Chapter 12

       "Did you hear about the party that's going on close to out of town?" Wilder asked me at school while I was at the locker. "I want to go."

       I raised an eyebrow. "You want to go? You hate social events."

       "Uh, not parties," Wilder said. "The music, the food, the...."

       "Alcohol?" I interrupted. "Drugs? Hook-ups? Yeah, I'm not taking you."

       "I wasn't going to ask you to take me," Wilder said. I just stared at him for a bit. "Okay, I was going to ask you to take me. Please, Atticus? I'm tired of doing absolutely nothing all day. I want to try new experiences. I don't want to go through high school without going to at least one party."

       "Wilder, you have a lot of high school years ahead of you to go," I pointed out.

       "You think I'll really go to a high school party alone?" Wilder asked. "You're graduating this year, so I won't have anyone to go with these coming years. Please? You can even ask Orchid if she wants to come."

       "Dude, don't do that."

       "Do what? Offer that you bring your girlfriend because you've barely spent any time with her, so that will work to my advantage?"

       "Yes."

       "Is it working?"

       I sighed. "Fine, we'll go. Will you even be allowed to go?"

       "Uh, obviously," Wilder said. "My dad keeps asking when I'm going to my first party anyway. He'll be happy to know I want to go to one, and he'll be even more happy that you'll be there with me." Wilder pulled out his phone and texted his dad. He soon got a reply afterwards. "I was right. He's happy I want to go to one. He just said I have to be home before midnight, and that I can't drink."

       "What time does it start?" I asked.

       "Around eight," Wilder said. "And it will take about an hour to get there, so we can leave around seven."

       "Okay," I said.

       Orchid suddenly walked up to me, and I gave her a smile. "Hey," she said, smiling back. "So, there's this party close to out of town going on tonight. Want to go with me, Alan, and Nolan?"

       "Funny thing, because I was going to ask you," I said. "Wilder wants to go, so he suggested I bring you as well."

       "Perfect," Orchid said. "But would you be able to drive all of us? My dad would be fine with us going to a party, but our mom isn't, and she especially hates it when any of us drive in the dark, so we're just going to tell them we'll be at Ryder's house. And he'll be an alibi."

       "Really?" I asked.

       "Yeah, he was a teenager not too long ago, so he knows what it's like wanting to go somewhere but our parents not letting us," Orchid said. 

       "Yeah, okay, I can drive all of you," I said. "So where should I pick you guys up?"

       "We'll be at the cafe close to the university," Orchid said. "That's right by Ryder's apartment because we're going to have to walk there if we want to make it believable."

       "Alright, it's all planned then," I said. "Does seven work?"

       "Seven is perfect," Orchid said. "I'll see you then." She gave me a quick kiss before walking off.

       Since school was finished, Wilder and I left the school after I finished at my locker and headed home. I was debating on the way if I should tell my parents exactly where I was going, or make up a place.

       I was positive my mom would be fine with it since I would be with Wilder, but my dad had been too paranoid that everything I did was to hang out with Orchid. I mean, this time it was, but he could deal with it.

       I was right. Mom was fine with it, but Dad wasn't. Normally, Dad would have been the one okay with it, but not anymore.

       He was trying to convince Mom not to let me go, but she ignored him and told me to have fun, but to be careful with my drinking. I promised her I wasn't going to drink since I was the one driving and I would never do anything to put Wilder in harm's way.

       I spent most of my time before I had to leave playing the violin or the piano. Evelyn kept telling me to stop playing, but that only made me play it even louder. She could suffer with my beautiful music playing.

       A little bit before seven, I went to wait outside for Wilder. He soon come outside, so we got in the car and I sent a quick text to Orchid, telling her we were on our way.

       I drove to the cafe where the triplets were waiting. It took a while for them to get in, because none of them wanted to sit in the middle seat. Well, it was more of Alan and Orchid arguing about it because they already cancelled Nolan out. Apparently, he couldn't handle sitting between two people for a long period of time, even if it was his family members.

       "Do they do this a lot?" I asked Nolan, who was already in the seat behind the passenger seat.

       "All the time," Nolan said. "It's worse now that we all have our license and we share a car. They're always arguing about who gets to drive."

       "You don't argue with them?" I asked.

       "No, not really," Nolan said. "I could care less if I'm the one driving, and I don't really go out much so I rarely take the car."

       Wilder groaned. "They're taking forever!"

       "Atticus, this is your car," Orchid said. "Tell Alan to sit in the middle."

       "No way," Alan said. "You sit in the middle. "You're the shortest triplet, so you don't need much leg room, and there isn't a lot of leg room in the middle."

       "How about one of you sits in the middle on the way there and the other on the way back?" I suggested. "That's fair, right?"

       Orchid sighed. "Yeah, I guess. I'll sit there on the way to the party." She looked at Alan. "You have to sit there on the way back."

       "Okay, fine," Alan said.

       They finally got into the car, so Wilder entered the address of the party into the GPS before I started driving.

       "I'm already hating sitting here," Orchid said not even ten minutes later. "How long is the drive?"

       "About an hour," I said.

       Orchid huffed. "Great. Can you at least turn on the radio so this isn't a boring drive?"

       "Ooh, I'll do it!" Wilder said. "I have an excellent taste in music, so I know what radio is the best." Wilder turned on the radio and went to his favorite station, which definitely had the best music. Wilder really didn't have an excellent taste in music.

       Following the GPS was getting really annoying. I preferred driving somewhere that I knew how to get there instead of constantly having to glance at the GPS. Not only that, but it always tired getting us the fastest way there, no matter how the route was like.

       For example, it ended up taking us on a one-way road, which was very narrow and the ground was more like gravel, so the ride wasn't exactly smooth. On the bright side, no other cars were on this road so I didn't have to worry about slowing down to follow traffic.

       The next song that came on Wilder hated a lot because it was overplayed, so he tried changing the station but accidentally pressed a wrong button and couldn't get back. "Atti, how do you fix this?"

       "Press the second button three times," I said, so he did. He then went back to changing the station to one that had a good song.

       "I don't like this road," Alan said. "It's too bumpy."

       "It's not my fault the GPS took me here," I said. "Besides, you're all the one who wanted to go to the party."

       "You don't?" Orchid asked.

       "Eh," I said. "Wilder convinced me, but you did want to go, so that help me want to go."

       "Well, I'm glad you're coming," Orchid said. "We haven't spent that much time together yet because some people are too stubborn. It's nice to be able to spend time together."

       One second. One second was all it took. I looked at her in the review mirror for only a second to smile at her.

       When I looked back at the road, it was almost too late. A car was speeding towards us, so my reflexes took over and I quickly swerved to the right to try to avoid it. Because of the narrow road, I drove straight through a log fence and ended up off the road, going slightly down hill.

       We were headed towards a tree, and I swerved the car again, only to crash into another tree, causing me to black out.

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Le gasp!

Don't worry, you'll only be in suspense for about an hour or two if you're heading this shortly after I published it. If you're reading this way later, then the next chapter is probably up by now. 

It's 11:50 pm and when I was planning to write this, I was thinking about just cutting it off here and going to bed and writing the next chapter when I wake up, but then I was like, "Nah, I'll stay up until one if I have to." I do anyway, just laying in bed on my phone, so there's no reason why I can't stay up later to write.