The Institution

Chapter 10 Part 3: Soggy

Driving to a restaurant is much more difficult than it sounds, when said driving is taking place in the middle of a hurricane.

Well, it wasn't a hurricane. But it was certainly raining hard enough to look like one. Streaks of lightening flashed across the sky, followed closely by rumbles of thunder that shook the ground. The rain was coming down thick and fast, like a barrage of silver bullets. The lawn in the center courtyard was flooding.

I'd been stupid enough to carry an umbrella as we dashed across the South Campus parking lot to Arthur's black Audi. Within seconds it was torn from my hands by the ferocious winds and hurtled away under the ominous night sky. I lamented its disappearance with a wail of self-pity, then scuttled after my roommate with my head bent level with my knees and my eyes screwed up against the torrential downpour.

By the time we made it to his car we were both soaked through and chilled to the bone. Arthur blasted the heat to help dry our clothes as he cautiously maneuvered out of the lot. The puddles were so deep now the water was almost level with his door. I was beginning to think that it was a very bad idea to be out in this weather.

"Maybe we should go back," I suggested, as we crept along down Woodland Avenue.

As if to emphasize my point, the DJ over the radio suddenly piped up, "And tonight's not a night to be out on the roads, folks! Conditions are slick. Be prepared for some flash flooding, particularly in low lying areas. A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for Fayette County, Jessamine County, and-"

Arthur slapped the radio off. "You worry too much," he said, even as he had to squint to see anything out of his windshield. "It's just a little rain."

If this is Arthur's definition of a little rain, I would like to see what he considers to be a monsoon.

The drive to El Rincon wasn't particularly long, but traffic was moving slowly. The Audi's windshield wipers were working furiously but the rain was coming down so hard now that Arthur could barely see where he was going. He peered out into the storm as we coasted to a stop at a traffic light and watched hypnotically as the forks of dazzling lightning flared against the clouds.

"You'd think it would have let up by now," Arthur murmured thoughtfully at the angry sky.

I wasn't listening, instead fidgeting with the damp cuff of my sleeve. I couldn't remember the last time I had been this nervous for anything. Unlike Arthur, who had no doubt been popular in high school and had lots of friends, I was always a loner. Interacting with people isn't something I'm particularly good at, and interacting with girls is something I downright avoid at all costs.

I painfully recalled the only time I had ever asked out a girl; it had been homecoming week my sophomore year of high school. I'd fallen head over heels for a girl named Ruthy DuPrie, a bubbly redhead in the drama club. She had always been friendly to me, unlike the majority of my peers, so on my walk to school Friday morning before the dance I picked her a bouquet of wildflowers growing on the side of the road.

When I got to school I sought her out in the quad. I found her standing with a group of her drama club friends. Before I could talk myself out of it I walked up to her and gave her the flowers.

"Will you c-come to the d-dance with m-me?" I'd stuttered.

I waited for Ruthy to speak, but instead she just stared at me. Then, to my horror, her friends started to laugh.

"She's already going with Austin O'Leery!" one of the girls screeched. The others giggled like hyenas.

I turned and fled. Their laughter chased me all the way to the bathroom, where I locked myself in for the first two class periods, feeling more humiliated than I'd ever felt in my entire life.

After that incident, I'd skipped out on all school dances, even my senior prom. I'd also given up all hope of ever having a girlfriend.

"-Ethan, have you been listening to anything I've said?" Arthur's annoyed voice suddenly hacked through my reminiscence with the force of a blunt ax.

I twitched and turned guiltily to Arthur. "No," I confessed sheepishly. "What did you say?"

"Have you got rocks in your ears?"

"No," I said again. "And a good thing too- That sounds painful."

"What I was saying was, when we get to the restaurant I need to make a phone call. My father has been blowing up my phone since this afternoon."

The light turned green and we turned left onto Nicholasville Road. The rain was still coming down in sheets and the lines of the road were blurred. Arthur accelerated but was still careful to keep under the speed limit.

"Why?" I asked. "Is everything alright?"

Arthur shrugged offhandedly and said, "It's nothing. He calls all the time. He probably just wants to lecture me about skipping practice the other day." He said it casually enough, but I saw his knuckles whiten on the steering wheel.

"Oh," I said. "Wait- You're going to leave me alone with Freya?" I felt another nervous swoop in the pit of my stomach as I said it.

"I don't have a choice, Ethan."

"But- I'll wait for you in the car, I can't go in there by myself!"

"Yes you can," said Arthur sternly, rolling his eyes again. "I'll only be a minute."

Traitor! I thought, somewhat hysterically.

Shut up, the little voice in the back of my mind snapped. Arthur's family is more important than your pitiful, non-existent love life.

"We must be almost there," Arthur said in a lame attempt at changing the subject, as if he could somehow sense the argument that was taking place inside my head. "Keep an eye out for the restaurant, will you? I can't see a thing in this freaking rain."

We were crossing an intersection when it happened. I was squinting out the window in search of the El Rincon sign when another vehicle came spinning across the intersection out of nowhere, tires squealing and horn blaring.

I was suddenly blinded by headlights. I threw my arms up in front of me with an incoherent shout.

There was a horrible crunching of steal. A blinding pain in my head. And then there was nothing at all.

*****

I greatly dislike most of chapter 10. I think it has something to do with the fact that it was the first part of this book that I ever wrote, and it was originally written in the third person. So if you were pondering about how the voice sounds slightly off, now you know why.

There will be more to come! Stay tuned for MAGIC POWERS and RIDICULOUS ETHAN taken to the next level.