Remaining Daylight (#Wattys2016)

Track III.

With Amber temporarily grounded, my next best bet was hanging out with my friend, Ryan. We didn't hang out much, considering he was usually too busy restoring cars or working. Still, we attempted to make time for each other when we could. We'd given each other two of our best years together in high school before he graduated, and by then, he'd decided to adopt me as his little sister.

"Can you believe it?" I asked Amber, who was on speaker phone in my car. "Hayden Grace, raping and beating a drunk girl. He seemed so sweet."

"I know. But, in his defense, they don't have much evidence against him yet, besides her word. He was at that party last night, and who knows if she even gave them the right name? She was wasted."

"True. What do we have, a ton of people on the Internet freaking out and spreading their opinions? She posted a picture of her beat up face. Of course that's going to go viral."

"Don't jump to any conclusions until they find something more stable. Obviously something horrible happened to her, and justice has to be served. But he's innocent until proven guilty, right?"

"Not with the witch hunters on the internet."

"Why don't you shoot him a text and ask him if everything is okay?"

"Tried that. He didn't respond."

Though, I wasn't sure what I had expected. After spending one evening together at a party, my texting him about a situation like this was going to have him pouring his heart out to me? I would be lucky if he even responded to a simple 'hey.'

"Give it a little. He's probably swamped with P.R. and questioning. Poor guy," Amber said.

"Right? This whole situation blows," I said.

"I've gotta go. Dad is bitching. I'll talk to you later," Amber said.

The line went dead, and my music kicked back up again. My drive to Ryan's house was twenty minutes. That left me plenty of time to mull over everything I'd learned this morning. God knew I needed it. He'd had me in bed with him, and, God forbid he actually did rape that girl, what if Amber hadn't walked in? What if we got going, and I changed my mind? Would that have been my beaten face all over the Internet?

Hayden Grace Alleged Suspect in Sexual Assault

What a headline. The night after meeting someone I'd held so high in my mind, something like this surfaced. It made anxiety swim in my stomach. Most of me didn't believe that he was capable of something so awful. But, I hated to admit that I didn't know him well enough to make that judgment.

As the houses thinned out, I turned onto a grimy back road that snaked through some fields and trees. It was beat up, but it was the quickest route to Ryan's. Most people avoided it in favor of main roads. I didn't have much to lose, though, since my car needed a trip to the shop, anyways. It wasn't friends with long distances.

And, my car might have been out of inspection, so this route was good for avoiding cops.

About a mile down the road, I came across a junker that was even more beaten up than mine. Rust ate away at parts of the frame. With the hood popped, it was pretty clear the car was broken down. My mind flashed to the jumper cables I kept in my trunk. Maybe I could help whoever was stranded out here with their awful car.

I pulled over behind it. The shoulder wasn't big, but considering the road was always so barren, there would undoubtedly be enough room for any potential traffic to get around us by using the other lane.

"Could you use a jump start?" I called out while I climbed out of my car. Though, mine didn't look much better.

"Fuck," I heard from in front of the car.