So, this is not only my first attempt at a LWD story, but also my first attempt at a multi-chapter story. I hope it works out. My first chapter turned out radically different than i anticipated, and I hope I didn't screw myself up. We'll see.
Please review and let me know what you think!
"Derek, if you do not come down here right now, we are going to be late!" Casey McDonald shouted up the stairs to her stepbrother. "I know you don't really care about missing class, but some of us would actually like to graduate on time."
"Yeah, alright, I hear you" Derek shouted back, glaring at her as he thundered down the stairs. He grabbed his leather jacket from the back ofthe chair and walked right past her, slamming the front door in her face.
Casey growled and opened the door, stalked through it, and slammed it even louder behind her. "Thanks for holding the door for me Derek. Such manners!"
"Hey, you're lucky I even agreed to cart your sorry ass to school. I think you can handle the door yourself." Derek answered, throwing on his jacket, unlocking the doors, and climbing in. Casey managed to jump in as he started to pull away.
They stewed in their angry silence, a morning ritual, as they drove towards the school. But as always, the silence didn't last for long.
"Derek, you're driving like a maniac! Are you trying to get us killed!"
"Hey, do you want to get to school on time or not? I wouldn't want you to miss a single precious second of biology or geography or whatever the hell it is you're so excited to learn today."
She answered in protest, and continued to yell and lecture at him for the next 5 minutes. He didn't hear a word of it, though. He had learned long ago it was best to just tune her out. So he drove as she lectured. She was getting herself so worked up he didn't think she even knew he was there anymore.
He saw the car before she did, but there wasn't enough time.
"Hold on, Casey"
She turned at his sudden interruption, and followed his eyes through the windshield to the red pick-up truck barreling towards them at full speed. Her breath caught in her throat, and all she could think was, "I've never been in a car accident before." It seemed like hours before the truck actually made impact, but it must have only been seconds, because Derek didn't have any time to avoid it. The truck smashed into the front bumper on her side, throwing the car backwards across the other lane of traffic.
Derek felt like he was watching a movie, as the truck crept up on them, crushing the hood of the Blazer, slamming the steering column into his chest. He felt the shards of glass from the windshield rain on top of them, before the airbag exploded in his face. He watched as the car lurched backwards, sending them into oncoming traffic, and watched as the morning's garbage truck barreled towards his window, wondering if that would be the grand finale.
But the car continued to roll backwards, until the weight shifted and it suddenly tipped backwards, landing them nose up in a ditch off the side of the road.
And then everything was quiet. It was shocking how quiet it was. He hadn't realized how loud Casey's ranting was, how loud the impact had been, and the crushing metal and the shatterering glass and the squealing tires and the blaring horns. How loud his own blood had been pounding in his hears, until it all stopped.
"Casey." He broke the silence. "Casey, are you okay? Casey, talk to me." He pushed the deflating airbag out of the way to get to her. He saw the blood first, trickling out of her ear. He gently turned her face towards his. He saw her eyes staring, unfocused, and his heart stopped. "Casey!" he said again, his voice breaking.
She blinked once and he could have cried. "Casey are you okay?" She focused her eyes on his, and slowly nodded.
He started talking, then, and couldn't stop. "It's alright Casey, you'll be fine, we'll be fine. I'll take care of it, we'll be fine." He tried opening his door, but it was impossible, as gravity was working against him, and he couldn't manoeuver around the steering column. He slid from under it the other way, towards Casey. She had leaned over onto the passenger side window, still staring straight ahead. Derek saw the cracks spiderwebbing across the glass, and pulled her towards him. "Casey, come on, talk to me. Are you okay?" She nodded again. "Casey, please talk to me, please. Why won't you talk to me?" Derek asked, getting slightly hysterical.
She focused on him again, and after a moment, said softly, "I'm okay."
He let out a bit of a hysterical laugh and kissed her on the forehead. "Okay that's all I needed to hear. I'm getting us out of here. You don't wanna be late for school, right?" he let out another awkward burst of nervous laughter.
He brought his feet up onto the seat with him, scattering broken glassin the process. Slowly and tentatively, he stood up on the seat, through the gap where the windshield should have been. He looked around to survey their surroundings, and how they were going to get out of there. He looked up to the road at the sound of a voice.
"Are you kids alright?" asked a frazzled looking man peering into the ditch at them, running his hand through his thinning hair. He went on, not even giving Derek time to answer, "I must've fallen asleep. I work nights, and I must've driven this route a million times. I could do it with my eyes closed! I mean- no, I mean, obviously I can't, that's not what I meant. I work nights, though, and I was just on my way home, and I must've fallen asleep for a second! Are- are you kids alright?"
"We're fine." Derek answered. "We're okay."
"Good, good, great! That's great. I- I already called 911, they should be arriving any second now. Your car's pretty banged up, are you sure you're alright?"
Derek ignored the man's rambling as he crouched back down inside the car to talk to Casey. "Alright, I'm gonna get you out of here. We've got a bit of a climb ahead of us, but it shouldn't be that bad. Can you stand up?" She answered him with the same hollow eyes. "Alright, don't worry, I've got you, it'll be fine." He balanced himself on the center console and his seat, gently put his arm around her to pull her out. Her airbag hadn't deflated as much as his, so he was having trouble seeing exactly what the damage was to her side of the car. He slowly maneuvered her inch by inch, watching her face for any sign that he was hurting her. He felt some resistance, just has her face crumbled and she let out a whimper.
Derek panicked "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Are you alright? I'm sorry, don't worry, I'm sorry." He set her back down gently, before attacking the air bag to get it out of his way, so he could see the damage. He managed to crawl underneath it, and saw what he was up against. The whole front panel had been crushed into Casey's legs. They were cut pretty badly, and bleeding, but she seemed to be in one piece. Nothing looked broken. But her left foot was pretty badly wedged under the console. He grabbed her shoe, and slowly maneuvered it out.
He climbed back up onto his seat, and looked at her again. She was watching him now. "Alright, I think I got you un-stuck. Are you ready to try it again?" She nodded.
He snaked his arm around her back again, and pulled, even slower this time. He met no resistance this time, but seeing her legs torn and bloody made his stomach drop.
"Oh god, Casey." He said, without even thinking. He was afraid to put her down, he didn't want her standing on her own. So he took her in his arms and lifted her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and put her chin on his shoulder. It wasn't until now that he realized she was shaking, and that scared him more than anything.
He stood up slowly, balancing on his seat. He took a tentative step onto the hood of the car; now they were both out of the car. He took another, and another, over the crumpled hood, and out of the ravine. It wasn't until he climbed out that he noticed the crowd of people that were gathered there, watching them. Someone tried to take Casey from him, so he could climb out easily, but he refused. He carried her out, and laid her down on the shoulder of the road. He saw the flashing lights of a police car pulling up, and he heard the ambulance sirens getting closer and closer. They would be okay.
The cops ran over, distracting him for the first time from Casey. They asked questions, wanted to know everything that had happened. The man from the truck kept butting in and answering for him, which was just as well, because Derek was too dazed to think about what had happened. He vaguely listened to what the officer and the driver were saying, nodding occasionally as he watched the other officer, bent over Casey, talking softly to her. He watched her nod in response to whatever he was asking.
Then the ambulance was there, and they whisked him away from the police. He sat in the back of an ambulance as the paramedic poked and prodded and asked him questions. He saw them put Casey on a stretcher, and lead her to another ambulance. "Is she gonna be alright?" he asked the paramedic attending to him.
"I'm sure she'll be fine." He said, not looking up from what he was doing.
"Why isn't she talking?" Derek was rambling, somewhat hysterically, "I mean, normally she won't shut up and now she won't say anything!"
He stood up and started to walk over to her, but the paramedic stopped him. "We're taking you in this bus, you can see your sister at the hospital."
Derek shook his head "No, let me go with Casey. I'm fine, let me go with Casey." But the paramedic was stronger than him, and grabbed him by the shoulders, leading him away from Casey. Derek saw them slam the doors on Casey's ambulance and it started to pull away.
"Let me go with Casey! Get the fuck off me, man!" He yelled, tearing at the paramedic's tight grip. "LET ME GO WITH CASEY!" There was a shooting pain in his left side, and everything went black.