Restless

Havoc

"Isn't she in your Latin class? You should ask her for some pointers," Randy recalls.

"I'm doing fine on my own in Latin, thank you very much," Thomas says hotly.

"Maybe you can learn what 'te amo' means," Randy teases.

"I know what it means. It means to love right?" Thomas says crossing his arms.

"You are a bad translator little brother. It is what you could say to Ashley. It means I love you. And she would know what it means, since she is a smart girl," Randy says with a little twinge of a smile.

Thomas shoots him a look. "If you weren't driving, I'd give you a solid punch," glares Thomas.

Randy smiles a little. "Why have you not asked her out yet? She is all you think about lately," Randy says, keeping a lookout on the road.

"Well she is too good and popular. I bet it would insult her if I asked her out. She is very pretty, and many people notice her. She could be with anyone she wanted," Thomas explains a little mournfully.

"Nobody is better than someone else. It's the mind that counts. You have a good mind, little brother. Use it. What is the worst that could happen? Nothing you can't handle, I assure you," Randy explains thoughtfully.

Thomas scratches his nose. "I guess you're right- Look out!" Thomas shouts.

A grown man shot out of the bushes straight in front of Randy's car. Randy slammed the brakes and wrenched the wheel to the left. The car narrowly missed the man in the street, but was now in the opposite lane. "God damn it!" swore Randy as he regained control of the car.

In the other lane, a large truck was barreling toward them on the highway.

Randy pressed the gas pedal as far into the floor as possible. Randy swung the steering wheel back to the right. The wheels squealed against the gravel as the car struggled for traction.

The truck came ever closer, even as the half-asleep driver groggily, but finally grasped the situation, and hit the brakes.

Randy's car catches traction and finally shoots back across the road, missing the truck by inches.

Thomas gripped his seat in an attempt to stop from bouncing around excessively.

The car flew off the road narrowly missing the trees lining the road. As the car crashed through the brush Randy slammed the brakes again to come to a complete stop. The stop was so sudden the car tipped forward slightly and bounced back to the hard ground.

Thoroughly shaken, and having a bad case of whiplash, neither brother spoke for a minute. Their hearts started to slow a little and began to thaw the shock from their minds. Thomas was the first to release his grip from the seat.

He held his head, that was throbbing quite a bit from whiplash, and joked, "That was one hell of a ride, wasn't it brother?"

Randy finally released his grip from the steering wheel and dropped his hands from it.

Randy breathes a sigh of relief. He is glad he has always forced his brother to put on his seatbelt, no matter how much Thomas did not want to be confined.

"Indeed it was," Randy replied after another long moment had passed.

"Where'd you learn to drive like that? Those were some cool moves to pull off," Thomas said grinning.

Randy gave a small smile and explained, "From watching the movies. Let's see what sort of shape the car is in. And give Ashley a call from your cell to tell her we're going to be late and that we have a story for them when we arrive."

"Will do," Thomas said as he pulled his new cell out of his pocket. It had a cool blue cover and it has been through some bad scrapes and come out just fine. Tough, resilient.

Just what Thomas wants to be.

Thomas dials Ashley to tell her what happened. Randy checks the car, and sees only a few scratches, dings, and scrapes. It ruined the new red paint job, but it was worth it to be living.

Randy finishes his check of the car at about the same time Thomas finishes hinting at what happened. It was gonna be a good dinner story tonight.

Thomas closes his phone and hears the rustle of the leaves in the woods. The woods were too dark to see into, Thomas could not peer into the thick, dense forest.

Randy perks up and says, "What are you looking for?"

Thomas, jostled from his trance, slips his phone into his pocket. "Thought I heard something out there," Thomas said still looking out into the forest, trying to get a glimpse of what had made the sound.

Then a guttural growl resounded from the dark woods. The brothers looked at each other, nodded and got in the car. "Better go." "Right."

The tires squealed once more as Randy backed up out of there, and rode back onto the road and continued to head to the restaurant.

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