Time frame: Ellis was 20, Keith just turned 21
POV: Ellis
Main event: A closer look behind the cliff-drive incident (*Note: This chapter is not a humorous one)
I know I told you about the time Keith drove his car off the cliff and broke both of his legs. But Coach said, "We aint got time for this, Ellis" before I could really go into much detail about it.
See, it was my fault he had the accident in the first place. It was winter time and my truck was havin trouble. It broke down way too far away for me to walk to anyone's house that I knew. The girl I was in a relationship with at the time was at work and she couldn't get off early to pick me up, so of course I called Keith.
I asked him if he was busy and he said no. I told him about the truck and said it was real chilly out, just to pack on the sympathy. He woulda come to get me anyway, but I was wantin him to hurry up cause I broke down right outside of a real shitty trailer park where this guy that Keith avoided like the plague lived. That guy just happened to live close to where I broke down and he came outside to see what was up.
Keith could hear me say hi to someone and he asked who. I told him Derek was here, and he was like, "Ellis, don't go nowhere with him." And I was just messin with Keith, not tryin to freak him out but I made the mistake of sayin, "Well you better hurry up and rescue me, then."
He said to stay put and he would be on his way. But he never came. I waited for like 30 minutes when it would have took him less time than that to pick me up. Derek stood with me a bit and asked me if everything was okay. I told him about the truck and said it was fine cause Keith was comin, but he was way late.
Derek was like, "Shame. Maybe he got side-tracked." He kept sniffin and I thought he was just cold but his eyes were also real bright and hazy. He was looking around a lot, too, like he expected someone to show up. I didn't know it at the time but he was flyin on meth. But he was bein friendly as ever, so I chatted with him.
Derek was four years older than me. I met him through Keith, who used to be friends with him, who met him through his brother Paul. Derek and I didn't know each other too well, but Keith warned me to stay away from him, and I guess it was cause of the meth.
But now it was getting dark and it really was cold, and Derek offered me a ride home so I took it. Everything was fine, but I was a little mad at Keith for ditching me. Derek dropped me off at home, said he would keep an eye out on my truck and that was that.
In the middle of the night, maybe 1 or 2am, I got a pretty frantic call from Keith's mom sayin he was in an accident and she didn't know how bad it was but that he was in the hospital. I freaked out and took my girlfriend's car to the hospital to see if he was okay. I was real worried that he was gonna be dead by the time I got there.
Turns out, he was on his way to come and get me, and he was drivin too fast and a deer went out in front of his car. He tried to brace for impact cause it was too dangerous to brake. But when he hit the deer, it sent his car off the road, which was a little icy.
He went off the cliff, which was actually a deep ravine. His car (not the same car he blew up on 4th of July) hit the other side and he wasn't wearin a seatbelt so he went through the windshield. He landed on his feet at the bottom and broke both of the bones in his lower legs. One was stickin out of the skin, but he was fine other than that and a massive concussion.
When the docs let me see him, he was a bit high on the pain medicine and his first words were, "I have a hose stuck in my ding dong." I would have laughed but I felt real bad for what just happened. I didn't even argue when he yelled at me for getting a ride home with Derek, tellin me I was a dipshit for riding in a car with 'that psychopath.' He was mad especially when I said that nothin weird happened at all.
He was so goddamn scared of Derek and I was being an asshole and he coulda got killed because of me. He got over it and was happy again only a few minutes after the lecture.