One Big Sweet Mistake

Chapter 18

This kid scared the hell out of me. He was speeding above the maximum limit on the road, while in fact he had not even had a license. According to my watch, I had been hiding behind his seat for over an hour which felt like a hundred years. Thank God the music he turned on was very loud so that he would not hear me breathing. Suddenly, a fly landed on my nose. I reflexively brushed it off. It was finally gone and escaped itself through a narrow gap between the windowpanes. The problem was, the fly had given me a sneezing feeling.

Holy crap, don’t sneeze...not now...

I closed my eyes and covered the lower part of my face up to my nose with both hands, trying to prevent the sneeze. Too late. I could not hold it any longer.

“Haaatchiii...!!!”

Ooops.

“What the...”

Alex turned his head around, gazing down at me with wide eyes. Everything happened so fast and all of a sudden there was a sound of horn honking, along with blinding lights in front of us. I jumped off my feet and spun the steering wheel right before a big truck hit us. 

“You almost got us killed you moron!” I shrieked, my hands were shaking in horror as the effect of adrenaline rush overtook me. Panicked, Alex immediately put his hands back on the wheel and managed to stabilize the car.

“What the heck are you doing here?!” he asked, yelling at me through the front mirror. His eyes blazed with fury.

“I was going to ask the same thing to you! Dammit, Alex. What’s with these liquors? Are you a smuggler or something? Bad kid!” I shouted and tweaked his ear.

“Hey! Keep your hands off, I’m trying to drive!”

“You don’t even have a license, stupid!”

“Don’t call me stupid!”

“Stop shouting at me! Pull over, now! Now!” I shook his shoulders impatiently. Grumbling, Alex stopped the car on the side of the road. He took off the seat belt and jumped out of the car, slamming the door. I followed him out and clutched his shirt.

“Explain to me!” I yelled at him. He stared at me for a quite long time, then ducked his head.

“This is the day when my mother died. I’m heading the graveyard,” he said in a low voice. I squinted, could not fully trust him.

“That doesn’t explain why you bring liquors!”

Alex lifted up his head and rolled his eyes.

“Well, that’s another story. Now it’s getting late. You’re coming or not?” he asked, opening the car door. I looked around and realized that I was in the middle of a deserted road. I had no choice then. There was no way I would let him leave me here. I glared at him just to emphasize that I wasn’t frightened to him, and then got inside. Only if I could drive a car, I would have replaced Alex on the driver’s seat. Unfortunately the only vehicle I could ride was my old motorcycle and bicycle. Anything as long as it had two wheels. With a heavy heart, I let him take over, hoping that we would not meet a police.

I was too angry and both of us were muted along the way. Half an hour later, we arrived at the graveyard. So he did not lie. With sad expression, Alex opened the trunk and pulled out a bouquet of flowers. He then walked straight inside, leaving me behind. It was chilly and the sound of owl chirping really freaked me out. I walked behind Alex, trying to catch him up. I was wondering why on earth anyone visited a graveyard in the evening. I mean, couldn’t he do it at noon when the sun shined brightly?!

Alex seemed to know where to go and memorized the path clearly. I stopped abruptly as he suddenly bent down in front of a gravestone written EMILY CORNELL. So his mother’s name was Emily...