Then he was jumping in the BMW with Ryan in front with him and Nick in back with Cally Broderick, Alessandra Ryding, Emma Fleed. He was driving the dark, curvy streets in full confidence, skimming his thumbs on the leather wheel, kicking back and enjoying the feel of the driver’s seat he’d been kicked out of for so long.
When they got out of the canyon, Cally said she saw a cop, so Nick pushed Emma down and over until she was lying with her head on Alessandra’s lap and her torso stretched over Cally, who petted it. Emma’s ass and legs were still on Nick and she was wearing this, like, ballerina skirt and in the rearview Nick slid his hand under its ruffly hem and she let out a little animal moan and was quiet.
In the passenger seat, Ryan put on this rapper Earl Sweatshirt. He was their age only he was a fuckin’ genius. His voice was deep and it stretched out of his throat like thick black paint pulled over glass, filling all the empty silent spaces that none of them could stand.
“Crank that shit,” Damon said, and Ryan pumped it till there was no room left to think.
In the backseat, Alessandra started to bitch. “Ugh, no. This song is so sexist, you guys.”
Ryan turned it up. The bass shook the car and thrummed in Damon’s chest. “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” he said, riding the beat. “That is the fuckin’ bee’s knees.”
“Fuck you guys, he’s talking about fucking rape!” Alessandra yelled.
“Turn it off, asshole!” Cally said.
“Why do you always gotta be such a bitch?” Ryan yelled back, and Damon remembered how he and Cally had a thing back in eighth grade, which suddenly seemed so long ago he had to squint to remember it even existed.
“You’re a pig,” Alessandra said.
Emma said nothing. Nick’s eyes were closed and he was making this math-test grimace and Damon wondered what it was that he was concentrating on.
He swerved before he knew it was there. Cally screamed. A deer in the road, standing there staring at him with its shiny eyes. Veering right he felt a thud, a far-off crunch of metal and cracked glass, a push against his seat, a thrust, a tree trunk glossed with rain, a balloon exploding in his face.
Then he was ice calm. He thought, Oh shit, someone got in an accident.
Behind him, Alessandra started yelling, “Oh my God, oh my God!” Ryan was hugging his airbag like a teddy bear and it was funny as shit but it wasn’t. Cally was crying and screaming and Nick was holding up his hands now, staring at his lap. Dark blood sliced his forehead. Damon wondered what he was looking at.
It could have been the sirens he heard or just his memories of them echoing. He didn’t wait to find out. He rolled out the driver’s-side door, took off running through the rain, and didn’t look back.
MISS NICOLL
On the morning after the faculty dinner, Molly scanned the news online. Dutifully she checked the New York Times, although its violent photos and stern headlines had seemed over the recent months increasingly distant and unreal. Then she clicked over to the local Marin Independent Journal:
May 26, 2013
Mill Valley Crash Injures Five Teens, One Critically; Driver Arrested on Suspicion of DUI
by Nathan Hanlon
MILL VALLEY—One juvenile has been detained by police and another is in critical condition after their 2012 BMW 5 Series sedan slammed into a tree at high speed early this morning, officials said. The crash occurred at approximately 1:30 a.m. on Throckmorton Avenue in Mill Valley, Mill Valley Police Department spokesman Dan Cisco said.
The critically injured teen, a 16-year-old female, is being treated at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae. Four additional passengers were treated for minor injuries and released this morning, hospital officials said.
According to Cisco, the car was driven by a 17-year-old juvenile of Mill Valley and registered to his parents, also of Mill Valley. Cisco added that the teens were fleeing a Cascade Canyon house party that had “spun out of control.” Officers were called to the party scene by a neighbor who complained of “disturbing and excessive noise,” Cisco said, and the accident occurred as the teens exited the canyon and headed toward Lytton Square in downtown Mill Valley.
It is believed that alcohol as well as marijuana and possibly other illegal substances were present at the party. The MVPD is still investigating how the teens obtained the alcohol, said Officer Aaron Shmersky. Several witnesses who wished to remain anonymous indicated that all of the teens, including the driver, had been drinking prior to the accident.