I ended up driving the Camaro off the Causeway Bridge | Teen Ink

I ended up driving the Camaro off the Causeway Bridge

December 14, 2017
By Anonymous

Author's note:

The peice is just ideas I had and decided to write down to make it. The story is not done, I was not able to finish it

Starting out coming into a new school at a young age, going into a borderline opportunity school, which a opportunity school is just half jail half school. Cops patrolling the school every few days making it hard to do anything with friends without being harassed. And with the kids crowding the school making any information given spread like a plague across all the classes, both literally and figuratively. The social class at South Central is hellish, painfully real yet just imaginary to the teachers. Everything told, expressed, or said from the “well-off” kids were followed by many and repulsed by few. Mostly followed from sheer fear from prior kids who revolted and were “dealt” with. The social class was a ongoing war between the few numbered well off kids, the ones who were rich using money as their only source of defense; Versus the excruciating large amount of the “bottom tier” kids, the kids who were poor, charismatic, and yet tightly bonded with each other.
Looking back at it, I was in neither party yet sided with the bottom tier. As their ideals, the way they sought to finish what others started,  the way they came so close to ending the ongoing 3 year what seemed to be war. Is what I like about them, they had found a purpose in their life, and they held those points high with each other. While on the opposite hand the well-off kids just were using money between themselves using it to get stuff done. Making no progression within their moral making tensions high between them all.
That split between the class was what made me what I am and expelled me to where I am right now. With most of the kids I hung out with were odd kids. Wanted money, but didn't want to work most of them stayed in two homes, two broke homes that had no escape. So they were barely there home when they were outside of school cause more conflict between them. But one kid stood out from the rest, he just appeared out what seemed to be no where. His name was Ruby, that wasn't even his real name just the alias he went by. Ruby was tall and skinny build, he looked like his bones could barely handle his clothes he had. He had long wavy hair down to his chest, he had major scarring and lacerations around his face and arms. Ruby hid those scars with nearly all black clothes in a XXL size with a huge hoodie over it all, making it practically impossible to see them. Now you might be asking, “how is ruby different?” Well, that's the thing when he said he wanted something, he got it. He was skilled in most things others in South Central were not, technology. Ruby was able to make money digitally, mostly from Bitcoin and hacking. The few things he first said to me were about Bitcoin, hacking and his home life.
The detail ruby went into his home life made myself connect somehow, even though I never went through any of that. As Ruby and I proceeded to find a non occupied table of people. We started talking about his father when we sat down. “I never knew my father” he started, “he was in and out of my life, never in for to long at most, it was a month.” When he showed he was so open about his father, something clicked inside of me. I knew this kid was going to be a viable option for things to come. He didn't hesitate to continue, “The few things he did when he wasn't drunk was actually being a semi decent father, helping me out with small things, taking me to school, or just talking.” Ruby was disconnected from reality, he spewing out personal information out in the middle of South Central. He didn't hold back dumping the information out, laying it on the table for all to see. One of the well-off kids overheard Ruby saying his personal life. Anthony Davis stood and walked over and started laying into Ruby. “What do you mean you're dad isn't there? Sounds like you're just one of the normal kids here.” Anthony started to take the issues Ruby laid on the table and flip them over. Ruby sat there at the table making it look like he's just accepting the unruly punishment that is being dealt. But inside that kid was a fire that has been tamed for the mean time, As soon as Anthony proceeded with the insults, that fire got more fuel, causing Ruby to snap.
Ruby stood up slowly, nearly systematically almost robotic and swung one fist in the air. Knocking Anthony out cold, the face Ruby presented when he calmly sat back down and proceeded to talk. He had the face of someone who does not care about anything. The one that had seen some struggles and problems and he made that known. Ruby casually sat back down in front of me as the whole cafeteria quickly became quiet. Like nothing happened, as if he did not just slug kid, “so where were we?” he proceeded. “Talking about your father, how he's barely ever there.” I answered the question as to cover up the fact that I did not want to end up the same way as Anthony. Looking over Ruby's shoulder I saw a group of people dragging Anthony's unconscious body being dragged away into the opening. And that crowd surrounding the kid soon being dispersed by about three or four teachers and one officer that were there. “Yeah, so with my father's absence I developed a very sharp anger issue, as you just saw, most of the times I can hold it in and not let it out.” Ruby again started to lay all this information on the table. Right when Ruby finished up with his sentence, the group of kids who dragged Anthony away pointed at him. One of the teachers and officers came over and picked up Ruby to go get questioned. I was picked up by them as well as they stated that I was an accomplice to Ruby and did not do anything to diffuse the situation.

“What caused this dispute?’ asked Mr. McCarran as he shut the door behind him. “I got angry at Anthony.” Ruby did not skip a beat talking to Mr. McCarren. “Anthony started talking back to me, about my father and something came over me. Not sure what happened but I don’t remember the situation that much.” Mr.McCarren interjected, “How do you not remember the situation, you nailed this kid in the face and knocked him out cold, how do you not remember?” McCarren looked both confused and mad at Ruby, I was as well he seemed liked he remembered the event. McCarren looked at me and started “Why are you here? Aren’t you a good kid?” “I am, I just got dragged in by the officer. But I did see the fight, Ruby did hit ‘em but Anthony was provoking Ruby.” McCarrens blank face perked with emotion when I mentioned I saw the fight. “Why didn’t you stop the fight, you could have prevented this.” Angered McCarren asked. “I acted on impulse,” Ruby jumped in to defend me, “I couldn’t have controlled my temper. It was really hard not to do that earlier. I was already on edge when Anthony started in on me so what else would you expect to happen.” Ruby finished his statement as to deflect the situation to him, not me. Which was weird, no one has done that in this school, especially for how short I knew him. We barely knew each other and yet he took the blame having the  percent on him.
The whole thing clicked with me that this kid was going to be a necessity later on. I was not sure why, but I had this feeling that he would be good for something. As we left the office and were aiming for the front door, Anthony is waiting by the nurse's office to get picked up by his parents. He regained consciences yet had slurred speech making it known he was given a concussion. “What did y’all get in trouble for?” asked Anthony making it known he does not remember the ordeal. “I knocked you out, you got laid out on the ground by me!” Ruby reminded Anthony, “well apparently, I got a concussion from that cause I woke up in the nurse's.” I personally was happy that Ruby did knock out Anthony, but then repulsed as I came to realize that he had some head trauma from it. But Anthony did get what I was wanting to do for a long time but never had the thought become into fruition.
As we were nearly to the door, a Subaru wrx drove through the lot of South Central and parked in the front. “That’s my friend, in the wrx.” Ruby said right before darting for the car, I followed suit. Getting in the backseat I noticed that the guy driving was about the same age as Ruby. “Hey, I’m Scott, I’ma pretty good friend of Ruby.” The driver said right when I shut the door, “Hey,” I nervously said back as I was not expecting Scott to be so upfront and nice. “So Ruby what happen exactly? You just told me to come get you.” Scott asked, “I was talking to my friend here about my home life as he asked about it. And this Anthony Davis kid came over and started crackin’ jokes about it. I was already somewhat on edge as it’s my first day at this place. I apparently nailed the kid giving him a concussion.” As Anthony is being escorted out by his mom, “and the thing is, is I don’t remember anything, just talking to him and then being escorted to the office.” Ruby staring out at the doors of the school. ‘So you don’t remember nothing during it?” Scott asked “Yep, nothin’ ” Ruby Replied, after a few seconds of silence I decided to break ask  “Ey, you mind if I could get a ride home Scott?” I nervously asked expecting nothing, “Sure” Scott answered
When closing into my neighborhood, I decided to get out and walk the rest of the way as not to get questioned by my parents. “Thanks for the ride man, but I’ma get out now and walk the rest of the way.” When I got home I expected to have nearly everything taken away with not much in my room. But that was not the case as I was greeted as I normally would be. With the typical “how was school,” from mom and dad, I believe the school did not called home. Normally they do that, but something must have happened or I got off free with no repercussions besides getting out of school early.

As Friday night crept around the corner with no sight of Ruby, he mysteriously had  shown up at my house. “how'd you find my house?” I asked, “I wouldn't question if I were you but I'll tell you later, sometime, maybe. So you wanna hangout? Scott and I were gonna go to my place and work on some Computers.”  Ruby replied being upfront about his plans. “Sure,” getting into Scott's car Ruby began to talk “So I'm setting up a few miners at my house to try to get some money flowing in.” Ruby said looking back at me “miners?” I asked curiously as we pulled into the deserted neighborhood right next to mine, “yeah, Bitcoin miners, I really don't wanna work here so I decided to start mining Bitcoin awhile ago. So far it's worked out for the best.” Ruby replied as we got to the only house with lights on at 7pm “So this is where I live, isn't much but it'll do, it's a  bit beat up but it's a roof over my head for now.” Ruby continued, “Scott open the trunk up, hey man grab a box of parts.” walking to the trunk of Scott's wrx I noticed the trunk space was filled with computer part. Everything you need to build a server, hard drives, cpus and cpu cooler, motherboards, and gpus, the server grade gear cost thousands of dollars for individual parts. And there was a trunk full in front me, the computing power of it has to be immense. “How much did this cost?” I asked, “enough” Ruby replied quickly as he came back out for another part. “Where’d you get the money for this?” I said as I’m carrying a box in, “I told you before, I mine Bitcoin, the price is nearing 10,000. And I have some people that trade it for services.” Ruby replied
After everyone left Ruby was left alone at his place, servers fans whining in the background.  The room dimly lit by the glow of the screen and the flashing of the hard drive indicator lights on the servers. The clock read “11:00pm” Ruby finalizing the program he has had in the work for the past 3 months. The program is radically different to what he has created before, not something little. If it got out of hand it would wreck havoc on anything connected to the internet. The program named “Causeway” using the nearby bridge name in South Central as a placeholder when he started write. Yet the name stuck with the program. When Ruby went to sleep the clock finally read “1:00am.”

Waking up to the sound of banging of my front door, I answered Ruby was there with a dark blue 2018 Chevy Camaro parked in my driveway. “Looked what I just got.” Ruby said as I barely cracked the door, “What’d you get Ruby?” I said quietly as I stepped outside. “The Camaro, I bought it less than an hour ago, walked in with the cash in hand and walked out with it.” Ruby replied eagerly. “Again, where are you getting this money from.” I replied scratching my head as to what is in front of me. Ruby did mention yesterday that the price of Bitcoin is nearly over 10,000 dollars apparently. “Wanna ride?” Ruby said, “I mean sure, but you said you did just get this less than an hour ago.” I replied in shock as he handed me the keyfob. “I've owned it for just about an hour now, like a minute ago, come on get in.”
“It’s like driving a spaceship, this car is makin’ me feel alienated, it’s huge. Is it a stick Shift?” I asked as I try to figure out to put the key, “For one thing, it’s a push start, press the break than the button, and no it is not a stick shift. It’s an automatic if you wanna use the paddle shifters you can, but they’re weird.” Ruby replied as the dash came to life, the engine roaring to a start. “Hold up, real stupid question, and a bit late, but can you drive a car?” Ruby asked as I put the car in reverse, and started out the driveway. “Yeah I can drive a car, I just need to get used to it real quick.” I replied as we headed for the main road. “So where we going now?” I asked turning onto the main road. “Go for the Causeway, it’ll be fun on there.” Ruby replied, “Don’t you need to pay for toll to get on the Causeway?” I asked in response as it has been nearly 8 years since I have gone on the Causeway. “Don’t worry about it, everything is connected in this town, traffic lights, toll booths, stores. So I wouldn’t worry about it that much.” Ruby replied. When we arrived at the toll booths of the Causeway Bridge one toll booth was close, “Go to that one with the red light, it’s gonna change in a bit.’ Ruby said as the light of the booth turned from red to green. “Haul it, step on the gas and plow through it” Ruby started “You sure about it aren’t there cops on the bridge that make you go the limit?” I asked. “Alright i’ll tell you when to go then.” Pulling through the booth and getting on the other side Ruby shouted “GO NOW!” The near dead stop turned to being at about 100mph in an instance. “The speed limit is 65, right?” I asked as the Camaro started to decelerate, “Well it can honestly be anything you want it to be, ya just don’t stop for anyone.” Ruby replied. The Camaro scaled the 28 mile concrete line in a breeze. No slip ups or jerks, it went flawlessly the surrounding cars were not a deterrent to the fun. “Go to mcdonalds,” Ruby said as the sign said ‘restaurant’ is on the next right. “Scott’s gonna meet us there, but he doesn’t really know about the car, he just knows you and I are gonna be there, It’s gonna be a real surprise to ‘em.”

Driving off the Causeway and pulling into the mcdonalds parking lot next to Scott’s wrx, “Hey you, in the Subaru,” Ruby yelled as his upper body is out the window, “See this ride?” Ruby concluded as he opened the door and started walking towards Scott. “You just got this Ruby?” Scott asked in shock looking at the car. “Yeah, I just did, 2018 Chevy Camaro got it about an hour-half, two hours ago maybe so yeah.” Ruby replied.. “And I let the kid drive it, didn’t have it even an hour and I tossed him the keys to it.” Ruby continued, “How was it? You like it?” Ruby concluded. “Yeah it was really fun, honestly, it was great.” I replied, “Could I drive it?” Scott asked impatiently, “Sure, toss him the key.” Ruby replied, “Really?” Scott asked in denial catching the keys, “Yeah go ahead” Ruby replied. As we piled in the Camaro Scott started the engine with the distinctive idle growl. “It it a stick shift?” Scott asked to make sure, “Naw, it’s an automatic, but it does have paddle shifters if you wanna use ‘em, but they’re pretty janky to use.” Ruby replied. “How fast have ya gon’ in this?” Scott asked, “What? Over one hundred  maybe, maybe a bit over that, but it was pretty fast.” Ruby replied, “On the Causeway?” Scott confused on how we were able to go that fast. “Ya, then we started to slow down since we started to come off the bridge.” Ruby said.
When we pulled into an empty part of a walmart parking lot that was pretty open, no lamp post or anything in the way from doing stupid things in the the lot. “You’ve tried to drift in this?” Scott asked when he stopped the car. “No, haven’t really had time to try” Ruby replied giving the look of  ‘go ahead try’ to Scott. “Can I try? You know I can do it in my wrx, but I haven’t tried in an automatic.” Scott asked, “Yeah, try it, go for it.” Ruby said in return. Scott put the car and drive and started to get used to the handling of the Camaro. Scott tried plenty of times, trying to throw the back end of the Camaro out, yet nothing happened. “It might be to new, it probably has things implemented into the computer to stop it from losing control. Even though it’s a ‘controlled’ loss of control.” I said from the cramped back seat. “Yeah you’re probably right man, let’s go get your wrx and go back to my place, i’ll see what I can do.” Ruby said as Scott raced towards the entrance of the the walmart parking lot.

When we got back onto the Causeway, Scott stopped Ruby “Wanna race to the other side?” Scott shouted over at us. “Yeah let me close the toll booths real quick so we have nearly the whole bridge to ourselves.” Ruby started to close the toll booths on the Causeway stopping the flow of people on it. When we approached the booths there were lines of people backing up the booths so Scott and Ruby picked a single booth and Ruby opened the booth. When people pulled through the booth they became aware that the toll was nothing, it was free because of Ruby, making traffic flow faster. When our cars pulled through Ruby closed the gate behind us and moved over to the right side is a mock drag race. “How you wanna start it?” Ruby asked, “Hit your horn three times and we’ll go on the third one, ‘ight.” Scott said “that’s how they normally started it.” Scott concluded. The tensions ran high during it, the quick event could go bad as the two lane concrete string could kill. The slightest turn at high speeds could be catastrophic from the nature of the old bridge not being meant for these idiotic adventures of three seventeen year olds. Ruby started to honk 1, 2, 3, the modified ‘06 subaru wrx took of as Scott has done this before in recent months. But soon Ruby in the Camaro started to take the lead, not much being said during the quick ride as we all scaled the twenty-eight mile bridge rather quickly.
“Those cops there?” Ruby asked slamming on the brakes, ”Yeah those be two cops” I answered. The two South Central police flashed their lights on and we instantly knew it was us. They were gonna go after us, “Just pull over Ruby, it isn’t worth it man.” I said. The cops approached Scott’s wrx and asked for him to get out, and then proceeded to do the same to us. “So what y’all doin’, y’all racing?” the first officer asked, “Yeah, I just got the Camaro less than a day ago and wanted to test it out.” Ruby said with a blank face staring off into the distance. “So you just got this Camaro? Like in the past week or what?” the second officer asked. “I got it today, at best 3 hours ago, and met up with my friend and I asked him if he wanted to go and race each other to see how it feels to drive the thing.” Ruby continued, “y’all have ID?” the first officer asked Scott proceeded to stay silent with the most timid face, looking like he nearly wants to vomit. “I don’t have any on me, I left it at home” Ruby replied, “What about you?” The officers both looked at me. “I don’t have any.” I answered, “You guys know it is illegal in South Central to not have your ID in your possession when you’re driving” The first officer said. “I didn’t know that.” Ruby replied. “What’s your name?” the second officer said looking at Ruby “Ruby Oddy” Ruby answered as if this weren’t his first time being pulled over. “That’s a real odd name kid, ya parents name ya like that?” the second officer said, “Yeah, actually, my absentee father and my hospitalised mother named be ‘Ruby Oddy’ just to let you know.” Ruby snapping back at the officer still holding the blank face. The officer looked at Ruby with disgust as cars drove by the flashing lights of the South Central police car. “Don’t get an attitude with me alright.” the officer walked in front of Ruby, “Yeah, alright.” Ruby’s face showing no emotion or remorse for what he said. Scott stood there looking at Ruby and the two officers timid as ever. The officers walked back to their cruisers and got inside to conjugate about the situation at hand. “Why’d you say that? You probably screwed all of us, were either going to be in jail within the hour, or be ticketed with all they can do.” Scott said angered at Ruby. “Well, I mean if they wanted to arrest us and put us in jail, we’d be in the back of those cars there before us. So I think we’re good on that end, but you might be right on the ‘ticketed to what they can’ part as we were going over way over the twenty miles per hour felony charge. But again we would be in the back of those car in cuffs, so they’ll probably let us go with a minor charge.” Ruby said calmly staring off into the distance. “We should be god, if not i’ll do something about it, don’t worry about it.” Ruby concluded as the officers opened their doors and walked towards us. “For you Scott, you’ll get five over even though y’all were was over that twenty mile limit.” the officer said handing Scott the ticket and his ID, “And for you, Ruby, you’ll get ten over.” The officer concluded handing Ruby his papers and concluding the conversation. The officers walked back to their cruisers, got in, started the engine and drove off. “Told you we wouldn’t get it that bad, basically just a warning that costs like 60 dollar at best.” Ruby said as we started to walk back to the Camaro. “Yeah, but you weren’t scared, you guys acted normal, than you talked back to the cop. I was in the back scared that I would lose everything, or go to jail.” Scott said as Ruby got in the car. “Hurry up and get to my place, and they’re probably watching for us now so be careful.” Ruby said starting the engine breaking the peacefulness of the long stretch on the Causeway. Ruby proceeded to throw the engine into drive and head to his house from the middle of the Causeway.

When we approached the beaten up neighborhood the sun was set, the Camaro turned from the distinctive dark blue to a glossy black in the moonlight. The houses illuminated as the led bulbs on the front with the dim glow of Scott’s car in the rear. Pulling into the driveway of Ruby’s house the headlights turned off and the moonlight took over. The dim lighting of the moon cause us to be dazed as everything procedurally became lighter in color. Stumbling to the door of the house and turning the lights, “You haven’t changed the place that much since we built the servers.”I said, “Yeah, haven’t had time since I got the car, i’ve been out since this mornin’ man.” Ruby replied, “Any the only thing we could is set them up in rows but that would cause some downtime in the operation.” Ruby concluded as he looks at the mound of computers. “What you been doin’ with the servers?” I asked, “Not much, only using them to really mine cryptocurrencies, but they’re not working quite right so i’m not makin’ as much as I was in recent months, but hey it’s a high risk high reward job and it’s a great one.” Ruby said as he checked the wall of monitors. “Yeah I still got money, a good amount as well.” Ruby said pointing to a singular monitor with a QR code on the screen with extremely small text on the side text on the sides of it. “Wanna lay low for while here? I mean it is like 7 so the cops should still be out until a really grueling hour tonight of what we did.” Ruby said, “Yeah that’s probably the best idea for you two since I live real close and can walk. Cause the cops that stopped us seemed a bit mad, so they probably radioed  that ‘3 people two in a dark blue Camaro and one in a lime green subaru wrx are out racing’ so it be best to stay low for the next few days.” I said looking at Scott and Ruby. “But i’m gonna start to head home since I gotta be home real soon.” I said walking towards the door. “Yeah there’s a shortcut go through the side of one of those houses, you should see you neighborhood relatively easily” Ruby said poking his head out the door yelling out into the empty houses.
“So when you think you’ll bounce out of here? Cause I could be able to give you free reign of the road from here to your house.” Ruby said as he sat in the only chair in the whole room. “And the cops shouldn’t be giving trouble if you want me to do stuff. Cause I can make it so they won’t be in your way if you want me to.”Ruby continued as he pulled up a map of the city. “Sure if you want to, I don’t care, it might be fun either way, but if I get pulled over again i’m basically screw with that car.” Scott said bent over Ruby shoulder looking at the route that needs to be taken. “That’s the way it I need to take to have a clean shot through?” Scott asked, “Yeah take this transponder and put it somewhere where in the chance you do get pulled over they wouldn’t look. So probably somewhere in the front end, maybe under the hood, or under your car if you can do that.” Ruby said as he handed Scott a black box with six antennas on the box, “ I probably just put it under the hood to make it easier” Scott said. “Sounds good, now hurry up cause the thing has a bad battery life so try to make it semi quick.” Ruby said as Scott was walking towards the door.
Second night of Ruby being secluded, alone, in the darkness surrounded by flashing lights and the dim glow of the pc again. Project Causeway is nearly done, the code is coming together well. The three month project is a few lines away from completion. Ruby not knowing what would happen if it got out there. The clock read ‘9:00pm’ and the code is done as a joke for what happened earlier Ruby emails the Police Department of South Central with the code. Chaos will be set loose when the recipient opens the email with the seemingly ordinary email. So Ruby waits to see what happens in the morning and decided to go to sleep. The clock read ‘9:53pm’ when Ruby looked at the clock.
Waking up to banging again, I ran down stairs to see Ruby again with the Camaro out in my drive again. “Hey, what’s up?” I asked, “Wanna hang out?” Ruby said as Scott pulled into my driveway when Ruby was talking. “And do what?” I asked, “Dunno know, probably gonna show you something’s I do in my spare time.” Ruby replied. “What about Scott? What he gon do?” I asked. “He gonna help cause normally someone new to what I do can’t do it alone normally they’re in a group of two or more to make it way more funner and easier of a job” Ruby said



Similar books


JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This book has 0 comments.