Puma

|*|

“I told you to flucking stay away from her.”

I raised my brow at Gill and sent a shrug her way, continuing to follow Lana down the aisle. My three chicas whose names either end with a ‘y’ or an ‘ie’ laughed out, but I’m sure they were on Gill’s side.

“My bad?” I said like it was a question.

Gill gripped her head.

“You didn’t heed my warning! You didn’t heed it!”

I just laughed and sat down, but oi. Gill did warn me, didn’t she? I remembered sitting in the library with Ally, talking about Rebeca and Gill came up and said Rebox was bad news.

And bad news she was - and speaking of news, I heard Gabrielle speak to the camera one more time, telling the people who she was and that I was back in the courtroom.

I sighed into the palm of my hand.

Need I say again, oi.

“All rise!”

A third time? Oi.

The courtroom jumped to their feet and I watched the judge make her way back up to her bench. Thus, she waved her hand into the air.

“You all may sit.” The room bustled as people complied. She looked at Lana. “Do you have any questions for the witness?”

“Yes, Your Honour.”

“Then let’s go.”

I took a deep breath, feeling Lana stand up from beside me after Fletcher stood to call Metz to the stand. She waited for Metz to swear with his right hand up one more time before stepping away from the table to approach the police officer.

Lana appeared to be in thought as she paced in front of the witness stand, her fingers cupping over her mouth. It was then I realised the reason she probably didn’t go up and ask him any questions earlier was because she couldn’t think of any. Fletcher was smart to bring Metz up. He stumped Lana.

Or maybe she was doing this for suspense and dramatic effect.

I was relaxed when she finally spoke, turning to Metz to ask inquisitively, “Now, it was brought to my attention the other day that, when you took my client home from the police station, you said something to him. Is that correct?”

What? I don’t even remember.

Metz peered up at Lana, looking puzzled.

“I did? Well, I do distinctly remember telling him about all this – he had court for the crimes he committed.”

Then it came to me. I did remember telling her something. You guys weren't there when I told her.

Lana hinted to it that exact second.

“That’s all?” she asked. “You don’t remember sharing a moment of sympathy with my client? You don’t remember opening the door for him, then before he departed from the patrol car, you don’t remember saying to him, ‘I’m sorry about this whole misunderstanding’?”

Metz continued to look at her with his brows creased, but as the memory popped into his mind, he failed to hide his eyebrows pricking up as he clearly remembered.

He nodded anyway.

“Yes, yes I do remember now. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Why were you ‘sorry’?”

“He had been falsely accused of raping someone,” Metz said laughing anxiously. “That’s a pretty terrible thing.”

There was a twinkle in Lana’s eyes – an evil, conniving twinkle that I had come to love seeing.

“So you…sympathised with him?”

“I guess I did. It could ruin him completely. Not that, you know…this doesn’t.”

Metz just kept adding to what Lana wanted. He kept saying what she seemed to want him to say. If Metz, the cop who tried so hard to throw me in jail, admits that he felt sorry for me, what’s stopping the jury from having even an ounce of pity for me?

I peered to them and saw about nine of the twelve randomly selected to sit in those seats were looking at me, half impassive, the other half had their brows furrowed and a frown on their face.

Sympathy.

That proved to be Lana’s point because she smiled at Metz, but she didn’t stop there.

“When you were in there interrogating my client, how did you go about it?”

“We brought him in, sat him down, and began asking him question about the girl – how he knew her, things like that. He told us that she was one of his students, placing him as her teacher – which disgusted me even more. I went on to tell him that we knew about his, uh, ‘illness’ -”

“Which it is,” Lana interjected sharply. “It’s clearly hurting him. Don’t pass it off like it’s some joke.”

“Alright, alright. Sorry.”

“Keep talking.”

Metz had to think about where he left off. Remembering, he picked it back up.

“We brought that up and his past misdemeanours – we pinned him to it, but he kept denying it. Unknowingly, he was telling the truth. And we soon got the truth when he admitted that he had slept with her. This was after we brought the evidence from her rape kit up.”

“Speaking of,” Lana cut in. “How long does it usually take to run tests on rape kits? To my knowledge, there are still kits sitting in the forensics lab from months ago.”

“Well, it does cost money to, you know, test them,” Metz told her, nodding. “Sometimes we don’t get to them unless it’s dire.”

“What was so different about Rebeca Linares’? Why was hers ‘dire’?”

“Well,” Metz sighed out again. His eyes scanned the courtroom, presumably landing on Rebeca’s and then her mother’s after they settled on me. He let out a disgruntled, uneasy laugh. “Nothing was too ‘dire’ about hers. I admit that.”

“So why did you rush to test the DNA?”

“Well…we didn’t.”

Lana’s brow arched. “No?”

Metz repeated slowly, “No. But,” – he sat up straight, hands gripping the wooden box that he sat in – “We didn’t feel like we needed to wait for them to match his DNA; Rebeca told us that he had just, you know, ‘raped’ her and there was visibly seamen inside of her. It’s not rocket science. She undoubtedly had sex with someone.”

“So you just listened to the first name she said? Did it ever occur to you that maybe she had a grudge against her teacher? Maybe she was failing one of his classes and cried rape to get him back.” She did admit to that in the end, didn’t she? “Did that ever occur to you? - That maybe you were going after the wrong guy?”

“But we weren’t. He confessed.”

Right, like, Lana, keep up. Was there a reason she was ‘forgetting’ that?

“Because you badgered him until he did.” Lana appeared to be asking anyone rhetorically, “Do we have his confession on tape? Here, I mean. I did watch it, and there was one word you wouldn’t drop. Remember what that was? ‘Rapist.’”

“At the time, we thought he raped her.”

“So not only did you fail to read him his Miranda Rights, but you called him a ‘rapist’ over and over and you badgered him with it until he cracked and confessed? Possibly confessed just to get you to stop? That looks pretty bad on your part.”

“In my defence, I thought he raped her. I was willing to do whatever I could to get a confession out of him – and that’s what I did.”

“But you belittled him until he did.”

“But I got a confession to something he clearly did do.”

“Because you were calling him something that he wasn’t.”

Does anyone else’s head hurt?

She kept talking, only this time, she looked to be talking to the entire courtroom.

“Hasn’t my client suffered enough? He was repeatedly called a rapist until he confessed to having consensual sex with the girl. Now, because of his actions, he’s going to be branded as a sex offender for the rest of his life (cuatro oi) and when people see him under that roster, they’re not going to know the backstory. All they’re going to think is that he’s some sick-o who could’ve raped an entire city, but in reality, he made a mistake – one mistake his inability to control himself drove him to make. Plus the fine he’s going to have to pay…"

She took a moment to shake her head in dismay.

"He’s getting help for his illness right now, because, if you don’t remember, he felt so gutted about what he did that it made him attempt to end his life. He spent the last eleven days in the hospital, eight of those days in the mental hospital, and there he is receiving the help he needs to overcome his faults. I promise you, when he leaves there, he’s going to be a changed man. He’ll surely die before making the same mistake twice. Need I remind you of the penalties a woman would face for committing the same crime?”

Aw hell yeah. I sat at the edge of my seat. Lana better be speaking my mind.

“Let me bring one of the most recent up – Ms. Lauren Lemke. If I remember correctly, she slept with a number of her students and all she got as a punishment was a court hearing and then ten day probation, after which she was immediately let back into the school building as a Math teacher. Let’s look at my client – he slept with one student, consensually, and look at what he’s getting for it. Falsely accused of rape, now a court hearing, four thousand dollar bail, and up to a year in prison. That sounds like cruel and unusual punishment compared to what most female teachers are getting as a result for the identical – if not more heinous – actions.”

Damn right.

“All I’m saying is that we either need to change the way we punish women who commit these crimes, giving them what they really deserve if we’re trying my client, a male, like this – or we need to give him the same punishment a woman has been getting. Either way, we need to level the playing field, because this double-standard punishment is disgusting. No person in their right mind would let this happen.”

Shite. That was good.

Lana looked pleased with the work she just did and smiled at the judge as she nodded.

“Thank you, Your Honour. That’s all I have for right now.”

The judge nodded.

“Mr. Metz, you may take your seat.”

They both shuffled away from the witness stand, going back to their own seats. The judge glanced between Fletcher and Lana, but she asked Fletcher, “Any more witnesses you wish to call, Mr. Fletcher?”

“No, Your Honour.”

“Ms Wooten?”

Lana stood to motion behind her. “I have about three – the first…the state calls a Miss Gillian Coleman to the stand.”

Gill? I didn’t know how to feel.

Being herself, Gill high-fived Ally, my sister and her gf, saying, “Alright. Wish me luck.” She stepped out into the aisle way and speed walked past Lana to smack her hand down onto the Bible the judge held out for her.

Chuckling, the judge asked, “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?”

Gill shrugged. “Eh. He’s a pretty chill dude, so yeah, I’ll take his help. Can I sit now?”

The judge chuckled once more and nodded. “You may.”

This is what Gill’s like when she’s about to go up and read something she wrote aloud for participation points. I guess it calms her down.

She is quite the class clown.

Gill slumped into her seat, stretching her arms out over the span of the wooden structure. She waited calmly for Lana to step up and ask her, “Will you state you whole name for the record, please?”

“Of course I will. Gillian Antys Coleman. That’s G-I-L-L, like gill but it’s pronounced like, well, duh, Jill. Antys – like anti, but like you’re starting to say ‘antique,’ but stop for some weird reason - with a ‘y’ and an ‘s’. Then Coleman, M-A-N, not M-E-N.”

Oh, praise god for her.

Laughs floated around the room. Lana smiled.

“I think we got it. Now, Gill, would you mind giving me your impressions of Mr. Williams?”

“You mean…?” Gill picked up a terrible, heavy Aus accent. “Lioke that, you mean? Mite, oi, oi, oi? Aussie, aussie, aussie? And the barbie?”

Comic relief, people. Here it is.

The laughs got louder, to my surprise, causing to Gill to smile at her beloved reaction.

“No,” Lana laughed. “What do you think of him?”

“Oh, you mean, like, does any of this surprise me? Yeah, it really does. I don’t think it surprised anyone else though – no offence, Mr. Williams.”

“Expand on that?”

“It’s just that I’ve hear, well, everyone hears that she…gets around. Rebeca.”

“She’s promiscuous?”

“Yeah, that. Which is whatever…I guess. But it doesn’t really surprise me that she would try to sleep with a teacher, not to mention Mr. Williams as her first victim – heck, I’ll admit it, though I’m hugely gay, he’s an alright looking guy – hilarious, too. I’m not exaggerating that more than half of the female, heh, alumni all have this huge crush on him.”

For some reason, I didn’t feel like this was helping my case. It helped my ego but that was all.

Lana seemed to see its true use.

Also, called it. Gill’s gay.

“So, what you’re saying is that Rebeca would’ve gone after any teacher?”

“Well,” Gill said, reaching falsetto, “not that entirely. I don’t really know what goes on in her head. But I do know that from day one, she’s had her eyes on him. Fortunately,” – sarcasm – “for about the first week or two she was here, she sat with me at lunch; he was all she talked about. As expected, all the girls that sat with us agreed with everything she said. But I don’t think anyone thought it would get to…here. Actually happening, I mean.”

“She had a…crush on him?” Lana pieced together. Gill nodded.

“Yeah, that’s what we’ll call it. She was, like, head-over-heels for him. It was actually quite…sickening. Again, no offence. Not that there’s anything wrong with the dude, it’s just…well, I’m gay. Plus, teachers aren’t on my ‘to do’ list. They could be on hers. I don’t know.”

“Would it shock you to find out if Rebeca initiated to sex?”

“Oh, for sure not,” Gill shook her head. “Maybe. I don’t want to offend anyone. But, it’s even more shocking to find out that Mr. Williams…took her up on it. I thought – maybe I’m wrong – that he was dating Ms McClain, the French teacher. She’s back there.”

Ally sunk into the upholstery when Gill pointed right at her and everyone turned to stare.

She waved until they looked away.

Gill continued to talk.

“Maybe they broke up, I don’t know. But it just shocks me that he would have ‘initiated’ the sex. He had to’ve been provoked – is that the right word? And it sucks that he…tried to…kill himself because of it. I’m with you on this, that doesn’t sound like something someone would do if they had the intentions of ever doing something like this again, let alone in the first place. I hope I’m making sense.”

“You’re making perfect sense,” Lana told her, smiling slightly. “In fact, I think you’ve said all you needed to say. Mr. Fletcher, if you have any questions…have at it.”

Lana turned to Fletcher but he shook his head. She looked to the judge and then Gill. The judge told Gill she could sit back down.

They went to their seats.

“Other witnesses, Lana?”

“Since we were just talking about her, yes – Ms McClain?”

I really didn’t know how to feel about watching Ally make her way to the front of the room. The guilt was back, but I was grateful yet still confused to see that she was taking the time to defend me.

As Ally sat in the witness stand, Lana smiled at her warmly.

“State your name for the record.”

“Allyson McClain – uh, Allyson Nicole McClain.”

“Thank you. Now was what Gillian said true? You and my client are dating?”

“Were,” Ally corrected quietly. She spoke louder. “We were dating, but…we broke up…for obvious reasons. But that doesn’t change how I feel about him. He’s a good person. He really is.”

“How long have you known him?”

She pushed a huff of air out of her mouth as she thought about it.

“About five years, I think, but we only started dating a few months ago.”

I prayed Lana wasn’t going to ask any questions that would bring up any more information about those four, five years.

She instead asked her, “I’m sure you knew of my client’s illness, yes? At least, I hope you do.”

“No. No, I know about it.”

“If it wasn’t for his illness, would he have even gone near Rebeca?”

“I highly doubt he would’ve.” She hoped.

“Do you happen to know why he’s like this? Did he ever confide in you?”

My throat locked up. Ally looked to me and slowly nodded.

“He did.”

“Would you mind sharing what the reasons are?”

No. No, don’t. I get that it might help us but…that’s…personal…and embarrassing. I tried to send Ally the mental messages and I think she got them.

“I would, actually. I think he would, too. But I will tell you that there are definitely reasons why he’s…like this.”

“But you won’t tell us?”

“He wouldn’t want me to. If it happened to me, I wouldn’t want people to know either.”

“Do you mind if…I tell the jury?” Lana asked after a pause and a look between Ally and I. Wait, did I even tell Lana? I don’t think I did. How could she know? Lana explained, “I have read up on my client, the files and notes his psychiatrist keeps…I think it’s vital for the jury to know what makes the respondent the way he is. Do you mind?” Now she was asking me. Her eyes weren’t the only set I could feel on me.

I hoped to get them off of me by reluctantly nodding to Lana.

If she thinks it could help.

Lana nodded back to me solemnly, and put that tone into her voice as she spoke to the courtroom.

“This is very personally and degrading information that I feel is also vital to my client’s future. That is the only reason I am bringing it up. I think you all should know that from the time my client had reached the age of ten, he had begun to be sexually abused by his father and then, at age fourteen, his father’s girlfriend at the time wouldn’t leave him be either.”

Oh, geez. I tried not to rip my face off.

“They continued to abuse him until he moved out when he was seventeen. This mistreatment took the better part of seven years, and left my client to feel only one way. Sex was his escape; his way of forgetting and pushing his problems to the side. It was how he coped. His defence mechanism seems contradictory and ironic to us, but to him, he’s just going through what we would call ‘reaction formation.’ Sex is what was used against him as punishment, but he’s now using it to cope. It makes sense in his head, and I think it’s what should be held accountable for the predicament my client is in. Sex is offered to him and he goes with what he’s learned to do: accept it.”

The courtroom is quiet, but I hear whispers, though sparse, flutter around.

I hope that was worth it.

Lana muttered to the judge that she was done questioning her witness. The judge nodded and looked to Fletcher.

“Any rebuttals, Mr. Fletcher?”

“Yes, actually, Your Honour.”

Lana sat down beside and rubbed the back of my shoulder comfortingly.

“I think that helped us. If not, I’m truly sorry I brought it up.”

I didn’t answer her with anything other than a nod. I kept my chin in my palm and watched Fletcher interrogate Ally.

“If I heard correctly, you and the respondent go way back – what was it? Four years?”

“Yes. Almost five.”

Mr. Fletcher began to speculate. “How old is Mr. Williams again? Twenty…one? So four almost five years ago, he would’ve been…sixteen, seventeen? Am I doing the math right?”

Ally spoke curtly, “You might be.”

“Maybe…he got the idea from you.” Oh, no. Ally’s face matched mine.

“What…what do you mean, he got the idea from me?”

“It’s just that I checked up you, Ms McClain. I found that you were teaching the same year he transferred to the school at which you work. What was really going on? You guys were buddies when you were his teacher and he was a student? Such great buddies that you still talk years after he graduated?” He didn’t wait for her response.

“I went around and found out some…incriminating information about your…relationship.”

You know who he reminds me of? Larry from AHS. The guy with the badly burned face. Is it just me? Or was it because I wanted to set Mr. Fletcher here on fire?

As always, Ally’s face mirrored my thoughts.

“Four years ago,” she repeated, “when he was my student, he confided in me.”

“I’m willing to bet that’s not the only thing he did with you.”

‘Ooh’s were let out by nearly everyone around me. Ally narrowed her eyes at Mr. Fletcher.

“What are you getting at? He used to come by every day after school to talk with me, that much is true, but that’s all we ever did. Talk.”

“That’s not what I heard from previous students. You see, I looked up a few graduated high school students and did a bit of research with them. More than half of them stated that they suspected a sexual relationship went on between you two.”

Ally said, “Now. Now there is. But never when he was my student. I…” Her sentence broke off and she had to force herself to say, “I swear.”

“Do you swear?” he asked her mockingly. “I don’t think I need to remind you that you’re under oath right now. It’s not in your best interest to lie. Are you lying?”

“I,” she said again. Her eyes zipped to mine and bite her lip, her eyes showing her true emotions. Fear.

“You what?”

“Objection!” a voice declared and it wasn’t a voice that should be saying that. Everyone looked back at Shelby as she flung up from her seat, her hand high in the air. “Can I do that? Or can Lana do tha – Lana, do you mind – objecting?”

Heads looked back at the judge as she shook her head at Shelby.

“If Lana wants to object she can -”

“Great.”

“However, I’m sorry to say, but what Mr. Fletcher is doing right now isn’t something I would allow to be objected. Mr. Fletcher, continue.”

Shelby grumbled under her breath, mouthed a 'sorry' to me, and grumbled once more when Ellie yanked her to sit down and told her to shut up.

Mr. Fletcher sadly continued.

“Would you like to come clean?” he asked Ally. “Or would you like to continue on with your lie and face the consequences? You are not helping him right now, nor should you even want to. He slept with a student – he cheated on you – while you were dating. If I heard correctly, he cheated on you right after you had a miscarriage. How can you still defend him when he hurt you in a time of need?”

“Objection!” a voice declared from beside me. It was Lana. She stood with her hands flat against the table, then turned slightly to say back at Shelby, “Now that’s something worthy of an objection.” She faced the judge. “Your Honour, he’s badgering my witness.”

“Badgering?” Fletcher said. “I’m reminding her that he’s not an angel. He disrespected her, their trust, as well as the law.”

“And I’m gonna have to side with Mr. Fletcher on this,” the judge announced. “Sit, Lana.”

She reluctantly did so with a sigh.

Being told to ‘go on,’ Fletcher turned to Ally and looked at her expectantly.

Ally cracked under his stare.

“Fine,” she caved, her right brow twitching faintly. “I lied. There.”

“So you’re admitting…to…?”

“I’m admitting…that Tyler and I…we…”

“Had a sexual relationship.”

Ally’s grimaced but nodded.

“Yes. We did.”

"And this was when...?"

"When he was my student and I was his teacher. Is that enough for you?"

I wanted to smack the smile off his smug face. He grinned at the crowd.

“You see? Every snowflake claims innocence in an avalanche. Yes, the reason Mr. Williams is so reliant on sex is a sad, unfortunate reason, but it drove him to commit an illegal act with his former teacher and then go on to trade place with her, and commit the same felony with one of his own students. All those events led up to this. If we let him walk away, he’s bound to go after another underage student, no matter what job he gets.”

Every ounce of sympathy the jury had at one point felt for me left seven faces. Only two jurors still looked at me with pity.

Mr. Fletcher thanked the judge then sat down. Ally followed suit.

Passing between our tables, she whispered to me, “I’m so sorry. I just fucked everything up, didn’t I?”

The judge took back over. “Well,” she sighed. “Any other witnesses, Ms Wooten?”

“No, Your Honour. Just the two.”

She clapped her hand under her chin and surveyed the room.

“If you both are done presenting your cases…?” The question we all thought was going to be a statement was met with two nods. The judge continued. “I have looked and listened carefully to all the information presented to me today – and I hope the jury has, too – and I believe I have come to a decision. I’ll speak with the jury. This court is adjourned for a brief recess. Meet back in here at around 2:30.”

Her gavel banged throughout the courtroom. She stood, as does the jury, and they followed her out through the side door. The room almost instantly filled with chatter. I dropped my head back over the back of the chair and gripped at my face with my hands, trying to drown out their conversations.

They did that for me as they got up and exited the courtroom to stand out in the hall, taking their loud voices with them. Lana got up, too, and told me she was going to go get a drink from the vending machine that’s for some reason in a federal building.

I mumbled an okay to her and she walked away, but I wasn’t alone for long. I’m slung to the side as a body collided with me for a hug.

It’s Shelby. I breathed in a heap of her hair.

I looked at the three people standing behind her. Ally, Gill, and my sister all share Shelby’s eagerness.

“Dude,” Shelby said once she pulled away entirely from the hug. “You’re so fucked.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Gill speaks.

“Hey, I tried to help.”

“Oh, you did,” Shelby assured her. Her pixie nose crinkled at Ally. “Unlike Miss Cougar over here. Now they know you are one, and so is he.”

“What was I supposed to do?” Ally said defensively. “I forgot I was under oath.”

“So you lie anyway?”

“I didn’t think them knowing about us was going to help anything – and it just might not.”

Ellie scrunched her face. “Ew, don’t call my brother a cougar,” she groaned.

“Fine,” Shelby said, a smirk forming. “He’s a puma." TITLE OF THE STORY. "Is that better?”

“No!” Ellie huffed.

“Hey,” I said. “That’s a lot better than what they’re all probably calling me.”

“Exactly,” Shelby smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“What do you think is going to happen?” Gill asked, looking towards the side door the judge walked through with the jury. “The verdict?”

“I don’t want to think about that!” Shelby snapped with a laugh. “He’ll be fine. That’s all we need to think.”

“Yeah, but what if he’s not?” Gill’s persistence was going to make us face the facts. What if I am found guilty? Jail is not a place I want to go.

Then again, moral seems to be, I have to face the music. What I did was wrong. I know that.

“Did anyone else like Lana’s speech?” Ellie asked. “It’s like a carbon copy of what we were talking about the other day.”

“Right?” Shelby laughed. “When she brought up Lemke, I nearly pissed myself.”

“It was really freaky.”

Ally said, “I think she definitely did a good job at winning people over.”

“But that asshole,” Shelby seethed, “might bring us down.”

“If my baby brother gets sent to jail because of that…prick…I’ll go berko.”

“Eighteen seconds…”

“Eighteen seconds!”

We held a facetious glare before we all turned our heads to look at the side door as it creaked open and some buff dude in a beige police uniform walked into the courtroom.

“This court is about to be back in session. To your seats, please.”

The room bustled again with chatter as people re-entered the room. I anxiously said a goodbye to the four nutjobs and was left alone for a split second. Lana stood next to me and told me to get up just as the judge came back into the room, the twelve jurors trailing behind her.

They all headed for their seats, but stood instead of sitting.

“All rise!” the man barked and those who had dumbly sat down jumped back to their feet. The judges gavel hit the table and everyone sat.

We waited anxiously for her to speak, moving ot the edge of our seat when she opened her mouth.

“We have reached a unanimous decision,” she announced. Her eyes settled on me. “Alana never brings me someone she doesn’t think has potential. I see that you do. The court sees it; the jury sees it. However,” – my soul died – “you leave us a little weary. But we're hoping you can prove us wrong. In the case of Linares verses Williams the jury has found you…”

Dun.

Dun.

Dunnnnn.

.

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s u s p e n s e

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.

.

“Not Guilty on the act of Statutory Rape -”

“YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

Either Link just came running into the room or that was Gill cheering from behind us. The whole room looked, presumably seeing the blonde curls sway in the air, but I stayed facing the front of the room. I let a smile come onto my face.

It vanished when the judge kept talking.

“However, there was one more felony the respondent committed. Possession of Illegal Substances, to which the jury has found you guilty of. Mr. Williams, I hereby sentence you to six months in the Miami Valley Jail for the possession of heroin. You have a bail set at two grand.” Her gavel almost made me pee. “Court adjourned.”

I died.

But…

No. No. I’m the main character. I’m supposed to win, at the last second when all hope seems lost, it’s supposed to all turn around and work in my favour. That’s how this is meant to go. That’s how it always goes.

Four people in the back of the room voiced my dismay for me. Gill reacted overdramatically, throwing her hands into the air, shouting, “NOOOOOOOOO!”

Shelby snapped, “Wait!" causing all movement in this room to stop.

The judge raised her brow.

“What?”

“How soon can we pay the bail?”

“As soon as you have the money.”

“Which we don’t have,” Ellie grunted, running her fingers through her black hair. I looked from her to Lana as she sat pensively in her seat, staring up at where the judge sat seconds before but now left the courtroom with a shrug.

“I’m going to jail?” I asked her. She took a second to respond.

Her gaze fell on me and she nodded stiffly.

“Unless you can post bail. You think you can get that kind of money by Saturday? Sunday the latest?”

“What happens Saturday?” I asked her, not thinking. Then I got it. “They’re letting me finish out at the hospital?”

She nodded.

“Then they’re coming to get you.”

Her choice of words would go on to plague my mind for the rest of the day. Lana stood and held her hand out for mine.

We shook hands and she said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you entirely.”

That was it. She walked away, to the table sitting to the left of us. She engaged herself in a conversation with Mr. Fletcher, shaking his hand too.

My eyes went past them and landed on Rebeca and her mother as they hugged each other tightly, crying into each other’s hair. Behind them was the newswoman. Her and her cameraman were standing as she signed off for the last time for today's 'top' story.

The view was suddenly blocked and I looked up at my peeps.

They each took their turn hugging me tightly.

Gill pouted at me when it was her turn.

“This sucks,” she grumbled.

“We’re bailing him out,” Shelby stated, yanking Gill away to get her hug from me.

“Yeah?” I asked. “How?”

They all looked at each other for any sort of idea. It came to Ally almost instantly. Going in for her hug, she held on tightly. She said, “I’ll work with Nakiah and Eric. We’ll get the money.”

“So, what? Then you guys can get busted for selling drugs?”

Ellie looked at the two of us, confused.

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, what the hell?”

Ally turned to them and quietly repeated what she had said to me. Ellie was the only one to object.

“Uh,” she said. “I love my brother, I really do, but…isn’t that…stupid?”

“What else are we going to do, Ellie?” Shelby asked her rudely. “None of us have two thousand dollars laying around.”

Ellie’s mouth scrunched. “True. Alright,” she immediately caved. “I’m in.”

Gill nodded. “Me too.”

“Me three,” Shelby said with a slight grin.

“We’ll see what we can do,” Ally said to me, nodded slightly.

“Shit, we better go get started.”

They nodded back at Shelby and then took their time giving me one last hug goodbye before leaving. The room was now nearly empty. A couple people hung back, continuing to talk, including Lana and Fletcher. Rebeca and her mum were gone.

The room obtained two more inhabitants when the police officers that escorted me here came walking down the aisle way.

If they don’t post bail…I’ll be seeing a lot of police officers by next Monday.

A fifth time? Oi.

-

“Hey, how’d it go?”

I walked out of the elevator and met eyes with Carter. His question remained unanswered. I didn’t respond; I headed for my room.

But he persisted, sprinting to get in front of me. His hands cupped my shoulders as he tried to hold me in place, but I pushed on past him.

“Hey, hey, hey. What happened?” I was reacting like a child. Regression? I continued to give the silent treatment, trying to keep my walk to my room. He didn’t let me. He bent slightly to meet my eyes. “Fine. You don’t have to tell me. What can I do to make you feel better?”

I didn’t know so I didn’t answer.

“Is someone pissing you off? I’ll get rid of them, if that’s what you want.”

“No. No, it’s…me. I don’t know. You can kill me, if you want. I don’t remember who the jury was or the judge, so you’ll just have to get rid of me.”

That’s all the insight I was willing to divulge. I attempted to get out of his grip, but we can all guess what happened instead.

Carter sighed, loosening his hold marginally. He ran his hands from my shoulders to my elbows. He did that twice before slouching down to me again.

“What meds do they have you on?”

“Meds? I can’t remember. Why?”

“Well, sometimes when it’s not working, you just need more or another type.”

“Kalser’s not going to up my dose,” I told him, shaking my head.

“Yeah. I didn’t think so. Want mine?”

I furrowed my brows at him. “You’re offering me your medication? No thanks. You need it more than me.” Probably a hell of a lot more than me.

“Not really. I’m doing just fine. Look. I had a friend do the same thing for me when I first got here. It helped me out. It’ll work with you.”

“But -”

“Nope. Meet me out here by eight. I’ll sneak ‘em to you.”

He wasn’t going to let me answer. He walked off towards the lounge, leaving me to stare at him. He disappeared into the large room and I did just the same in mine.

-

I was out in the hall by eight just like Carter had requested. He and Hunter found me and pulled me into the queue behind them.

Little by little, the line shrunk and soon it was Hunter’s turn to state her name.

“Hunter McCoy.”

A tiny white cup was handed to her and then another filled with water. She downed her drugs and grimaced, stuck her tongue out for them to see, then dumped her trash into the bin. She stepped to the side to let Carter walk forward. He leaned his elbows against the counter that also acted as the door between the Jackie’s office and the hallway. Did I mention that’s where we get out drugs?

Jackie’s door is cut in half hamburger-style and she hands them through where the top half of the door would be.

That probably didn't make sense. Yup.

I must’ve blanked out during my description of the counter, because the next thing I know Carter dumped the cup of four or so pills into his hand and then held that cupped hand behind him, I quickly cupped my hand over his and let him tilt his hand to drop the pills into mine.

I shoved the meds into my pocket and Carter gulped the cup of water.

I finally gave my attention to the two nurses that sat on the other side. They both were facing the other way, looking confused at the wall.

“Huh,” Carter said. “I guess I was just seeing things.”

“You better,” Jackie laughed. “Spiders will have no place in my office.”

Lonnie laughed with her and so did, Hunter, Carter and I.

Damn. Why does this always happen? Hunter, Carter, Tyler – Ellie, Shelby, Ally, and now Lonnie and Jackie.

This has got to be on purpose. (Author: Nope. I’m just very, very oblivious. I promise. I’m that stupid.)

Carter stepped over to join Hunter and they waited for me to step forward and claim my drugs after saying my name for them. I was made to take them under Jackie and Lonnie’s watchful eyes.

Going, “Ahhhh,” I showed them that I did, in fact, take my medication…unlike Carter. He better know what he’s doing.

I didn’t sit with Hunter and Carter in the lounge. I went for my bathroom and shut the door behind me, turning on the tap.

I pulled Carter’s meds from m pocket and stared down at them.

A beige pill with the word ‘Valproic 250’ printed on it, two circular pink pills, one similar yellow pill that I recognised as Abilify, and a half-white-half-pink capsule, each side was marked with ’54 702.’

Someone look those up, so I know what they are. (Author: You don’t have to. I already know what they are.)

I’m assuming some of them have to treat his schizophrenia, maybe depression, but what else? If that’s the case, then he should be given the same pills as me.

I continued to look down at them and contemplate if it was worth it. I didn’t want to waste them and not take them, meaning Carter probably skipped out on taking them for nothing, but I also didn’t know what affect they could have on me.

What if they mixed wrong with my pills?

I decided to take the Abilify since I knew what they were, then crapshoot with one other. I picked a random one and it wound up being the ‘Valproic’ one. I pushed the others into my pocket then dropped the two winners, along with the sleeping pill, into my mouth before having to slouch to get a mouthful of water from the tap.

I swallowed the pills, prayed they wouldn’t kill me, then left the bathroom.

-

Tonight proved to be even worse than yesterday’s.

Sleeping wasn’t coming easily, though I had taken two sleeping pills. My mind continued to race. Maybe if I had gone around and told Carter or Hunter about what had transpired today, maybe I’d feel better. But instead, I kept quiet and avoided them all afternoon and into the evening.

That was all about the change. Before the clock even struck midnight, I had had enough of tossing and turning. I took action before he could. I slipped out of my room and out into the hallway, tiptoeing it to the last door on my side of the hall.

The door stuck but I was able to push it open. I got it slightly ajar before stopping, a chill going up my back.

There was a very low mumbling coming from inside Carter’s room. It didn’t sound like him. It honestly sounded…demonic. I don’t know. I thought to step back and tiptoe to my room, just in case he wasn’t alone in there or maybe was in the middle of an exorcism, but the mumbles went into a wheezy cry that almost instantly turned into a quiet sob, and the thought of Carter crying scared me.

He seemed so strong. If he broke down…I was going to. I was coming to see him right now to revitalise myself and have him tell me everything was going to be okay. But is he wasn’t even okay…

Listening to the cautious side of my mind, I didn’t immediately sprint into his room. I instead moved my eyes to get a peek through the crack. It took a few seconds for me to adjust to the dark, but I could see a figure sitting hunched over in Carter’s bed.

They stayed huddled, crying softly for what felt like a very short amount of time before suddenly whipping their fists wildly against their chest and arms and legs, the crying intensifying, making my ears ache.

Inhaling a sharp breath, they wailed over and over, “Tyler, Tyler, Tyler – please.”

Uh, what?

It was definitely Carter. I was still too in shock to move, though I had the urge to do something. He was crying – for me. What the heck?

My eyes widened and I had to hold back a gasp of shock when Carter forcefully knocked himself back and began tipping his head side to side before scaring me even more. He started thrashing around, banging his back into the bedframe and then his head against the wall.

His hands gripped tightly over his ears as he finally sat still, the crying stopping for only a moment. He quickly pushed himself down and yanked the blankets over him. The wailing returned and seemed loudly. Carter ripped the blanket off of him, sitting up.

He gritted out, “No. No, I can’t,” and sent me running back to my room when he stood up from his bed and made ways to his door.

I dived into my bed and got in control of my breathing just as my door was opened slowly.

Oh, god. Is he going to kill me? Is that what was happening? Is it because I rudely ignored him earlier?

The door creaked shut and I heard his feet shuffle quickly across the room. The mattress shifted but he didn’t sit down. I think he got onto his knees and leaned his elbows onto the bed. I felt him grab onto the corners of my blanket. He held onto them briefly before breaking down.

His head dropped down onto my stomach and gripped his hands around my waist.

“Tyler?” he suddenly whispered tearfully. My eyes snapped open giving me a headache, but I sat up as fast as I could.

“What? What?”

“I can’t,” was all he said as he began crying harder. He held onto me tightly, pushing his head onto my lap. “I’m so scared,” he whispered. “I’m so scared.”

“Why?” I asked, trying to hold it together, but he was starting to terrify me. He didn’t answer me. I flipped on the lamp and asked again, “Why? Why, Carter? What’s wrong?”

He gently let go of me, sitting back. His eyes tipped up to me. They were so red from him crying and rubbing his hands against them.

He asked quietly, “Can I…sleep in here?”

I wasted no time. I scooted myself over, leaving enough room for him to flop onto the mattress. He hastily grabbed my arm and draped over his shoulder, forcing me into hugging him. I laid down behind him and tighten the embrace, feeling him almost instantly calm down. His shoulders still trembled but he seemed to be calming down quickly.

Is this because I took his meds? He was trying to help me and make me feel better and I ended up hurting him in the end. He’s at his wits ends right now and that might be my fault.

“What did I do?” he cried into my chest.

“What? What do you mean?”

He didn’t answer.

I hugged him tighter.

Please don’t let this be my fault.