Midnight Rose (completed)

Chapter 9

"Abby? Abby?" Kendra's voiced hissed.

Lifting my head from my desk, I realized I had fallen asleep in class. I had barely slept last night, trying to figure out what was happening with Wes and what that key I found in my grandpa's jacket opened.  

Everyone was staring at me. Everyone.

"Miss Rose, do you need to go to the nurse?" Mrs. Knight had her hands on her waist, looking less than thrilled with me.

"No." I ducked my head as I slid down in my desk.

She shook her disapproving head and continued the math problem that I could have sworn she was working on before I fell asleep. Either I was only out for a few seconds or this was one of those five-part word problems that never seemed to end and still had a variable in the answer.

I shoved my book and notebook into my bag when the bell rang and strode out with Kendra.

"You were mumbling something about Wes." Kendra laughed, walking close to me in the noisy hallway.

I grumbled, mortified, "How loud?"

"Loud enough." Her amusement smiled back at me.

"You've been demoted from best friend to casual acquaintance." She didn't laugh. "I was kidding, Kendra."

She slammed her books into the locker and switched them out for her next class. "It would be funny if it wasn't true." Hurt pooled in the corners of her ocean blues.

I picked at the corner of my math book anxiously. I had been pretty consumed with work. And Wes. I should have called her back yesterday. "I'm sorry. I've been drowning in schoolwork and the bistro." It wasn't really a lie after all.

"You've always made time for me," she said more forcefully than I'd ever been on the receiving end before, slamming her locker closed.

The hallway was emptying quickly, with students deserting their lockers in favor of their next class. I wasn't sure what to say. 

"Nothing? Really?" Disappointed and betrayed, Kendra stormed off.

The second bell rang. I was late for English, again.

                                      ***

It seemed like everyone was avoiding me this week. Kendra barely afforded me a glance, and the only Hunter I saw was Mr. Hunter at the bistro. Penelope even ceased her random comments.

I wrapped up my Saturday night shift and climbed into my Jeep. I passed my driver's test with flying colors, so I was on my own now. My dad was apprehensively proud, and my mom was ecstatic. It would seem that my life had resumed its monotonous routine. 

The lights in the bistro turned off, and only the dim parking lights illuminated small circles sporadically around the lot. Employees were required to park in the far corner, and, unfortunately, there were no lights, leaving me in pitch-blackness. Winter was quickly approaching, and the chill had accumulated in my car during my absence. I blasted the heat, revving my engine a couple of times to speed up the warming process. It was only nine, and I didn't really feel like going home yet, but what other choice did I have?

Accepting defeat, I pulled out of the lot and headed down the road to my house. As if the night wasn't creepy enough with the low-lying fog rolling in, each streetlamp burnt out as I passed it, leaving a trail of darkness behind me. Chills shook my body, my instincts telling me to get home faster, so I hit the gas when suddenly a deer ran out into the road in front of me. I slammed on the brakes, the sound of rubber to pavement vibrating in my ears, my heart thumping erratically. The back end of my Jeep fishtailed to the left and right several times, the deer frozen in the middle of the street, its eyes piercing mine, begging for mercy. Narrowly missing the deer, my Jeep skidded off the road down a small incline, bouncing over rocks and pushing through bushes. It came to a stop just before hitting a tree head-on.