Okay I suppose I better write some story today. We left off with Beth realizing that they weren’t going home. Maybe they were going to a hospital? Noah wasn’t sure either.
Let’s see what Beth and Noah do:
Beth looked down at her phone..should she call Alec? What the hell was going on?
Noah, who knew the extent of Tim’s temper, asked, “Hey, man, why’d you turn around?”
Tim rolled his eyes and said, “She needs a doctor, doesn’t she?” Tim’s mind was racing and if he were to really say why, it was because he wanted to mess with Beth. She had caused his dad so much pain over the last year. Stupid bitch. She looks nice and scared now.
He almost laughed.
Noah thought a moment, not wanting to anger Tim who had crazy in his eyes. “The hospital is pretty far away…shouldn’t we let Alec know?”
“Yes. Good thinking. Beth hand me your phone.” said Tim.
Beth laughed and said, “Ummm…no thank you! I can call him myself. You didn’t even ask me if I wanted to go to the hospital anyways. I really just want to go home. We are so close that…”
Abruptly, the truck came to a halt. Again, Noah braced himself, but this time on the front dashboard. Beth who was holding her phone and about to make the call, was thrown to the floor of the backseat. She screamed. She was startled, she was in pain, and she was mad.
“Are you kidding me??” she yelled, cradling her ankle and squeezing her eyes together to hold back tears.
Now Noah was worried. With the truck stopped, he got out and ran back to help Beth. He had no idea what had gotten Tim so riled up, but he would deal with him later. “Are you okay?”
Beth was still holding back tears, but managed to say, “Can’t I just go home?” Beth didn’t realize it at the time, but her phone had flown out of her hand when they skidded to a stop. It went right under the driver seat, not to be seen for some time.
Noah bent to help her back into the seat, gingerly propping her leg up as Beth breathed through her gritted teeth. “That guy is crazy,” she whispered.
“Hey man, let’s just take her back. Then Alec and Beth can decide if she should go to a hospital.” Noah called up front to Tim. A very reasonable request, but Tim was not a reasonable man.
Tim rolled his eyes and said, “Fine.” He stared at Noah who gave him a look like, “what?” Tim continued staring as Noah closed the back door. Noah put one foot up to get back into the truck when he was knocked off his feet by the car door hitting him on his right arm. Tim had hit the accelerator and started laughing wildly.
Noah lay on the side of the road wondering what the fuck was happening. It could be a joke–this wouldn’t be the first dangerous joke Tim pulled.
He thought back to high school when his idiot cousin, Ben, was making fun of the González kid. Called him some mean names (Gonzo beans?) and then the kid had really laid into Ben. Noah remembered seeing the fury in Tim’s eyes and how he had yelled all the mean things you could think of and lunged after the kid.
Noah had to pull him back and got a nice elbow to the face. Thankfully teachers had come to the rescue and pulled all the boys apart. He wasn’t sure what else Tim would have done. Later that day, Noah had heard all about how “those Mexican kids” have no right to even be in this country.
I think when I began writing this, Beth was more nervous. In this writing, she doesn’t seem nervous, just ticked off. I wonder if this makes sense that she became this way due to Tim’s behavior, or if I need to go back to edit. (I mean of course I need to edit, but edit her attitude a little so this part makes sense.)
Another thing I realized reading Misery was that it is a very vulnerable thing to share writing with others before you edit. So either I am brave or dumb. I’ve let the whole world see my drafts. Even people I know who probably don’t want to know that I know words like, “fuck.” Oops.
Maybe Stephen King is influenced me a little too much. Or maybe I’m just an adult who uses adult words? I wonder what the parents at my school would think…
