Unbroken Promises by Dianne Stevens

stayed at the house. I don’t like being a spectator and I am certainly not going be a participator.
    You only tell me the half of what is going to happen because eveytime there is always something extra that takes place. And I seem to be the only one who knows nothing about it,” Beth said aggravated. She didn’t care at this point. She was fed up with the way they have been treating her. If she made them mad and they didn’t want to have anything else to do with her, then so be it.
    “I am so sorry. You are absolutely right; Beth, but sometimes I don’t even know what’s going to happen. Like the fight on Halloween, how was I supposed to know about that?
    However, I promise if I know for sure what is going to happen, I will let you know everything from now on. Besides, school’s almost out and we have to have one more adventure to add to our sophomore year. All we plan on doing is riding the bikes and cooking out, that’s all.” Beth didn’t know if she accomplished anything by confronting Becky. She kinda’ felt as if Becky was just telling her what she wanted to hear. But, in the end, Beth said she would go with them for a few hours. She told Becky to tell Julie that she would meet them at the end of her driveway around midnight.
    She really hated hurting Susan and Jordon the way she had been doing lately. It killed her to hear her sister crying because of her, but Beth rationalized the new situation by thinking she wouldn’t hurt them again because they wouldn’t find out. Beth told Becky she would meet them in front of the house at midnight and she would.
    Friday night about 10 p.m. Beth told everyone goodnight. She said she was tired and she’d see them in the morning.
    After Beth shut her door, she took a hot shower and climbed in bed. She lay there, not making a sound, while she anxiously waited for everyone else to go to sleep. When she didn’t hear anyone moving about in the house, she got up and began dressing. She slipped on a pair of jogging pants, button-up cotton shirt, and a pair of tennis shoes.
    Her conscience was bothering her some about sneaking out. She hoped Susan and Jordon would never find out because she knew it would break their hearts. She also had an eerie feeling that something was going to go wrong—like a flat tire or something that would keep her from getting back home before someone noticed her missing.
    “Oh well,” she thought. If she didn’t get those distressing images out of her mind, she might as well climb back in bed because she wasn’t going to have any fun anyway. About a quarter to midnight, Beth slipped out of her room carrying her shoes. She would wait to put them on in the car.
    After the air conditioner kicked on, giving her the steady blowing noise she needed, she opened the front door and eased it shut. She tiptoed down the steps of the front porch. When she was free and clear she took off running across the damp lawn to where she had told Becky to tell Julie to park. The night air had a heavy musty smell to it. Beth barely saw the car because there was no moon out and it was dark as pitch. The crickets sounded so loud in her ears she thought their shrill chirping would wake up everyone in the house if they didn’t hush. Beth had told Becky to make sure no lights came on when she opened the door just in case Jordon decided to look out the window for something.
    When she made it to the car, she opened the door, hopped in, and the car took off.
    “Whew, that was scary!” Beth exclaimed.
    “I bet it was,” Randy replied.
    “Randy! What are you doing driving Julie’s car?” Then Beth immediately looked in the back seat and, to her horror, found no one.
    “Randy, what is going on? Where is everyone else? I want you to take me back home. I do not appreciate this one bit. This is not how Becky told me I would be picked up.”
    “Hold on a minute, Beth, don’t get all worked up over nothing. Allen, Travis, and I were in Allen’s truck pulling the dirt