Beware of Boys (15 page)

Charly's eyes stretched. She had been wrong. M
kel did have feelings, and was obviously hurting. And now she understood why Bobsy hated her guts. She knew she wouldn't be too pleased if someone kept referring to her as a boy. “Bobsy is your
sister
?”

He nodded, and held up a two-fingered peace sign. “Yep. It's just us three—me, my mom, and Bobsy.” He continued to drive distracted.

“Pull over. Pull over!” Charly yelled at M
kel, who was playing a game of accelerate, stop, accelerate, stop. He was pressing the gas pedal, zipping for a half a block at top speed, before punching the brakes, making them skid to a halt as the traffic continued to crawl. “Pull over and let me drive, M
kel. I remember Whip's shortcut,” she said, recalling street names and the landmarks, and how she'd once loved something about the guy sitting next to her, like his voice, and still loved some of those things. His desire to help the less fortunate was one of them. His being a gentleman, who'd tried to come to her rescue, was another. She couldn't tell him that though, just as she couldn't admit she hadn't known about the project when they'd had it out in the store. That would be like committing career suicide, and would also get Mr. Day in trouble for lying to cover her. She could, however, ease some of M
kel's stress by driving for him while he thought, she decided, looking at him. She had to find some way to get into his good graces as Mr. Day had suggested. She had to stop him from wanting to find a loophole and, thus, a way out of the contract. The girls needed the facility. Charly needed it too.

“I
hope you got bail money!” Charly yelled over the whoosh of wind that seemed to blow out of nowhere. Seconds ago, the air had been still, but now it breezed angrily. She looked both ways, searching for police and oncoming traffic, then whipped a U-turn, making the back end of the convertible slide, then straighten as she punched the accelerator. They rocketed down the main road as she searched for a recognizable street sign. No, she hadn't memorized them all, but she knew she'd remember the names when she saw them. At least, that's what she was banking on. “There!” she shouted. “We make a right at that stop sign.” She skidded to a halt at the four-way stop, looked both ways just in case there were any other drivers on the road who were driving like her, then floored the accelerator again as she hung a sharp right. Her heart raced as fast as the car, and her adrenaline escalated faster. “I can't get stopped by the police. . . .”

She glanced at M
kel, who held on tight. He seemed unfazed from the waist up, but his feet told a different story. “You know, this isn't a driver's-ed car. There are no brakes on the passenger side. So why do you keep pressing invisible pedals? Am I scaring you?” she asked, laughing. She wanted to lighten the mood.

M
kel just nodded. “Do you know where you're going? Really? Or are you just winging it?” he asked as she hung another right, then made a U-turn, which indicated she had gone the wrong way.

The sky rumbled above them, and the wind became violent. It was completely charcoal gray out now, and getting bleaker by the second. Charly made another turn, and knew exactly where they were. They were on the street where the police had stopped her and Whip. That meant they only had a couple more blocks before they reached the shortcut. “I gotcha, M
kel. Don't worry. I'll get you to Bobsy really soon.” She floored the pedal, whipping the car through the neighborhood back streets, and then made her way onto the road she'd been looking for. “Hold on!” she yelled at M
kel, then drove the car as fast as it would go.

“Wait!” M
kel yelled. “Don't you see that?” He pointed in front of them. “This street runs out. And you're going too fast. You're going to kill us!” He was pressing his foot on the floor again, searching for an invisible brake pedal. “Char-lee!” his sung her name as the car literally took flight, and soared through the air for a second. It'd jumped the pavement, then bounced on the sand. “Stop the car! Stop the car! Now!”

But Charly couldn't stop. She distinctly remembered Whip saying that staying in motion was the key to not getting stuck in the sand. She shook her head in the negative. “Can't do it,” she screamed over the now howling wind. Lightning struck in the distance. “The top, M
kel. Close the top!” she urged. “It's getting ready to rain.”

“Can't,” M
kel said through clenched teeth. “I think we have to be in park or something. Even if we didn't, we wouldn't be able to close the top, not with you driving so fast.” He steadied himself by pressing his palms against the dashboard. “Turn on the lights. It's getting dark.”

“Bull if we can't close the top,” Charly said, locating a button on the left side of the steering wheel that brought the lights to life. She turned the car, heading toward a street that would take them to another set of back roads. That was her plan, anyway, but she couldn't be sure. She had to trust her gut to guide them because there was nothing paved in sight. It was just her and M
kel, the car, and the desert. Assured that they couldn't crash because there was nothing to run into, Charly pressed her index finger on the touch screen, hoping that the home screen would appear and that a digital button would show so she could close the convertible top.

“System locked,” the car said.

Lightning danced again in the sky.

“No way.” Charly touched the screen again. And again. And again. With each touch, her fingers pressed harder.

“System locked,” the car repeated.

“Unlock it,” she said to M
kel just as thunder rumbled.

“Can't,” he informed her, now holding on to the door handle. “Charly! Watch out!”

Charly looked ahead of them, and her eyes widened. Either the darkening sky or the headlights had to be affecting her vision. “That can't be a cliff, can it? Not in the desert, right?” She jammed her foot on the brake, but the car kept moving. The wheels had locked, but the convertible slid across and down the sand like marbles rolling down a wet glass slope, finally stopping in a deep hollow of desert. Charly banged the wheel. “You've got to be kidding me!”

M
kel looked at her, shaking his head. “No, Charly. You've got to be kidding me!”