That One Moment...

Chapter 15

Day 60 - The Fallout

Sarah decided she couldn't hide in her bed any longer. She had to get up and get ready or she would miss the bus. Sunday had passed in a blur as she worked almost 10 hours at the diner. It was slow at first, but then picked up and was busier than she had ever seen it. Likely that was because she normally worked on the slow nights, but she wasn't going to complain. Sarah had been able to forget Friday night, forget her actions and the accident...or at least, mostly...she had overheard more than one table talking about the high school Halloween party and the deadly accident. One guy had even asked her if she knew anything about it, since she was "about the right age." Sarah had shrugged nonchalant and said something noncommittal about how horrible the rumors sounded. One of her coworkers had noticed that she was flustered and taken over that table. Luckily, none of them had pushed her or asked questions.

Rolling out of bed, Sarah grabbed a pair of jeans, tank top, and a sweater, not even glancing at whether the colors went together. Slipping on some tennis shoes and grabbing the school bag she had packed last night, she meandered upstairs to grab something to eat. She was not looking forward to school today. They had been sent an email yesterday about the accident. There wasn't very much information, just that some students from their school and Beach had been involved in a deadly accident. As such, there would be counselors at the school and we would be having assemblies and programming...about what, Sarah didn't know.

Moving on autopilot, Sarah found herself locking up and turning to walk towards the bus before she realized there was a truck parked in her driveway. Ryan was leaning against the front hood, watching her.

She stared at him, probably with shock on her face.

"Hi. Um. I thought I would save you some of the anxiety of riding the bus this morning and listening to whatever gossip there is. Don't worry, you do not need to talk to me."

"Good morning. Thanks. I didn't even think of that. I haven't been thinking, or at least trying not to." After that burst, Sarah silently walked over to his truck as he got into the driver's seat.

The ride was quiet. Sarah wasn't ready to start talking, she didn't know what to say and didn't want to think about it too much. Ryan was kind enough to stick to his words and not push. 

When they got to the parking lot, Sarah noticed that there were a lot more students milling around than she was used to. Was it just the time of day, the difference between the parking lot and the bus? Sarah hesitated as she went to open the door.

Touching her hand lightly, Ryan waited for her to look at him "Take it easy today. Ok? Only a few of us actually know that you were in the car before the accident and I don't think any of us feel like talking about that night much more than you do. It was scary on multiple levels. So, just try and zone out as much as you can. Don't listen to the gossip and I will see you in chem. Lock up when you finally get up the strength to come into class."

Sarah stared as he opened his door and left her there. She sighed and sagged into the seat further, watching Ryan meander over to his friend group and start chatting. No one looked back over towards his trick. No one seemed to notice or care that she was in the seat. OR at least she thought that until Chris, Leo, and Dylan all did a quick look in her direction. She saw Ryan hit Leo's head as they turned back and started talking amongst themselves.

Taking a few deep breaths, Sarah sighed and opened the door. No one seemed to be looking now, so she jumped out after locking up. Trying to act all calm and casual, Sarah gravitated over to the edge of the lot and slowly moved along the edge of all the students towards the front doors. Sighing again (man was she doing that a lot lately), Sarah was glad she had made it into the building and to her locker without having to talk to anyone. She could hear all the murmurs going around about the accident and people trying to guess who was involved. None of the news releases had mentioned names yet. The consensus was that the car had 4 kids from neighboring Beach and 2 from their school, including a girl that had been on the cheer squad until recently. Sarah was thinking that was probably the girl up front that she thought was dating the driver of the car. Her friend had been in the back with Sarah and Jeremy's cousin and friend. They had joined the car at the second or third party. Sarah had thought they looked familiar, but was too drunk to put things together at that point. There had been a third girl up front as well. Flashes of the night started hitting her as she tried to grab her books from her locker.