You Love Me Like a Car Wreck, Wrapped Around a Tree (The All-American Rejects)
"Carlos? Do you think that I could use your car to pick up some groceries?" Cecil called to his boyfriend in the bathroom as he poured them each a cup of coffee. Carlos emerged using a towel to dry his hair and gave Cecil a questioning look as he gratefully took the proffered cup.
"Do you have a Driver's License?" When Cecil shook his head, Carlos asked, "Have you ever driven a car?" Again, Cecil shook his head, but slower this time.
"But," he attempted to redeem himself. "I took all of the mandatory training courses on cars and their functioning and I know every single part of the car and we really need groceries."
Carlos looked to be at an impasse and Cecil understood why. On the one hand, they did need groceries and Carlos was having such a busy week at work, he didn't know if he would be out in time before the Ralph's closed. But on the other hand, Cecil was very danger-prone.
"I don't know. . . ." Carlos offered hesitantly. But this made Cecil put on his very best 'kicked puppy dog' face and say, "Please, Carlos. . . ."
And of course Carlos couldn't say no at that point and Cecil knew it.
"Well, alright," Carlos ceded. "But you have to promise to be extra careful, okay?"
Cecil smiled at his worry-prone boyfriend and took a step forward so that he could put his hands on Carlos's arms. "Of course," he told him. "I'm always careful." Then Cecil leaned forward and kissed Carlos's nose, making Carlos grin ear-to-ear.
"Yeah, okay," he lamented sarcastically. "Can you drop me off at the lab before you go?"
"Sure," Cecil agreed as he grabbed the keys and Carlos grabbed his lab coat. They went out to the car and Carlos slid into the passenger's seat apprehensively. However, Cecil got into the driver's seat feeling extremely confident.
As they pulled out onto the road, Carlos's nerves slowly relaxed. Cecil was actually a really good driver. He obeyed all traffic signs, braked for people and animals, and generally kept all of his attention focused on the road in front of and around him. Carlos was impressed and deeply relieved.
Cecil pulled up to the curb outside of Carlos's lab and leaned over the seats to kiss Carlos goodbye.
"Have a good day at work!" he said exuberantly. Carlos thanked him and got out of the car, waving after Cecil as he pulled away.
While on his way down to the Ralph's grocery store, Cecil was surprised by a fully-grown tree sprouting up in the middle of the road. Quickly, Cecil braked and swerved to avoid it, but as soon as he got started on his route again he found out that trees were popping up everywhere. Unfortunately, this included right in front of his car a second time, but Cecil was too slow to avoid it and the car crashed right into the trunk.
Everything was just a haze of sights and sounds for the few seconds of the impact. The car hadn't been going very fast, but it was enough to throw Cecil forward, straining against the seat belt, headfirst into the steering wheel. Luckily, it was only hard enough to confuse him for a few seconds before he turned the key and got out of the car.
The damage to the front grill was pretty extensive; so much so that it was unusable in its current state. Cecil turned around and looked for help, but there was strangely no one near him at all.
"Ah," Cecil hissed through his teeth as a sharp pain hit his already aching head. He brought a hand to his temple in an effort to relieve it.
"Oh no. . . ." he whispered to himself as he looked at the damaged car once again. "Carlos's car. . . . No, no, no."
Slowly, Cecil turned around again and began to walk back down the street towards Carlos's lab. His mind was fuzzy and he couldn't think what to do. But Carlos always knew what to do. He just had to find Carlos.
Cecil made sure not to bump into any of the trees that now littered the streets as he kept walking down the middle of the street. It didn't take long to find the lab again and Cecil walked straight inside.
"Carlos?" Cecil called blearily into the room. He vaguely saw two people walk towards him. They were two people from Carlos's scientist team; Rachelle and Dave.
"Cecil?" Rachelle asked as she and Dave both reached out to grab Cecil's arms in order to steady him.
"Where's Carlos?" he pressed. "I—I need to see him. I need to see Carlos, p-please."
"Here, Cecil," Rachelle said as she and Dave led him to a chair over at one of the desks. "Sit here and we'll go get him. Dave, stay with him."
"What?" Dave squeaked. "But he looks completely delirious!"
Rachelle huffed as she began jogging towards a back room. "Just for a minute!" she called over her shoulder.
"Where's Carlos," Cecil asked again. But Dave just told him that he would be there soon.
And Dave was right, much to Cecil's joy. A minute later, Carlos ran into the room, followed closely by Rachelle. Cecil just now noticed that the other scientists in the lab had all crowded around him and Dave, making Carlos push through the circle of people to get to his boyfriend.
"Cecil!" Carlos shouted as he slid to a stop in front of Cecil and lowered himself so that he was eye level with him. "Oh, my god. Are you alright? What happened?"
"What?" Cecil asked as more of his vision and sense came back to him. "I—I'm fine. But the trees. . . . They're everywhere. I-I couldn't stop—It just jumped up! Out of nowhere!"
"Cecil!" Carlos cut in. "What are you talking about?"
"The trees! Outside. They just grew out of the pavement in the middle of the streets. I don—I'm so sorry, Carlos."
The team of scientists stirred at Cecil's apology and Dave motioned for everyone to go elsewhere as to give Carlos and Cecil their privacy.
"Cecil, why are you sorry?"
"Your car. It's. . . . damaged."
Carlos's eyes widened. "Cecil, you were in a car crash?"
Nodding his head, Cecil found, made his headache worse, so he stopped and whispered, "Yeah."
Immediately, Carlos began grabbing at Cecil's arms and torso and neck. "Oh, my god. Did you get hurt? Did you hit your head? Do your arms or chest hurt? Can you move your neck?" he fired off in rapid succession, not allowing Cecil time to answer.
"M-My head hurts," Cecil told him quickly. "But your car is unusable! The entire front needs to be replaced."
"Cecil," Carlos said softly as he placed his hand on Cecil's cheek. "I don't care about the car, alright? I need to know if you're hurt anywhere else. Your neck?" Cecil shook his head in response and Carlos named various body parts, each one Cecil denied having been injured.
"Okay," Carlos said with a sigh of relief. "Come on. Let's bring you back to my office so you can lay down with an ice pack."
"But Carlos," Cecil protested as Carlos helped him stand up, much steadier than before. "We need to go get your car. It's just sitting in the middle of the street!"
"Shh. . . ." Carlos said as he led Cecil into his office, not bothering to turn on the light, instead using the light dribbling in through the blinds on the windows. "You are the only thing that I care about right now."
Cecil was too exhausted to protest as Carlos pushed him down gently onto the sofa in his office. "Wait here," he told him and returned with an ice pack in hand, which he placed on Cecil's forehead.
"No, wait, Carlos," Cecil said, sitting up and grabbing the ice pack in his hand. Carlos immediately took his arms and tried to redirect him back down. "No! D-Don't leave. Please?"
Carlos stopped his movements and nodded his head at his boyfriend. "Of course, Cecil." But Cecil was adamant that Carlos stay with him, so, in response, Carlos sat down where Cecil's head was and again redirected Cecil's head to lay, but this time on his lap. He also grabbed Cecil's hand that held the ice pack and led it back to his forehead, holding both his boyfriend's hand and the ice pack in place.
"Thank you, Carlos," Cecil whispered. Carlos smiled and began to card his fingers through Cecil's short blond hair.
"You'll always be my first priority, Cecil," Carlos told him lovingly. But Cecil didn't answer because, Carlos mused, he must have fallen asleep already. He smiled to himself and made note of the clock on the wall to wake him in half an hour to check for signs of a concussion. But, for now, he let Cecil rest peacefully.
Imagine Person B letting Person A use their car for driving practice, but Person A accidentally crashes the car into a tree and is completely fine, but starts panicking and worrying that Person B would get mad at them.
(Bonus points: Person B is more worried about the perfectly fine Person A rather than their damaged car.)