The Accident

Chapter One

  Harry shoved the key into the ignition and without any haste at all he pulled out of his driveway and sped down the road. He had woken up late and he was going to be late for class. He looked at the clock on his dashboard and it read 8:15. “Damn it,” he muttered. He had only fifteen minutes until his math class started, and they had a test today so he couldn’t afford to be even a second late.

  After driving down the familiar stretch of roads that he took every morning to get to school, he eagerly turned into the parking lot and carelessly pulled into an empty parking space.

  “Fuck!” He yelled as the nose of his car nudged harshly into the car in the space next to him. He backed up and straightened the car, and took a deep breath. How exactly was he supposed to fix this? He took one look at the dented metal car frame and tore a sheet of paper out of his book and grabbed a pen from the glove box and wrote down his name and number and a small apology, and then he folded the paper and slid it under the windshield wiper before picking up his things and sprinting toward the school.

  The bell rang just as he entered the building and he groaned in annoyance. He was stressed out and stayed up way too late studying for this calculus exam and slept in by accident this morning, and now of course he was paying for it. As he rushed down the hallway his teacher slammed the door shut practically in his face. He knocked furiously to get into the classroom. His teacher opened the door a crack and poked his head through, staring right into Harry’s eyes.

  “Excuse me Mr. Styles but you’re late, I’m sorry, you cannot write the exam,” Mr. Morris informed with a wicked smile on his face. Why was he the most unsympathetic man ever? Clearly he could see Harry had been in a rush, he hadn’t even had time to run a brush through his floppy hair that morning, and he was still wearing the sweats he’d fallen asleep in.

  “Please, Mr. Morris, I need to write this test to pass the class,” Harry begged. “Please.”

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you do that. See you next week.” And with that the old man shut the door again, leaving Harry to sulk in the hallway. Harry was crumbling under the pressure and his shoulders sunk as he walked slowly back to his car.

  He got in the driver’s seat and covered his face with his hands. How could this be happening? He was going to fail calculus now and it was all because he was too careless. Oh, and on top of that he put a good dent in someone else’s car. Great. He bent down and hit his head off the steering wheel a couple of times before taking a deep breath and letting out his frustration with a sigh. He decided it wouldn’t help anything to just sit there, so he drove home.

  “You okay Harry?” His sister Gemma asked as he walked in the door of their flat. His shoulders were slouched and he had a depressing frown on his face. His sister was just worried about his wellbeing, but something inside of him didn’t care about her or anyone else at the moment, so he ignored her and pushed himself step by step over to his bedroom where he shut the door behind him. He fell dramatically onto his bed and the fluffy duvet devoured him in a rich, warm, feathery touch. He didn’t get to bask in the comfort for very long, for his phone began to buzz in his pocket.

  Harry sat upright immediately and answered the call. “Hello?”

  “Hi, you’re Mr. Styles, I take it? You hit my car this morning,” the surely voice explained.

  “Oh, yeah, listen I’m really sorry about that,” Harry mumbled. “Can I meet you somewhere? I can give you my insurance information if you’d like.”

  “How about tomorrow at noon?” The man asked. Harry wasn’t quite sure how old he was exactly, his voice had sort of a boyish twang to it. He had to be early twenties at the latest. He wondered who to expect when he did meet up with the poor guy whose car he banged into.