All I'll Ever Need

This was not my day.

The overcrowded lunch hour streets of Pittsburgh were, on their finest days, a headache, and today, they were at their worst. I could almost hear them laughing at me as I tapped my fingers impatiently against the steering wheel of my rundown green-blue Jetta. It was the beginning of February, so the air still had a hint of winter as it crawled towards the approaching spring, but it wasn’t so bad—nothing a coat and fuzzy boots couldn’t fix.

Horns were honking all around me, so I didn’t even bother. Aside from the fact that I had a phobia of honking my horn, it was unnecessary. No one was moving, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

I turned up the radio for only a second before immediately turning it right back down. I had no interest in hearing about how happy Pharrell was, so instead, I listened to the sounds of the horns and angry people yelling.

“I’ve gotta get back to work!”

“Come on! What’s the hold up?”

“Do you even know how to drive?”

Really, smiling at people’s misery was wrong, but sometimes, it was the only chance I had to smile. That’s why I laughed at them. Sure, I was running late, and my professor said if I was late again he’d fail me from the essential class I needed to graduate, but they were late, too.

When the traffic began inching forward, I took the first left I could down a residential block and kept on pushing towards school. If I kept the pace, I would be okay. Ten minutes early even.

The heater in my car worked all too well, so I shut it off and pulled my black and gold ombre curls into a loose ponytail. My eyes continuously scanned the side of the streets for any sign of children or animals, and when I continued to see none, I just pressed the pedal down a little further and kept going along.

I heard my phone ringing in the seat beside me. I didn’t check to see who it was, only answered it with a simple slide of my thumb.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Miss Dixon,” an annoyingly chipper woman said on the other end of the line. Her voice was familiar, but then again, all the nurses at the hospital sounded the same when they called. “We wanted to remind you of your brother’s doctor’s appointment tomorrow.”

I closed my eyes for a brief second and scanned through my memories. Of course I had forgotten. With all the doctor’s appointments and tests being done lately, one doctor’s appointment was easy to forget.

“Right, right,” I sighed. “Tomorrow at . . . one?”

“Eleven.” She didn’t sound so chipper anymore.

Well fuck her too, then.

“Right, one, sorry,” I muttered as I bit down on my bottom lip. It was all I could do to stop myself from letting her have it. She didn’t know half the shit I was going through, so why did she think it was okay to get so damn judgmental because I forgot the time of a doctor’s appointment?

“Dr. Matthews asked that you not be late this time,” she said, and it sounded like she went from a judgmental snob to a lecturing asshole.

I wasn’t a child anymore, and I was damn sick of people treating me as such, yet I still had to bite my tongue. “We’ll be there.” And I hung up. That bitch didn’t deserve my goodbye.

I made a mental note to write that down as soon as I got to class, but it was hard to remember already.

When I tossed my phone to the side, it didn’t stay where it was supposed to stay. Instead, it bounced out of my seat and into the floorboard.

I knew better than to reach for it, but damn it, if I didn’t pick it up, I would forget it was there.

Note to self. Phone is in the floor, and Matty has a doctor’s appointment at . . . noon?

Fuck, this wasn’t good.

But that was how things went in my life. They were never good, and somehow, never good always went to even worse. Life wasn’t a friend to me, and quite frankly, it was a mutual hatred.

Following the trend, things went from not good to even worse . . . because as I refocused on the road ahead of me, another idiot driver decided not to do the same.

The dark silver SUV crashed into me before I saw it coming, and with the speed we were both going, there was absolutely no way I could’ve avoided it. It slammed into the rear end of mine and immediately sent it sliding. The way the car spun and moved around, the front ended up smashing into the curb at an unfortunate angle.

The wreck was over much faster than I expected, and I had a headache worse than I thought possible from being shaken like I was. Though rattled and a bit stiff, I felt okay.

Okay physically, but emotionally? I wanted to murder whoever did this.

My door was opened before I realized any time had passed, and a . . . surprisingly handsome man with wide chocolate brown eyes and curly black hair looked down at me.

“Shit! I’m so sorry!” he exclaimed. “Are you okay? Do I need to call an ambulance?”

“No,” I muttered, and I carefully ducked underneath him and climbed out of the smashed in car. “I’m fine. Just fucking great.”

“Yeah, just fucking great,” he said. “I’ve gotta be at the airport twenty minutes ago!”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, you’re not the only one who has somewhere to be! I can’t be late for class again!”

“No, you don’t understand,” he insisted. “I can’t be late! I’m late for my flight!”

“Then what the hell are we doing arguing? Call the fucking cops!”

He threw his head back towards the sky and groaned, something that only irritated me more. “I don’t have time to call the cops! Don’t you get it? I have to be in Sochi by tonight!”

“I don’t know where the fuck that is or why the hell I should give a damn, but I have to be to class in five minutes!” I snapped. “Some of us are trying to get through college!”

This man, strange as he was, seemed to have an idea. He looked at my car, looked back at his car, and then took off running. “Come on.”

“I can’t come anywhere without filing a fucking police report!” I said. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I’ve got a fucking flight to catch that leaves in half an hour, so I don’t have time to file a damn police report!” he exclaimed. “Just get in. I swear. I’ll take care of it!”

As he started up his car and I looked over at mine, which was conveniently parked on the side of the road at the angle it stopped in, I realized that this was the only shot I had at being to class on time.

So what did my dumb ass do?

I got in the Range Rover of some random stranger.

He pulled out a shiny black iPhone 5 and glanced down so he could see what numbers he was dialing. Other than that, he kept his eyes on the road. He didn’t say anything to me, only put his phone up to his ear and waited.

“Hey! Yeah, Chief? This is Sidney. Hey, I—what? Yeah, I’m fine. Long story short, I’m running super late. I gotta be on the flight to Sochi in less than half an hour, and this girl has to be to class even sooner. I sorta just ran into her car, and it looks pretty fucked up. I’m gonna pay for a new one, but I don’t have time to do the police report right now. Neither does she. Yeah. That would great! Alright. Thanks, man. Later.”

When he hung his phone up and put it in the cup holder, my eyes were wide. “What the fuck?”

He glanced over at me, only for a second, but otherwise kept driving. “What? You need to go to the university, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Kinesiology. How did you just do that? I can’t not have a car. My car’s the only car my brother can easily get in and out of, and he’s got a doctor’s appointment tomorrow!”

He looked over at me with wide eyes. “What’s wrong with your brother?”

“Like it fucking matters to you,” I snorted. “He was paralyzed in a hockey accident a couple years or so ago. Doctors don’t think he’ll ever walk again, much less skate. Now he can’t get in cars that don’t have—why am I even telling you this? I have to have my car!”

“Look, I’ll be in Sochi a few weeks,” he said. “Just take mine. It’s got plenty of room for your brother, and I’ll even leave you some money to get it fixed up while I’m gone. I mean, if you want. You don’t have to because it was my fault.”

“And what about when you get back?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I’ll replace your car.”

For a moment, I relaxed. As crazy as this situation was, it was being resolved, and I might make it to class on time to top it all off.

Then the reality sank in as I looked around myself. The smooth leather interior, seat warmers, extra cushiony seats . . . this car was worth too much money.

“I can’t take your car,” I finally said.

His eyebrows rose. “I thought your brother had to get to the doctor.”

“Your car is worth more than my life savings!” I exclaimed. “I can’t possibly drive around in the vehicle of some random stranger who crashed into me when it’s worth more than I am!”

He scowled. “I beg to differ. Human life is worth far more than anything you can buy.”

Despite the fact that what he said was sweet, it didn’t help calm me down any. “That doesn’t matter! How do I even know you’re not just gonna never come back?”

“Well, according to you, this is worth more than your life savings, so I’m pretty sure if I just left you this car, it’d be okay,” he said. “It’s worth more than your car, I can promise you.”

That didn’t really help calm me down. “What the fuck?”

He rolled his eyes and focused in on the road. “Look, I don’t have time to argue about this. I have to be at the airport! You have to be at class.” And I hadn’t noticed, but the man had arrived at the university.

Almost as quickly as he got there, he pulled into a parking spot . . . right in front of the building I had to go into.

While he scrambled around with his phone, wallet, and seatbelt, I just stared at him.

“Look, here’s the keys,” he said as he tossed them in my direction. “There’s about a thousand dollars in the dash, straight cash, and my number so you can call me and figure all of this out in more detail. If you wanna get my car repaired or you have to go to the doctor for any reason, there ya go. That should cover anything you need.”

My eyes were wide. “I, uh . . . okay.”

I barely had the strength to push the door open for two reasons. One, my body was achy from being slung around like a ragdoll. Two, I couldn’t actually wrap my head around what was happening.

This random guy was . . . just trusting me with his keys and a thousand dollars?

I watched as he climbed into a police car and loaded his bags up in the trunk, but I didn’t watch as they drove away. If I didn’t get inside quickly, all of this effort to get me to class on time would’ve been for nothing.

I darted through the main doors and straight down the hallway to the classroom at the very end of the building, and just as I slipped inside, Mr. Heathers stood up from his chair to shut it.

Literally made it just in time. Wow.