I had about 10$ worth of flowers in my front seat that I was trying to prevent from getting crushed. I was at a complete stop. I thought I saw the car in front of me move forward. So I did too.

*crunch*

We pullover to the parking lot we were in front of and get out to assess the damage. He was a kid about my age maybe younger. He phones the police. I had 120$ in my pocket I knew needed to go towards stuff, and that if I got a ticket, was no longer mine to spend. So I go sit by my car and burst into tears.

The police offer gets there and asks the guy if he’s ok. He says yes.

He comes over to where I’m sobbing and asks if I’m ok, I stammer out yes. He asks what’s wrong and I have to calm myself down before I can answer “I can’t afford this ticket”.

He informed me not to get ahead of myself. He inspects both cars and asked what happened.

I told him I took my foot off the break because I thought he moved up, then I hit him.

He asks how fast I was going I tell him no more than about 2-5 mph.

At which point the guy I hit spazzes out saying no way look at the damage he felt the hit, yadda yadda yadda.

The police officer starts getting annoyed and informs him since I hadn’t hit the gas that I couldn’t have been going more than 5 mph and that yes you’re going to feel the hit, and the damage is minimal and consistent with 5mph.

We exchange info, the police officer files a report and then informs me there will be no ticket because we moved the cars so there is no scene for him to investigate.

I wanted to hug the officer I was so happy. The other dude seemed pissed. I kept my mouth shut other than to apologize and thanks when needed.

My car is fine, other than a wavy license plate.

Oh and it turns out the kid was driving daddy’s explorer so of course he was being a jerk, it wasn’t his.