Read Online The Fire In My Eyes by Christopher Nelson - Free Book Online Page B

was her name?”
    “Her name was Stephanie. Hey, what about Lisa?” I asked.
    Drew stopped dead again. “What about her?”
    “Did you ask her out again?” I wanted to change the subject, and I was curious as to whether Drew followed his own advice. I figured he was the sort of guy who would walk the walk as well as talk the talk, unlike Max.
    He shrugged. “Not yet. After that other night, I've been avoiding her. Still recovering.”
    “I'm surprised you're still interested after that,” I said.
    “She called me the next day and apologized,” he told me. “She was very serious about it, man, she felt bad. See, I'm going to give you some advanced tips. It's all about the balance of power. Now that I'm the wounded party for once, I have the balance, and I'm letting her squirm for a while to get her worked up. You have to keep your distance, Kev, otherwise they don't think anything of you, cause they already have all of you they want.”
    “I think I've learned more in the last few minutes than I have in all my classes so far,” I said.
    “And my lessons are probably more useful in real life,” he said.
    We both started to laugh, and then everything went to hell. I heard a car's engine roar from behind us and we both spun around. Bright lights came on, blindingly white, heading right for us. There wasn't time to think, only time to react.
    Drew was on the inner side of the sidewalk, closer to the row of houses. I pushed him with one hand, as hard as I could. He flew out of the way, out of my field of vision. I caught a look of surprise on his face just before I lost track of him, and then it was just the car and me.
    I closed my eyes. I didn't want to see it happen. I didn't want to see the impact. Didn't want to see the world spin around me. Didn't want to see the ground rush up and hit me. Didn't want to feel that pain.
    Fuck that. I didn't want to die.
    I opened my eyes and jumped, straight up in the air, as hard as I could, as high as I could. I thought that even if I could just land on the hood and roll over the roof and off the back of the car, I could make it with fewer injuries. I might even look awesome in the process, like something out of a movie. Even if there weren't any witnesses, I could imagine what it would actually look like.
    I never imagined I would jump high enough for the car to pass completely under me.
    A rush of air buffeted my legs as the car roared through where I had just been standing. In the dimness of the evening, I couldn't tell the exact color of the car, but I did notice small details as I hung in midair. The windshield wipers were on. There was a thin crust of snow stuck to the roof. The car was actually traveling slightly slantwise, not straight along its axis as cars normally do. As it passed under me, I twisted to watch it continue forward. One of the taillights was out. There was no license plate.
    The ground then proceeded to rush up and hit me.
    I laid there in a daze. I hadn't landed on my head, but my legs had buckled on landing and I ended up flat on my back. Spread-eagled on the sidewalk, I contemplated the stars, the moon, and how amazingly lucky I was to be alive. I lifted a hand up toward the sky to see if I could figure out how many fingers I was holding up.
    Two fingers, shaded green. My temples throbbed. I squeezed my eyes closed and curled up on my side. The pain in my head grew and I held back a sob. My head hurt, my back hurt, my legs hurt, my heart pounded and I couldn't breathe and all the weird things that I had been trying to forget over the past two weeks were all coming back. I just wanted to live a normal college life, and now this was happening again. I could almost hear Ripley's voice warning me about others looking to neutralize me. Was that a warning or a threat? Was that what had just happened?
    “Kevin! Kev! Holy shit, are you ok?” I felt a thump as Drew crashed down to the side of me. “Dude, answer me! Are you ok? Did it hit