Crashing Into You

If Ross Miller was the only boy in the school, I wouldn't give him a second glance. If he was the only boy in our small-town of Wilburn, I would not agree to a date with him. Even if Ross and I were the last two people on planet earth, he could get down on his hands and knees and beg me to want him, but I would refuse.

           At least, that's what I used to think. Before I fell in love with him.

           One month may sound like no time at all, but somewhere during those thirty-one days between the first and the last day of April, it’s as if I changed into a completely different person. That’s what fate and love can do to a person, I guess.

           I was late, like always. Even though my alarm went off at seven o’clock every weekday morning, it was always seven-thirty before I finally crawled out of bed, and seven forty-five before I headed out the door. My parents were always saying how they wish I could be like my little brother, William. Perfect, brilliant William. Though he was two years younger than me and a sophomore whose wardrobe consisted of button-downs and khakis, he was a lot more responsible. He was captain of the robotics team, acing every single class, and already getting mail from colleges all around the state. And, unlike me, he always got to school on time.

           Wilburn High School was walking distance from my house, but, at seven forty-five, I grabbed my backpack, a pop-tart from the pantry, and my keys and hopped in my Bug. One more month, I told myself as I backed out of the driveway. One more month until graduation, until freedom, until you can get out of this town and never look back.

           I turned out the neighborhood, down Rose Street, Taylor Street, then into the student parking lot. There were about ninety cars on the blacktop. Wilburn High was rather small, just like the town itself. How I couldn’t wait to get out!

           As I sped through the parking lot, I checked my reflection in the rearview mirror. Half the time, I may have been in such a hurry I forget my books or my lunch, but I never walked out of the house looking like a mess. My blond hair was straight and parted perfectly centered. I wore a yellow blouse, blue jeans, and sandals, welcoming the spring weather. In the mirror, I checked my make-up. Seeing a small smear of mascara beside my right eye, I took my focus off the road and my hand off the wheel to fix it.

           CRASH

           One second I was speeding through the parking lot. I took my eyes off the road for one second, and the next thing I know, the front of my car had collided with the rear of another. The first thing I thought: My dad’s gonna kill me!

           I laid my head back on the headrest and ran my fingers through my hair. This was my third accident in the two years I’d been driving, and it was just like the other two: due to me not paying attention. In my head, I cursed myself in my father’s voice, knowing the speech he would give me that night all too well.

           A knock on my car window made me open my eyes. Through the glass, I could see a boy I’d known since kindergarden, though I’d probably only said ten words to him our whole lives. He wore his usual graphic T-shirt and grease-covered blue jeans

           Hesitantly, I rolled down my window, unsure what to expect. I knew when I first saw the Star Wars and stupid stickers on the back window it was Ross Miller’s car that I’d rear-ended. What I didn’t know was how he would react, if Ross was easy-go-lucky or would bite my head off. I decided to let him speak first.

           “Been driving long, Penelope?” he asked, squatting so he could talk to me through the rolled-down window. It took me a moment to realize he was kidding.

           “Ross,” I sighed, not knowing what to say. “I—“

           “Isn’t this, like, your second accident?” Ross asked. “If I remember correctly, sophomore year, you ran into that telephone pole. Wait, is this your third accident? Because, last year, you dented—“

           I was both surprised and flattered he’d noticed. Obviously, Ross Miller had been paying much more attention to me than I’d been paying to him. Honestly, I’d forgotten he’d existed.

           But I stopped him before he could go on. “Yeah, that’s me. The girl who can’t not wreck her car,” I did my best to asses the damage out the front window. “Is it bad?”

           Ross slipped his hands in his pockets, like he didn’t want to say.

           “It is, isn’t it?”

           He sighed. “Unfortunately, yes. Good thing my dad owns an auto repair shop. That’s how I remembered your last two accidents, by the way. My dad’s the one who fixed the damage.”

           I felt my cheeks flush, embarrassed. I didn’t know Ross’s father owned the only auto repair shop in town. Other than that he hung out with the comic-book crowd, spent lunch reading rather than eating, and had never been to a school dance, football game, or parade, I hardly knew anything about Ross Miller.

           “Let me drive you to the shop,” Ross said. “I think my car got the worse of it. Dad can look at yours right now. We’ll deal with mine later.”

           I objected. “I can drive myself.”

           “You shouldn’t have to. Aren’t you still a little shaken up? I mean, if you’d have been going just a bit faster, that could have ended up a lot worse than it did.”

           I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

           “Are you—“

           “I’m sure,” I said, getting a little impatient, even though Ross was being nothing but kind. The accident wasn’t making me upset. What was bothering me was that I wasn’t in first period, catching up with my friends, but that I was late, in my third wreck, and talking to the boy on the opposite crowd of me. It’s not how I wanted to be spending my morning. Harshly, I continued, “So, if you don’t mind, please get off my car and let me deal with my own disasters.”

           Without waiting for Ross to back away, I put my car in reverse and weaved my way out of the school parking lot. In my rearview mirror, I caught a glimpse of the damage I’d caused to Ross’s car. I didn’t even feel sorry about the large dent I’d created, thinking his older-than-dirt car with the peeling paint, broken headlight, and ridiculous Star Wars stickers would be better off towed, anyways.

 “Thank you, sir,” I said a few weeks later, when Mr. Miller, the auto repair shop owner, handed me back the keys to my car. After some time in the shop, my car was like new again.

           “Don’t thank me,” Mr. Miller said, sliding his grease-covered hands into his filthy blue-jean pockets. “My son did all the work.”

           “Ross?”

           “He’s the only son I got.”

           “Ross? Ross fixed my car?”

           “That’s his name, don’t wear it out.”

           Mr. Miller walked back inside his shop, leaving me standing shocked in the parking lot. I couldn’t believe it. Ross, who I hadn’t spoken to in years, who I’d been so rude to in the school parking lot the day of the accident, had repaired the damage to my car, while he was still driving around with a large dent in his.

           “You like it?” a voice said behind me.

           I turned to see Ross, wearing his usual T-shirt and jeans, a filthy rag sticking out of his pocket and a smear of grease on his face.

           “I can’t believe you fixed my car,” I said.

           “What? You didn’t think I was smart enough to mend some—“

           “No, it’s not that. It’s just. . .” I struggled to find the right words. “We’re not close.”

           Ross took the rag out of his pocket and wiped his greasy hands on it. “And?”

           I blinked. “And, well. . . I haven’t spoken to you since kindergarden. I didn’t even know your dad owned this place. I didn’t even apologize for denting your car.”

           Again, Ross said, “And?”

           I couldn’t help but feel ridiculous. “So why did you do it? Why did you fix my car, when I’m the one who put a Texas-sized dent in yours?”

           Ross laughed, making me feel even more ridiculous. “I guess I did it out of the goodness of my heart.”

           “Are you teasing me?” I asked, folding my arms. “This world is cruel. No one does anything out of the goodness of their heart anymore.”

           “I do.”

           “Yeah, right.”

           He scratched the back of his neck. “Well, maybe there is one thing I would like in return.”

           Smirking, I said, “I knew it. I knew there’d be a catch. What is it?”

           I never saw coming what he said next. Half of me wasn’t sure I’d heard him right. Perhaps the noisy traffic coming from the busy intersection behind us had caused me to misunderstand him. But the other half of me knew somebody like Ross wouldn’t joke about something like that.

           “I would like it if you went out with me tonight.”

           I stared at him. Ross Miller. The boy in graphic T-shirts, grease on his hands, and Star Wars stickers on the back of his car. Until the day our cars collided, I hadn’t spoken to him in years. If I hadn’t rear ended him, that wouldn’t have changed. We couldn’t be more different. And now, there he was asking me on a date.

           Before I could say anything, he added, “Just dinner. And dessert. I’ll pay. And, if it’s the absolute worst night of your life, you never have to speak to me again. We’ll go back to the way things were for the last twelve years—you hang with your cheerleader and jock friends, and I’ll stick my nerdy, outcast ones.”

           At that, I found myself laughing, but then I surprised myself as, despite what I would have said at any other moment in my life, I agreed, “Okay. Dinner. And dessert. You’d better make it the best night of my life.”

 “Do you know anything about cars?” I asked William the next night, the night of me and Ross’s date. He was sitting at the kitchen table working on a science project while I decided which pair of shoes to wear.

           “I know to you, all us loners look the same, but we’re actually very different,” William said. With him, everything becomes a lecture, and he went on, “See, I like science. Some loners like cars, some like comic-books, or anime, or band—“

           “Just say you don’t know anything about cars, William,” I said, deciding on a pair of white flats. They went perfectly with the pink sundress I was wearing.

           “Why did you ask?”

           “Because I need to figure out what to talk about on my date with Ross.”

           “Talk about what interests you. Just be yourself.”

           “We’re so different, though.”

           William sighed, and, although he’d never been in a relationship, offered a great piece of advice. “That doesn’t matter. You don’t change your personality to impress someone else. You either love that person for who they are, or you don’t.”

           With me wondering how my little brother was so much smarter than me, the doorbell rang. It was six o’clock. Ross was right on time.

           “Wish me luck,” I said to William as I started to the door, smoothing down my dress and running my fingers through my hair. I took a deep breath as I opened the door.

           Not surprisingly, Ross was standing in a Nirvana T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. But the advice William just gave ran through my head—how no one should compromise their personality to impress someone else. If Ross felt most comfortable is t-shirts and jeans, then who was I to ask him to change?

           “You look fantastic,” Ross said, then joked, “Out of this world.”

           I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Do you plan on teaching me all about Star Wars and auto repair tonight?”

           Ross smiled wide, then he offered me his arm. “Only if you want, and if you don’t doze off while I’m explaining all the ways a transition oil fluid could go wrong.”

           I took his arm, joking, “I’m dozing off already.”

           Ross walked me to his car, which still had the massive dent in the front.

           “When are you going to fix that?” I asked.

           He shrugged, as if it was no big deal. “When I get around to it. The shop’s been real busy. Dad’s needed my help a lot.”

           As Ross opened the passenger door for me, I said, “But you fixed my car in three days. Why did you slide me up the list?”

           Ross smirked. “The sooner I fixed your car, the sooner I could ask you out on a date.”

           He shut the door behind me and, as I blushed, walked around the outside of the car then slid behind the drivers seat. He backed out of the driveway and headed towards the center of town. I was nervous and excited and still shocked I was there all at the same time. Ross’s joking and laughing the whole way there took my mind off it.

           A few minutes later, Ross pulled up beside the Bluebird Diner. He turned off the car then headed around to open the door for me. Once again, he offered me his arm as we headed inside the Diner.

           “Best burgers in town,” Ross informed me once we sat down. The inside of the diner made me smile. Red and white checkered table clothes were thrown over the tables, the walls were painted bright red, and a jukebox was playing Elvis. It was a place I’d never eaten before.

           We both ended up ordering burgers, and we talked over strawberry milkshakes as we waited for our waitress to bring them out to us.

           “Who’d have thought that the two of us would ever be on a date?” Ross asked, sipping on his shake.

           I shook my head. “Not me.”

           “You didn’t know I existed at the start of this month.”

           “Sure I did.”

           “Liar.”

           I looked at my knees, admitting, “Okay. Maybe I hadn’t paid much attention to you. I always thought we were so different. My friends are cheerleaders, and you like to read. I spend my nights at football games, and you spend your working on cars. How in the world did we wind up together?”

           “You wanna know a secret?”

           Hesitantly, I said, “Of course I do.”

           Ross smiled as he said it, and I knew he was joking. “I used to wish you would wreck your car again. Not badly, just damage it enough so you would have to bring it into the shop. Then, I told myself, I would have enough courage to ask you out.”

           I laughed. “Well, you got your wish.”

           “I did get my wish. And it’s a dream come true.”

           The rest of the night was like a movie. I never knew what I was missing out on, all those years I thought Ross was just some nerdy, quiet loner. Turns out, he was smart and kind and funny, and I was the one with the bland personality. He made auto repair and band sound interesting as he explained them over the best burger I had ever had. Then he listened as I talked about my plans after school and my friends and my favorite songs. He turned out to be more interesting than anybody I’d ever met before.

           The last person I’d have ever expected to fall in love with was Ross Miller. On April 1^st, I thought we were two different ends of the spectrum. But that was the day I crashed my car into his, and the day that put things into motion, because, by April 31^st, I saw Ross in a completely different way. I saw him as a lifesaver who fixed my car, as someone I could no longer live without, and as the boy I loved. Who’d have ever thought?