“Where to?” Éclair asks as she takes the wheel of my car and sends us zipping out of the parking deck.

“The hospital, where the fuck do you think?” I snap as I slowly cover the passenger’s seat of my car with a puddle of my own blood. “I can’t believe she shot me!”

“I can’t believe you took a bullet for me,” Éclair says, ignoring all traffic regulations.

“Watch it!” I shout when she speeds through a red light, “You’re going to get us killed!”

“Suzette is the one who is going to get us killed,” Éclair hisses.

“Yeah, about that,” I say, a hint of resentment in my tone, “you never told me your sister was insane!”

“You never told me you were screwing her! And I didn’t know she was that crazy. I mean, she’s always been a little off, but-” the car jolts forward. I glance back, and of course, Suzette is in the car behind us –having just rammed into us.

“She’s going to run us off the road!” I shout.

“And she’s probably still has my gun,” Éclair says, “Well this is just great.”

My ears are ringing. How could Sylvia –Suzette –do this? After everything we’ve been through in the past few months I am suddenly finding out that it was all fake? Everything she did she did because she knew it would get me excited. No girlfriend is that laid back! I mean, seriously, how did I think any of that was real? Perfect body, mind, and soul! She was like a dream! Turns out she was just a nightmare out to ruin my life. She had created my ideal girl for me just to yank it right out from under me, and for what? Money? To get back at her sister? This bitch is all kinds of crazy!

“Shit!” I hear Éclair scream as Suzette rams us again, and Éclair suddenly jerks the wheel to the right. I swear, the car comes up onto two wheels for a second as we make this freakishly rapid turn onto… a one way street.

“Son of a bitch!” I scream and grab hold of the oh-shit handle above the window. I see five cars coming our way –the faces on the drivers are just as freaked out as mine.

Éclair jerks the car back and forth and up onto the sidewalk. One poor bastard jumps up into a stores window’s shingles to avoid us. I look back, and Suzette is actually following us. “Is she still behind us?” Éclair shrieks as she jerks us down another road to get off the one way street.

“Yes!” I say after looking into the rearview. “Your sister is crazy!”

“No shit!” Éclair shouts, “I’m going to lead her to the police station.”

“Do it,” I say, “turn down this street.”

“No, that will take me downtown,” she says.

“The station is downtown,” I argue.

“No, it’s not,” I argue right back. Are we really having a petty argument right now? Suzette hits us again, but this time we spin out, but somehow Éclair manages to get us facing around the correct way. I can smell burnt rubber. I hear a gun go off. “She’s shooting at us!” I shout.

“What could she possibly gain from killing us?” Éclair snaps as she regains control of the car.

“She just transferred all of my money to an offshore account,” I say.

“Damn it,” Éclair says, and this time when she tries to turn we wind up spinning around completely. She throws the car in reverse and hits the gas.

“What the hell are you doing?” I scream, and as I look straight out the windshield I can see Suzette coming up on us at full speed with this absolutely crazy look in her eyes.

“Shit!” I hear Éclair say; she is looking back; she jerks the wheel again, and the car flips.

The next few seconds feel like they are happening in slow motion as I glance out the window and see Suzette running straight on into a cement truck –the truck is obviously the reason Éclair had spun off. I’m not sure how many times we flip, but I can feel my shoulders and head bash around as glass shatters all around us. We stop flipping, and we wind up upside down dangling by our seatbelts.

I rub the side of my head, and I see blood from my bullet wound dripping down onto the ceiling of the vehicle. “Geeze,” I groan and I glance over at Éclair who is dangling beside me. She’s not moving. “Éclair? Éclair?” I reach for her, tapping her shoulder, “Éclair! Éclair! Wake up!” I think this is the most terrified I’ve ever been. The thought of losing her is by far the most horrifying moment of my life.

“Ma’am, are you okay?” I hear a man shouting –one of the construction workers who had been working on the road.

I look out the window, and I see Suzette climbing out of her crushed car. Of course, the crazy one is fine. She looks really beat up; I swear her leg is broken as she starts hobbling across the street towards me. “Shit, shit, shit, shit!” I struggle with the seatbelt; she’s going to kill us. I can see Éclair’s gun in her right hand, dangling at her side. She looks dead at me, and she raises her gun.

The sound of squeaking tires and a horrible thud shrieks in my ears as I watch a van come into my line of sight, running Suzette down where she stands. My jaw drops as I witness Suzette go up and over the enormous vehicle, landing on the assault behind the van. Turns out it wasn’t luck that saved me. Fucking Leonard Troft, my personal driver, climbs out of the car that had hit Suzette.

“Leo?” I question.

She straightens his suit as construction workers are helping me out of my car. I grip onto one of the kind Samaritans as I stare at Leonard. “Did you just…”

“I believe I did, sir. I saw you and Ms. Éclair fleeing from that lunatic, so I followed you… is Ms. Éclair okay?” Leonard looks so suave. He is not even slightly fazed by the fact that he just mowed down Suzette in the middle of the freeway. “Every time you get in a car without me, sir, something bad happens. Perhaps you should make a habit of calling me more often.”

The construction workers are calling an ambulance. They lay Éclair out on the side of the road, and I hurry beside her. She’s awake, but she looks really dazed. She hit her head pretty hard, but I think she’s going to be okay. “Where’s Suzette?” Éclair mumbles. “Is she okay?”

“Not really,” I say, and I can see the hurt on Éclair’s face as she’s lying there in the median. I hold her hand. I won’t say it, but I’m pretty sure Leo just killed Suzette. I’m probably going to pay for his lawyer…

I don’t look over at Suzette. I can’t. I have never felt such betrayal. I loved her –or rather, I loved Sylvia. But I also love Éclair, and Éclair is real. Sylvia was just a fantasy. Real relationships have fights and imperfections. Sylvia was perfect because she had to be to trick me. I want something real. “I love you,” I say to Éclair as they putting her into the back of an ambulance.

She flicks me off, but she gives me this sad smile and says, “I love you too, jackass.”