Harper's Hill, Chapter 9: The Girl in the Passenger Seat

Dinner had been... beyond quiet.

Ever since Riley had revealed that there was a man named Raymond Pierce working at the school, Emily's head was buzzing. She hadn't heard his name in years. Was he back? Did he ever leave?

The thought of running into her Dad in town both excited her and terrified her. She could tell that it just angered James. He sat at the dinner table and stared directly ahead of him, not looking at anything in particular. Emily knew when he was like this to just leave him alone, and by now, Riley had learned the same. And Emily didn't want to talk either, so neither of the women said a word. As far as Emily knew, no one had said a word since Riley had said what she said.

Sitting back in her room, Emily sat at her desk, staring at her blank laptop screen. She wanted to search for him and find him. She didn't know how, because all she knew was that he had been at the East Side Unity School recently, and that was absolutely nothing to go off of.

She sat and looked out her window, the one that sat just above her desk. The street was empty, like always, but something about the way the leaves drifted to the ground and the street light flickered made her feel like something was wrong.

She disregarded the feeling, assuming it was probably just something she was feeling that was related to her Dad's reappearance. She grabbed her phone and looked down at the screen, but then looked up to see a very nice car coming down the street. She watched as it parked across from her house and turned off the engine. The street was quiet again.

She looked closer and she could barely see inside, but what she did see was a woman in the passenger seat, and she was very pretty. She watched as the woman talked to the person in the driver's seat, probably a man. As Emily continued to watch, she started to see the woman's posture change.

The posture of the woman in the car turned from confident to insecure, and Emily watched as she leaned towards the window, away from the driver.

In the car, Nicole looked at the man she had drove to the East Side with and regretted all of the night's decisions. She had ended up in this guy's car, and then he drove her over the hill, and now she was stuck in his car and all he wanted to do was have sex.

"Why the fuck did I drive you from the art show then?" The man asked, his voice gruff and harsh. "What the fuck did you think you were gonna get out of this?"

"I just wanted a ride home," Nicole said, trying to stay calm. She had been in situations like this before, but never as bad as this. She was always just a block or two away from home, but this time, she was all the way on the other side of the hill. She knew there were no buses. She had no idea how she'd get home without having to call her parents. Obviously, she didn't want to do that.

Nicole watched as the man's hands held the steering wheel, his grip getting tighter. "Oh come on, you're too pretty to fight back," He said, his tone condescending, even though he was trying to be charming.

She knew there was no reasoning with men like this. She looked at the door and saw that it was unlocked, and the engine was off, too. Now would be the perfect time for her to get out of the car, but if she did that, she would be stranded in the East Side in the middle of the night.

She considered that it might be better to take her chances with this asshole, but she felt a pit in her stomach and before she knew it, she had ejected herself from the yellow Lamborghini and onto the road.

She tripped and found herself on the ground, her knee bleeding. She looked up at the open passenger door and the man sitting in the car, his eyes dark. He looked like he could be foaming at the mouth.

"You like it rough, sweetie?" He growled, taking off his seatbelt. He got out of the car and walked around the front of it, over to where Nicole was on the ground. She tried to push herself away from him, but it was too late, and he had grabbed her arm.

"HEY!" A loud voice rang out, snapping Nicole's attention to a young man standing outside the house across the street. He held a baseball bat in his hands — predictable, maybe, but there's a reason clichés stick around: they often ring true.

The man let go of Nicole's arm, and Nicole noticed that her sensitive skin was starting to turn red at the spot where he touched her. "The fuck are you?" He asked the man with the bat. "Her savior?"

"I'm the guy who'll make sure you regret staying here," James said, holding the bat like it was a cane and subtly tapping it against the ground. A reminder.

The man looked down at Nicole, and for the first time in her life, she was praying that she didn't look good. She hoped she looked damaged, but in a feral way, something that couldn't be tamed. She glared at him, daring him to touch her again.

"Fuckin' white knight," The man muttered under his breath as he shook his head, walking away from Nicole and back to his car. He slammed the passenger door shut before getting in the driver's seat and slamming that door too. He turned on the engine and tore out of there, zooming down the street.

"Dick!" A female voice yelled out, and Nicole saw a woman about her age coming out of the house. She had dark hair and dark eyes, and she didn't really look that kind, but Nicole could just tell that she could trust her. In fact, she looked familiar.

Emily ran over to the woman on the ground and knelt down. She looked back at her brother, who was still holding his baseball bat. "James, go get the first aid kit ready," Emily said. "I'll help her into the house."

"Into the house?" Nicole repeated, starting to feel anxious. She had actually never been on the East Side before, but she knew what she had heard about the people that lived here. "Oh no, I... I don't need to go in your house."

Emily felt like Nicole's words were a slap in the face, but she tried not to take it personally. This girl probably wasn't from here. "You from the West Side?" Emily asked, standing up and holding out her hand to help Nicole stand up.

Nicole looked around, noticing it was just the two of them outside. Despite feeling like she shouldn't, she took Emily's hand and stood up. She remembered Emily's question and nodded meekly.

Emily smiled gently. "That's okay, you'll survive tonight and have a good tale to tell everyone. Everyone loves a near-death story," She held out her arm for Nicole to take. "Let me take you to the front door. You don't have to go in, we can keep the door open and use the light from inside to bandage up your knee. Then I'll drive you back home."

Nicole felt bad all of a sudden, realizing that her assumptions were heavily influencing the way that she was acting. She had heard so much shit about the East Side over the years, and especially about the people who lived there, but maybe it wasn't all that bad. She shook off her judgements and looked at Emily with a smile. "No, it's okay," She said. "I'll go in, I was just being stupid." There was no reason for her to be so standoff-ish towards these people who were clearly just trying to help. She took the other woman's arm and walked toward the house with her.

"I'm Emily, by the way," Emily said, introducing herself. "Sucks we have to meet like this, but like I said, you'll have a fantastic story."

Nicole chuckled. "I'm Nicole. Or Nicki. It doesn't matter," She said, her nerves starting to melt away. "I guess this is a pretty good ending, huh?"

"A lot better than the alternative, don't you think?" Emily asked.

And to think that Nicole was going to risk staying in the car.