Chapter 13: Back Up The first time I drove over Luke's laptop, it was a private affair. Just the two of us by a cabin near a lake. This time... there were eyewitnesses. "STOP!" I was backing my car out of the driveway because my mama told me to. Luke sprinted across the backyard, abandoning the mini funeral we had planned for Roger the dead cat. If it slipped my mind that my boyfriend was an athlete, this reminded me. His speed was absurd. I tried to stop. I slammed on the breaks, but it was too late. "AAAAAH!" I screamed, right as the tires of my car rolled over- CRACK ** Did I kill him? Did I kill Luke? He had appeared in my rearview mirror a few seconds before. "LUKE?!" I called out. I stabbed my seatbelt fanatically until it swung off and caught one of my arms. I tried to jump out of the car, but the seatbelt clung to my left hand and I swung around the seat, trying to peel it off me. Arm burn. There were eight pairs of eyes staring at me. "That's his girlfriend?" Charlotte's ex-boyfriend asked, again. Luke's sister, her ex-boyfriend and Nicole had all been on their way to dinner when the incident happened. They were now standing on the sidewalk with their mouths wide open. I hope their dinner reservation's flexible. Austin and Chad were walking across the backyard, re-tracing Luke's path to reach us. There were a lot of weeds, but that didn't seem to slow them down. Gloria and my mother were standing at the entrance of our house. Even Flora poked her head out of an upstairs window. Wasn't she meant to be unconscious? And Luke. He was kneeling behind my car. The sight of him there caused major deja-vu. Luke's been cute since the day his basketball rolled into our driveway and I saw him for the first time. He was probably cute before, but I can't confirm that. And then came the day we had our first real conversation... ten years later. He had been kneeling on the ground behind my car, in the same way he was now. He had more tan, and his hair was a little shorter then – but I liked it this way. Forever 'cute.' Luke didn't have to look up to know my reaction. We've done this before. I ran towards the accident and half-fell next to him, but he'd already extended an arm to keep me steady. The impact of my unstable body should've rocked him, but he was strong enough to remain completely unaffected. Somehow, I was the one out of breath though he'd been running. I looked at the damage I created and that's when déjà vu peaked to a whole new level of unreal. A laptop. I ran over another mother flipping laptop. Speaking of mothers... Mine was silently holding a briefcase by our front door. She, along with seven other spectators, were watching us. Do they not speak? Usually Flora never keeps her mouth shut. They wanted to see Luke's reaction. To them, he was always such a relaxed guy. Ha. So, they watched and waited. And Luke's reaction came out in one word. "What the f*ck, Minnie?!" OK, I lied. Four words. He lowered his hand from his knee to the concrete driveway. My eyes traced the muscles along his arm to his biceps and up to the blue eyes that could freeze me. I asked, "Is that your laptop?" He said nothing. He said absolutely nothing. And from the way he was looking at me, it was like he was daring me to say something stupid. I, of course, obliged. "IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" I blurted out in panic. "I swear I had no idea AND I haven't even paid you back for the last one and now... WHY DO YOU KEEP PUTTING LAPTOPS ON THE FLOOR?!" OK. I was losing it. The stress was really getting to me. "Now would be a good time to react Luke," I whispered, having gone from 0 to 100 back to 0 in five seconds flat. I was a roller-coaster of emotions, while he was cool as a cucumber. The cucumber exhaled and said; "Will you now admit that you're a f*cking terrible driver, Millie?" Silence. That's what we're getting out of this? Really? I put all my passion behind one word: "Never!" Does he have no respect for the time I saved... I pointed at a corner of the driveway where a broken flowerpot sat. "That's where it happened." He didn't understand me, "What?" "You know what." I was trying to be climactic... but it wasn't working. "Millie," he said, "I can't follow your thoughts 90% of the time." "True," I acknowledged, "but you've been getting better at it lately." Luke sighed and I could see a tiny little smirk appear, "You're talking about that ridiculous time you saved a raccoon, aren't you?" "Yes," I nodded, "When in doubt, you can always guess that." Nicole and Charlotte ventured closer to us. Charlotte whispered to Nicole, "What are they saying?" They wanted to listen in more and pretended to be investigating the crushed laptop. It had a giant wheel-shaped dent in it. A couple wires stuck out of it, like frizzy hair. That laptop was having a bad day.