricked me, or Evie tricked me," I swallowed. "I thought this was about your evaluation."

Dylan arrived in Aurora's room, where the baby was crying. My heart softened at the sight of her. "Dammit," cursed Dylan, and almost as if it were second nature, I blurted out, "Language."

Dylan laughed.

"I haven't heard that in a while."

"I can't believe she's crying right now," sighed Dylan. "The social worker's about to step through that door, and she's crying..."

"Babies cry, Dylan, it's fine. Just hold the phone close to her."

Dylan complied, not even questioning my methods, and I began to sing Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" to Aurora. Just as I'd finished, and Aurora had stopped crying, the doorbell rang.

"Shoot, I gotta go," Dylan managed to catch himself in time. "Do I look okay?"

"You look fine, Dylan," I promised. "You'll do great."

And just like that, the FaceTime was off, and I started sobbing again, not caring that I was currently rooming with three girls and all of them were staring at me, at a loss as to what needed to be done. 

They weren't much help, either; after Violet had finished staring slash eavesdropping, she simply told me, "This is why I don't do love. I just do." And then we all stared at Violet, because she was a fricking sophomore.

Unfortunately, my shitty day was far from over. Around seven, as Nancy was calling dinner and I was in the living room doing my homework, somebody shouted, "Holy shit, what the hell does that guy think he's doing?"

I realized it was Nathan as a very malicious-looking Nancy hit his wrist using a Slap bracelet. I glared at her, wishing Andi would hurry up and do something about her already. "Language," she said.

"But that guy's going to get himself killed!" Nathan gestured to outside, where some dude was sitting in his car, smoking a cigarette. I thought I could make out a bottle of alcohol on the seat next to him. There were cars approaching from every direction - Nathan was right, this dude was going to kill himself.

Huh, that kinda looks like Ethan's car.

Wait a minute, that kind of looks like Ethan!

And before Nancy could stop me, I was rushing out into the middle of the street, dodging cars and shouting apologies to drivers, and soon enough I was in the passenger seat of Ethan's car. I hurriedly through the alcohol out of the window, as Ethan was clearly already high, and probably also drunk, as well.

"Found youuuu," slurred Ethan. "Or you found meeeee..."

"Ethan, you need to get out of the car," I said desperately, praying to anybody who was up there that we survived this. "We're both going to die."

"Evie says 'm goin' to hell anywayy," slurred Ethan, his words mingling together. "Looksh like I foun' a shortcut, eh, Soph?"

Deciding we had no time to argue, I began struggling with Ethan. "Get into the backseat, Ethan," I ordered, trying to take control of the steering wheel.

"Noooo, Soph, it's my carrrr," protested Ethan.

"Ethan, I swear to God, if you don't get into the backseat of this car this instant - " I threatened, and Ethan held up his hands, his reflexes much slower than normal.

"Fineeee, buzzkill," he muttered, but at the moment, I didn't really care if I was the worst buzzkill on the planet.

Ethan was going too slowly, so I shoved him, headfirst, into the backseat, and climbed hurriedly into the driver's seat. Ethan had put himself in a really bad position, so where would be the best place to go?

I glanced up. Semi on the left, angry driver on my right. 

The semi wasn't stopping, I noticed. Probably because I was a small car, and he was, well, huge. I needed to get to safer ground.

My throat was closing up, and I could feel a panic attack coming on. Seriously? Now?

I managed to shove Ethan to the right, where he'd probably get less injured, since the semi was coming towards us from the left. I called Dylan's cell.

"Soph? Hey, I have good news! I think we passed the inspection."

"I love you, Dylan," I informed him, and then I hung up and called 911.

"911, what's your emergency?"

And then the semi hit us, slowly stopping as the driver finally realized he'd hit something. I was able to glance back and see that, as I'd hoped, Ethan had sustained less injuries than I had.

Then everything went black.

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A/N: Please don't kill me...