The red light from the dashboard was the only light in the car.  Nearly every warning light was illuminated.  The engine would not turn over.  It just made a grinding sound everytime I turned the key.

“What do we do now?” asked Brooke in a timid voice.
“I’m not sure.  They don’t cover being stranded in the middle of nowhere in drivers ed class.  Let me you borrow your phone.  Mines dead.

She looked at me with her big brown eyes.  “What do you mean?  You know my phone fell in the pool last night…”

We just sat there looking at eachother for a while.  We were not equipped to deal with these complexities of life without a phone.  Who was going to bail us out now?

“Ok so without a phone, we need to either sit here all night and hope that someone finds us.  And then we have to hope that the person who finds us isn’t a one-armed killer with a hockey mask.  Or, we could start walking to the diner that we passed five minutes ago.

Brooke quickly agreed that walking to the diner would be her preferred option.  We each got out off the car and met at the front of my car.  We crossed the road and started walking back towards the diner.  It was eerily dark on the road.  The moon was shining but it did not light up our path.  We followed the white line along the side of the road and hoped that we wouldn’t have to walk more than two miles. 

“How the h*** are we suppose to get to our state swim meet now?  It’s already 3:00 and we are suppose to be there by 4:00 at the latest.”

Brooke never answered.

I think we both heard the engine at the same time.  It was clearly a car climbing up the hill and the sound was getting louder.  Sure enough, the lights were starting to shine on the road near us. 

Before I knew it, Brooke dropped my hand and ran toward the center of the road.
She raised her hand as if to flag the driver down.  The driver did not see her until he was very close and stepped on the brakes while swerving slightly over to the other side of the road.  The black sedan pulled over just ahead of us.  Brooke and I looked at each other.

“Sure, should we just jump into the trunk now to save him some time?” I whispered.

We looked at the car but it was difficult to see how many people were in it.  The red brake lights made it difficult to see.  However, I could hear the radio and the engine was still running.

“Come on, but if something seems wrong, yell and we will run into the woods.”

We did not have to go closer to the car.  The driver’s door opened and someone’s foot hit the pavement. Brooke grabbed my hand in anticipation of our impending death.

“Well, are you going to stand there all night? Or, are you going to tell me what your situation is? I assume that there is a problem girls and that you aren’t just out for a leisurely stroll!”

The man that stood before us was a bit overdressed for the weather.  He wore jeans, a leather coat and boots.  He had a cheesy mustache like a guy in that movie Anchorman.  Brooke and I just stood there totally frozen as if in a trance.  He started to walk closer toward us.  He looked just like the type of guy to kidnap two teenage girls.   The only thing he was missing was the white van.

“Listen, the name is Pete.  I don’t have all night. You signaled that you wanted help.  I assume that is your car that broken down on the side of the road back there.  I’m not a mechanic or anything.  But if you want, I can take you somewhere so you can get some help.  But, you have to say something.”

“Uh..Yes, that is our car.  Umm, we might need help.  But then again, I am sure that our parents, or the police, are probably coming to get us real soon.  So, we don’t want to be too much trouble.” My voice cracked as I made up this sorry reply in order to scare him away if he was a killer.

“Ok girls, If you want a ride, please tell me now.  I need to be going.”  He motioned to the car with his left hand and asked, “So is it in? or out?”

“Well mister, umm Pete, if it isn’t too much trouble, there is a diner down the road where we are meeting our boyfriends.  Do you think that you can drop us off there?” asked Brooke in a less than commanding voice.

“Sure get in, but you need to sit in the back seat.   And Pete opened up one of the back seat doors.

As we approached the car, Brooke waited for me to enter the back seat first.  When I resisted, she kind of pushed me in.  There was a bunch of cardboard and old gatorade bottles thrown on the floor. I slid along the back seat while kicking the garbage to the side. Just as Brooke was getting in, someone looked around the passenger seat at us.  We both let out a scream at the top of our lungs.

“Now, now! Please don’t be so loud young ladies!” said the woman’s voice.
It was difficult to see her face.  But her hair was teased up pretty high and her hand that she raised looked frail.  She sat low in the seat.  And I knew instantly that we could take her in a fight.

“I’m Peter’s mom, Margaret.  I need to get home to take my medicine so I really hope that this is not going to take too long!”  And with that she turned back around and looked at Pete who was now sitting in the driver’s seat. “Let’s go already. 

“Yes mother,” mumbled Pete.

And just like that Brooke and I started to breathe again.  If these two were killers, I knew that we could probably get away from them before any real damage was done.  Worse case situation, at least one of us would survive.

He turned the car around in the direction to the diner.  Nobody said anything the whole car ride.  It was probably for the best.   Luckily, the diner was just a few minutes down the road as it turns out.  We could have walked easily.  Pete pulled into the parking lot and his mom turned around and announced, “Next time, be more careful!”  Before the car could come to a complete stop, we jumped out of the back seat. I  yelled, “Thank you so much!”

We never turned around to look at them again.  Brooke and I  ran up the stairs to the entrance of the busy dinner.  Now, we just needed to borrow someone’s phone.