The Donor

Davey pulled out of the car park, his tyres screeching loudly as they gripped the rough surface of the road.

The smell of burning rubber wafted through the open window, as his foot hit the accelerator and his friends shouted in the back.

To his left his girlfriend Amy sat quietly, brooding and disapproving.

“Will you just slow down?” she asked quietly, her voice tight.

Davey eased his right foot off the accelerator and the cheers of Derek and John in the back turned to boos.

’Shut up you two,” he shouted back at them and they quietened, whispering conspiratorially between themselves.

Davey looked across at Amy.

Despite doing what she had asked she was still refusing to meet his gaze, her eyes set straight ahead on the dark road in front of them, her lips pursed narrowly, and her arms folded across her chest.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, although he already knew.

He had promised to take her for a romantic meal for two and had failed miserably.

How was he supposed know they were going to turn up and gate crash?

He couldn’t be too angry with them though. It was exactly the sort of stunt he would have pulled if the tables had been turned.

He knew deep down that his friends only wanted to get to know Amy better and although she hadn’t kicked up a fuss at the table, smiling as Derek and John had teased her mercilessly, Davey had sensed her frostiness towards him immediately.

She answered his question with a sigh and turned away.

Angry with himself for upsetting her, Davey pulled over to the side of the road.

Amy looked at him with a query in her raised eyebrows.

Davey turned around and looked at his friends in the back seat. They were watching some stupid gaming video on Youtube and it took them three or four seconds to realise that they were no longer moving.

“Why have we stopped?” asked John, dumbly.

“This is where you boys say goodbye,” said Davey.

“It’s ok,” he heard Amy whisper quietly.

Derek and John both protested to their friend.

Davey laughed at them both.

“I’ve had enough of you for one night. I’ve got some making up to do to this beautiful girl sitting next to me so I think it’s time you got out. You can walk the rest of the way.”

They continued to fight their case but soon realised their efforts were in vain and reluctantly got out of the car.

Davey turned the engine back on and laughed at the sight of his two friends giving him the finger in the rear-view mirror as he drove up the road. They would be ok.

As he pulled away, the silhouette of his friends fading into the distance behind him, he felt Amy’s hand on his leg.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she said softly.

“I did,” Davey replied. “I’m sorry about tonight. I shouldn’t have told them where we were going. I didn’t think they would turn up.”

“I know you didn’t and I really like the guys…”

Davey turned to look at her with a quizzical look on his face.

She laughed.

“I do like them,” she protested, giggling.

“I barely even like them,” Davey said.

“They are your best friends Davey and I want them to be part of our lives. Just not all the time.”

“Deal,” he replied.

They sat together in easy silence, the tension of the previous half an hour between them, completely dissipated.

As they continued down the deserted road Amy leant across and kissed Davey softly on the cheek.

She lingered by the side of his face and he turned to find her beautiful pearl green eyes staring at him intensely. He slowed down and kissed her on the mouth lingering for a second longer than he should have done.

“Stop the car,” Amy said.

It was a demand not a request but he didn’t need asking twice. Davey was travelling so slowly now anyway that he was able to slow and kill the engine in seconds.

Amy didn’t wait a second longer and before Davey knew it her lips were on his, the passion of a young couple in love for the first time easily overcoming any tension caused by overzealous and intrusive friends.

At that moment Davey and Amy felt like they were the luckiest two people in the whole world.

Unfortunately their luck was about to run out in the form of Jack Adams who had been drinking heavily since that afternoon.

He was now in the front seat of his van, windows rolled down and music blaring out.

As he tapped his left hand in time with the music on the steering wheel, he drank deeply from a bottle of beer with his right before discarding the empty out of the window.

As he leaned over to the passenger seat to get another one, he veered straight into the opposite lane and into the path of Davey’s stationary car.

Davey, who now had his hand up Amy’s shirt, never saw the car coming. He was vaguely aware of the sound of an engine from somewhere but it didn’t trouble him. He was too pre-occupied with the contents of Amy’s shirt.

And then suddenly the noise got louder and Davey broke away from Amy who let out a frustrated moan.

That moan was the last thing Davey would ever hear as Jack’s car hit his vehicle head on, killing him instantly.