Through The Dark

32 - Olivia

32 - Olivia

I stared nervously out of the window of my car. Could this really be the last time I was looking through this car? Was I really going to sell it without my mother's permission?

I smiled tentatively as it dawned on me that the answer was yes.

I was sick of this car. I had slowly stripped from everything that made me unhappy, and somehow this car seemed to be the last of those things.

I turned to look at Emmalyn. She had remained silent and patiently waited for me. If it were not for her, I would not be doing any of this. Well, if I put it that way, I would not even be alive if it were not for her. She was the one who stopped me from jumping off the bridge. I had a lot to be grateful to her for. She had made me see the world in a different perspective. It was because of her that I was happy now, as happy as I had been before Anna left me.

'Are you sure I can sell this car even if I am underage?' I asked Emmalyn.

'Well, Tony is an old friend of my father, so he'll buy it anyway,' she said in response. It sounded like an excuse, and I hoped it was good enough not to get us or this Tony guy in trouble.

'Let's go for it,' I sighed, forcing myself off the car because I knew I would not do it otherwise. There was a part of me that was urging me to get into the car and drive back home, but the other part of me was tired of doing what was expected of her and just wanted to make her own decisions –or mistakes.

I heard Emmalyn's feet slam against the gravel. She was shorter than me so she struggled more to get on and off the car.

'Emma? Is that you?' A tall and muscular guy in his late twenties walked out from behind a car, cleaning his hands of a cloth.

Emmalyn smiled, but I noticed she had tensed up. 'Hi, Tony. How you doing?'

'Good, good!' He smiled broadly at her, but there was certain caution about him. 'How's Ben? And your mom?'

'They're good,' Emmalyn replied in a clipped tone.

'Great!' he cheered not very convincingly. 'So...what brings you here?' He glanced at me and smiled politely, to what I smiled back.

'My friend wants to sell her car,' she simply stated.

Tony nodded in understanding and approached me. 'Is it that one behind you?' he questioned, eyeing my car.

I merely nodded my head.

'But if you sell it to me and I keep it right now, what are you girls going to go home in?' he inquired, now turning to look at Emmalyn as well.

We exchanged a glance and I shrugged. 'Give us a minute while you check the car out,' she said after a few seconds.

Tony walked towards my car and started inspecting it. I knew I would get a good sum of money for it, it was in perfect state. My dad had always made sure of that.

'Olivia?'

I tore my gaze from the car and turned to see Emmalyn. 'Yeah?'

'What car do you want?'

'Oh...' I looked around. It was a shabby shop, mostly for car parts. There were about four cars parked there that had a sale sign attached to them. They were obviously not new, but surprisingly I did not mind. As long as they ran fine, I could deal with anything.

My gaze swept swiftly over them, not really paying attention to them. I was about to tell Emmalyn it was better to come another day, when we had a ride back home or a better idea of what to do, when I saw it.

It was beautiful, if that can be said about an inanimate object. I knew instantly it was the car I wanted. I had observed it always with certain awe. It reminded me of a childhood show I watched with Anna, where they had a minivan just like it. I tilted my head and gave it a better look. It was white on the top with a light sky blue covering the rest of it.

I could see it parked beside a group of people singing folk music and dancing around a bonfire, and that pushed me to want it so much more. Those people seemed happy and careless, and I wanted to be that way as well, not caring about what anyone said and just enjoying myself.

Emmalyn came to my side and bumped shoulders with me. 'Tell me it's not what I think.' I did not reply, merely smiled mischievously. 'Olivia, tell me you do not want that minivan, please.'

I giggled and shrugged. 'What can a girl do?'

Tony was walking back to us. I pointed at the minivan gingerly. 'That one,' I sighed. 'I want that one.'

He followed my pointed finger. His eyes landed on the car and he chuckled. He turned to me again and saw my serious expression. 'You want the Volkswagen?' he asked in an incredulous tone. I smiled brightly and nodded yes. 'No offense, but it does not look like your style, girl.'

'No offense but I am the buyer here, boy.'

He shot his eyebrows up, impressed. I could feel Emmalyn's gaze burning my back. She said nothing to stop me, though, and I took that as my cue to step forward and seal the deal.

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