My Brother's Best Friend (Shay Mooney)

Chapter 16

"Hello, Ms. Smyers," Mrs. Alex, the driving instructor, greets me. "It's nice to see you again" she says flatly.

"You too!" I respond, eager to begin driving.

"Let's see..." she starts, flipping through a binder. She turns to a section that has my name as the title. "You've already passed the written portion, you just failed the driving portion...twice." She exhales as she says twice.

"Yes ma'am, but I intend to ace it this time!" I say, trying to be positive.

"Yes, yes. I'm sure you do. Let's just begin, shall we?"

I take a seat behind the wheel of a small yellow car with a large sign on the top that reads CAUTION: STUDENT DRIVER.

"Okay, lets's get this over with," Mrs. Alex states. She's not the kindest person in the world. She appears sweet with her short stature, dark skin, and bright smile, but I've learned to not let it fool me. "Start by taking us out of parallel parking and keep going straight down this road," she says, gesturing to the road ahead of us.

I stay quiet as I put the car in reverse. I hate parallel parking. I'm awful at getting in and out of it. I press my right foot down on the pedal, pressing a bit to hard. The car comes to life with an abrupt jolt. "Sorry," I mutter. I carefully turn the wheel as I take the car out of reverse. I start forward, once again pressing too hard on the pedal. I lose control of the car as it hits a trash bin on he sidewalk, knocking it and its contents over. "Oops," I say, grimacing.

"Oh Lord, this will be a long ride," Mrs. Alex says, placing her hands over her eyes and shaking her head.

I ignore my previous mistake and continue down the road as instructed. "Good, now make a left turn onto Laney Street," she orders. I nod my head. I stop at the stop sign and turn on my turning signal, executing the turn perfectly.

"Nice job," she says, marking something in her thick binder. "Alright, now speed up to 60." I try to speed up, but accidentally hit the brake instead of the gas pedal. "NO, I SAID SPEED UP, NOT STOP!"

"I'm sorry!" I exclaim. I try once again to speed up, but slam on the brake. She rolls her eyes and angrily marks another thing on her paper. I try once more and step on the gas pedal too hard. We jolt forward and she screams, grabbing the handle attached to the ceiling.

"You know what, forget speeding up. Just take us back to the center. Please!" she shouts. Her loud and harsh tone startles me and I swerve off the road, almost landing us in a ditch.

I speed all the way back to the center where we originally started. I attempt to parallel park, tapping the bumper of the car in front of me. When I take the key out of the ignition, Mrs. Alex practically jumps out of the car.

"So?" I ask, filled with hope. I already know she's going to fail me again, but my voice remains positive.

"This, Ms. Smyers, might be the most horrendous of your three tries at this test. However, because I'm terrified of ever being trapped in a car with you again, I'm going to give you your license."

"Oh my God, really?! Thank you so much!" I exclaim, stopping myself from hugging her.

"Yes, yes, it's wonderful. Now please come with me so we can give you your driver's license," Mrs. Alex states flatly.

I text my brother immediately. In the short time it takes for me to receive my license, Dan is there. "Congrats little sis!" he exclaims, hugging me. "Now maybe Mom and Dad will buy you a car of your own and I won't have to take you anywhere ever again."

I punch his arm as we walk out to the car. "Can I drive?" I ask.

"HELL NO!" Dan shouts. "You've driven my car before and it was the scariest ten minutes of my life. No. No, no, no. NO."

"God, calm down. I won't drive. Fine."

I make my way to the passenger side of Dan's Mustang, only to find that Shay is occupying that seat. "Oh," I whisper when I see him. I slide in the seat behind Shay. "Hi Shay," I whisper.

"Hey," he responds. We still haven't addressed the whole Meghan issue. We haven't had any time alone to talk about it. Dan's always around. "How did the test go?" Shay asks, turning around to face me.

"I got my license!" I announce in a sing-songy voice, taking it out and showing him.

"That's great ba-...Emily," Shay says, blushing. Was he about to call me babe? "Hey Dan, can you take me home? They're probably gonna be mad I left for so long. They wouldn't want me to be somewhere secretly playing music," Shay says.

"I'm sorry man. And are you sure? There's another bed in my hotel room, you could just stay there-" Dan starts.

"No, no. It would be...worse...if I don't go home."

Did Shay tell Dan what was going on with him? Even if he did, I doubt he'd tell me what Shay said. But I can't help but wonder what's going on with him and what's up with all of his bruises and his limp.

"Okay. I'll take you home. Em, where do you want me to take you?"

"Can you take me home? Jason's supposed to come over later and pick me up..."

"Sure."

Dan and Shay sing to the radio the rest of the way to his house. I join in, having more fun with them that I could ever imagine having with someone else. It hurts that they'll both be gone soon.

We arrive at Shay's house. "Can I talk to you outside?" Dan asks Shay, unbuckling his seatbelt.

"Sure," Shay responds simply. Dan quickly gets out of the car. Shay stays behind for a moment. "Emily, can we talk later?"

"I think that's a good idea," I respond.

"I'm really sorry. I was an asshole to do that. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to hurt you," Shay says, turning around. His beautiful brown eyes grow wide and I can't help but get lost in them.

"Thanks," I respond.

"Bye Em." He gets out of the car and shuts the door. I watch as he stands close to my brother and looks at the ground as Dan speaks. Shay puts his hands to his face and his body starts shaking. He's crying. He roughly wipes away his tears and pulls Dan into a hug. I see Dan mouth the words "Stay strong, man," as Shay walks away and into his home.