That’s when the other car had pulled up behind them, honking, trying to pass. Frank had started feeling sick, but there was nowhere to pull off on the narrow downhill stretch, and it was so curvy and dangerous, and Belinda had been so frightened…. She and Frank and Hildy driving home so late that night … and the terrible storm beating down on them … They’d taken a shortcut-some little used road near the airport-that Frank’s brother had suggested, where there wasn’t likely to be any highway patrol on the lookout for late party-goers and … Hildy had gotten more and more upset because Frank kept trying to drive…. If only … if only everything had been different.īut things hadn’t been different, and afterward she could still see everything so clearly …… too clearly. And she remembered how Hildy had fought him when Frank wouldn’t give up the car keys, and how much trouble they’d had pouring him into the front seat, how terrified they’d been when he’d grabbed the wheel, weaving them all over the road. She’d actually been relieved when he’d gotten so drunk that Hildy insisted they leave.
Frank had never needed an excuse to make a total fool of himself, but this time he’d been so outrageous that Belinda had been embarrassed for him. That, and Frank being an even bigger jerk than usual, appointing himself the official King of Fools, much to everyone’s delight. …īecause, really, that’s what had started the whole thing off-that stupid April Fools’ Day party. If only Frank hadn’t drunk all those beers. If only we hadn’t tried to drive there and back again.
She’d told her mother that she was spending the night at Hildy’s just like any other weekend, that they’d just stay in and rent some movies.
If only we hadn’t gone … if only it hadn’t been out of town…. She hated parties anyway, and Hildy had been grounded-why in the world had she ever told Hildy she’d go along in the first place? She hadn’t even known the people who’d been giving the stupid party-some college buddies of Frank’s older brother-and once she and Hildy and Frank had gotten there, she’d known right away there was too much drinking going on. LATER, WHEN BELINDA THOUGHT about that horrible night, she could think of a hundred if only’s that might have made things turn out differently.
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