What We Leave Behind by Rochelle B. Weinstein Read Free Book Online Page B

when he’d be talking about someone, and a wistfulness would cloud his face, and I’d think, maybe, just maybe he was talking about me. And when I learned he was not, I never allowed the disillusion to seep in, instead clinging to the intermittent connections that had my heart radiating like an antenna.
    Maybe it was all in my imagination and I just reminded him of his little sister, or maybe he was a pervert who liked the attention of younger girls. I didn’t know and he probably didn’t either.

CHAPTER 4
    The car lurched forward, and before I knew what was happening, Jonas grabbed the wheel and turned it sharply to the right. “Are you crazy, Jessie? You need to stay within those lines.”
    “I told you I suck at driving. I’m never doing it again.”
    The evolution of our friendship in the outside world had officially begun. Beyond the hospital doors, Jonas was giving me my first driving lesson.
    “If you even went just a little farther to the left, you would have hit that old man on the bike.”
    “Do you want the wheel?” I asked.
    “Don’t be so pig-headed. You have to practice, but you also have to pay attention.”
    How could anyone concentrate on driving with Jonas Levy sitting beside her? And how could I maintain my cool when my palms were sticking to the steering wheel, and I felt more like an octopus with too many arms?
    “I’ve told you ten times, you don’t use both feet for driving. The right foot controls the brake and the gas.” I pushed on the gas, hearing the car rumble to life.
    “Good, now when you want to brake, move it over to the brake pedal. Put the car into drive and let’s try it again.”
    “I don’t know why we’re doing this. I don’t need to drive anywhere.”
    “Trust me, you’ll be glad you learned. LA’s a big place.”
    I switched into gear and maneuvered the car into the street. We weren’t far from the hospital, a peaceful residential community about to be overrun by thrashing metal. How did he persuade me to venture out of our safe habitat and into this wild terrain anyway? I scanned the street before me. There were no little old men on bicycles to worry about, so I pressed on the gas a little harder.
    “Good, ease into it,” he said, as if he’d taught driver’s ed his whole life. “You just might be driving by your sixteenth birthday. A little more practice and you’ll ace the test.”
    We approached an intersection at the same time as another car. He said, “You know what to do right now, right, when two cars reach a four-way stop sign at the same time?”
    I didn’t answer. I vaguely remembered reading about the rules and regulations meant to keep us from hurting others on the road. Why wasn’t there a manual like that for people?
    “You did read the driver’s ed guide, Jess, didn’t you?”
    “Uh, parts of it.”
    He was visibly irritated with me. “The person on the right has the right of way. That’s you. Now go before this guy does and we hit him.”
    I pressed my foot gently on the pedal and began to move into the intersection.
    “If you don’t know the rules of the road, you’re not going to pass the driving test. The written component is just as important.”
    “I told you, I don’t even want the measly license.”
    “Watch out!” he cried out. “Brake!”
    “What?” I answered, searching the road ahead of me, frantically trying to follow his direction. And there it was, a tiny little duck crossing my path. I hadn’t even noticed him coming in our direction. With both my feet this time, I defied the rules, desperate for the extra push I’d need to stop the unwieldy beast I commanded. The car stopped short, and Jonas and I lurched forward. Without another word, we unbuckled our seatbelts and switched places.
    “Fuck the right of way,” I said, backing up against the seat and throwing my legs up onto the dashboard. “And while we’re on the subject, what’s the deal with neutral? I just don’t get neutral. Why would