Lyla had to jerk the wheel, hurtling Naomi against the window in the process to avoid smashing into the other vehicle. As soon as they were clear of the intersection Lyla turned to check on Naomi, accidentally bumping her elbow against the horn in the process. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yeah," Naomi breathed, sighing in relief as adrenaline still pumped through her veins. "I'm fine."
Suddenly a horn honked at them from behind. The truck they'd almost hit was riding their bumper. He was so close they could see the other driver, and he did not look happy. While they couldn't hear him, they could see he was yelling and waving his fist at them. He made a rude hand gesture at them before jerking his thumb, signaling that they should pull over.
"What is this guy's problem?" Lyla huffed, slowing the car as she started guiding it over to the side of the road. "It's not like we hit him."
"Exactly," Naomi said, placing a hand on Lyla's arm to make sure she was paying attention. "We didn't hit him, which means we don't owe him anything. Let's just keep going, okay? Don't pull over."
"Don't worry about it," Lyla sighed, putting the car in park. She unbuckled her seatbelt, watching as the truck pulled off right in front of them. It was still mostly on the road, the hazards blinking on and off in a steady beat. "Just wait here. I'll go see what he wants."
Naomi fiercely shook her head at that. "That is a terrible idea! Lyla--"
"Wait here," Lyla said again and she shut the car door.
Naomi let out a groan. She couldn't stop thinking about what a terrible idea it was for Lyla to get out and get face to face with an angry truck driver. Maybe this was how she was going to die in this timeline. Maybe she was going to tick the guy off so bad that he was just going to chuck her down the hill.
"For someone who worries so much, you're not much of an activist," a voice observed from the backseat.
Naomi whirled around, surprised to spot DJ sprawled out behind her in the car. The demon boasted a dramatic cloak once more, though this time it was a deep brown color rather than ebony. Not that she'd ever dare say it aloud, but Naomi found that it gave off a solid monk vibe.
"Monks have rope belts that they tie around their waist," DJ suddenly snapped at her.
Naomi widened her eyes in shock. "Can you read my mind?" she demanded.
"Of course not," DJ huffed, seemingly annoyed by the question. "I can only hear your thoughts."
Naomi gave her a stern look. "That is reading my mind!"
"No, it most certainly is not," DJ argued. "If I could read your mind, I would be able to sift through your memories and manipulate your emotions. As I said, the only thing I can do is hear your current thoughts."
Naomi huffed. "It's still an invasion of privacy."
DJ growled at that. "Why are humans such babies?" she complained.
"We just like our privacy," Naomi told her. She gave the demon a pointed look. "Why are you even here right now?"
"I told you I would help you out when I could," DJ reminded her.
Naomj actually perked up at that. "Can you get us out of this?"
"How would I do that?" DJ challenged, crossing her arms over the robe.
"I don't know," Naomi said. "Can't you, like, make that guy disappear or make him forget this all happened?"
DJ laughed at her. "I'm just a time anomaly," she explained. "To do what you're suggesting, you'd either need a reality manipulator or a mind bender."
"Then what can you do?" Naomi asked. She realized she was being a little rude to a powerful supernatural creature-- one who had given her a chance to save Lyla no less. She just felt so annoyed that she would pop in, offer help, and then do nothing. It was frustrating, and it made her feel helpless.
DJ offered her a sympathetic look, and Naomi suddenly remembered that the demon could hear thoughts. "I can tell you to pull the emergency break," DJ offered as the car began to roll.
Naomi panicked as the vehicle started to pick up speed as it rushed backwards down the hill. She caught a glimpse of Lyla turning from the man to look on in horror before the slope of the hillside blocked her from sight. Naomi leaned across the seat and fumbled helplessly for the emergency break. She'd never driven a car before, so she really wasn't sure what to do in this type of situation. A glance behind her showed a tree approaching fast. An irritated cry left her lips as she gave up on the break system and decided to just jerk the wheel instead.
Apparently that was not the right solution. The car spun quickly around and Naomi felt sick from the vertigo. A loud crunch sounded in her ear as the side of the sedan clipped the tree when it twirled too closely by. The impact knocked the small vehicle off-center, making it lean dangerously on the driver's side where Naomi still had the wheel gripped tightly in hand. She felt her stomach drop as she let go of the wheel and threw herself back into her seat on the passenger side. Thankfully the car righted itself, steady and stopped at the bottom of the hill. Naomi leaned her head back against the seat, her periwinkle curls tickling her face. She let out a breathy sigh of relief as she took a moment to soak in the fact that she had survived.
"That was way too close," she said, turning to check on DJ in the backseat. It was empty. That probably shouldn't have surprised Naomi as much as it did. "Guess she decided to get out of Dodge. Or Chevy, I guess."
An urgent wrapping on the window forced her attention to the outside of the vehicle, where Lyla stood wide-eyed and ashen-faced. She was yelling something at Naomi, but her voice was too muffled for her to make out what. With a not so steady hand, Naomi unclicked her seatbelt and opened the door to get out. Her feet didn't even have time to touch the ground before Lyla had thrown herself into Naomi's arms.
"Well, hello," Naomi mumbled into her friend's shoulder with a nervous giggle. "I'm so sorry about the car."
Lyla pulled back to give her an incredulous look. "I don't care about the car!" she told her, wrapping her arms around her once more. "Are you okay?"
Naomi nodded into the embrace. "I'm totally fine. You might not be when your mom sees the damage though."
Lyla turned to appraise the vehicle. From the outside, Naomi could now see exactly what had caused the crunch noise: the passenger side mirror had been knocked right off. A bit of wire poked out from where the mirror had been. There was also a long scratch in the paint directly below it, as if it weren't noticeable enough on its own. 'At least it's not the back windshield this time,' Naomi thought to herself glumly. Not that that helped very much when Naomi was the only one who remembered that it was the back windshield that had been broken last time.
With a shake of her head, Lyla walked slowly over to where the morphed piece of plastic held the shattered remnants of the mirror in it. She picked it up and nodded her head at the damaged sedan. "Do you think it'll make it back up the hill?" she asked.
Naomi snorted. "I think that's about as probable as that trucker calling us a tow truck."
"He's such a jerk," Lyla spat, instantly ticked off again. "You know he didn't even check to see if you were okay when the car started rolling back. He just yelled at me when I tried to go after you. He was like, 'hey! We're not done here!' and I just said, 'uh, yeah we are.' Then I had to chase the car down this stupid hill and I almost broke my neck getting down here."
"Why didn't you just leave him alone?" Naomi sighed. "Seriously, you shouldn't have even stopped."
Lyla hung her head, actually looking a little guilty at that. "I know," she muttered.
Naomi allowed a smile and gave her an awkward, comforting pat on the arm. She turned her attention back to the car, and then up at the top of the hill. A groan escaped as she realized what they might have to do to get out of this mess. Lyla glanced over at her with concern.
"What?" she asked, looking her up and down. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"No," Naomi assured her. "I just think we might have to call my dad."
Now Lyla was looking at her like she'd just grown an extra head. Not that Naomi could blame her. She barely talked about her dad, preferring to simply ignore his existence when she hung around the Murphys. Never, not once in the entire four years they had known each other, had Naomi ever suggested they call her dad. Not even when they'd run out of gas on their way back from Oregon.
Naomi had to suggest it now, just like she had the last time she'd lived through this day. It didn't feel any easier this time. "My dad has a friend who owns a Jeep," she explained. "He uses it all the time to pull small cars out of ditches and mud pits and stuff. He could probably pull us back up the hill. I'll just have to get my dad to tell him to bring several extra feet of rope."
"Well," Lyla said, letting out a huff of air from her lungs. "This should be good."
Naomi shot her a look. "Good is not the word I'd use to describe our current situation."
Even so, she fished her phone out of her back pocket. She hesitated once she had her dad's contact pulled up, but when Lyla made a 'hurry up' motion she rolled her eyes and pressed the call button. Part of her hoped he wouldn't answer. He did. Of course he did. Naomi sighed and told him everything that had happened.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Mikey was nice," Lyla offered.
The two of them were sitting in the comfort of Inside Scoop while they waited for Mrs. Murphy to come and assess the damage down to her car. Naomi had been quiet since having to call her dad. Things had started getting better between them the days leading up to Lyla's funeral. In this timeline however, they were still mostly independent to each other. Lyla had never died, and so Naomi's father had never stepped up. It bothered Naomi, but not enough to want to talk about it. She shrugged in response to Lyla to show she had heard her.
"Do you guys hang out a lot?" she tried again.
Naomi shook her head. "He's my dad's friend," she explained, stabbing a spoon into her ice cream cup.
"Okay," Lyla huffed, giving her a pointed look as she straightened in her chair. "What the heck is bothering you? And don't say nothing-- you've been telling me that all day, and because this has been going on all day I know it isn't that you had to call your dad to come help us. Whatever it is I can help you, Naomi. You just have to tell me."
Well, Lyla was right about one thing: it wasn't her dad that was bothering her. It was the fact that, for the most part, nothing had changed in this timeline. They still went to a park, Lyla still yelled at an enraged truck driver, the car was still wrecked, and they still ended up at Inside Scoop. As far as Naomi could tell, Lyla and her mother were still going to end up dead by morning and she still had no idea how to change that. She wished she could tell Lyla. She desperately wished she could but even if Lyla somehow believed her she didn't think there was anything she could do in the next few hours to save herself.
"I guess," Naomi sighed, speaking slowly and choosing her words carefully, "things have just been crappy lately."
Lyla gave her a sympathetic smile. "Been there," she declared, slapping a spoonful of ice cream onto her tongue. She looked thoughtful for a moment. "What you need is a girls' night out. Ice cream is only the first step."
Naomi perked up at that. Leave it to Lyla to accidentally give her the perfect solution. In the week after the Murphys had died, everyone around Naomi had been trying to keep all the grisly details under lock and key. Even so that didn't mean that some information hadn't found its way to her. One of the things she remembered was that the time of death had been marked as fairly early on in the night. If Naomi could keep Lyla and her mother out of their house for a few hours she just might give the crazy would-be murderer enough time to roam the place and move on. It might be enough to keep the two women alive.
It was perfect! Naomi didn't know how she hadn't thought of it before but she was so glad Lyla had brought it up. The whole day she'd been floundering trying to come up with something. She couldn't believe such a simple solution had been dropped in her lap. Drunk on her giddiness, Naomi leaned across the table to plant an ecstatic kiss on Lyla's cheek.
"You're a genius!" she announced, sitting back in her seat to scoop ice cream into her mouth. She hoped Lyla couldn't see her blush, but at the moment she was too happy and hopeful to care.
Lyla looked at her like she thought she might be crazy, but there was also a smile firmly in place as she shook her head at her friend. "You're definitely a little off," she told her fondly. "But I'm glad I can help."
Suddenly the bell above the door chimed as another patron entered Inside Scoop. The two teenagers exchanged looks as they recognized Mrs. Murphy with an irritated expression on her face. "If that scratched up Impala outside is mine," the woman announced, catching sight of the girls, "then I'd better have some ice cream ready and waiting for me."
On cue, Henry leaned across the counter with a cone in his hand. "Here you go, Heather," he said, offering it out. "It's already been paid for. Courtesy of your daughter."
Heather accepted the cone with a snort. "I might not have a daughter come morning," she warned him with a wink.
'You will if I have a say,' Naomi thought as the woman approached their table. Heather stood above them, giving each girl an appraising look as she lifted the cone to her mouth. Lyla looked at Naomi, waiting for her to say something. Naomi gave her a miniscule shrug, wondering if she should really be the first one to speak. After all, it was Mrs. Murphy's car that had been damaged under Lyla's watch. It really felt more like a family affair.
Mrs. Murphy decided to be the one to break the silence.
"Did either one of you get hurt?" she asked.
"No," Lyla answered honestly.
Naomi shook her head, adding a quick, "No ma'am," when she noticed Mrs. Murphy's gaze was fixed steadily on her daughter.
"Do I want to know how it happened?" she questioned her daughter.
"Probably not," Lyla responded truthfully with a shake of her head.
Mrs. Murphy let out a long sigh. She sat down in one of the empty chairs and leaned her arms down on the table. Naomi had never noticed, but she bore a striking resemblance to her daughter. At first glance they had their differences. Mrs. Murphy's eyes were a sparkling hazel as opposed to Lyla's stunning green. Their hair was another thing they did not have in common. Though they both boasted shades of red, Mrs. Murphy's was more of a strawberry blonde while Lyla's was a deep auburn. A closer look at the two revealed their similarities: same nose, same cheekbones, same shape of the eyes and rounded faces. Looking at Mrs. Murphy was like getting a glimpse of Lyla's future, of what she would look like when she grew up. And she would grow up. Naomi would make sure of it.
"So," Mrs. Murphy spoke suddenly. "What's on the agenda for tonight?"
"Movie?" Naomi blurted out. She had to suggest something long winded that would keep everybody out of the house. It wasn't the cheapest suggestion, but it was the first thing that had popped into her head.
Luckily, Lyla backed her up with a shrug. "Sounds good to me," she said.
"It's been awhile since I've been to the theatre," Mrs. Murphy grinned. "Back before they banned bags. Luckily now I've got a few Twix up my sleeves."
"Mom, no you don't," Lyla told her with a sigh.
"Shush," Mrs. Murphy told her, giving Naomi an approving look as the girl stifled a laugh. "It's part of the joke. What movie did you want to see?"
'Something long,' Naomi thought, grateful the two were onboard with her idea. It was starting to seem like things just might work out for her. Thank goodness this whole thing was almost over.