This isn't weird.

Driving Force

 It was painfully quiet in Dustin's car. He had turned off the radio the second he started the engine, in no mood to listen to Bruno Mars's promises to funk him up. Millie glanced at him a few times. His jaw was tightly set. She had never seen him look so serious.

He finally caught her looking at him, and spoke without taking his eyes off the road. "I'm sorry I yelled at you," he said.

"It's okay," she replied. "I think you saved my life. Um... thank you."

"Yeah. Of course."

The conversation stalled for several minutes.

"You're good in a crisis, huh?" she asked. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"Once upon a time, I wanted to be an EMT," he said. "I didn't last long. You go into it thinking you're going to be this big hero, but..."

He trailed off.

"Her phone's turned off," Genevieve said bitterly.

"So is his," Ben sighed. "I don't understand what happened. He said she almost died?"

"That's what he said," she muttered. "She looked fine to me."

They were sitting next to one another on the front porch steps of the Madero-Gallagher house. The party was certifiably over; the guests had made a swift exodus once it became clear that the Madero-Gallagher fight had escalated beyond the point of no return. They could still hear faint yelling through the walls. Genevieve had swiped a freshly opened bottle of merlot on her way out. She was taking swigs straight from the bottle.

"He said he was taking her to a doctor," Ben said. "There's only so many places in town that could be. We could try to find them."

"Clearly she doesn't want to be found," Genevieve muttered. She had taken deep offense at Millie's sudden departure. It was simply incomprehensible to her that she would have gone off with that boorish neanderthal.

"I don't think you should take it personally," Ben said. "It sounds like there was some kind of emergency."

"Why would she ask that knuckle dragging oaf for help instead of me?" she asked. "I was sitting right next to her."







Millie's hands fidgeted in her lap. "How did you know what was happening? Nobody else noticed at all." Not even Ben, she thought.

"Because I've seen it happen before," Dustin replied. "Which is why I wanted to be an EMT, I guess."

"Oh." She stole another glance in his direction. "Someone close?"

"Yeah," he answered. "It was my twin sister."

"You have a twin?" she asked.

"Not anymore," he replied.

"Oh." Millie swallowed. "I'm sorry."

Dustin stared straight ahead. "We were thirteen," he said.

"Oh."

"I could see she was choking," he said. "No one else noticed. But I just watched her leave the room. I thought she had it under control. I figured if it was that bad, she wouldn't have gone off alone. When she didn't come back after a few minutes, I went to look for her, but..." His voice trembled. "I waited too long."

"I don't think she asked for his help at all," Ben said. "He saw something was wrong and ran out after her. She had to have been choking, or having an allergic reaction, or something. Dustin knows first aid."

"Well, she was fine when I saw her, and he definitely asked her to leave with him." She crossed her arms, stubborn and skeptical. "And she definitely accepted. Do they see each other often?"