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there,
Robert?” I asked.
    “Oh, he’s fine .”
    My jaw dropped. I almost
screamed. It wasn’t Evan’s voice to the left of me, but Melanie's.
    “He’ll just want to chug a
ton of water when he gets home, that’s all,” Melanie added. She smiled at me.
“How are you feeling?”
    “Stop,” I whispered.
    “What?”
    I pushed my head away from
the window. “Please stop the car.”
    “What? Sydney, I can’t hear
you.”
    She rolled through a stop
sign, then sped down the neighborhood street. The speed limit was 25. She had
to be going at least 40.
    “I thought Evan was driving,”
I said.
    “I told everyone I'd take you
home, don't worry about it,” she said, and tapped her hand against my knee. It
wasn't as special when Melanie did it.          
    “You shouldn’t be driving. I
saw you. I saw you take those tequila shots.”
    “Don't worry. It's not like
I'm drunk or anything.”
    “Melanie! Goddammit, slow
down.”
    She sighed. “All right, all
right. Jesus.” She went from 40 to 30 in a matter of seconds. “Don’t be so
paranoid," she said, and shot me a condescending smile. "It's not
like anything's gonna happen—”
    “Oh my God!” I pointed out
the windshield. A teenage boy skateboarded across the street.
    “What?” she said, but I
didn’t wait for her to react. I leaned over, grabbed the wheel, and jerked the
car to the left.
    “What the hell are you doing ?” Melanie shouted, but I didn’t
listen. I kept a death grip on the wheel, kept veering the car to the left. I
didn't let go until we struck the curb on the other side of the street. The
seat belt jerked me back, and my right elbow struck the door handle.
    “Oww,” I said.  
    I turned my head toward the
window. The boy didn’t even notice us. He kept skateboarding down the sidewalk
and onto another street.
    “Oh, thank God,” I said, and unclicked
my seat belt.
    Melanie struck her fist
against the steering wheel. “Are you crazy ?
Are you trying to kill us?”
    I glanced in the back seat. “Robert,
are you okay?” He looked out of it, but uninjured.
    “Sydney, do you know what you
did?” Melanie shouted, her voice grating on me more and more. “This isn't even
my car!”
    I jumped out on the sidewalk,
didn't respond to her. I whipped out my phone. “I’m calling Evan.”
    I dialed him. His was only
one of four numbers I had in my SAVED column.
    “Pick up,” I said. “Pick up,
pick up.” After four rings, he finally did. “Hey, it’s Sydney. Can you come
pick up your girlfriend? We're near the LMU gate.”
    I hung up before Melanie
could chime in. She stepped out of the car, slammed the door, stomped toward me.
She was furious.
    “This is absurd!” she
shouted. “What's gotten into you?”
    “I'm sorry, but you were
gonna hit that kid.”
    “What kid?”
    I looked down the street but
he had vanished. “He was on a skateboard. I saw him.”
    “Sydney, there was no one on the street!” She threw her
hands up in the air, like she wanted to take a swing at me.
    “Yeah, sure there wasn't.”
    I pushed past her. I didn’t
want to listen to her lies. I opened the back door and helped Robert out of the
car.
    “Can you walk?” I asked.
    “Yeah,” he said. “I feel better
actually.”
    Robert followed me up to the
sidewalk.
    “Where are you going?”
Melanie asked, clearly debating whether to follow us or not.
    “We’re walking back,” I said.
“Shame on you, Melanie.”
    “Shame on me? For what?”
    “I don't care if it was just
a few miles. You don't get behind the wheel when you're drunk.”
    She shook her head. “For the
last time, I'm not drunk! All right? I mean, I might be a little—”
    “What? Buzzed?”
    She crossed her arms. Her
non-response gave me my answer.
    “It’s the same goddamned
thing,” I said. “This isn’t a joke. How dare you. How dare you, knowing what
I’ve been through.”
    A car pulled up in front of
us. Evan was driving, and two other guys I didn't recognize