Kyle was right.
We shouldn't have taken that cab.
The driver was acting strange before we even got in. No, he didn't seem angry.
Definitely not drunk. But there was something about him. Something I felt in my gut.
And I never have gut feelings about anything.
He pulled up and rolled his window down. He didn't say anything and just looked at us until Jay asked if we could get in. He still said nothing, but he didn't say no so we started to pile in.
I sat on the seatbelt buckle and it hurt. Jay laughed saying I'd have a weird bruise.
The driver still said nothing.
We gave him the address. He rolled up his window, but only after spitting out of it first.
Then he started driving and the weird feeling in my stomach started.
See, Kyle always said to trust your instincts. If something doesn't feel right- don't do it. Or at least try to stop it. I did neither that night.
Jay and Liss were talking loudly about something that happened at a bar they'd gone to the night before. I was behind the passenger seat and my eyes kept wandering over to the cab driver. I couldn't see his whole face, just his profile and most of the back of his head. He looked normal enough, but then I noticed a vein near his temple.
It was pulsing hard, hard enough for me to notice all the way from where I was sitting. I realized he clenched his jaw a lot. And blinked harder than most people.
It reminded me of when our cat growing up got into a fight with a raccoon in our backyard and ended up contracting rabies. He seemed normal enough for a few days and started getting twitchy and edgy and was startled by the smallest things. The cat's name was Frosty because he was all black. We thought it was funny. It was only when we had to put him down and I touched his fur for the last time that I realized we should've given him a respectable name. Like, Gunner or Knight.
In his final days, Frosty turned from a domesticated outdoor cat into a feral, angry little beast that darted around in the dark hissing and foaming in anguish.
Our silent cab driver seemed moments from the same.
We stopped at a red light. My stomach flipped again.