Boy Trouble (14 page)

I
felt like I was in the middle of a really ratchet reality show.

“I told you, I'm sick and tired of you calling me that,” Kennedi said, kicking wildly in Kendrick's direction. I was finally able to see that it was one of the teacher's aides (whom no one listened to) trying to pull her off Kendrick.

“You all at this bougie school acting straight hood!” Kendrick shouted. “I might as well be dating a hood rat. I'm sick of you and all this ghetto drama. I keep tryin' to give you chances and you keep tryin' me. So you and your nosey, don't-know-what-she's-talking-about friend can kick rocks!”

“Ghetto! Who are you calling ghetto?” Kennedi screamed more obscenities as she broke from the aide and began clawing for him again. By this time, security started racing over.

Kendrick took off before they reached us, heading to the parking lot, and toward his truck.

“Kennedi, what is wrong with you?” I yelled. She seemed like an out-of-control mad woman.

“Shut up talking to me, Maya! Kendrick!” She took off after him. “You're not leaving! We're not done talking!” she screamed. I followed right behind her because as mad as I was, I needed to do something before she completely flipped out.

Kendrick threw open his driver's-side door, jumped inside, started his truck, and took off. Kennedi, tears streaming down her face, looked around, and before I could say a word, she snatched my keys out of my hand and took off.

“Have you lost your mind?” I said, taking off after her again.

Kennedi was running as fast as she could. I was having trouble keeping up with her, but I caught her on the other side of the campus parking lot just as she had gotten in my car and thrown it into reverse. I managed to jump in the passenger side, just as she backed up and sped out of the parking lot.

“Kennedi, what is wrong with you? Have you lost your freaking mind?” I screamed as she screeched out into the roadway, barely missing a car.

She pounded the steering wheel as she cried. “He will not do this to me! He will not do this to me!”

I swear I didn't know what to do or say. It was like my best friend was possessed. I had never seen anything like it in my life. “Kennedi, please slow down,” I said, thinking that I needed to try to reason with her because it was obvious that my friend had flipped out. “Where are you going?”

“I'm just going to get him to talk to me. He just needs to talk to me,” she said, darting in and out of traffic like some kind of deranged race car driver.

“Kennedi, please slow down, before you get us killed,” I said as I held onto the dashboard.

Kendrick entered onto the freeway, and she turned and headed right behind him.

“This is all your fault,” she snapped.

“How is this
my
fault? All this time I've been talking to you about him being the violent one. Why didn't you tell me it was you?”

“Just leave me alone, Maya,” she cried.

“Watch out!” I shouted, as a driver blared on his horn when Kennedi cut his car off.

“He's probably going to that skank's house,” she mumbled.

“Since when did you get all worked up behind a guy like this? Look at what you're doing!” I shouted.

“Just shut up and leave me alone!” she cried, speeding after him.

Kendrick must've known that we were behind him because he seemed to go faster. Not to be deterred, Kennedi sped up as well. I looked around in complete fear as I reached to put my seat belt on. Where was a cop when you needed one?

“Kennedi, calm down! You're going to kill us. Slow down! Everybody needs to just cool off and then we can try to talk to him later.” Personally, I hoped he never talked to her again, but I needed to say anything that would calm her down.

“He's exiting!” she yelled, just as Kendrick made a sharp right in the middle of the freeway and then, a last-minute exit to get off, no doubt trying to escape her crazy behind.

Kennedi swerved as well.

“You're going to kill us!” I screamed.

“Ugggghhh!” She let out a piercing scream as several cars blared their horns. “I'm not letting him do this!”

She took off after him down the exit ramp. “Slow down!” I yelled.

She swerved again, and then her eyes grew big.

“Kennedi, slow down!” I repeated. We were going downhill and had to be doing about eighty miles per hour.

“I—I'm trying!” she said, panicked. I looked down at her foot pumping the brake. “I'm pressing it and it won't stop!”

“Press harder,” I screamed. The car seemed to be going faster and faster. Everything outside was a blur, and then my scream turned into absolute fear as I saw the concrete embankment in front of us—which we were heading directly into. Kennedi swerved. My scream mixed with hers, and there was a loud crash, glass breaking, and then silence as my whole world went black.

T
he room felt cold. I couldn't make out where I was. All I knew was that I felt a chill going up my body. It took everything in my power to open my eyes, but I finally managed to flutter them open.

“Mama,” I said, trying to make out the figure standing over me.

My mother reached to my side. “Maya, oh, my God! I'm so happy you're awake!” She showered me with kisses all over my face.

I tried to pull myself away from her smothering embrace, but the pain shot up my body, stopping me. “Where am I?” I looked to the side. My dad was on the other side of me. He took both of my hands. Both of my parents looked like they hadn't been to sleep in days. Their eyes were puffy and red.

“Just rest, sweetie,” my dad said, stroking my hair.

My hand went up to my forehead and I felt a bandage. “Where am I?” I asked.

“You're in the hospital, sweetie, but you're okay,” my mother said. “Thank God, you're okay.”

I struggled to get up. “In the hospital for what? What happened?” I felt so groggy it was ridiculous.

“You were in a bad accident,” my mother said. “Oh, you had us so scared.”

“Accident?” I tried to think. What was the last thing that I remembered? Slowly, it started coming to me. I remembered Kennedi and Kendrick arguing. I remembered him taking off and then we'd jumped in the car and followed him. Kennedi had been driving like a mad woman. And then I'd yelled at her to slow down, but she hadn't.

“Kennedi,” I said frantically. “Mom, where's Kennedi?”

“She's okay. You got the brunt of the accident,” my mother said. “Kennedi was treated and released.”

“How long have I been here?”

“A week,” my dad said. “We didn't know . . .” He choked up as his words trailed off and I swear I saw tears in his eyes.

I fell back against the bed and exhaled. Then it dawned on me just how much my entire body ached.

“What's wrong with me?” I asked.

“You had a concussion and some broken bones.”

“Broken bones?” My hands immediately went to my face. I hoped my face wasn't scratched up. That was my moneymaker.

“You're okay,” my mother said, obviously knowing what I was thinking. She stroked my face. “Still beautiful.”

I looked toward the hospital room door and noticed Kennedi standing there. Like my parents, her eyes were bloodshot.

“Come on in,” my dad said, motioning for her to come over once he noticed her, too.

“This poor child won't leave the hospital. She just sits out there in the lobby, crying,” my mom said.

I wondered how much of the real story my parents knew. Would they be inviting her into my room if they knew she was the reason I'd almost died?

Kennedi stood off to the back, apprehensive. I could tell she didn't know what to do or say, and then everything really came back. The argument. The fact that I'd found out
she
was the one who was abusing Kendrick. The fact that her recklessness was why I was here.

Kennedi looked at me and simply said, “Maya, I'm so sorry.”

I didn't know what to say. All I could do was turn my head in the opposite direction. My best friend had almost gotten me killed, and behind a guy?

“Maya,” she said, taking a step toward me. “Maya, I'm so, so sorry,” she repeated.

I had no words for her. She could be sorry all that she wanted. But that wouldn't change a thing. I would never forgive her. As far as I was concerned, she had wanted our friendship to be over, and now it was over.

T
he tests for my spinal cord analysis had come back negative, and it looked like as soon as the bumps and bruises healed, I'd be fine. But the doctors said that the healing wouldn't happen overnight.

Unfortunately, that meant I'd be out of pocket for at least two more weeks, which wasn't a good thing. I made a note to try and call Tamara today and see if they could film me from my hospital bed. My mom said Tamara had already called, trying to get the scoop so they could run the story on the show. How they were going to do that in my absence was beyond me because there was nobody who could replace Maya Morgan.

“Knock, knock. Can we come in?”

I rolled my eyes as Kennedi and Sheridan stuck their heads in my door. Kennedi had been here every day for the past four days since I'd been awake, and even though I wouldn't talk to her, she kept coming, talking to me like she hadn't almost killed me.

“Why are you two here?” I said. “Remember, you weren't talking to me.” I glared at Kennedi. She looked a mess. Her curly hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail. Her clothes were dirty and wrinkled, like she had been sleeping in them. “Well, that was before you stole my car and tried to kill me,” I added.

“We just wanted to check on you,” Kennedi said.

“I'm fine, now bye.” I turned my head away from them.

“You can be mad at us all you want,” Sheridan said, walking over and putting some fresh flowers on the window ledge. “But we're not going anywhere. Just like you wouldn't go anywhere and stay out of our business.”

“I don't care what you do,” I said. “I dang near died over you and your stupid boy trouble. So do whatever. I'm out of it.”

Sheridan and Kennedi exchanged glances. “We just came here to tell you that you were right.”

That made me stop and do a double take. “What?”

Kennedi stepped closer to my bed. “Maya, you were so right. The last week and a half has been the scariest of my life. To think you could've died over me running behind some guy is killing me.” Her eyes watered up as she continued. “I loved him to the point that it was obsessive.”

“Ya think?” I said, raising an eyebrow at her as I shifted in my bed.

She continued. “I don't know what it is about Kendrick that pushed all my buttons, that, shoot, pushed me over the edge, but I had to take a good long look at myself. That wasn't me.”

I just stared at her because if she wanted me to come to her defense, it wasn't about to happen.

“My point is,” she continued. “You know how I felt about saving myself for the right guy. And I guess the fact that I thought he was the right one and then he turned out to be a jerk caused me to flip and if I'm being honest, I probably pushed him away by acting so crazy.”

Sheridan stepped up to Kennedi's side. “We both kinda lost ourselves with our guys,” she added.

I didn't know what had happened to make her have a change of heart, especially since she'd been so adamant that Javier was a good guy.

“I just wanted someone to love me,” she said.

“What you guys had wasn't love,” I couldn't help but say.

I expected her to roll her eyes or go off. I was shocked when she said, “I know. I just didn't want you to be right about Javier. I didn't want to admit how stupid I'd been behind him.” She sighed heavily. “He ran up one of my credit cards and stole my phone.”

“What?”

“Stole it right out of my purse, although he claimed he didn't take it. I let him use my card because he claimed he had to buy something for his mom. Yeah, he bought something all right, a big-screen TV, and a whole bunch of other stuff.”

All I could do was shake my head. A lot had happened since I'd been in the hospital.

“When I called him on it”—she looked down at the floor—“he went off on me. He called me every degrading name in the book and as he was going left, I just heard your voice, telling me I deserved better.” She forced a smile. “I do deserve better. We're saying all that to say that we are so sorry that we didn't listen.”

“And I'm so sorry that I caused you to be here,” Kennedi said, tears welling in her eyes.

I probably should've said that it wasn't her fault, but it was, so I kept my mouth closed. She was lucky that the doctor said I'd be all right once I healed because I didn't know that we could've repaired our relationship if the situation had been different.

Shoot, I still didn't know if we could repair it. We'd been through a lot.

“So, they say my car is totaled,” I said, wanting to change the subject. I missed my friends, but I didn't know that I was ready to forgive them.

Surprisingly, my dad hadn't even been mad when he'd told me about my car. I guess he really was just happy that I was alive.

Kennedi slowly nodded. “But my parents are going to pay for everything.”

I rolled my eyes. That was the least of my concerns. “What happened? Why didn't you stop?” I asked her.

Kennedi hunched her shoulders. “I mean, I know I was driving crazily, but you know I'm a good driver. It's like I couldn't stop. Like the brakes just wouldn't work.”

“Yeah, that's a top-of-the-line BMW,” I said. “My brakes aren't just gonna stop working.” I know I sounded a little bitter and I wasn't cutting her any slack, but she wasn't the one laid up in a hospital bed with tubes sticking out of every part of her body.

“I just don't understand how this accident happened,” Sheridan said.

“Because Kennedi was driving like Batman, that's how.”

Kennedi lowered her head in shame.

“No, that might not be the case.”

All three of us turned toward the tall man with a head full of gray hair and a cheap-looking suit who had just stepped into my hospital room.

“May I help you?” I said.

“Yes, I'm Detective Paul Yukon,” he said, easing into the room. “May I come in? I just wanted to talk to you for a bit.”

“Talk to me about what?” I said. I knew I probably should've called my parents and gotten their permission or something, but I didn't understand why the police would be in my room.

“Well, I'm investigating your accident,” he said, walking over to my bed. “You are Maya Morgan, right?”

I nodded. “But why would my accident need investigating? I mean, it was a single car wreck.”

The detective looked down at his notepad. “Were you driving a silver BMW?”

“
I
wasn't,” I said. “She was.” I pointed at Kennedi. Yes, I was going to rat her out if I had to.

“Well, we got a tip that someone was seen tampering with your vehicle prior to the accident.”

“Tampering?” I said, shocked.

Kennedi and Sheridan looked confused as well.

“Upon further investigation,” the detective continued, “we found that your brake line had been cut.”

I sat straight up in my bed, and immediately grimaced from the pain that shot up my back. I shook it off. “Brake line cut? What are you talking about?”

The detective walked over closer to my bed. “We pulled the school surveillance video. He reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone, swiped the screen, then held the phone out to me.

“Press play,” he said.

I did and video of a burgundy Honda Accord pulling into the parking lot popped up on the screen. The driver pulled up behind my parked car, jumped out, and disappeared on the side of the vehicle. I couldn't tell if the person was a man or a woman. He or she was dressed in a dark, oversized hoodie and some baggy jeans. The timestamp on the video said 1:19
PM
. The middle of the school day.

“How do you know they're messing with my car?” I asked after the video stopped. The person had disappeared on the side of my car and you couldn't see anything that was going on.

“We don't.” He took the phone back and dropped it in his pocket. “We got a tip from someone who thought they'd seen someone tampering with your car. So, we checked your car out at the impound. The brakes had been cut. Now, we're just following up all leads. Do you recognize the car or the driver?”

I shook my head. “I have no idea who that is. And I've never seen that car before.”

He handed me a business card. “If you can think of anything or anyone who would want to do you harm, please give me a call.”

Anyone who wanted to do me harm?
Shoot, where in the world would I begin in making that long list?