Free Embrace by Cherie Colyer

the wooden chairs with a plate of leftover pizza, a bottle of water, and the phone.
    “Not so fast,” my dad said before I could dial. “The school called.”
    Uh-oh. I put on my best innocent expression.
    He placed his hands on the table and bent forward so that his face was inches from mine. “You’ve been late to three classes this week.”
    It was actually four. I wondered which teacher hadn’t ratted me out to the attendance office.
    “Madison, I don’t want you ruining your attendance record.”
    “I was only a few minutes late. I didn’t miss anything.”
    “That’s not the point, young lady.” He scowled. “You better not be late again. Do you understand me?”
    “Yeah.” I understood I’d be grounded if I didn’t manage to get to my classes on time, at least for the next few weeks.
    After spending the next twenty-gazillion minutes reiterating this to me, he stalked out of the kitchen. I dialed Kaylee, and she answered on the second ring.
    “You will not believe what happened,” she said. She didn’t even say hello. And here I’d thought she’d called to see how my afternoon with Isaac went.
    There was silence on the other end of the line. I could practically see Kaylee drumming her fingers on her leg waiting impatiently for a reply.
    “What happened?” I asked dutifully and took a bite of pizza.
    “A truck nearly turned me and my MINI into scrap metal. That’s what happened.”
    I choked. A girl needs warning not to have her mouth full of food when someone’s about to tell her that her best friend could have died. After downing a third of my bottle of water to get the half-chewed food pushed to my stomach, I screamed into the phone, “Omigod! Kaylee, what happened? Are you okay? Why didn’t you call me?”
    “Because, as it turns out, I’m okay, and Josh was there, and I didn’t think they had a phone at the top of the lighthouse.”
    She knew damn well I meant on my cell phone, but since she was all right I didn’t point this out.
    “How’d you know where we went?” I asked.
    “Josh.”
    I rolled my eyes. Of course Josh would know. He would have told Isaac where to find me after school. That still didn’t tell me what had happened with Kaylee. She didn’t weave in and out of traffic, let alone cut in front of eighteen-wheelers.
    “Well, spill!”
    “Damn car was acting up. Sputtering. Jerking forward. About halfway home it seemed like it was finally running right when bam , the steering sticks and the brakes go out. Next thing I know, I’m in the middle of an intersection, and all I can see out my driver side window is the grill of a semi-truck. I should be dead. Seriously Madison, my life flashed before my eyes, and for a moment I—” She paused. “Never mind, forget it.”
    “You what?”
    “It’s silly now that I think about it, but for a moment I thought I saw a dark hooded figure. You know, the ones that schlep souls to the afterlife.”
    “A reaper?” I asked. We were definitely laying off horror films.
    “Yeah. But that’s totally ridiculous, right?” She let out a nervous laugh. “Because when I looked again, there was a group of kids with skateboards. One of them had on a hooded sweatshirt.”
    Or it was ridiculous because reapers aren’t exactly strolling down Main Street with the living. I kept that thought to myself.
    “Kaylee, I’m sure it was one of the boys.” When she didn’t say anything else about it, I asked, “Where’s your car now?”
    “Josh had it towed to his house. His guess is the computer shorted out. His uncle’s a mechanic. He’s going to have him give it a once-over this weekend.”
    “Are you okay? Do you want me to come over? I can probably borrow my dad’s truck and be there in ten minutes.”
    “I’m a little shaken, but I’m okay. I’m going to go to bed. Look, Josh’s picking me up tomorrow. We’ll swing by and get you before school. Okay?”
    “Sure. Kaylee?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Are you sure you’re okay? If