-An Unforgivable Accident-

"It's Parkour."

"Urban exploration."

"Parkour."

"Urban exploration."

"Parkou- you know what? forget it. You call it what you want, but it's parkour. Man, you and your need to make everything you do just a smidgen cooler."

"Ha, says the man who just used the word, 'smidgen.'"

"Hey, my grandfather used that word all the time. So what if it wore off on me a little, I've got his name in mine after all."

"Just how much longer till we get to New Marais, Zeke? No offense, but riding in an old car that hasn't been properly cleaned in three years on our way to a flooded city wasn't what I had in mind for spring break."

"Hey this car is jointly owned by you and me, meaning, the responsibility of cleaning it is just as much on your shoulders as it is on mine. Besides, I thought you were the guy who wanted to get into all this 'urban exploration' jazz."

"It's fun," I replied tersely.

"Well in that case, trust me. I've got friends all over that city tellin' me that the cops are too... busy... to try and attempt a foot pursuit of a fast moving individual such as yourself. Think about it, all the climbing, running and jumping around you can manage without the police on your back. No more running around in the sewers like some kind of rat." I sighed loudly. Sometimes, Zeke could ramble and while it wasn't necessarily annoying, it wasn't always something that needed to be said either.

"Just how much longer."

"Maybe another hour. But that's if there aren't any more of those stupid checkpoints. Why don't you just lay back and go to sleep again. It was a much more pleasant drive when you were doing that."

"Fine, just wake me up when we get there. I don't want to be in this car any longer than I have to."

"Just go to sleep you old woman," Zeke teased as I reluctantly turned my head towards the passenger side window in a vain attempt to try and get some more rest. Despite the little squabble I had with Zeke, I actually liked being awake and talking to him more than I liked drooling on the already ruined upholstery of the seat I was in. We had been on the road for seven hours straight today, stopping only for gas and the occasional pull off to relieve ourselves. With me still being in college and Zeke bouncing around jobs, neither of us had the cash to get down to this city by any other means than taking our jointly owned clunker of a car. Empire City was great for a lot of things, but Zeke had a point in saying the only kind of urban exploration I could do there was in the underground sewers. And that was when college wasn't taking up my time.

"How's that gig with the bakery going?" I asked after a while, turning towards Zeke who still had his aviators fixed to his face like a permanent feature.

"Yeah, it's going good. They said if I keep up the work I'm puttin' in, I might make it to floor sweeper," Zeke answered sarcastically.

"Sorry for asking."

"Nah, it's not your fault man. It's mine. Not smart enough to be like you and go to college."

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," I told my friend as I looked back out the window. "There's so much politics it's not even funny. Sometimes, I think I'm just doing it to appease my mom. She wants me to be a teacher you know."

"A teacher?" Zeke asked disbelievingly. "What would you teach? How to run fast and jump over things? Didn't think you needed to go to college to become a PE teacher."

"Yeah," I said after a moment. "I'm actually thinking about just getting a job and dropping the whole act. Like I said, it's mostly been for my mom." Zeke just grunted before he spoke like a normal human.

"What about that lady friend of yours? What's her name..."

"Trish. And... I don't know. We'll have to talk."

"Look at Mr. MacGrath, talking about talking," my friend said teasingly. I just slugged him in the arm to get him to be quiet for a few seconds. "Hey, how's your bro doin'?"

"Real good. He just finished his state mandated academic testing. Top ninety-ninth percentile. Kid is some kind of genius."

"Dang, man. And your mom wants you to be the teacher? What's he gona' be? An astronaut?"

"Wouldn't put it past him," I replied as I watched more trees covered in Spanish moss pass by.

"Shit..."

"What?" I asked as I turned to look at Zeke. In response, he just nodded his head towards the road in front of us. Water had come up over the paved surface and went on as far as we could see. "Well, the city is flooded," I said as Zeke dropped his head to the steering wheel in defeat.

"I guess we're swimming from here," my friend said as he picked his head back up and unbuckled his seat belt. As he got out of the car, I followed him to the trunk to grab our stuff. We had brought a raft to carry our supplies in but it wasn't going to be holding either of us meaning we would have to wade through the water to get into the city. The disgusting water.

"What are we going to do with the car?" I asked as Zeke set out at pumping the raft full of air.

"Another one of my fiends, Dwight, is going to come pick it up and bring it back to Empire City. He'll come back and get us by the end of the week." I nodded my head as I looked back at the city. The sun was beginning to set and make orange colors to the west. This might be a cool place to visit when the city got fixed up again.

"What the Shit!"

"Ugh, what now?" I asked, to tired to look up from trudging through sludge. Our week in New Marais had been a blast for the most part, but now that it was over, it was like an accumulated pile of bad karma was being heaped onto us.

"I knew he was a tool! When we get back-"

"Zeke," I interrupted, finally lifting my head. "Whats- where's the car?"

"I'll tell you where it's not! It's not where Dwight was supposed to leave it!"

"Thank you captain obvious." I said as I finally got to dry ground next to my fiend. I pulled our raft up onto land just enough so that it wouldn't float away. "How are we supposed to get home? I've got to be back Monday for classes."

"Yeah, and I've got to be back for my job. You know, the only source of income I have? Shit, man. What are we going to do? There aren't any buses coming near here yet." I began to think of who I could possibly call to come and get us. My family was a no-go. I had told them that this week I had been going on an 'alternate spring break.' It was something the college I was attending really did, but, of course, visiting New Marais to do some urban exploration wasn't one of the alternatives. A person suddenly came to mind. My phone was dead though. In hindsight, expecting the place to have electricity when the streets were covered in three feet of water was a pretty stupid assumption.

"There a pay phone nearby? I think I know someone who can help."

"Hello?" Good, she answered.

"Trish? Hey, it's me, Cole."

"Oh, hey Cole," she replied, a happy tone behind her greeting. "How's your break been?"

"It been pretty cool, actually. Me and Zeke visited New Marais."

"New Marais? I thought that place was flooded." I cleared my throat before I explained.

"It is, which is one of the reasons why we visited." There was a small pause as Trish thought about what I meant.

"You were doing that, what was it, urban exploration stuff, weren't you." I couldn't help but smile at how she called it urban exploration. I had a supporter on that front, at least.

"Maybe, but that's not exactly the reason I called."

"Did Zeke hurt himself? God, I told you not to let him jump around with you. He isn't as..."

"Slim? Fit? Good looking?" I suggested.

"Nimble," Trish said flatly.

"Well, he didn't hurt himself and I'm fine too, actually."

"Oh, okay. So, um, why are you calling then?"

"Well, we came in our car and one of Zeke's pals was supposed to come and pick it up and then come back for us to get back ourselves."

"Zeke's pals? ...The car is missing, isn't it." She predicted almost instantly. It wasn't even a question.

"Yes."

"Zeke sure knows how to pick 'em."

"Yeah..."

"So I'm guessing you'd like a ride."

"If it's not to much of a hass-" before I could say more, Trish interrupted.

"It's not a problem." But then she quickly added, "But you're going to be helping me pay for gas." I smiled. Couldn't let herself seem to eager.

"Not a problem," I said back, not being able to keep the smile of my face.

"Alright, I'll try and get down there as fast as legally possible. We've got classes Monday and I don't want to be late for them."

"Okay, see you in a bit then."

"Yeah, see ya." There was a weird awkward silence for a half second before my toll for the phone expired.

"Hey? They coming?" Zeke yelled from the outside of the phone booth. I hung up the phone and gave him a thumbs up sign. "Great! How long?"

"She said that she'd try to be here as fast as legally possible."

"She? Did you call your lady friend?"

"Her name is Trish, Zeke," I said as I got out of the phone booth. "And yes, I did."

"That chick's a keeper then, helping out your sorry ass."

"It's your fault we're in this mess," I reminded him.

"I can't help it that all my friends save one turn shady on my at the least convenient times."

"Yeah, totally not your fault."

"Whatever man. So what do we do now?"

"Got some beers left in the cooler?" Zeke just cleared his throat. "Unbelievable," I muttered, but really, it was quite believable. "Looks like we're just going to be sitting and waiting."

"Where should we do that? She going to be able to find us out here in the boonies?"

"Yeah," I said, realizing Zeke had a point. "Let's head up the road to the first exit with 'New Marais' on it. She'll be able to see us from there."

"What about all our stuff? You want to drag that boat all the way to that sign?"

"What do we have on it that's worth bringing? Can't we just leave it behind?"

"Point taken. Okay, let's get to that sign."

Sleep can only delay boredom for so long. Ten hours if your pushing it to be exact. We still had about another nine hours to go. So we told stories. Lots of stories. Of course, Zeke had to bring up the one with the stupid truck.

"What had you been doing anyways?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"When you got ran over by that truck. What were you doing?"

"I wasn't trying to get run over by a truck, that's for sure."

"Come on man."

"To be honest, I wasn't doing anything important. Just crossing the street. It's funny, actually. I saw that truck and swore I had enough time to cross before it came. But as soon as I stepped into that street, it's like he sped up. I barely remember it, in fact, it might just be a dream, but I could've swore the guy got out and looked me over maybe even took some of my blood, before he got back into his truck and drove off."

"Shit man, did you tell the cops?"

"No, like I said, I'm not even sure it happened."

"Weird guy if it did."

"Yeah..." Headlights engulfing us in the late evening of the Saturday night broke our conversation.

"You boys need a lift?" Trish asked as she pulled up and leaned out her window.

"Sweet, our ride is here!" Zeke said as he jumped up and dusted himself off. "With a sweet car too," He said as he looked more closely at the car. Trish looked at her own vehicle with a scrutinizing face, trying to see what Zeke saw.

"What do you mean?" she asked finally.

"When you own a clunker like the one Cole and I did, any car with more paint than rust is a sweet car."

"Oh," Trish said. "Speaking of Cole," she said as she searched inside her car to find a wad of paper. "Gas receipts." I gave a light groan but got into the passenger seat all the same. Zeke gladly took the back row and sprawled out, glad to have something soft to sit on that wasn't the ground. Trish gave me an look like she was expecting something.

"What?" I asked, not having any clue what she could be thinking.

"I really hope that what you have on isn't the only articles of clothing you brought on this trip."

"No, of course they aren't."

"Then where's the rest of your stuff? I cleaned out the trunk and everything."

"We didn't want to carry it, so we left it behind. Everything we didn't grab can be replaced."

"But I cleaned the trunk," she moaned as she began to get ready to drive off. "Oh, well. It had to be done sometime..."

"Thanks again for doing this," I told her as we got back onto the freeway.

"It wasn't a problem," she said as she took her hand off the shifting stick and rested it on my hand for a moment. We shared a glance that said more than what we could say for the rest of the car ride before Zeke cleared his throat.

"Just remember that the back seat is occupied. No shenanigans tonight." We immediately tore our gazes from each other in embarrassment and Trish pulled her hand away to shift up a gear. I looked out my window to distract myself for at least a portion of the long trip ahead but before I could lose myself in the passing mile markers, I felt Trish put her hand back onto mine. I sneaked a glance back at her and saw a discrete smile on her face. Covert enjoyment.

It didn't take long for Zeke to fall asleep, it never does. I heard his snores before I did a visual confirmation and once I had that, I knew I had my opportunity.

"So," I began, trying to get a conversation going without knowing how to really begin one on the topic I wanted to discus.

"So," Trish repeated, her discrete smile she had maintained for half an hour growing larger.

"I need to talk to you. About something important."

"Oh," she said, her smile faltering.

"It's about me. And college. And you."

"In that order?"

"It's about mecollegeyou," I said, trying to make a point but making Trish laugh a little instead.

"Okay, I think I get it. They're interrelated."

"Yeah." Trish took a deep breath through her nose, never taking her eyes off the road. She was focused like that.

"Alright, lay it on me." Now it was my turn to breath deeply.

"I know you've got a reason to go to college, a damn good one at that," I began. "I think it's great you're trying to get into the health care field and do some good. But I've never really had a purpose like that for going to college." For a second, the rarest event happened. Trish took her eyes off the road to glance at me.

"What do you mean?" Immediately, her eyes flicked back to the dark road.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I went. I mean, I met you, and I've learned a lot of stuff, but, I guess I don't really have that reason for continuing with it like you do. I think I'm going to dis-enroll and get a job in Empire City. I mean, I started because other people wanted me to and that just isn't enough for me to keep going through with it." Trish nodded her head but remained quiet for a couple of moments. I felt a growing pit in my stomach. I knew Trish was a rational person and right now she was just processing everything I had told her. But part of me was still scared of how she was going to react. Finally she spoke up.

"Well, that was the you and the college part. What's the part about me?" Her voice was steady and I couldn't see or hear any kind of emotions playing through her. Either she was holding them back really well or she didn't have any on the subject. I didn't know which was better.

"I still want to continue what we have. Like I said, I'd find something to do in Empire, and I totally support you and your choice to keep on going at your degree. But, I'd also understand and respect your choice if you-"

"I'd like to keep it going too," Trish said quickly before I could finish, hope being the first emotion I could discern from her in the last couple of minutes. "Our relationship, that is. I... I can see and understand where this is coming from. You should do what makes you happy." Her hand that had stayed connected to mine the whole conversation squeezed a little as she broke her starring contest with the road again to look at me with a mischievous smile for a brief moment as she added, "As long as I'm involved, that is." I returned the smile as she glued her eyes back to the road.

"Oh, You're involved alright," I told her, watching her cheeks flush a little as she remained focused on the road. As her natural color came back a thoughtful look came upon her face.

"What about your parents? Have you talked about this with them?" I sighed. Of course my girlfriend would understand my decision to forge my own path, but the people who raised me and knew me for the majority of my life? Nope. "Cole, you should tell them. At least let them find it out from you. They might be mad at first, but they care about you, and people who care about you, they just want you to be happy in the end," she said as she gave another squeeze to my hand.

"I guess," I said dejectedly. Of course she was right, I just didn't feel like having the conversation with my mom in particular. "You've kind of ruined this for me," I told Trish after a while.

"What? How? Ruined what?"

"You're all understanding and supportive and everything and now when I go to tell them, I'm not going to have a good baseline to brace myself with."

"Oh, sorry, I guess." We were quiet a bit longer before she spoke up again. "Do you want me to try and give you that baseline?"

"Huh?"

"I can pretend to be all mad and angry and stuff to prepare you," she said with a goofy smile. Or maybe it was a normal one. It just looked goofy because her eyes still weren't meting mine.

"Um, sure, I guess," I replied. Trish just nodded and shook her head slightly, as if she were an actress preparing for a scene in a movie.

"Okay. Now, break the news to me again."

"Um... okay," I said, slightly scared of what to expect. If she was going to try and emulate one of my mothers responses, I wasn't sure I wanted to go through with this. Her knowledge base of my mother went only as far as I had enlightened her and I seemed to have a problem only telling her about the bad parts of my parents' personalities. "Trish," I began slowly, not even remembering how I had delivered my thoughts to her the first time.

"Yes, Cole, dearest? What is it? Is there something you would like to tell me? Something you would like to get off your chest?" Under normal circumstances, the way she was talking would've had me hunched over and bursting my gut with laughter. But as it was, I was finding myself a little scared.

"I have something to tell you about College. And You. And me." Had that been the order I used the first time?

"Oh?" she said in fake surprise.

"I'm not going to go back next semester. I've thought-"

"What? But don't you care for me? Why would you leave me like this? I thought we were doing so good, I mean, I thought we had something special between us. Is it because you feel less intelligent than me? I'm sorry if my superior intellect makes you feel inadequate. I promise to start using words that you can understand better."

"Okay, I don't think this is helping," I said dejectedly.

"Yeah," Trish agreed, laughing a bit. We settled down and sat in amicable silence for a while. "So how soon would you do it?"

"Get out? I don't know. I don't want to waste anymore time doing something that I'm not going to finish." Trish nodded her head in agreement. "I should probably get some jobs lined up first, that way I don't become a leach on society or something."

"Sounds good, I don't know if I could be with a leach. You thinking of anything in particular?"

"Nah, not really. I'd really like to do something thats fluid and dynamic, but when it comes down to it, anything paying a dime more than minimum wage will do it."

"Wow, you go cheap."

"How do you think you got me?" I asked. Trish just made a disgusted sound and moved her hand from mine to punch me before taking my hand again, showing me she knew it had been a well executed joke. We were quiet for a long time before I noticed Trish getting antsy. "You okay?" I asked, slightly concerned.

"Yeah, just real sleepy. Trying to stay awake is hard when you haven't slept real good in a while."

"Go ahead and pull over. I'll drive for a while and you can get some sleep."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, Zeke and I got more than enough sleep while we were waiting for you. Maybe not the most comfortable sleep, but some shut eye non the less." Trish found a spot to pull off and undid her seatbelt before getting out her door. I got out and switched positions. After we settled into our new spots, I got back on the road and we resumed our trip.

"Thanks," Trish said as she put the seat back a little to be more comfortable.

"Like I said," I began. "I've slept so-"

"No, not for that, for telling me. About your plans and everything. I'm... I'm glad you still want us to see each other."

"I'm glad too," I replied softly as Trish fell to sleep.

"You what?!" Yeah. Trish definitively ruined my baseline.

"Mom, stop freaking out."

"I'm not freaking out! I'm having a rational reaction to my son telling me he's quiting college!"

"Look, it's just never been something I've really wanted to do for me. It's always felt like I had to go because it's what you wanted-"

"Because you need it! What are you going to do for the rest of your life? Deliver newspaper? I want you to be happy!"

"And what if I'm happy delivering newspaper?"

"Don't be an idiot, Cole! Think about your future!"

"Can I talk to dad?"

"What- Why? Why won't you talk to me!"

"I have been mom. For the last ten minutes. This is going nowhere with you. I want to talk to dad before I can't pay the phone bill." She was quiet for a moment, only her heated breath letting me know she was still on the line. Then a large sigh followed by what sounded like the phone being thrust to my dad.

"Well, whatever this is, it's got her in a mood," my dad said quietly before my mom was out of range. "What's this about?"

"I'm not going to college next semester. Or ever, really." There was a pause on the line before my dad spoke up again.

"Are you sure? You've thought about this?"

"Yeah. I'm going to find a job to do here in the city until Trish finishes up her schooling-"

"So you're still going to be with Trish? Does she know?"

"Yeah, she knows, and we're still together. She understands and just wants me to be happy." There was another sigh on the phone, but this one sounded like some kind of relief.

"I just want what's best for you, Cole," my dad began. "And that woman's the best thing you've managed to do. You go and do whatever you want, just don't lose her, understand?"

"Yeah," I replied, surprised at the contrasting reactions I was getting from my parents.

"Let me smooth things over with your mom. She's not going to be happy for a little while, and make no mistake, I'm not bursting with rainbow's either, but your our son and despite how it may seem right now, we just want you to be happy."

"I know dad. Thanks."

"Yeah. So, what are you going to do now?"

"I've got some jobs lined up. Going to see if anything pulls through, but until then, stick it out in my classes."

"Okay. I'll talk to you soon, Cole."

"Yeah, same here."

"Alright, bye."

"Bye." I sighed and ended the call. I walked from the kitchen to where Trish was to bug her a little more before I called it a night.

"See, I told you. They care about you and just want you to be happy," Trish said from her apartment's living room as I walked in. She was surrounded by books that I had thought she was studying, but her comment told me she had done her fair amount of eavesdropping too. I flushed a little when I realized that she probably heard me and my father discussing our relationship. Well, that was probably my fault for deciding to call while I was over.

"How much-"

"Enough to know that I'm the 'best thing you've managed to do,'" she said with a smirk as she looked up from some sort of anatomy book. I began to turn even more red as she just looked at me.

"Yes, well, I see you're trying to study hard and my conversations are probably just distracting you so I think I'll leave now. Thanks for having me over for take out, next time we'll have it at my place." Trish just laughed as I hastily made my way out of the apartment.

Four Years Later

"It's going to happen soon," I told Zeke as we walked towards his house. I was carrying a six pack of cold ones and he was... carrying nothing, of course, but, as he put it, he needed his hands to do the things I wouldn't be able to do with mine.

"Yeah, and I'm going to grow a third eye soon, too. Man, until I see something physical, it's just some talk," Zeke said as he opened the door to his place.

"I'm serious! I've been saving up the money for said physical proof and I'm almost there too."

"Well, tell me when you've got it," Zeke said as he lead the way to his apartment. "Until then, it's still just some talk." I was about to enter the door to Zeke's apartment when my phone began to go off.

"Hold on a sec, it's my boss," I said as I put the beer down.

"I though you had the day off?"

"So did I," I responded quietly before I accepted the call. "Hello?"

"Hey, MacGrath, how would you feel about a special delivery?"

"Vince, you know it's my day off."

"I know that, but there's some dude requesting you specifically. Says it's one package and that he'll pay you right for doing it today." I sighed to let my boss know I wasn't liking the situation but asked my next question regardless.

"Where's it got to go?"

"Guy says he needs it on the intersection of 19th and Sloat. Says there'll be someone there waiting for it."

"19th and Sloat? That's not far." I glanced over at Zeke who still had his shades on even inside. The man had an attachment for sure. Zeke just sighed at my glance.

"I get it, you're saving up. Just make sure to get back here and enjoy yourself before Trish's shift gets done."

"Thanks man," I told Zeke before speaking back into the phone. "Tell him I'll do it."

"Great," Vince said. "I've already got the package here in the office. See you in a bit." Once I made sure the conversation was done I bowed out of Zeke's place and jogged over to the office.

"I don't know what you mean, I didn't ask for a package," the woman I was about to give the parcel to said.

"Um..." But the woman just scoffed and walked back into her apartment. "Dammit," I muttered. I hated people who thought this was funny. There was probably just a rock in the stupid box too. I was about to toss the thing into a nearby trash can before my phone began to ring again. I didn't recognize the number. "Who is this?" I asked as I received the call.

"Open the package," was the only thing a grizzled voice told me in return.

"Oh, so your the one who gave me the bull-shit delivery job," I began.

"I'll give you another 500 dollars for opening the package right now." That got me to stop and think. I almost had enough for a ring. With what this guy had already paid me, an extra 500 would mean I could go and get the thing tonight.

"Alright, but on one condition, you tell no one I opened it. I don't want people to go and start thinking I make a habit of opening-" I stopped as I looked inside the box. Some kind of weird blue orb with handles and circuitry was just sitting there, pulsating. "What the hell-" The pulsating climaxed into a white light that became all consuming just before I lost all sense of reality.

AN: Let me know what you think! Is it too jumpy? Are the character representations okay? I hope you've enjoyed the first chapter of my inFAMOUS fanfiction. And hope to see you next update! BE AWESOME!