Fiction Prompt

Shit. What the hell did they do now? Thoughts race through my mind as I fly down the four flights of stairs in my apartment building, almost tripping on the old red rubber mat lying outside the entrance door. God I hate that stupid old mat. Stumbling over my own two feet, I rapidly hit the unlock button on my car keys. One thing’s for sure, if my friends did something stupid, they did something really stupid.

Whipping my car around the corner onto Blue Course Drive, the back wheels start to squeal at me. My little Saturn Ion isn’t meant to be driven this fast. I look down at the clock, its 7:47; the sun’s starting to go down. Again, my mind starts to wonder what Stevie and Chase got into this time. This can’t be worse than the night back in September, it just can’t. I throw my car around another sharp left; the clock reads 7:50. Up ahead I see the familiar tattered wooden sign “Orchard Park”. Stevie and Chase are both sitting on the curb, their heads between their knees. Chase looks up as I slam on the brakes in the middle of the parking lot; I can tell from his eyes things are serious.

“What the hell happened to you two?”

“Uhhh… Stevie do you want to take this one?”

“Hell no dude this is your fault to begin with!”

“Guys just tell me what the hell happened!”

Stevie is the kind of kid who always takes things just a little too far. Even back in elementary school my Mom stopped letting him come over because every time we went outside to play one of us would come back bleeding. It usually wasn’t from fighting, more along the lines of Stevie convincing me I could jump 20 feet out of tree, that kind of stuff. Chase on the other hand just doesn’t know any better. The second he gets psyched up about an idea, there’s no telling him otherwise. Put the two together and you get a bad situation.

“Matt. You know all that shit we got in back in September?”

This is not good. This is really not good. “Of course I remember it dude, how could I not.”

“Well, it-“

Stevie cut in “-it happened again alright? There I said it.”

“WHAT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT HAPPENED AGAIN!”

“It’s all Stevie’s fault! He told me he’d back me up if I went in. “

Instantly my mind flashes back to that September night three years ago. I can see Chase, his back turned to us as he walked up the crumbling sidewalk towards the gas station. The same blue and red slushy sign hanging in the window. Chase glances back right before throwing his hood up over his head.

“Look Matt, things got out of hand real fast this time. You got us out of this mess before we need you to get us out of it again.” Stevie shoots a quick glance over to Chase, hoping I didn’t notice, but I did.

“How the hell am I supposed to get you out of this a second time?! My Dad only agreed to help us out before because the police station was looking for an excuse to come busting through the front door of that convenience store anyway.”

Chase’s eyes are starting to swell up a little bit. “Seriously, we need help if we have any chance of getting out of this.” His voice is shaking almost uncontrollably now. “We’ve only been g-gone maybe t-ten minutes since it happened. C-call your Dad-d now we still have a sh-shot-t.”

I cannot believe this. I honestly cannot believe this is happening to me again. This is why I made sure I went to a different college than these two. It’s the first week back from spring semester and I’m already wrapped up in something so bad I could end up spending the rest of my life in prison for it. I let out a deep sigh as I turn around to look at my two best friends; I’m their only shot at getting out of this. Every part of my soul is telling me not to as I reach into my pocket, my cell phone in my hand.

“Hello Dad? It’s Matt, listen I need some help. I’m with Stevie and Chase again.”