Cheater [Watty Awards 2011]

Chapter Thirteen [Part Three]

-Hey everyone, it's the last part of Chapter Thirteen. I'm dropping serious hints here, so read carefully, LOL. Hope you guys enjoy this, and thanks again so much for supporting me with the writing of this book.-

Chapter Thirteen [Part Three]

            The impact on the tree has tilted it slightly, but the front of the car, settled and stable, is only bruised with a few scratches and a not-so-noticeable dent.

“Natalie.” Cole pants, his heart thumping. Both hands grip the wheel, while the car stays stationary, because the shock will not allow Cole to ease his clutch.

“Cole.” Every other car on the road is pretending like they can’t see the crashed vehicle, the crooked tree; they drive past like the car isn’t even there.

“Oh my, G-” He is trying very hard to be patient with Natalie, and tells himself that when he finally can step out of the car and see the damage for himself, it will be fine, not completely wrecked. The air bags didn’t even come out on impact; that was how dim the accident had been.

“You nearly hit the squirrel.”

Cole attempts to blink his frustration away, shutting his eyes tight for a few moments and thinking of happy places, but no place can take his mind away, “You nearly hit the squirrel.” He repeats in disbelief.

Oh, the poor man on the other side of the road who’d been brought into Natalie’s ‘Save the Animals’ madness... Cole, after a loud warning, had swerved to the other side of the road, desperately trying to avoid the,

“Squirrel.” He says again, stunned.       

When the road is clear, he begins to reverse,

“You could’ve killed us.” He mutters, just barely keeping himself calm.

While Cole pulls away from the tree and into the road, Natalie asks, “What was that?”

“Nothing.”

Suspicious, “No, say it.”

“I said... it’s nothing.” Cole puts it into gear and speeds away down the road, driving like the police are on his tail.

Annoyed now, she repeats, “And I said, say it.”

Through gritted teeth, he sighs, and slowly manages, “You could have killed us.”

“Me?”

“No. The Tooth Fairy.” He replies sarcastically. If she hadn’t yelled like that, they might’ve already been outside Joe’s house.

What if Joe...

No, he didn’t want to think about it. He could never forgive himself if that happened, and more importantly, he would never forgive Natalie.

“I was trying to help.”

“Don’t!” Cole explodes. Natalie has been irking him the whole journey and this is the last straw.

Of course, he can’t bear to see her hysterical, but if he didn’t know better, he’d say she was over-acting. He’d say she was over-dramatizing everything way too much, and who knows? Maybe this was just some kind of performance. The way she was putting herself first,

‘I’m gonna die’, she’d sobbed getting into the car, ‘I’m too young’, she’d burst buckling her belt.

What about me? You think I’m not scared too?

“Cole...” She puts a hand to his lap, and he shrugs her off.

“No. It’s not all about you, Natalie. It’s about all of us.” Cole swerves into Joe’s road, approaching the house with a rapid speed.