Crash and Burn

Sleep was evasive for Jenny tonight after the jarring events of the day. She wasn’t sure if she had drifted off when she heard a whispered murmuring from the bedroom across the hall. Jenny was crashing on her sister’s couch after the discovery she made in her roommate’s closet earlier today. She was disturbed so she had decided to leave for the night and crash here. 

Jenny and her sister Sarah did not have the closest sibling relationship. Sarah was six years older and seemed to have her life figured out, while Jenny was still struggling to build a steady career and love life for herself. They didn’t have much in common but Jenny knew she could count on her sister in time of need. Sarah had been a bit hesitant but had invited her in, but from the sounds of it, Parker, the fiance, seemed to have some qualms about the couch-crashing sister. 

Despite her best intentions to not eavesdrop, that is exactly what Jenny does. She creeps closer to their bedroom door, trying to be as quiet as possible, so that she can hear what they were talking about. In her mind, she justifies to herself that if she knew what was bothering Parker, she could try to smooth things over with him the next morning. 

“Why are you so freaked out?” she heard Parker asking.

“There are things you don’t know about me and you would hate me if I told you.”

“Babe, we are engaged now, we will be getting married in less than six months. We share all our problems. You can tell me anything, trust me,” Parker is the calm yin to Sarah's anxious yang.

Jenny thinks she might just have shown up at a bad time. Maybe they were already in the middle of a fight when she showed up and they were continuing that, not talking about her. Sarah had seemed perturbed and distant that night. Jenny had also tried to share her discovery, but Sarah had been distracted. This was probably a sign for her to stop eavesdropping. But now, she was intrigued that her sister had a secret that she was afraid to tell her fiance, and she needed to know this secret. What was the big bad secret her perfect put-together sister was hiding?

“I was involved in something bad before we met. Not something I am proud of but I thought it was in the past and we had our tracks covered,” Sarah was saying.

“What do you mean we? Does this also involve Jenny? You seemed to be acting a bit off ever since you got a call from her roommate and she showed up here.”

So, Yana had called Sarah before she showed up here? This was news to Jenny because the two of them were not as close anymore. All three of them used to hang out all the time up until a year ago and then things had changed. They had become distant, trying to avoid each other as much as they could. This was around the time Sarah met Parker so she assumed that the new relationship had caused the rift in the friendship. But apparently, they still called each other.

“It's not directly related to Jenny. But she has found something that could get me into trouble,” continues Sarah.

“What sort of trouble, Sarah? Please you are scaring me now.”

Sarah is barely able to catch a breath between her sobs, she is trying to stay quiet and failing miserably. But the panic is dripping from Parker’s voice too.

“Okay, I think you need to know. I will tell you but promise me you won’t hate me once you know.”

Parker, with patience despite his rising panic says, “I will be right by your side, regardless of what you tell me.”

“First, let me go check on Jenny,” Sara says.

Shit, Shit, Shit! Jenny is pissed at herself for not expecting this to happen. She should have thought of a backup plan, but she was too lost in overhearing the couple’s juicy conversation. She needs to get back to the couch as fast as possible without making too much sound. She is halfway through the room, just a few steps away from the couch when she hears the door open. She freezes in place, almost certain that she was caught. But when she turned her head towards the room door, it was still closed. She sees the light turn on in the common bathroom’s door slit.

With ninja-like efficiency she closes the distance between her and the couch and nestles in, pulling the fleece throw over herself. Her heart is pounding, she is afraid it can be heard in the whole apartment, she tries to pace her breathing and slow it down. The usual nightly sleep meditation voice starts playing in her head - in for four, hold for four, out for six…

The sink in the bathroom turns off, the place is so quiet that she can hear the water moving through the pipes. And a few short moments later, Jenny hears the door open, followed by padded footsteps. 

“Jenny?” Sarah calls out in a hushed voice.

Jenny stays focused on her breathing, trying not to move and give away that she is awake. She senses Sarah come close to the couch, and then satisfied, she pads back into the room.

Phew. This wasn’t Jenny’s proudest moment. She knew her actions were obviously wrong, she was crashing her sister’s couch and eavesdropping her secrets. But the curiosity was eating at her. And her own involvement in the whole thing piqued Jenny’s interest even more. She had to know the secret.

The whispers start in the room again and despite the urgency Jenny feels, she knows she needs to be more careful now. She waits for a few endless minutes and then creeps up to the door again. This time, if she senses someone is coming out, she will be better prepared.

“I am sorry, I am so sorry. This has been killing me.” Sarah is barely containing her sobs. If Jenny was not awake already, this would definitely have woken her up.

“Shit Sarah,” Parker responds after a few beats. The earlier composure was gone from his voice now.

Jenny seems to have missed the big reveal but she is hoping she can piece it together from the trailing conversations.

“So how is Yana a part of this whole thing? And Jenny?” Parker asks.

“Yana was with me that night. Jenny was on a date with her then-boyfriend so she wasn’t with us. We never told her anything.”

“And how did Jenny find out now? Did she say something to you?”

“I don’t know but Yana thinks Jenny knows. She found his wallet. Jenny tried talking to me about it today but I was so scared so I just shut it down.” Sarah seems to have grown smaller if that was even possible.

The suspicious discovery from Yana’s room, now safely tucked into her bag comes to the forefront of Jenny’s thoughts again. She wanted to borrow an outfit for her upcoming interview and went to raid Yana’s closet. They had been roommates and best friends for almost four years now so they would borrow each other’s outfits often. At the far end of the closet, an old jacket fell from the hanger and as Jenny picked it up, she felt something in the pocket. It was a brown cloth wallet with a dark stain on it and inside was the student ID for a kid named Leo Michaels. The name sounded familiar but took a while for her to realize. Sarah and Yana had insisted on going to his funeral after he died in an accident. Yana said she knew him from school and they thought we should go pay respect.

The three of them had gone, despite Jenny’s resistance. It had been a bleak and awkward affair as expected. But she was perplexed as to why Yana had his ID in her closet. She had texted Yana and she had called back, extremely furious.

“Why the hell are you going through my things? Get the hell out of my room and my stuff.”

She had never answered Jenny’s question but the fury disturbed Jenny and she decided to spend the night away so she could be well rested for her interview tomorrow. She could not afford to fight with Yana tonight. 

Some part of her decided to keep the wallet with her. It didn’t make sense to Jenny why she did that but it was just instinct. 

Jenny had zoned out for a little bit while Sarah and Parker were still whispering in the bedroom, mostly Parker trying not to freak out and trying to calm Sarah down. That’s when the persistent vibrations of a phone call came from the room. 

They stopped talking and Parker said, “You should pick up.”

Sarah did and said “Hello.”

Jenny could only figure out Sarah’s side of the conversation.

“Yes, she is still here, asleep on the couch.”

“I don't know how much she knows, but she has the wallet and she wanted to talk to me about it today. But I freaked out.”

“No, I didn't see the wallet.”

“Are you crazy? I am not a thief. I am not going to do that.”

“I am so scared, I don't know how to tell her, I don't know how she will react.”

“Yes, Parker knows. I had to tell him.”

“Well, what was I supposed to do? And why would you keep the guy’s wallet? We decided to take care of everything. This is mostly your fault. What were you even thinking?”

“Okay, I can try that.”

“No I am not going to drug her, I don't even have anything to drug her with.”

“You can come here tomorrow morning. We can talk to her calmly. Explain the situation. The guy is already dead, no point of ruining more lives.”

“No, it's the middle of the night, you can't come here right now.”

“Yana, Yana!”

“Shit she hung up, she is coming here right now,” Sarah informed Parker.

“Is she crazy? Asking you to steal her stuff and drug her. Why were you even friends with her?” Parker sounded angry.

“Being judgemental is not helping right now. We need to come up with a plan”

Jenny realized that she did not have the luxury of time. She grabbed all her stuff, which was still mostly in her bag, and got out of there. She knew she wasn’t safe in the apartment. She had broken pieces of the puzzle but her brain was churning to figure out the whole picture. The only thing she knew for sure was that staying there and waiting around for Yana to show up was not in her best interest.

The roommate that she had considered her best friend and her sister were both hiding something from her and they would go to any lengths to protect that secret based on the snippets of conversations she had overheard tonight.

Jenny drove for about an hour, just trying to get as far away as possible, her thoughts, a muddled mess. The night sky was softening as the first hues of dawn began to brighten the horizon. She stopped at a diner on the outskirts of town to grab some coffee and decide her next steps.

Her phone had been constantly going off while she was driving, there were 14 missed calls from Sarah, 9 from Yana, and 3 from Parker. There were multiple text and voicemail notifications. She already knows what they say. But first, she needs to get a grasp on this situation herself. She cannot trust them anymore.

A quick search for Leo Michaels yields a couple of short news articles, saying that he was killed in a hit-and-run and no suspects were found. She looked up her Google photos to check the date of the accident, and sure enough, she was on a date with one of her ex that night.

This is when things clicked in her head. The emergency car repair that Yana insisted on without involving insurance. The falling out between Sarah and Yana after that. They were the ones responsible!

The wallet in her bag felt that much more heavier now. She would like to believe that her first instinct was to call the cops and give them all the information. But then how does that help her?

Maybe this was a blessing in disguise for her. The thoughts of the interview later today now forgotten, she hatched a new plan. And texted Yana: Meet me at the Starbucks on our cross street in an hour. Just you and Sarah.

This was followed by a prompt phone call, but the conversation she needed to do had to be done face-to-face.

-------------------------------------------------------

As Jenny rounded the corner to her local Starbucks, she saw that Sarah and Yana were already seated inside. They both looked horrible - sleep-deprived, tired, and scared. Jenny was sure she looked a little bit tired herself but the plan brewing in her head was helping her feel better. She fixed her composure and sat down at their table.

The two women were acting completely opposite of each other. Sarah could not meet her eyes, radiating fear, while Yana was looking right at her, almost as if challenging her. Jenny once again is glad of her decision to have left last night. Meeting in a public place seems much safer than facing them alone in their apartment last night.

Without any preamble or pleasantries, Jenny decides to take charge of the conversation. “So it was you guys, you were the ones who caused the hit and run that caused Leo’s death?” She frames it like a question but she is not expecting a response.

“Can you keep it low?” Yana snapped.

Sarah’s lips were quivering as if she was about to cry. 

“It wasn’t our fault, it all happened so fast..and we ran on instinct. We didn’t know that..you know..that he would die,” Sarah says quietly.

“Look Jenny, this is hardly the place, we should talk about this somewhere private. We know what happened was bad, but he is already dead, we cannot ruin our lives too,” Yana continued.

“I agree,” Jenny said. And saw both the women opposite her were taken aback. They expected that she would need a lot more explanation or threatening, but they didn’t expect this response from her. 

After a few beats, Sarah asked “Really? You are not mad? You are not going to report us?”

“Well, I thought of it. But, no, I am not going to report you to the cops. But this is a big secret to keep, it needs to be beneficial for me too. I can save you and not ruin your lives, but you need to do something for me in return.”

“Are you blackmailing us?” Yana seems confused by this turn of events now.

“Well, I don’t think of this as a blackmail, it’s more of a mutually beneficial agreement. You can pay me 10k a month and I will happily keep this secret for you both.”

“Are you insane? We don’t have that kind of money?”

“I am sure among the two of you, you can figure it out. I have a recording of our conversation and the wallet I found is in a safe place now. Both things go directly to the cops with a letter explaining everything if anything happens to me.”

“You are a certifiably insane person.”

“Say what you want, at least I haven’t killed anybody. This is the deal babes, take it or leave it.”

Jenny walked out with a cold smirk, leaving the two women pale and shattered in her wake. She had lost a sister and a friend, but she had gained something far more enduring—a steady flow of money to fuel the bold, uncharted chapter of her life ahead.