“Isn’t that illegal?” I asked, surprised Samantha would suggest such a thing. She always seemed so straight and narrow. And she came up with this idea rapidly.
“Yeah, that’s why everyone doesn’t do it,” she said lightly, like we were talking about something as inconsequential as the weather. “But I hear you can make a lot of cash.”
I thought about it for a moment, truly considering if the risk was worth the reward, but I just couldn’t do it. Gavin might have been angry at me, but that didn’t change the fact that he was the most important thing in my life, and I couldn’t risk everything by doing what Samantha was suggesting, even if it meant I would be stuck in a desperate situation without a car.
“I don’t think I can do that,” I said. “It’s just not my kind of thing.”
For just a second, Samantha’s lips pressed into a thin line and a muscle in her jaw ticked. She looked almost angry, but it passed so quickly that I couldn’t be sure it had even happened. “It was just a thought,” she said lightly. “Since I’m already here, I’ll just hang around while you get ready for work. Okay?”
“Great. Thanks.”
Samantha started her usual routine of setting up her schoolwork at the kitchen table, and I was surprised to see that she pulled a huge can of Monster energy drink out of her bag. She must have been really pushing herself hard to need that after the coffee.
I slipped into my room to start getting ready for work, but the headache that had started when I found out about my car was persisting, so I went into the bathroom to get some medicine for the pain. When I closed the medicine cabinet with two Tylenols in my hand, I was met with my own reflection. For some reason, in that moment everything that had happened in the last couple of hours came crashing in on me, and I felt completely lost. A strangled sob escaped my throat and my nose burned as tears swam in my eyes, blurring my vision. Backing up a few steps, I sat down on the edge of the tub and tried to stifle my sobs as I cried.