Ride of My Life

A young woman was sitting on the couch reading a book, or trying to at least. She threw her short, brown hair-covered head back and dropped the book down on her lap with a frustrated groan.

“I’m so bored!” she whined. She laid there on the black couch for a couple of seconds before marking her place in her book. She looked over at the TV, but even that didn’t seem appealing to her.

She rolled her head to gaze up at the off-white, panel ceiling of her living room with a sigh. She prayed that something interesting would happen.

She flinched slightly when she heard her phone ring. She looked to see who was calling and saw that it was her friend, Elijah. She swiped to answer and held the phone up to her ear.

“Hey, Elijah,” she said.

“Hey, Chloe! What are you doing tonight?” a male voice asked from the other end of the line.

“I’m doing absolutely nothing right now except staring into space. I wish there was something I could do right, but there is nothing that can hold my interest.”

“That sucks, but at the same time, it’s good! How about we go out for a ride? I just got a brand new car yesterday, and I have yet to properly test it out!”

Chloe sat up straight at hearing those words. “What kind of car?” she asked, intrigued.

“It’s a C8 Corvette, and it is awesome!” Chloe’s eyes widened. When that car first came out and she laid eyes on it, she had wanted one, but she never had the money to get it.

“Yeah, a ride sounds like fun,” she said excitedly.

“Awesome! I’ll be right there to pick you up!” Elijah said before hanging up.

Chloe jumped off the couch and ran up into her room as quickly as she could. She passed by her bed and went straight for her dresser. She picked out a red shirt with a car on it and knee-ripped jeans. She changed into the outfit and then grabbed her phone and house keys. She ran back down the stairs to wait for her friend.

The wait was killing her. She kept tapping her foot on the wooden porch and checking the time. Ten minutes had gone by, but it felt like ten hours to her. Just as she was putting her phone back into her pocket, Elijah finally pulled into her driveway.

The Corvette was beautiful with its electric blue body and silver rims. One of the black tinted windows rolled down, revealing a young man with short black hair and blue eyes inside the masterpiece of a car.

“Are you getting in or do you want to admire the car a little more?” he asked with a cheeky grin.

Chloe strolled over to the magnificent car and brushed her hand against the smooth, gleaming body of the vehicle. She felt like she was in a dream, but just feeling the cold metal under her fingertips was far too real to be so.

She gripped the handle and pulled the door open. The inside of the car was black with some blue streaks running through the seats. She sat down in bliss, leaning against the softest, most comfortable seats she ever sat in before in a car.

Chloe turned her light brown eyes to meet Elijah’s blue. “You ready?” he asked with a prideful smirk.

“Dude, I was born ready,” she replied with her own smirk. Her friend backed out of the driveway and drove off down the dark, open street.

“So,” said Chloe. “What do you want to do? I know you said you wanted to test out your car. Are we going to a parking lot or something?”

Elijah looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Are you kidding? Do you see how open the road is? We can test how fast my new baby is right now,” he said, sounding like he could hardly contain himself.

Chloe’s heart was gripped by a cold sensation. “That doesn’t seem like a good idea. What if the cops see you driving past the speed limit?” she asked worriedly.

Elijah waved his hand dismissively. “We’ll be fine! Do you see any cops around; I sure don’t.

Chloe felt the car start to speed up, and her worry increased. The car moved faster and faster. She looked at the speedometer to see how fast they were going. They were moving at 100 miles per hour.

“Elijah, I think you should slow down.” She kept diverting her eyes between the street and the speedometer. “You’re going too fast.”

Elijah laughed, “Stop worrying, Chloe. There is no one around that could be hurt and no cops to get in trouble with. Now, how about we crank this baby up?”

‘Oh god,’ thought Chloe as the car went from 100 to 120 in a second, and the numbers kept climbing. She held on tight and made sure her seat belt was fastened. She prayed that Elijah would slow down before they got into trouble with the law, but no matter how hard or long she prayed, the car would just go faster and faster.

Elijah drifted around a corner and sped up onto the open highway, but Chloe noticed something at the edge of her vision. It was a black and white car with red and blue lights turning on and sirens blaring as it raced after them.

Chloe felt like ripping her hair out, but she knew that wasn’t going to do anything except cause her pain. So, she instead turned to her friend when she noticed that he wasn’t slowing down.

“Stop this car now, Elijah! You’re going to get into more trouble with the police if you don’t!” she demanded.

“What, are you out of your mind?” asked Elijah, which made Chloe stare at her friend in disbelief. “The fun is just getting started! I always wanted to try out a high-speed chase!” he exclaimed joyfully.

“You’re saying I’m out of MY MIND?!” she shouted angrily at her insane friend just as she had to press herself against the seat when the corvette drove at the speed of 180 miles an hour.

Elijah laughed excitedly as he kept going straight. There were some cars on the road, but he would go around them. Each time this happened, Chloe felt like she was going to be sick.

Chloe checked the time to see how long the chase had been going on for now and saw that it had been 20 minutes since it started.

“Elijah! I swear if you don’t stop this car right now, I’m going to make sure I break your legs!” She normally wasn’t violent, but she was panicking and the adrenaline was not allowing her to think straight.

“No, you won’t, Chloe! This is fun and you know it! Lighten up and enjoy the ride! You can’t tell me this isn’t better than being home staring at the walls or ceiling, now can you?”

He was right about this not being boring, but it was not better than staring into space. At least staring wasn’t illegal! She said as much to him, but all he did was laugh.

“That’s what makes this so much fun! The thrill of not following the rules!”

‘Why am I friends with this guy again?’ Chloe questioned mentally. ‘Right, we have known each other since childhood, because of our grease monkey dads. Maybe I should cut my losses.’

She looked up from her lap and saw that there was a blockade up ahead, but Elijah still wasn’t slowing down. “If you dare try to drive through that and risk dying, I’ll kill you if you aren’t already dead. Now, STOP THIS CAR!” She had never felt so angry before in her life. ‘To think I actually liked this moron!’

She saw Elijah flinch and press down on the break. When the car finally came to a stop, he turned to meet her gaze slowly, but quickly looked down with a guilty expression when he saw the fires of Hell glowing in her furious eyes.

“You’re an idiot, you know that?! I told you to stop like ten times now, but did you listen to me? NO, you didn’t! You thought it would be fun to drag me along on this idiotic, insane, irresponsible road trip of yours, without MY CONSENT!” She screamed at him, and then followed it up with a slap to his face. She tore out of the car, making sure to slam the door shut behind her.

“Are you okay, miss? Did he kidnap you?” asked one of the ten police officers.

“I’ll be fine,” she said slowly while trying to calm herself. “I wasn’t kidnapped, but I was dragged into this stupid chase by my ex-friend here. I was home bored out of my mind when he called and asked if I wanted to go for a ride. I agreed to it, but if I had known he was going to do something like this, I never would have gone along with it,” she explained to the cop.

“It seems you have a very immature friend there,” stated the cop.

“Do what you want with him. I just want to go home, take a bath, and go to bed.”

“Alright, just go over to that car and I’ll be with you in a few minutes.” Chloe thanked him and made her way toward the car that was pointed out to her. Before she went in, though, she looked over to see Elijah in cuffs and being dragged over to a different police car.

“Just so you know, Elijah,” she caught his attention, “I’m never going out with you again!”