The Joyride Confession

One Friday night in the Summer of 1995, I wanted so badly to go to a party that was going to be without chaperones in the middle of nowhere. The plan was a bonfire and hanging out without supervision with the kids from school. One of the popular guys from school was hosting the party. It was a must attend event for me to feel like I was a part of the cool kid group for once.

I had a best friend at the time named Lydia Grace, she was 16 and already had her driver license. Her mom was strict... she had no car. She would stay with me on the weekends because my mom was way cooler than hers.

Lydia was the friend to have. She was the popular girl that developed early and had all the right things in place. I, on the other hand was a 15 year old that still looked like I was 12. I was in a hurry to develop as we all are at that age. She was my best friend and we always seemed to have a ton of fun together... and a bit of trouble too.

We tried really hard not to stay at her house because of how strict her mom was and the last time I stayed we got into trouble for filling up condoms with water and throwing them at each other where the neighbors could see. Her mom called mine to get me into trouble but my mom just found it hilarious and harmless.

That Friday night Lydia stayed over and wanted to go to the party too. The problem was we neither one had a car and we could not be the uncool kids that had a parent drop us off. The cool kid hosting the party was very stern about no adults being involved. So what do we do?

Lydia and I were in my room putting on makeup and planning to somehow get to that party one way or the other. Lucky for us my mom was big about being in bed around 7pm every night because she worked so hard. We made out like we were going to bed too that night.

After about a half hour we were antsy and went downstairs to the kitchen to get some snacks. We had been on the phone in my room calling friends to see if they could pick us up to no avail. Everyone we knew was headed to the party of a lifetime but us. We were hating our lives at that point and could not believe we were going to miss this! What would our peers think of us! What would they say about us!

In the kitchen we decided to munch on nachos and drink some soda. As we were eating Lydia noticed my moms car keys sitting on the table. She looked at me and said, "You know we could sneak out and I could drive us." Afterall she did have her license. I took a dish towel and put it over the keys as I grabbed them to be sure not to make any kind of jingle noise. I had the keys in my pocket and my heart was pounding. I already began to feel like a rebel with a party going cause.

We went back upstairs to see that Mom was asleep and to grab our shoes and purses. Once we made sure that we could make a clean getaway we quietly went out of the front door to the car. We opened the car doors and got in... closing them as softly as possible.

Lydia and I had the grand plan to roll the car down the driveway in neutral and crank it once we were out of the yard. This way no one would hear the car crank. This was going to prove to be so easy since I lived on a hill and the driveway went downhill.

We started rolling down the hill to the street... so far our plan was running so smoothly. We got to the bottom of the hill and into the street. We made it... time to crank it up and go. We turned the key and nothing happened. Trying it over and over again... panic started to set in because not only did we steal my moms car but there was no way we were getting away with it.

As if the situation couldn't get any worse a cop decided to check us out. He put the lights on us and came to our aid. He thought we were driving and broke down.

Lydia looked older and talked to the cop like she was his best friend. We were scared to death. Not only were we car thieves with a dead car... the cops got us too. I thought for sure he was going to see what we were up to and make us go back up the hill back home to confront Mom. Our lives were over. Lydia's mom would never let me see her again and she would probably be sent off somewhere. Who knows what I would of faced as punishment either.

The officer said that he could get us a tow... we did not know what to say because at this point we were in big trouble. He went back to his car and was making calls. I was so surprised that he did not ask for our IDs or license.

The whole time we looked back up at my house to be sure the blue and red lights did not wake my mom. I started to think of ways to get out of this... even contemplating running and sneaking back in my house. There was no way I could just leave Lydia though.

Then as if it was meant to happen, I looked over at the steering wheel and noticed the car was still in neutral and realized that may be the issue. We put the car in "park" and it started. The cop seen that we did no longer need his help and he let us go... wishing us the best of luck.

Feeling victorious about surviving the police... there was no way we were not going to that party now. We drove to the party without any issues what so ever. We arrived about 30 minutes later to a location that was literally in the middle of a field in an old abandoned factory.

There were so many people we knew there and even some from different schools. We mingled with the people we knew and were introduced to alcoholic beverages and smoking spliffs. We had a good few hours we could party so why not? I mean we did make it this far.

It was close to midnight and my conscious was starting to bother me. I felt like if we did not leave soon we weren't going to make it. Lydia was having one of the grandest times and it was hard to drag her away. I already quit drinking a long time ago for fear of losing myself. However, Lydia kept going and did not seem to care about what the outcome would be.

I grabbed her and told her we had to go... the problem was she could barely walk and there was no way she was driving us home. So I decided that even though I was unexperienced and only had a learners permit that I would drive us back home.

We made it out of the woods and were on the road. I was doing good... then I noticed we were nearly out of gas and neither one of us had any money on us. My fear was mounting... now that we made it to the party and survived the cops... here we are about to be completely out of gas. I just wanted to be at home in the safety of my bed at that point.

I decided that we should at least pull over to the gas station and look for change in the car and everywhere else we could. As luck would have it my mom kept the car really clean and change free. Lydia dug down into her purse and I dug into mine and we managed to come up with 75 cents.

Even in the 90s that amount wasn't going to get us far. Lydia happened to look over and see a friend of hers and asked if he had money. He gave us 2 dollars and we put the 2.75 in the car... giving us nearly three gallons.

By this time Lydia felt better and had some soda and twizzlers we brought with us. She ended up driving us home and we parked the car back where it was. We snuck the car up the driveway turning off the headlights. Yes we made it!

The lights were still out at the house so we knew that Mom wasn't awake... this was a relief. We got back into the house and went straight to the kitchen picking back up where we left off on our original snack run. We grabbed snacks and went upstairs to my room... feeling the relief the whole way.

As we were feasting and whispering about our night my mom got up to go to the bathroom and heard us in the room. She came by and said that it was nearly 2am and we might want to think about going to bed. We snickered to ourselves and agreed with her fully. We were so ready for bed and so grateful we made it through our adventure without being caught. It felt so good to be home!

As we got ready for bed... Lydia was pulling things out of her pants pockets. She looked at me and started laughing. I was looking and feeling confused. Lydia said, "We are so freaking lucky girl!" "I had my library card on me instead of my license this entire time." It turns out we made it through lots of trouble that night and we learned what not to do. We never took a car again and we no longer made a big deal out of school parties.

From then on we had friends come hang out with us and we did not go anywhere.