“We only wanted to send a message,” I stumbled over my words, but finally managed to get them out We had only been trying to pull a prank on Justin, but everything had gone horribly wrong. Matt had left me behind to get caught which was not surprising. He was the type of guy who would never take responsibility for his actions.
When he got fired from a job, it was always the boss’ fault for expecting him to do his job. When his bank account got low he would start asking for money with the full intention of never repaying anyone back. And tonight, he had led us into a wild good chase and then had disappeared as soon as the police showed up. Leave it to him to trick Ruby and I into getting involved and immediately leaving us high and dry. I’m not sure why we had let him talk us into it.
“So here’s what happened…” Ruby gave a concise version of the prank we had been trying to play on Matt’s brother. But the more she talked, the more serious the prank sounded. The look on the officer’s face confirmed my suspicion that this was much more serious than I ever could have imagined.
Just as I was about to add to Ruby’s story, Matt casually pulled up in his Toyota asking if we needed a ride home. Before any of us could answer, his car was engulfed in a pile of smoke and fire.
Standing Room Only 