Meanwhile, a little ways up the road, Kris starred out the window of Dani's car. She vaguely heard her ranting about Ken and Junior and how they would be sorry or something like that. In the back of her mind, the events of the match race kept replaying in her head over and over. Sweet talking Matt into calling Shiek Omar back. Swinging up onto Wildfire's back and urging him to run like he'd never run before. Seeing that obstacle in her path. Begging him to do it for Raintree, even though either of them might get hurt. Riding back to Raintree with her head held high and the briefcase full of money on her lap, only to be ambushed by Pablo, Jean, and the authorities. Begging them to take only her license and leave all her friends alone. The feeling of relief when they agreed. Watching Wildfire walk up the ramp of the Davis Farms horse trailer. Pablo's words, "When you stole this horse, you turned back the clock" as if she were fresh out of Camp Lagrange, only worse. And worst of all, Jean, who'd told her just days earlier that she thought of her like a daughter, looking at her as though she'd just stabbed her in the back and saying, "You can't stay there anymore". And then the look on Matt's face as she walked away from him for the last time.
Kris looked up for just a moment and realized that traffic ahead of them was at a standstill. "Dani, slow down."
"Are you kidding?" said Dani. "I can't get you to the bus station fast enough."
"No really, Dani," said Kris. "Nobody's moving."
"Oh," said Dani. Then she gently pressed her foot down on the brake and looked up ahead at the congested traffic that was starting to be detoured.
"Excuse me?" shouted Dani, rolling down the window of her car and allowing rain to sprinkle in into her sweater. "Can you help me get through to the bus station?"
"Sorry, Ma'am," said the cop. "There's been a bad crash up ahead. Some kid driving his truck at like ninety miles an hour had a head-on collision with a moving van going twenty. Anyways, you'll have to wait in line to get off the highway just like everybody else. The nearest bus station is about an hour away from there."
"Oh, great," mumbled Dani. "Could my day get any worse?"
"For whatever it's worth, mine couldn't either," said Kris.
"Yeah well, that's what you get for breaking the law," said Dani. "Shouldn't you have learned that by now!"
"Save it," mumbled Kris. But she knew that Danni was right. How was it that she could spend eighteen months in jail-twenty-one if she counted the extra time for saving Wildfire-and still not learn her lesson? Trying to find a workaround when it came to the law was a bad idea. Period.
"So," said Dani a while later. "Where do you think you're gonna go? Back to your drugged-up slutty Mom, your dead bead dad, or your still-in-and-out-of-jail brother?"
"No way," said Kris. "Not any of them." She never wanted to see either of her parents again as long as she lived, and if she did see Jace again, it definitely wouldn't be to ask him for help.
"I just think I'm gonna stick it out on my own for a while," said Kris.
"That's a good idea," said Dani. "That way there's nobody who's life you can ruin."
"Exactly," said Kris. The car came to a stop at the front of the bus station. Kris unbuckled her seatbelt and picked up her suitcase. "Just curious. What happened to Shiek Omar?"
Dani shrugged. "I don't think that we're ever going to see him again. Thanks for mentioning him, though. Now I have somebody else who I get to be pissed at for getting me in trouble with this whole match race thing even though I backed out of it."
"Goodbye, Dani," said Kris as she got out of the car. "Thanks for the ride."
Dani blinked her eyes. That's when she suddenly realized that once Kris left, she would have nobody left. Not even to fight with. She wasn't sure she could handle that right now, and there was nobody else who she could go to anymore. "Wait," said Dani. Kris turned around. "Why don't we stay together?"
"Really?" said Kris. "I thought you wanted to get rid of me."
"Nah," said Dani. "Come on, get back in the car. We might end up killing each other by morning, but at least we won't be alone."
Kris shrugged. She didn't really have any plan at the moment, so she might as well stay with Dani and see if things worked out. If not, she wouldn't be any worse off than she was right now. "Okay," said Kris. Then she climbed back into the car and pulled the door shut.
Kris looked around when she heard the song Misery Business playing from somewhere in my car. "Where's that song coming from?" she asked.
"My phone," said Dani. "Weird. I thought that was my ringtone for you." Then she pulled it out of her pocket. "Nope. Junior." Then she rolled down her window, took her phone, and threw it out into the rain. "I don't need those idiots, Kris. You and me don't need anybody anymore but ourselves."