An Accidental Murder

Chapter 6:

"Ryan, I know who that man was," I said as I got into the car.

"What man?"

"Are you serious?  The man from last night, the one we hit."

Ryan let out a loud, overexaggerated sigh. "Amber, first of all, we didn't hit anyone, you did. Secondly, we're not going to do this. I told you that none of this happened. There was no man, there was no accident, now drop it."

I gasped and stared at the boy who sat next to me. He was a stranger, completely foreign with his stone hard face and tightened jaw.  He wouldn't take his eyes off the road to look at me and I wondered how he could be so callous and mean. Did he just accuse me? Was he trying to pin this all on me?! It was his fault I was distracted and he's the one that told me to pull over and didn't warn me about the guy fixing his car.  It was his idea to dump the guy in the ditch rather than call the police! Wasn't he just as guilty as I?

What we did was terrible, it was wrong, and it was cold-hearted.  Surely Ryan had to be feeling just as guilty as I was.  How was I supposed to manage this agony by myself? I needed to talk to someone about all of this or I'd go crazy and if he wasn't talking, what would I do?

"Ryan, this is tearing me up inside.  You're holding this over my head, but it was your great idea not to call the police.  I know that we can't talk about this around other people but I have to get it out somehow.  How can you sit there and blame all of this on me and act like nothing ever happened?!"

Ryan said nothing as he parked his car in the school parking lot. 

"His name was Michael Cates," I said in a weak whisper,  "He had a fiance and they just had a baby, Ryan. I saw it on the news this morning."

Though I sat looking down at my hands as I played with a ring on my finger, I could feel the icy glare that came my way. I didn't want to look at him and see those cold eyes burning through my flesh. I was waiting for something, but I wasn't sure what I expected; a slap, tears, sympathy, a hug.  

If Ryan were a dragon, his words were like a breath of fire, scalding against my soul. "I do not want to know his name," he began in a very steady, controlled voice. "I do not want to know about his family. I don't want to ever hear about any of this again, Amber. As I said last night, it never happened.

I will not let you or this nonexistent person ruin my life and if you were smart you wouldn't want to ruin yours either. You're going to walk into that building and you're going to smile and act like you always do, like you did before.  If you ever bring this up again, I'll go to the police myself and turn you in." 

Before I knew it, he was out of the car and walking into the building leaving me reeling, still buckled in my seat.