#drunk driving

On her way she almost bowled right into Lancer but he turned out of the way. 

“The Darkest Hour, Ms. Sanchez! Where are you going?”

Paulina did not answer him and he sighed. He turned around with a forlorn look on his face. When he looked up and made eye contact with Dash, he dropped his mug of coffee onto the ground. 

No one moved to help him and Dash looked around at the class. What was wrong with them today?

“Are you okay, Mr. Lancer?” Dash got up from his seat and walked over to Lancer and bent down to start picking up pieces of his mug. He dragged Lancer’s garbage over to him and dropped them into the bin. As if the sound startled him out of his mind, Lancer shook his head and made a shooing motion at Dash. 

“Please, Mr. Baxter. Don’t pick up sharp objects with your hands. Can you grab me a broom from the closet at the back of the room? And some paper towels?”

Dash stood up and walked to the back of the classroom. He could hear his classmate’s whispers around him, but he didn’t know what happened that was so gossip worthy. None of them were about to get up and help their teacher who looked like he had had some kind of episode. 

He opened the closet door and grabbed the roll of paper towels that was in there along with the broom. 

Dash really wished Kwan were here. Then he could-

A splitting headache shot through Dash’s head this time at the thought of Kwan. He clenched his jaw together and waited it out. When he opened his eyes again he saw the roll of paper towels on the floor. 

He bent over and picked them up and brought them back up to Lancer. Lancer made quick work cleaning up the mess and thanked Dash for his help. Once everything was all cleaned up and Dash was back in his seat, Lancer cleared his throat and started class. 

“Open your textbooks to page-” 

~~~~~~~

For reasons he couldn’t remember, football practice had been cancelled all last week. He was excited to finally get back to it today. It was odd though. He still hadn’t seen Kwan anywhere this whole time. He wondered where he was. Did he get sick? Surely Dash would’ve heard from him by now if he had. 

The other students were still giving him weird looks but they were mostly back to treating him like normal. Some of them were still wary but Dash didn’t know why. He could understand Mikey being wary of him but Paulina? She hadn’t talked to him all week. Every time he tried she would just start sobbing her eyes out and Dash couldn’t help feeling like he hurt her somehow. 

Practice was odd too. Coach had them do more warmups than normal and they didn’t do any of their usual football drills. They just ran laps around the field and through the football back and forth. It was like they were in gym class instead of football practice. 

Maybe he was just trying to ease them back into it after having not practiced all week long. Dash could kind of see that but it was still odd to him. 

They finished practice early and Dash finished changing in the locker room. He grabbed his backpack and walked outside and away from the school. Even though he was looking forward to practice, he was ready to go home. 

He came to the first intersection that was in front of the school and stopped. The light was still red and he didn’t have the walking symbol. 

Time seemed to slow as he waited for the light to change and he was elated when it finally did. 

Dash was about the step off the sidewalk onto the road when a car drove by really fast. He recoiled away from the road and he got another pounding headache on top of the rush of fear that had filled him when the headlights had filled his field of vision. 

He was panting and Dash didn’t know why he was reacting this way. He needed to talk to- He needed to find Kwan.

The pain in his head pounded again and Dash sank to his knees on the sidewalk. With his head in his hands, Dash wanted to curl up right there until the pain stopped. But he couldn’t stop thinking about Kwan and-

Then somebody was tapping on his shoulder and that seemed to bring him out of whatever was happening in his mind. He lifted his head up out of his hands and looked over his shoulder.

Danny Fenton was standing there behind him. He had a solemn look on his face and like he had an idea of what was going on. Dash supposed everyone at school had some idea of what had been going on lately except for Dash himself. 

There was something different about Danny than the rest of his classmates though. Dash couldn’t quite tell what it was. He felt like they were more kindred spirits than they used to be. That thought itself invoked a smaller headache than the near migraine he had just had a moment ago. 

“Can you tell me what’s going on?”

Danny’s features softened just a little and he shook his head. 

“You’ll remember in time. I don’t think you’re ready to process it yet.”

“Process what?” 

Another set of headlights went by and Dash jumped at the sight of them but it didn’t invoke another headache. He climbed up off the ground, suddenly embarrassed for Danny to see him on his knees like that. 

“Do you want me to walk you home?” 

Dash didn’t expect the offer from Danny and was about to refuse it. He didn’t need Fenton to walk him home. But he looked at the road in front of him. It was such a short way to cross to get to the other side but it seemed daunting. Scary. For reasons he couldn’t quite place yet. 

Dash nodded and followed Danny into the road once the other boy led the way. 

~~~~~~~

Things were coming back to him in bits and pieces. His headaches lessened and he was finally starting to remember things instead of being almost immobilized. 

It had something to do with a car. A car and headlights. Screeching brakes but it was too late. 

Dash remembered that it had hurt. It hurt really bad. He couldn’t remember anything besides that. He couldn’t remember anything about the hospital or who had hit him. 

He still couldn’t remember anything about Kwan. He really needed to know where Kwan was. 

Soon it made sense why everyone was so shocked to see him back at school. They hadn’t really been acting oddly at all. Not given what Dash thought had happened. But he wasn’t sure. He was back at school. Surely he was okay?

Dash was stuck staring at the screen of the computer in the school’s library. Everyone else had already gone home except for a few students and teachers. Dash was alone in the library except for the librarian that had given him a sad look when he walked in. He tried to ignore it but it only made his stomach squirm more. 

The screen was bright and he had a search engine open but he didn’t type anything in yet. Did he really want to know? He had a feeling he didn’t but he had to know about Kwan. Even if he learned something about himself that he didn’t want to know, he had to know what happened to Kwan. 

“Hey.” 

Dash jumped at the sound of Fenton’s voice behind him. The other boy had a real knack for sneaking up on people, but lately so had Dash. He turned to look at him and understanding dawned inside him but he couldn’t quite put words to what his brain finally put into place. 

He just stared at Danny and Danny looked at the computer screen. 

“Are you ready?” 

Dash was stunned by the question and remembered back to the day Danny walked him home from school. Danny must’ve known he wasn’t ready to know whatever it was that the entire school already knew about. But that was a good question.

Was Dash ready to know?

His hands hovered over the keyboard for a few seconds before he started typing. 

Dash Baxter and Kwan Huang.

He stalled over the enter key for another few seconds before he squeezed his eyes shut and finally pressed the button. 

When he opened his eyes again the first thing he saw was a news article describing an event that had happened one night after football practice. After Dash had been awarded a football scholarship to the college of his choice. 

Drunk driver. 

He knew it had something to do with a car but he needed to know what happened after. Was Kwan okay?

Dash had a feeling he wasn’t. That neither of them were. 

He read through the article and had a sinking pit form in his stomach. At the very end it had two links that would take him to the obituaries. 

His stomach continued to fall. 

He ignored the link that was attached to his name. He didn’t think he needed to click on that one. He clicked on Kwan’s and it popped up. 

Kwan Huang. March 20th, 1990- April 17th, 2007

Dash didn’t read anything else beyond that. His eyes filled with tears and he let his head lean forward to rest on the desk in front of him.

Kwan was gone. Like gone gone. Not even gone in the same way that Dash was gone. And even more gone type of gone. 

Dash’s shoulders shook as he tried to keep the sobs in, but he couldn’t hold it back anymore. 

His best friend dead. They were both dead. Probably had been for weeks. 

Then he felt Danny’s hand on his shoulder and he jumped. He had forgotten he was there. Dash turned around to look at him. Dash knew that Danny was different. Not quite different in the same way as Dash, but similar. 

Dash sniffled. “Where is he?” 

Danny shrugged. “I don’t know.” 

Dash squeezed his eyes shut. “Why did I come back and he didn’t? Why isn’t his ghost here with me?” 

Danny sat down in the chair across from Dash. “I don’t have those answers. I don’t know exactly what it takes to make a ghost. But I do believe he is at peace.” 

Dash covered his eyes with his hands. Did that mean Dash wasn’t at peace? Why was Dash here? 

Why couldn’t he have gone with Kwan? 

Dash cried and cried. He didn’t know how long the two of them sat there for but he was sure they were keeping the librarian there. But she never came and told them they had to leave so she could lock up and go home. 

“It hurts so bad.” Dash whispered to Danny.

“I know.” 

“My whole life-” 

“I know.” 

Dash took a deep breath and tried to sit up. He felt shaky now but he knew he needed to get moving. He needed to do something.

Pushing himself up to stand he wobbled a bit but he made it. How odd it was for a ghost to be weak from crying, but what did he know about ghosts.

Danny stood up with him.

“Did you want to go visit him?”

Dash gave Danny an odd look before understanding dawned on his face. He nodded.

Danny led them out of the library. They passed the librarian again and she gave him a small nod. Dash didn’t have the energy in him to respond to her. 

Once they were out of the school, it didn’t take them long to get to the cemetery. It was on the edge of town near the park. Danny led them through it. It almost felt like a maze. 

Finally, Danny stopped at two headstones. 

One had Dash’s name on it, and the other one was for Kwan. There was a plaque on the ground in front of both of them. 

Best friends. You make my soul smile. 

Dash could feel more tears spring into his eyes. It still hurt, but the message on the plaque brought him a sense of peace. It wasn’t much, but he hoped Kwan could see it where he was too. 

Dash brushed a hand over Kwan’s headstone.