I was on my way home from work tonight when a strange thing happened. I got rear-ended. Nothing exceptional, just a tap, but it was a little "slow-motiony" nonetheless.
I felt the bump, crinkled up my brow, and turned to the guy in the car next to me. We exchanged "What The Hell" looks, and both of us shrugged. I rolled down my window and leaned my head out of my car to look behind me, and a young boy (seventeen) was getting out of his car to talk to me. I looked for a pen, but the light turned green. He said he would meet me at Wal Mart (up the road a piece), and that he was so bummed...you see, he'd just hit another lady last month. He was certain, however, that my car was intact and that there wasn't any damage.
I drove to Wal Mart, glancing occasionally in my rear view to be sure he was following me, but my "Mom of a 17 year old boy" intuition told me he would be faithful to his word. I pulled over, he jumped out his car. I got out slowly and looked at his face. He was scared and his adrenaline was racing, so I put on my mommy voice, and calmed him down. There was nothing wrong with my bumper. He was so relieved that I wasn't going to call the police that he kept self-reporting. He said, "Honestly, I was looking at my phone!" To which I replied, "Dumbass".
I scolded him, painted a scenario of me being a young mother with a possible infant in the car and how upsetting that would be. How a tap like that could injure a small child. I said he needed to be more careful, as I'm sure his mom wouldn't want him to get hurt. I pointed to his passenger and told him he needed to be responsible to his friends, too. Then I sent him on his way.
His name was Sean. I hope he listened.
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