Read Online Entanglement (YA Dystopian Romance) by Dan Rix - Free Book Online Page B

the car, just as Aaron shot past them. He sprinted for the
driver’s side, where the door swung open. Salt clogged his nostrils, his thighs
burned.
    It
was rolling twenty miles per hour into the wind, and there was forty feet of
pier left. He couldn’t gain on it.
    But
he loved this car.
    Aaron
took one more step and lunged, grabbed the frame. The door slammed on his
fingers, but he held on. The car bounced, and he got his other hand on the door
and swung himself into the driver’s seat.
    Now
he was inside a car barreling toward the edge of a pier with twenty feet left
before blackness.
    Now
what?
    He
yanked the emergency brake and jammed his foot down on the brake pedal. It was
stiff; they were hydraulic brakes which hardly worked when the engine was off.
He pushed harder, strained against the ceiling for leverage. The car slowed,
barely.
    “Buddy,
get out of the car!” he heard Buff yell from somewhere far behind him.
    To
Aaron, it seemed to take a whole minute with his leg flexed, foot crushing the
pedal, before his bumper crashed through the railing. Splinters scraped the
windshield, the car pitched forward. The sea rose before him, white caps
churning in the darkness, and he felt the undercarriage grind off the edge of
the pier. Then everything stopped.
    Balanced
on the edge of the pier, the car had stopped. Aaron let out his breath.
    Buff
ran up and yanked the door open. “No bullshit,” he yelled, dragging Aaron out
of his seat.
    After
the two of them heaved the car back onto the pier, Aaron noticed the driver’s
side door hung looser than before. He pried the panel off the underside of the
steering column and started twisting wires together. Since he lost the keys
last summer, he had to hotwire the thing every time he wanted to start it.
    The
engine sputtered, and all the warning lights flashed. Aaron sighed and let the
engine die.
    He
didn’t have to check under the hood; the oil pooling under the car gave it
away: a cracked oil pan. Behind him, Amber was demanding that Clive and Dominic
give them a lift home.
    “Are
you crazy?” said Dominic, pointing to the bloody wads of toilet paper stuffed
up his nose. “ Look! ”
    “Wow,”
she said, “you’re comparing a nosebleed to almost killing him.”
    “Why
don’t you drive him if you’re so concerned?”
    Her
eyes flashed in Aaron’s direction, suddenly fearful. “Because I don’t want to,”
she said.
    “Make
him walk,” said Clive.
    “How
about I just tell your father?” she said
    Clive
went pale.
    And
that settled it.
    ***
    Aaron
knew it was a bad idea, but they were fresh out of options. The buses didn’t
run past ten, and after paying twenty each to get inside the Pelican, he and
Buff couldn’t pool enough for a cab. Nor did Aaron have any intention of waking
his parents, as that would lead to too many questions.
    Aaron
didn’t bother saying goodbye to Amber. There was something in that last look
she had given him that seemed to erase everything that had happened on the
dance floor.
    “Anything
happens, we got each other’s backs,” Aaron murmured, as he and Buff slid into
the backseat of Dominic’s beamer, behind the guys who had just tried to sink
Aaron’s Mazda in the Pacific Ocean.
    “Always,
Buddy.”
    “Let’s
take these fuckfaces home,” said Dominic, once they were all in the car.
    “I
bet you know where I live,” said Buff, “since you egged my house fifty times.”
    Dominic
spun around. “Make one more sound, Normandy, and you will not make it home
alive.”
    “What
are you going to do, Breezie, call another bullshit play like you did back in
the Junior League rugby championships?”
    “I
was right with you,” said Dominic. “We could have scored and you know it.”
    “Yeah,
if you listened to me.”
    “There
were scouts that day,” said Dominic. “I’d be playing for the Eagles right now.”
    “A
prissyboy like you?” said Buff. “Go play football if you want to be a hero.”
     “Both
of you shut