A spin in the country [Short Story] Tension/drama/twist]

Eight hours. The alarm on the bedside locker would bleep over and over in eight hours. Electronic carnage. Just like any other school morning. Except it would also be the beginning of the final exams.

 
Insomnia is a terrible affliction. A few sleepless nights is ok. I mean who hasn't stared at the ceiling, dreaming the unachievable? Who hasn't stayed awake remembering some single-use human you met at a house party? No, this was different. Stress-induced. It was what it was. The start of the rest of my life. That was all. No pressure then. 

Turning the pillow over to the cool side didn't work. Thinking of the post-exam holiday in Magaluf just elevated my heart-rate. Nope, I'd have to let off some steam, vent my frustration at having this mesomorph of education hanging over me.
The car.

 New. 

Leather-smelling. 

Fast. 

Outside.
I love my parents. They've given me every opportunity. I've never lacked anything. If I took the car, that would end. I decided to take it anyway. 

Soft-pile carpet is lovely under bare feet. It deadens the sounds of your sneaking about and sumptuously gathers between your toes too. In no time I'm at the front door. It has an elaborate alarm code pad beside it but we don't bother with it at night when we are home. I turn the key slowly, taking 20 seconds or more to do it seamlessly. The new car's key-fob already in my pocket, I close the front door behind me as expertly as I'd opened it and walk out to the gate and unlatch it. 

My parents, God bless them, they sleep like the dead, at the back of the house. They work hard. As a result of their hard work I know I shouldn't wake them.
Central locking opened, I shimmy in to the beige leather interior of the family's 'good' car. Imperceptibly I let it move slowly towards the gate. Funeral pace. A little down the road too, just in case.
Aaagh the acceleration!!! 

The tension in my body noticeably disappates. Gunning the latest Japanese luxury rocket along familiar roads was like an automotive Xanax. And the moon was out. Like having two sets of headlights. One above, one below. I turned onto the motorway that dissected the farmland hereabouts. Down the ramp... watching the neon pink speedometer flick quickly north of 170km/h. My Mother would baulk at sixth gear. My Dad at the speed limit. The white lines down the middle morphed into a single continuous blur. I exhaled for what felt like the first time in a month. 

 And then my heart stopped.

 Blue lights. Ahead. Christ above! I leaned on the middle pedal and took stock.
2am. An unlicensed seventeen year- old. I could hear the proverbial key turn in a proverbial cell-door. Closer now. One solitary car. One solitary Cop. Young. Straight out of training college. Eager. Breathalyser? Tax and insurance? Slow enough now to see the brass numbers on his shoulder.
I pulled my hoodie down low over my face and gunned the engine. I could barely hold on as torque did the talking. 

What had I done? I didn't know but knew what I had to do. Like an alcoholic's moment of clarity, I could see it all.
I took the next off-ramp. As I crossed over the motorway I saw the pursuing squad car about to exit after me. I turned southeast on the old roads, in the direction of home and switched off the lights. I knew these roads. And the moon helped light the way.

A gentle knocking on my bedroom door. A gentle voice with it. "Conor?" It whispered. "Eight O'clock. Time to get up." 

My mother's prescence left the landing. I'd slept like the dead for five hours. I wasn't in police custody. Confusion reigned. Stepping into the breakfast room I smelled bacon and toast and my parents smiled at me like I was a cherub.
"I hope all that commotion last night didn't affect you?" My Dad asked.
"What commotion?" I really should have gotten an Oscar.
"Oh, well, the Guards came around about three-thirty. Someone fished the car keys through the letterbox and took the Lexus for a joyride." My Dad was matter-of-fact and unperturbed beyond belief. Not his usual barbered-to-within-an-inch-of-his-life today though. Grey stubble showed. "They then came back and left it idling outside on the road. Guards had lost them on the back road but had the reg so came here."
"Who'd do such a thing?" I held my toast in fake contemplation.
"Some young fella. Hoodie. Fresh faced. Doesn't matter. What matters is that you are okay for today. English is the first exam, right?"
"Yup. Ah don't worry, I'll be fine. That's shocking about the car. I'm sorry."
"Ah sure its not your worry."

 
9.35am. English. Paper 1. Creative writing. "Write a short story in which a stressful situation is resolved." Bingo.