40 Ounces and an Acid Tab...

It was a foggy morning. That wasn't uncommon, but strange considering the past few days have been nothing but the hot, beating sun, and no clouds. It kind of resembled the way I felt. I got up, got dressed for school, brushed my teeth, remembered I didn't have school today. Cursing myself, I changed into regular clothes, and I went and poured myself a bowl of cereal, sat down, and turned on the TV.

I had just finished my cereal when I heard the doorbell ring. I opened it, anticipating solicitors, or maybe Jason. When I opened it, two cops were standing in front of me. One was taller than me, with short black hair, and a gun holstered to his waist. To think of it, they both had guns. The other one was very short, which made him less intimidating, but still, he was a cop.

"Hello sir, is this the Rennon household?" the taller one asked, squinting his eyes at me.

"Yes. Why are you here?" They exchanged looks, and the shorter one said "Well, if you were watching the news last night," after he said that, I realized why they were here, and I went into panic mode. I tried to keep myself looking, cool, and I think I succeeded, but on the inside I was freaking out.

He continued, "You would know that there was a drug bust. There was a man exchanging money for drugs, and two cars parked, with multiple people in them. The car parked in your driveway fits the description of one of the cars that was there last night. Unfortunately, we didn't get the license plate numbers, so there is no way of telling for sure." I had a feeling he wasn't supposed to say that last part, because of the look his partner gave him.

"Wow... I can't believe that... uh, do you want to come in?" I asked, once again trying to play innocent.

"No, thank you. we should be finished shortly." The tall one said. "Are you the owner of this household?"

"No, no my dad is. Let me go get him."

I went and got my dad, and my mom came too. My father spoke to the policemen. Eventually it boiled down to this, "Who is the owner of the 1977 Ford Mustang?"

"My...My son is..." my father answered for me.

"Then we are going to have to take him in for questioning." the shorter cop said firmly.

"Wait, can't I go? He is only seventeen!" My dad was defending me as much as he could, but I could tell the cops didn't care.

"No, we have to take in the certified owner of the car, sir. Sorry."

I said bye to my mom and dad, my dad looked furious, I wasn't sure if he was mad at me, or the situation. I figured they would drive down there and go through it with me, but my dad stormed inside. They put hand cuffs on me, and I said "Wha-? Is this really necessary? I'm not a damn criminal!"

"Just precaution sir, sorry." I showed him a snarl.

As they drove, they listened to the police scanner, and talked about various things, mostly police related, but some personal. I couldn't really hear them very well, so I only got little snippets of what they were saying. When I got there, I kind of already knew what to expect. This hadn't been my first time being there, as a suspect anyway. About two years ago (from that point in time) me, Jason, and one of my buddies that used to live on my block, were out causing chaos. I found a brick, and I threw it over a house. Long story short, my parents ended up paying for a very angry police officers medical bill, and I ended up spending half a day at the police Headquarters. They had to let me go because I didn't commit any real crime, "I was just being reckless" as they put it.

Anyway, they went through their whole police routine, I had to give them all my information, and they came back with my record. This whole part had taken over three hours. "Seems that you hit a police officer in the head with a brick?" Asked the lady at the front desk.

"Uhh... not quite-" I was spun around by an officer. "Have a seat over here please sir." I sat down. a few seats down from me, I recognized a face. He looked up at me, and said plainly "Andrew? Shit..."

Daniel Desario and I sat there, and stared. We both knew we were fucked if we didn't think of something to do. We also both knew that there was nothing to do, except try to lie ourselves out of it, and if we did that, they would either never find the culprit, or arrest some poor bastards with the same cars as ours.

I walked down, and sat next to him. "What the hell are we going to do?" I said.

"Hey, listen it's okay. I have been in here a few times, I know how it goes, and they got no way to prove it was us." Daniel was pretty calm about the situation so far. He always knew a way to get out of things like this easily.

"Except... except for the guy who ratted us out in the first place..." I commented.

"Nah, no, calm down. Don't worry about it, once they figure out they can't prove anything, they also can't hold us here."

"Alright, gentleman, which one of you is a mister Daniel M. Desario?" A tall man in a suit asked us.

"Uhh, me. I'm Daniel" Daniel got up.

"Alright, please come with me, I'm going to ask you a few questions."

I didn't see Daniel for about fifteen minutes after that. I had a feeling of anxiety rise up in my chest when I saw him walking back.

He looked at me and said in a hushed tone, "Jesus Christ, Andrew, you better be on your A-game with lying today."

"Shit, so, you lied?" I was bewildered.

"Yeah it was the only thing to do! Do you want to be thrown in juvy for this?" Daniel was right.

"No, no... just... what did you say?" I was hoping to be able to say the same story as Daniel.

"I just said that I was at home, and was actually watching the whole thing happen. Just make sure you don't use the same stuff I did, and don't give to much detail, like as if you were there. Oh, here he comes. Shh." Dammit, I was going to use that story...oh well...

"You are Andrew J. Rennon?" I got up.

"Yes, sir."

"Come with me." We walked into a fairly small room, with a single desk and three chairs in it. Two of the chairs were on the side facing the door, and the other one was opposite those ones. He signaled me to sit in the single chair, and he sat in the left chair on the other side.

"Okay, first off, don't be too worried, I know you are just a kid, but I want the truth out of you, and I'm not going to let up just because you are a minor. Now...Are you aware of the drug bust that happened two nights ago, correct?"

"Uhh, yes of course. That kind of stuff spreads like wildfire at my school." I said, hoping this wouldn't last too long.

"Okay, good, now, what details do you know about it?"

"Oh, well, not many, just what I heard from kids at school. I rarely watch the news." This guy was buying the whole thing.

"And what did you here from 'the kids at school'?" he was now more curious.

"Well, I heard that the cops were tipped off about this drug deal, and so they went and camped out, and these two cars pulled up and, someone got out and started exchanged money for drugs with this guy, and so the cops started chasing them and it was like a high speed chase. I also heard the cops were shooting at the cars. That's all I was told."

"Okay. So, I'm guessing you know by now that your car is the exact model and color as the one of the cars of the culprits?" he was now eying me, as if I was lying or something and he could read it in my face.

"Well, I knew my car looked like it, I didn't know it was a dead look-a-like though."

"Okay. The cops said that the culprits in the cars looked like kids, no older than you are. Did anyone from your school prior to the incident, or after said or hinted toward them being involved in the drug deal?" I had to think fast, because I did not want to be caught in my lies at this point.

"Oh, no, not anyone I have talked with."

I noticed the whole time that he never hinted toward me being the one of the culprits, probably in an attempt to make me feel safer, and more compelled to talk about it.

"Okay... well were done here. Go back to your seat, please." he used a softer tone to tell me this, and I could tell that he believed me.

I did as he said. As I went back to go sit next to Daniel, he was gone. I sat for another thirty minutes humming "Bennie and the Jets" by Elton John. Finally, the lady at the front desk looked over to me and called, "Andrew Rennon?"

"Yes, I'll be right over."

She finished up and signed me out. It was amazing how inefficient this place was running, they didn't even tell me what was happening, just said I could leave. I asked to use the telephone in a Jack in the Box down the street, (I really didn't want to go back in the police station) and called my mom to come and pick me up.

When I got home it wasn't all kisses and hugs (as I assumed). I walked through the door, and my dad was standing there with a very stern look on his face.

"So... what was that? Why did my son just spend over five hours in a police station?"

"Dad, it wasn't five hours." I said while turning to walk into the kitchen.

"That doesn't matter! You shouldn't be in there for any time at all!"

"Dad! Calm down, please! It was just a misunderstanding, my car matched the description of the one that was identified in a drug deal. It wasn't mine. I just answered a few questions and then I left." I said quickly and firmly.

My dad looked the slightest bit taken a-back. "Well... okay, fine. Then please tell me, where did that scratch on your car come from? And don't feed me a line of bullshit."

"Dad! I already told you, it was probably some vandals or something. Are you seriously insinuating I was involved in a drug deal!?" I now had to lie expertly to my father also, which shouldn't be so hard seeing as I already deceived the cops.

"I don't know! Maybe! It feels like I never see you anymore, you are never around. I don't know where you are all the time. I haven't gotten to know you over the passed few years after you've grown older, so who knows what kind of crazy stuff you have gotten into?!" My father was yelling at me, and he was furious.

"You know what, screw this, I don't need this! I'm not some burn-out hippy drug addict! Ugh, I'm going to my room!" I shouted, marching upstairs and slamming my bedroom door behind me.

I lied on my bed for an hour, not sleeping, just thinking. I was very glad my parents didn't come in after me. After an hour or so, I took a nap. This was a crazy, scary day, but at that moment I was more scared for what might happen next, with my parents, and the police department, than anything else.

When I finally awoke, it was 1:41 in the morning, and I had slept for over ten hours straight...