I ran out of the door after her. Trembling in the cold morning mist, I wished I’d left my sweater on. I couldn’t let her leave though. Not like this. I wasn’t a home wrecker. ”Marie,” I called out after her. She didn’t respond or even turn back to look at me as she climbed into her car. Shit, what had I done?
Without thinking, I ran off into the middle of the road. I wouldn’t let her get very far. We needed to talk about this. I wasn’t angry at her anymore. I just wanted it all over with. Maybe I’d gone too far, but she’d pushed me. Despite all the animosity between us, Marie may have been selfish but she wasn’t stupid.
Still, she pulled the car out of the driveway and turned it around. Her fog lights in tandem with the headlights nearly blinded me. That’s when I heard her tires spinning. I stood my ground, testing her. She’d run Damon into the ground with her bullying and posturing, but there was no way possible she’d actually -
“No! ” I screamed, horrified.
Marie’s car bore down on me. All I could see were the the beams of light it emitted through the fog. There was no indication that Marie meant to stop. So I closed my eyes and held my breath bracing my body for the impact.
Instead what I heard was the sound of Marie’s breaks squealing at the very last second. Then an enormous boom as her El Dorado wrapped itself around an old oak tree, not more than ten feet from where I stood. I breathed deeply as I opened my eyes in astonishment to still be alive.
A cloud of dust now loomed within the mist. Marie’s mutilated car spewed smoke and fumes. The front driver’s side tire still spun. Marie’s body hung halfway outside of the car, atop the hood, and halfway inside, atop the dashboard. I moved stiffly, as my now leaden legs made it difficult to walk. In shock, I leaned against the other side of the oak’s trunk and slid shakily down to the ground.
I began rocking back and forth. The tears flowed and I cried. I screamed, whimpered and continued to rock back and forth. Staring at the earth below me, I tried to take it all in. How had we taken it this far? Some stupid, old rivalry revisited had turned into this. How could I live with myself? I’d slept with her husband for christ’s sake! I’d tried rationalizing it to her as I’d done to myself. She’d said they were separated. My lips trembled. I shut my eyes tightly and hung my head in shame. The guilt rose up in me making my body shudder.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been sitting at the base of the tree, but my eyes were bloodshot and my was face swollen. I agonized over how I was going to explain, everything. I looked over at the wreckage beside me and then to the cloud of dust mixing with the mist down the road. There was a red Expedition in the middle of the cloud. Damon’s. Her husband.
