Collided (Sandra Bullock X y/n fanfic)

What Did I Do?

Although my heart was still racing as I slipped behind the wheel and peeled out of the car park, my thoughts began to rationalise as I drove. As usual, Emily was all talk. The talk was insane and she had gone way too far this time, but I hadn't been in any real danger. I just hoped that was the same for Sandy.
The city was dark and glittering with life. Headlights gleamed as they rounded corners, street lamps flickered, shop windows glowed. Shoppers grabbing last minute dinner ingredients, coffee shops wiping down their tables, clubs just beginning to switch their lights on.
How could it be that the world continued to move around me when my next moment was so uncertain? I focused on the pedal beneath my foot and the leather binding of the wheel beneath my palm. I could control that, at least. I could control when I accelerated, when I braked, when I turned the wheel. I got lost in the motions of driving, my heart straining against the inside of my chest as I crossed the miles, closer to my love.
By the time I reached Sandy's I had calmed down. She was probably going out of her mind with worry about me, but I didn't think Emily would ever dare go face to face with her.
Sandy was one of the friendliest people you'd ever meet, but she knew how to stand up for herself and she knew how to stand up for the people she loved even more. I was lucky enough to be one of those people.
I went round the back into her garden, thinking it would be better not to be seen if Emily was being a creep in one of the bushes. The walls were tall around the perimeter of the garden and they got progressively shorter as they neared the sheer drop that gave way to the view. I considered clinging on to the ledge that was there and climbing over the shortest part, but that would mean hanging off the edge of a cliff. I was aware of a small Sweetie-sized hole in one of the bushes, and decided to try my luck.
On my hands and knees, with twigs digging into my palms, I went head first into the bush. I closed my eyes and, for some reason, held my breath too. It took some force and some branch snapping but I emerged on the other side. I stood up, leaves poking out of my hair in my peripheral.
I knocked on the glass of the back door, peering into the darkness. It only took three seconds for all my calmness to erupt into irrational panic. Why would it take any longer than three seconds to answer the door? Sweetie's fluffy white body trotted through the shadows and barked at me through the glass.
"Hi Sweetie," I cooed, crouching down and tapping the glass gently with my nail. "Where's mummy? Go get mummy."
She barked again, whined, and pressed her long pink tongue against the window. I stood up, my head rushing.
I checked my phone, my signal was back. I couldn't call Sandra because I knew Emily had her phone, and clearly she wasn't home so calling her landline wasn't an option. I called Cedric.
"She's here," he said.
"Sorry?"
"Sandra is here. I've been trying to call you—" that's when my phone began to ding with hundreds of missed calls.
"Is she at your house?" I asked, already racing towards the hole in the bush. I was thankful it was now Y/n sized.
"She is. Y/n, what have you gotten yourself into?" I could practically hear him shaking his head.
"Me?" I squeaked, "it's not my fault. Thank you for your concern, Cedric. I was just held against my will in my own home." I held the phone between my shoulder and my ear as I got back into my car. "Can I please just speak to Sandra?"
He grunted and passed the phone.
"Are you okay?" Sandy's tired voice asked.
I put the phone on the passenger seat. "Are you? Why aren't you at home?"
"When our call disconnected I went to Cedric's. I didn't know where else to go. I didn't want to risk going to yours in case—"
"It was a lie, Sandy." I shook my head. It was one thing threatening people who hate you, it was another thing pretending there was any threat at all. "The building wasn't rigged with anything and that guard I was with tried to hold me hostage."
"What?" She bit. "I'm going to kill her."
"Don't bother. It would be a waste of energy."
I spent the whole drive trying to convince Sandy I was okay. When I walked through Cedric's front door and she saw my neck, which had a trail of dried blood on it, she practically went into shock. Not to mention the additional branch scratches and debris in my hair and clothes.
I pushed her hands away. "It's fine. I'm fine."
She took my hand and marched to the kitchen. "Sit there."
I fell into a stool. She dabbed a wet kitchen towel against my neck whilst Cedric glared at me.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, exasperated.
"Richard called me," he said.
Sandy and I both frowned at him. I shrugged my shoulders. "Okay. What did he say?"
Cedric coughed a gravelly cough and leaned against the counter. "It's his job to know people, hm?" He paused, waiting for me to agree. I nodded. "He happens to know Emily quite well. He's very aware of her... antics. They dated, you see, back in the day."
I recoiled. "She's like half his age."
Sandra nudged me, scowling.
"Oh yeah. Sorry," I said, sheepishly. "I mean, it's hot when it's us."
"Y/n." Cedric said, pulling my attention back to him. Sandy discarded the towel and sat in the stool next to me, clasping my hand in her lap. "After they broke up, Richard kept an eye on her. She was an up and coming director, he wanted to make sure she didn't cross too many lines."
I sighed as loudly as I could. "Cedric it's been a really long day. Can you just tell me why you're mad at me?"
As usual Cedric was not phased by me, and only blinked in response before he went on. "Richard and I had a catch up. I thanked him for bailing you out of jail and he said to me that it wasn't as easy as it looked considering it wasn't your first time in jail."
Sandy's head snapped to look at me. I shook my head. "It was the first time. I... I've never been to jail before, I swear!"
"Why did he say that then?" Sandra asked.
"I don't know!"
Her hand freed from mine. "Don't lie to me."
I stood up and faced Cedric. "What does this have to do with Emily being a genuine criminal?"
"Richard didn't look into the charge back when he bailed you out of jail, but after the catch up he did some digging and he found that you were involved in a home break-in." Cedric's eyes bore into me, watching for any slight recognition of guilt in my body language.
I swallowed, edging back against the refrigerator behind Sandra. She was swivelled all the way around, so that they were both watching me intently.
"Okay, yes. I was maybe arrested back in England one time but so what? It was stupid and I was a kid. The charge never even stuck, that's how stupid it all was."
Sandy adjusted her posture, processing the new information.
I rolled my eyes. "Guys, seriously. I snuck into someone's house when I was like twelve. Stop looking at me like..." I pointed at Sandy's face, which was distant and troubled. "Like that! I didn't even take anything. I was caught, I was arrested and I was a minor, so nothing happened. Charges dropped. I didn't go to jail, I just got a slap on the wrist."
Cedric nodded steadily. "That's right. It wasn't the arrest Richard was interested in, Y/n. It was the crime itself. The house you broke into."
A fridge magnet hit my back and slid down the fridge door, clattering on the kitchen tiles at my heel. I frowned, trying to remember the antics of twelve year old Y/n.
"I can't even remember why I broke in now, except that I was with a bunch of delinquents who dared me to do it. I grew up in a minuscule town, we were all criminally bored." I smirked at my pun.
Sandy scowled. "Y/n, don't. Cedric's trying to tell us something."
"Is he? Because he's really making a meal out of it."
"It was Emily's house," Cedric said.
I recoiled. "It was not. Cedric it was a manor. An enormous, almost empty, manor. In England. Not a house Emily would find herself in."
"Emily's family are from England. She grew up there and moved here, like you. She was born in America, but she was raised in England until she was eighteen."
"But she doesn't even have an accent."
"To be fair, you're already losing yours and you're much older," Sandy offered.
My face went blank as I tried to process everything. "Does Emily know it was me? I mean she would've already been in America at that time."
"I don't know, but I can assume she does, Y/n. And what you're clearly not remembering are the consequences of your actions. Which were dire."
I sat down at the stool, fully listening to Cedric now. "What did I do?"