Page 87 of #Lovestrong

Declan

Crap!

"Where are my keys," I yell down the hallway as I check every pocket of my jacket. It's 9:50, and if I don't leave in the next two minutes, I'm going to be late to Lena's. I told her ten o'clock and I can’t be late. This may be my only chance to get her back.

"On the kitchen counter, dumbass," Darcy yells from the kitchen.

I jog down the hall and grab them off the counter, turning back toward the foyer.

"Dude, slow down," she says, coming over to me.

I stop and take a deep breath. "Darc, I have to go, I'm going to be late."

She stops in front of me and shakes her head. I don't know what happened, but when Lena broke up with me, Darcy did a one-eighty and went back to being a real sister. I've actually enjoyed being around her lately. "Relax. She isn't going to kill you for being a few minutes late, and she'd be a complete fucktard not to take you back."

Now, it's my turn to shake my head. "You have such a way with words, Darcy."

She smiles and pats my chest. "Be careful, bro. Now, go get your girl back so you can stop being a depressed douchebag all the time."

I chuckle and speed walk down the hall and out the door. My shoes slip on the steps as I head down and I barely catch my balance. They weren't calling for snow, but I'll be damned if it isn't coming down steadily, a light white coating the ground.

Hopping in my car, I start the engine and text Lena to tell her I'm on my way. As I click my seatbelt into place, my phone dings with a new message.

Reading it, a smile takes over my face until my cheeks hurt.

Lena: Be careful, it's snowing out. I have hot chocolate, and Suicide Squad is in the DVD player.

I text her back with a heart emoji and throw my phone on the passenger’s seat. Turning on my wipers and headlights, I pull out onto the road and my tail end slides slightly. My heart rate picks up, but I straighten the car back out. The roads are too slick, and this is exactly why I hate the winter.

Only a disaster would keep me from getting to Lena's though.

As I get closer to Lena's, I pat my pocket where her promise ring is. If I have my way, it's going back on her finger tonight and she's not taking it off again until I replace it with an engagement ring. As I turn onto the road before Lena's, my phone goes sliding across my seat, almost falling down between the door.

"Crap," I mutter, glancing between it and the road several times. I can reach it. I look over at the phone for a second and lean to grab it. Sitting back up, my stomach leaps into my throat as something brown darts into the road in front of my car. I jerk the wheel to avoid it and my back tires slide out and my car turns sideways.

I turn the wheel the opposite way, but nothing happens, and my heart is beating in my ears so loudly, I can't hear anything else. A clanging of metal reaches my ears a second before the side of my car slams into something, my head bouncing off my window so hard everything goes dark for a moment.

I try to blink my eyes, but everything is spotty and it feels like I'm flying inside my car, my body hit with a strange sense of vertigo.