• 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 •

• 8 •

valerie

"Shit," I said, dodging a pothole as the rain crashed down. We were on a back road, a stopped train quietly sitting besides us, no cars anywhere in sight, older homes along the side streets.

"We needa pull over, Val," Jadyn shouted.

"I got this. It's just some rain," I said back, squinting at the road. You could barely see a foot in front of the car. The tires were driving through inches of rain, the water sloshing along the sides of the road onto the rail road track right next to us and the steep ditches on the other side.

"Be careful," Pey advised next to me.

"Watch out," Milli said from behind me, "I see cars stoppin' up there."

"You needa pull over, Val."

"I don't need to- Fuck!"

It felt like the car flew, then it swung to the right, the back tire getting stuck in the ditch.

"I told you to pull over!" Jadyn shouted from the back.

"Okay, backseat driver," I shouted back. "Not everybody has to listen to you!"

"Stop arguing and get out the car so we can push it out the ditch," Milli snapped, swinging open her door and hopping out into the rain.

"You stay in and press the gas while we push. Not too hard though," Pey ordered me, a focused look in her eyes as she hopped out too.

Jadyn was the last to get out, her glare on my back.

"I know I shoulda listened."

She slammed the door, and got out without a word.

I sighed, my hands shaking with adrenaline.

"Press the gas now!" somebody shouted from outside.

I pressed on it and the car lurched forward but we were still stuck.

Someone pounded on my window, and I turned to my left. It was Jadyn, drenched in water. I unlocked the door and she yanked me out, hopping into the driver's seat. "I got it, Pey," she announced, before slamming the door in my face as I stood out in the rain.

My fists shook as Peytyn and Emilia helped push the car.

They were working fine without me.

My friends didn't need me.

I took a step back, then another, my tears blending in with the rain.

Then I started running away.

Back the way we came.

The wind pushed against me and the felt sharp against my face. I wasn't needed and I'd never be. I was always there messing things up. I was an extra. I wasn't important. I wasn't...anything.

I felt about as invisible as anyone could right now.

That was me. Val. The one who nobody wanted.

All my flaws I thought I had fixed.

All my mistakes.

I could see the lights of a car off in the distance.

Then I heard another one- much closer approaching me head-on.

I dodged to the side just in time as an SUV without their lights on came racing through the water, spraying wetness all over me. They were going so fast that I'm sure they wouldn't see the black Civic stuck in the ditch.

The SUV wouldn't see the black Civic until they got up right on it in this weather.

My eyes widened as I started running back towards the car. I was a few feet behind the SUV, not yet keeping pace with the vehicle.

I gotta stop the SUV somehow or warn the others!

I leaped forward, climbing onto the back of the SUV and pulling myself up onto it, trying to stay on by the black bike rack on top of the vehicle in the rain.

I tapped on their back window furiously as they sped through the rain. I could see the Civic from here,
faint headlights because it was an older model and it they needed to be cleaned off.

I banged on the back of the vehicle as I held on and the vehicle came to an abrupt stop, only ten feet from the Civic.

"What the fuck?" the driver got out into the rain as I hopped off the SUV, dizzy. "Why were you on my car?"

The Civic laid in the middle of the street now, lights off as Jadyn, Milli, and Pey stared at us, drenched.

"If I hadn't stopped you, you would've ran into them," I pointed.

The driver, just now noticing the black Civic, nodded. Like the driver couldn't yet believe things. Dressed in a casual outfit and what looked like bright orange taco grease smeared around the lips, I don't think the driver would have been paying attention long enough to the road to even realize that the Civic had been there until it was too late.

"Thank you. They-They could've all died tonight," the driver said.

Eventually, the SUV left and Jadyn and I locked eyes. They had heard everything. We were all wet and we were all tired.

"My phone says there's a McDonald's around the corner. Get in."

And so I got back in, even though if it hadn't been for the thought that they might have all died that night, I had plans on running away from everything I had known for forever.

"Thanks," Milli patted my shoulder as I got inside.

I didn't say anything back, watching the water from us dampen the seats and floor.