“What the hell?” Cassidy complained.
Oliver shrugged.
“I saw what you did with your last one.”
She couldn’t really argue about that. She caught him looking at her legs.
“What are you doing?” Cassidy asked.
“Sorry. It’s just that you have great legs, and I’m not sure what the rules are since, you know, this is our first date and all. But then again, we also made out, so I don’t know where we’re at in our relationship on the complimenting-your-body-parts scale.”
“Two things … made out? And there’s a scale?”
“On David’s show, we seriously made out, and of course there’s a scale. I mean, I wouldn’t just ask if you’re wearing a thong on a first date, even though I’m dying to know,”
Oliver said. The look Cassidy gave him caused him to cover
his balls. “You know, I’m just going to stop myself right there.”
“Since you’re from down under, I’ll clue you in on dating American girls. You have to wait three dates for the good stuff.”
Oliver choked on his beer.
“Stone the crows! Three dates without the good stuff?
What am I supposed to do with this stiffy you’ve given me?
My donger will quit me if I have to wait for three dates,”
Oliver complained.
“Ask any girl here, and they’ll tell you about the three-date rule. No sexual activity of any kind until after the third date. If a guy’s only interested in a quick, easy lay, you dump them. If you are truly interested, I’m worth the wait,”
Cassidy said.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope. I bet you can’t do it,” Cassidy added with a smile.
“Fuck me sideways,” Oliver said, looking defeated. “I guess I deserve this because I dared you to do shots. You’re on, but let’s get these three dates out of the way quickly because I have some serious plans for you.”
Cassidy realized that messing with Oliver was more fun than kicking him in the knackers. Then she got excited.
“I love this song! Come dance with me,” she said as she pulled Oliver onto the dance floor.
◊◊◊
Towards the end of the night, the party started to clear out. Cassidy found the girls she’d brought and explained that she was in no shape to drive, and none of them were either, so they made their own arrangements to get back to campus.
“I’m from Australia. I’m fine to drive,” Oliver said.
“No! David would kill me if I let you drive his car,”
Cassidy worried.
“I think he would rather you get home safely than worry about me driving his car.”
“Uh, no thanks.”
“Then I’ll walk with you,” Oliver offered.
“You know, I think this was our third date,” Cassidy teased.
“Really? How do you figure?”
“We can count the time you were on David’s podcast.
Then there was the time David bought all the freshmen lunch, and I was there, and we sat across from each other.”
“And tonight!” Oliver said. “Give me the keys. We need to get to your place right now!”
Cassidy giggled and handed him the keys. She’d parked in the alley behind the apartment complex where several football players were living this semester.
As soon as they were in, Oliver started the car and took off like a bat out of hell, obviously eager for what was to come. Cassidy had a big, pleased smirk on her face.
Then they saw an old truck pull into the alley, headed toward them. It was a bang-bang sort of situation as the Porsche was going much too fast to stop. The path was barely wide enough for two cars, and Cassidy screamed when Oliver swerved left instead of right. She knew that he’d relied on instinct, and in Australia, they drove on the left side of the road.
She had time to brace her hand on the dash when there was a deafening crash as they hit the truck head-on. The Porsche crumpled to absorb the impact, but the truck’s bumper was higher, so the car’s front end slid under the truck until it hit the truck’s wheels.
Cassidy’s last memories were the airbags deploying, her arm feeling like it had been ripped off, and the truck’s bumper as it went through the windshield.
◊◊◊
David was awakened when his phone made a strange alert sound. He glanced over at the clock and saw it was almost two in the morning. He grabbed his phone and saw a message saying his car had been in an accident. Then a moment later, another one came stating that emergency services had been notified.
As part of the Porsche package, David had purchased an app-based safety service that could tell if your car had been in a crash. They would contact you and see if you needed assistance. Either someone was hurt, or no one responded, because they called for an ambulance when that happened.
David tried calling Cassidy and only got her voicemail, so he used the Find Me option to locate her. David hit his panic button to be safe because he knew they would make sure Cassidy got the help she needed if the app failed. He sent a quick message saying that it was Cassidy, where she was, and that he was on his way.
David threw on some clothes and was almost in his Demon when his mom called.
“Are you okay?”
“I am, but Cassidy’s been in a car wreck. I’m just getting into my car to go see if she needs help.”
“Call me as soon as you know.”
David quickly sent out a group message to stop the phone calls. Of course, that didn’t stop Brook, Cassidy’s best friend, from calling.
“What’s going on?” Brook asked.
“Don’t know yet. I’m headed there now. It’ll only be a couple of minutes,” David said.
“Don’t hang up,” Brook ordered.
He was glad that Brook didn’t try to talk to him while he raced to where his app told him Cassidy was. David gasped when he turned into the alley.
“What! What’s happening!?” Brook asked.
“It’s bad. Her car hit a truck head-on, and it’s on top of the Porsche. I need to go,” David said as he pulled to a
stop.
He jumped out, ran to the driver’s side, and found Knackers moaning.
“Help Cassidy,” Oliver managed to get out.
Momentarily, he wanted to reach into the car and strangle Knackers for drinking and driving, but his sense of protectiveness for his little ninja won out. David ran around the other side and cringed. Her face was bleeding from the glass, and she was unresponsive.
The ambulance came to a stop.
“Over here! She needs your help!” David called out.
The driver came over to look at her while the other paramedic carried a bag and checked on Knackers.
“Is anyone hurt in the truck?” the driver asked David.
“I’ll go check.”
He found the truck empty.
“No one there,” David called out.
“They either stole it or are illegal,” the driver said.
Another ambulance and a fire truck arrived. The fire crew had to cut both Knackers and Cassidy out of the car.
Cassidy hadn’t come to, which David felt was probably for the best because her arm looked terrible with a bone sticking out of it. He felt helpless, only able to watch as the EMTs cared for his friend.
Knackers was blubbering about driving too fast and swerving left instead of right. By now, the police had shown up, and David had the pleasure of dealing with them since both Cassidy and Knackers were whisked off to the emergency room.
◊◊◊
Chapter 1
Oliver felt like death on a cracker. As far as fuckups went, this was in his top five. If Cassidy died, he’d do serious jail time. He knew how these things went because his older brother had served five years in prison for something similar.