Hot Summer Nights by Laramie Briscoe Page B

“He’s caught in there!”
    Everything happened in slow motion as Wayne fought to help. He could see through the shattered windshield that Kevin was knocked out cold. He was caught in his safety harness, and if the car did catch on fire he was a goner.
    “What are you doing, Wayne?” Clementine screamed as he went in through the passenger side window.
    “Somebody’s gotta help him. If we don’t, he’s going to die in there. I don’t want that on my hands!”
    David grabbed her shoulders as she lunged after him, pulling her back from the car. Gasoline leaked from the back and one spark could ignite a fire that would blow all of them to Charlotte. “Get back and let them do what they need to!”
    Wayne shimmied in, removing Kevin’s harness. “Be careful movin’ him,” Lee called out. “His back could be hurt.”
    Wayne nodded even though nobody could see him. He was beginning to get claustrophobic. He couldn’t breathe inside the car. The smell of motor oil and gasoline was enough to make him gag. It scared him to see Kevin like this. No matter that they had never been good friends. He would never wish any kind of pain on another person. Ever.
    “I’m being as careful as I can, but I can only do so much,” Wayne called back out as he dragged Kevin out of the wreckage. As soon as he got him out and a safe distance from the wrecked car, it exploded, causing everybody to scream.
    Lee kneeled over Kevin as Wayne did the same on the other side. “Kevin can you hear me?” Lee asked. He couldn’t tell if the younger man was breathing or not.
    “Are his parents here?” Wayne asked, looking around at the people that had gathered.
    Clementine stepped forward. “They didn’t show up. I guess somebody on his crew will go get them. Is he going to be okay?”
    Wayne didn’t know; he couldn’t tell if Kevin was breathing, and he noticed that Kevin had not made any kind of move whatsoever. However, he didn’t want to move him either. He didn’t want to do any more damage than they had already had to inflict. “I dunno, Clem. I just dunno.”
    As he spoke they heard the blaring of sirens. The paramedics arrived and pushed back everyone that had gathered. They had to work on the young man. Wayne paled as he saw them lift Kevin onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. He felt like what Justin Grimes must have felt like the day he almost killed Billy.
    “Are you okay?” His father’s heavy hand came down on his arm. Wayne looked at it, a blank stare covering his face. If Billy didn’t know better, he would say his son was in shock and incredibly angry at what had just happened. Wayne took off at a walk and tried to keep going even when Billy’s hand reached out to pull him back to stand with the rest of the family.
    “Let me go. Just let me walk it off, alright? I don’t wanna deal with anyone right now.” He shook his father’s heavy hand off his back and stalked off, tying the fire suit around his waist.
    *
    Wayne cursed loudly, still feeling the anger and fearfulness coursing through his veins. What he really wanted was to jump into a car, any car, and just drive until he felt himself calm down. Either that or pound in Kevin’s face for scaring the shit out of him, until he felt the anger leave his body.
    “You okay?” He heard a soft voice ask as it approached.
    “Clem, I thought I told everybody to leave me alone. Newsflash, honey, that included you,” he spat, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket as he continued walking.
    “You don’t need to be alone right now, Wayne. You’ll just go off and do somethin’ stupid.”
    She watched with wide eyes as he lit the Marlboro Light and inhaled deeply. She’d never seen this side of him, sure not a lot of people had. The violence she could feel emanating from him scared her. It was obvious that he was angry with himself, but she felt like there was a part of him that was angry at Kevin.
    “I’ll be fine, Clem. I’m sorry I’m bein’ such an