Driving With Consequences

It was homecoming my sophomore year. My boyfriend and I went together and like the tradition, we went out to eat with my friend, Marcie, and her boyfriend, Isaiah, and my boyfriend’s friend, Ned. (I used different names here so it doesn’t get confusing, and I don’t want to call anyone out.) We had a great time at the dance, but when it started to get hot in there, it was getting uncomfortable. We were sweating and more and more people kept leaving. It was also getting late so we decided to start the end to our night. We all rode together, except for Ned. He drove separate so we could all go out separate ways after we ate. Of course, as any 17 year old, high school boy thinks they want to drive recklessly and fast. I was sitting in the front seat and I would make little comments like, “Casey stop,” or “careful of that car,” as any normal paranoid person would do.

I trust his driving skills, but when his friend is the the car I know how he’s going to act. He likes to show off a little and drive like there’s no one else on the roads. As we were headed to Applebee’s, I made these little comments often. “Careful Casey, there’s a red light ahead,” and he would respect what I said and he wouldn’t get mad at me. Isaiah, on the other hand, was getting annoyed with me and said, “he knows how to drive and it’s annoying. When Marcie does this to me I get so mad because I have my license and she doesn’t.” Obviously this made me mad because I was just trying to look out for not only myself but all of us. I shut my mouth for the rest of the ride and didn’t criticize his driving again. He didn’t stop the way he was driving and almost rear ended someone while they were stopped at a light. I turned around to Isaiah and said, “this is why I say stuff,” and turned back around.

After we were done eating at Applebee’s it was late and a Friday night, so what do you expect? Police are out trying to patrol the roads and get drunk drivers. We were stopped at a light, Ned was in front of us and Casey was preparing to put the pedal to the metal. As soon as that light turned green, he did exactly that. What happened next? A cop was at the light on the other side and turned their sirens on faster than the light could turn from red to green. Again, I looked at Isaiah and told him, “this is why I tell him to slow down.” The cop was behind us and we were waiting for them to come to our car I had got the registration out of the glove box and we were all prepared. Drivers side window rolled down, everyone was quiet and license and registration in hand.

When the cop came up to the car, she simply said, “you guys are all set you can go.” We weren’t expecting that at all. Ned, on the other hand, did not get so lucky. He got pulled over for having a headlight out, which we didn’t expect either. Moral of the story, listen to your girlfriend. No, I’m kidding. Moral of the story is to expect the unexpected.

This story relates to the series, Fast and Furious. Obviously there was no high speed chasing in cars worth more than my life. We weren’t in a car close to those. We were in a 2016 Toyota highlander, it was his moms. The comparison is the way Casey was probably feeling when he was driving. He probably felt like a bad ass like the characters in these movies and then his ego just dropped as soon as those lights turned on.

Photo by bionicteaching on Foter.com / CC BY-SA