Quad Squad by R. Barri Flowers

Sabrina was crying hard, all of a sudden. “I don’t want …” she said, between crying, and Jerry put a hand on her shoulder, so the just kind of collapsed into him and he held onto her and she said, “I don’t want…” and he said, “Yeah, okay,” and then she said, “... I’m so tired,” and he said, “I know, I know,” thinking about what the hell did he know, he had no idea what was going on, really.

  Eventually she stopped crying and was sort of hiccuping every now and then, leaning back against the wall next to the bed, exhausted, Jerry leaning next to her. She had wiped a whole bunch of tears and snot on his shoulder but he was like, okay, whatever. There were no posters or pictures on the walls, just a kind of broken bamboo shade thing on the window and the bed and a little dresser thing with a bunch of girl clothes all over the place.

  Sabrina took a big breath and said, “I guess I’m not that happy a person, Jerry.”

  “Yeah, I think I get that.”

  “Do you? I mean, you always seem so happy.”

  “Do I?”

  “So much.”

  “I never really thought about it.”

  “How do you do it?”

  “I don’t know. It’s -- it’s not like something I think about. How come -- I guess, how come do you suppose you’re not that happy?”

  “Long story.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Long, long story.”

  “I don’t mind listening to it.”

  “No, it’s not your problem. You’re sweet, coming here and everything. Nobody else did.”

  “Did you text other people? I guess they’re all at some party?”

  “Yeah, no, I didn’t really. I wasn’t thinking too straight. I was super tired. Still am.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I need to lie down,” she said.

  “Oh, okay.” He stood up.

  She stretched out on the bed. She wanted to get rid of her stupid pants and sweater but he was still there so she just lay out and closed her eyes.

  He was heading for the door when she said, “Jerry?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you think you could stay a little while longer? I’m really lonely.”

  “Oh. Um. Yeah.”

  He sat back down on the edge of the bed.

  “I’m scared, too, I guess.”

  “Yeah, I get that.”

  “Do you think -- if this is weird you don’t have to do it -- but do you think maybe you could, like, lie down next to me and we could kind of cuddle? Just that? Not if you’re not comfortable.”

  “No, no, it’s … yeah, I can.”

  She looked at him gratefully.

  He said, “I guess I’ll take off my shoes.”

  She said, “Okay. Just for a little while, because …” and then she was crying again. It was really hard to stop sometimes.

  Jerry lay down next to her and put an arm around her, her face kind of buried in his chest. She thought it was kind of awkward because basically they weren’t that good of friends in the first place but still it was really nice that someone was there.

  Jerry lay there, thinking, what’s supposed to happen now?

  Andrea was crying harder, she couldn’t really stop it somehow, and Rachel kept petting her and saying nice things and Maya, too, and the guys were all looking awkward. Tim was thinking, let’s get the fuck out of here, but he also didn’t want exactly to not have Andrea on his lap, but that was stupid, it was just for a ride, it wasn’t like that, except that he couldn’t exactly not think about it and her pants were wet for some reason? Plus she smelled like a girl and she kept crying and moving around and that somehow made it all worse, and he felt so stupid for not knowing if he should, like, hug her or comfort her or something, she was on his lap not Rachel’s or whatever, but no, that was really stupid, she just needed a place to sit in the car, obviously he shouldn’t, she wouldn’t even want him touching her, except that she actually did ask him and not anyone else if she could sit on his lap, but did that really mean anything? Obviously not, God, he was so overreacting, God he was dumb. So dumb. So so dumb.

  Andrea sort of nodded to Maya and Rachel and they stopped petting her while she tried to dry her face with her sleeves. Maya started the car and just before she pulled out she saw flashing, and realized it was a police car.

  “Shit!” she said.

  “What?” Rachel asked.

  “Police! Shit! What do I do?”

  Everyone else turned around to look back through the window.

  “What’s the problem?” Tim asked.

  “I don’t have a license!”

  “I know, but that doesn’t mean they know that. They’re not stopping you.”

  Maya watched for a moment. The cop car pulled over near them but no one seemed to be heading over, at least not yet.

  “Roll on, po-po,” Malik said in a fake gangsta voice, but no one laughed. It was too real.

  “There’s another one,” Mike said.

  “Jesus,” Rachel said, “there’s two more up ahead, look!”

  Everyone turned back, their faces turning blue and red with the flashing.

  “Just go,” Tim said. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “I can’t drive right in front of all these cops!”

  You can’t drive right without cops, Rachel thought. God, just get me home safely already!

  “Well, we can’t just sit here,” Malik said.

  “Why not?” Mike asked, trying to stick up for Maya.

  “I have to get home!” Rachel said.

  “We all do,” Andrea said, feeling like what the fuck? She was the one who had pretty much been raped almost and Rachel was acting like such a drama queen, what, was there some AP test going on tonight or what?

  “I guess I can just go.”

  “Just go, like normal,” Tim said. “Signal.”

  “Right, signal.”

  “Then just go.”

  “Okay, I’m going for it,” Maya said, trying to get up courage.

  “They’re not here for us,” Mike said.

  “Yeah, they didn’t come to arrest your ass for underage driving,” Malik said. “I think they got bigger shit to worry about.”

  “Oh!” Rachel said. “I think they’re here because of that party!”

  No one else said anything as Maya maneuvered the car into the road, insanely slowly as far as Tim was concerned, she was going to attract attention by going too slow, if anything.

  “Did … everyone else already know that?” Rachel asked meekly.

  “Pretty much,” Malik said. “Bunch of shit going down at that party. I don’t even know if Ray is still in there.”

  Maya felt like she was tiptoeing, as multiple more cop cars came up the street but she headed away from the house slowly.

  “I’ll bet someone called in the weapon,” Tim said.

  “Maybe also underage drinking?” Mike asked, sort of at Andrea.

  “Obviously,” she said.

  Malik checked his phone again. No word from Ray.

  Rachel suddenly said, “Shit! I forgot to tell you to turn! Maya!”

  “What?” Maya said, startled.

  “You’re supposed -- here! Turn here!”

  Tim shouted, “No, not --”

  There was an extremely loud bang and Mike barely saw anything as his head slammed into the seat ahead of him and his body against the door and then there was a weird slowing down, he could hear screeching and a lot of screaming and he realized he was sitting up and Maya was kind of lost inside a huge gray bag thing, that must be the airbag, it must be have been an accident, and Andrea was kind of halfway across Malik and into the front seat like she had dived, she must have flown off of Tim’s lap, and Mike realized they had finally stopped, and Malik looked at Mike and seemed okay and they both looked over at Tim and there was just blood everywhere, all over his head, and Mike tried to find his buckle, his seatbelt to unbuckle and try to help, Tim looked unconscious or worse, and Mike just k
ept trying, he kept looking for it and he couldn’t find it and Tim’s face was all bloody like in some horror movie and Mike just couldn’t find the goddamned buckle and he saw that Maya’s face was all bruised, it was turned sideways toward him and she looked awful and she looked at him and he tried to smile but it came out like a cough and finally, finally he found the buckle and it went click.