Risky Business.

014. problematic car rides

chapter 014,
problematic car rides

YOU COULD BE ASKING YOURSELF how it is that the situation was so dire that Max was the one who ended up behind the wheel. Lucy would agree, except she had been fussing so much over Steve that all of the plans for transportation had been arranged before she could even look up from her boyfriend's unconscious frame.

Boyfriend? Was that what he was? Not really. Not officially. Maybe-boyfriend. Almost-boyfriend. Boyfriend-turned-worst-enemy-turned-possible-boyfriend.

     Not the time to be worrying about that, Lucy. Stay focused.

The only question she could ask through her pained tears was "How in the hell are we all supposed to fit in one car?" but that was answered when Dustin sat in Lucas's lap and Leo squeezed onto Mike's. Max was in the driver's seat against Lucy's better judgement. Lucy and Steve reclined in the front seat, Lucy sitting awkwardly on her hip to care for Steve in the most uncomfortable way possible. Between her shattered knuckles and the position she was twisted in, pain was becoming Lucy's good friend.

"Come on, Steve," she muttered, using her good hand to hold an ice pack to his forehead. "Wake up, wake up, wake up.."

"Turn right up here," Lucas navigated from beneath Dustin, his voice muffled. "Right. I said right!"

The car suddenly swerved violently to the side, and Lucy was thrown hard against Steve's body, which then slammed into the door. She cursed, peeling his bloody face off the window. A quiet moan escaped his lips.

"Gentler next time, okay?" Lucy eased Max, her voice back to calm and collected. Taking her anger out on Billy had been almost therapeutic for Lucy. She was back to the Little Miss Sunshine everyone knew and loved, even if there were tears streaking down her cheeks and her clothes were smattered with blood.

Max puffed up her cheeks and exhaled a breath. She was hunched forward in the driver's seat, eyeing the road through narrowed lids and accelerating at a rapid pace.

Steve's eyelids began to flutter and his body tensed, which Lucy knew from her single semester in anatomy meant that he was beginning to wake up—so the numbness of being unconscious was waning. Steve was about to be in a lot of pain.

"Steve?" she said quietly, lifting the ice pack slightly away from his eyes. If he could even see anything through his bruises and cuts. His eyes were practically swollen shut. "Steve, you're awake!"

"Okay," Lucas called to Max, "you're gonna keep straight for a half a mile, then make a left on Mount Sinai."

"What's going on?" Steve's voice was croaky, heavily laced with exhaustion and pain. His eyes narrowed to slits when they landed on the driver's seat. "W–woahhh.. oh, my god—"

"Steve, don't freak out," Lucy said, using her best mom-voice, channeling the way she talked to Leo when he was doing something he shouldn't have been doing. "It's okay. She's a great driver."

"She's driven before," Dustin added helpfully.

"Yeah, in a parking lot," Leo argued, his eyes narrowed on Dustin. Mike's voice, muffled from beneath Leo, sounded his agreement.

"That counts," Lucas claimed.

"Oh, my god," Steve said again, trying to sit up and take control of the situation.

"Okay, don't move too much," Lucy said, wrestling against him as they both tried to fight to a seated position in the reclined passenger's seat. "You're hurt, Steve; you need to lie down."