Me again! After some request I decided to pick the story back up. But because it had been months since the last time I had worked on it, I decided to change some things about it. Hope you all enjoy!

Handcuffs suck. My wrists are sore as hell and I can just tell that my skin is going to be red and raw tomorrow. I'm already in the fucking cell, what the hell do I need chains for anyways? I try shifting and almost manage to get them touching the cold metal bench I'm sitting on, but it's hopeless. And as if that's not enough, all I can smell is piss and vomit in this dog kennel sized holding cell and right now, I would be grateful to only have to smell the vomit. The fluorescent lights in the ceiling are starting to burn my eyes, and I close them and lean my head back. For two fucking endless hours I've been holed up in this cell and I am starting to figure out that Ma is probably trying to prove a point. Lesson learned.

"Hey, next time I agree do you a favor remind me to kick your ass."

"Fuck off."

"Jesus Christ, what is this fucking Pineapple Express? Packin' eight God damn grams. Fuck. I didn't realize my little sister was such a burnout. "

I would've liked to tell Jack to chill out, but I felt that perhaps his anger was understandably justified.

I should've realized my night was going to hell in a hand basket when I couldn't find the small bag of pot I forked fifty five bucks over for, just five hours ago at the end of the school day. It probably wasn't even the 'golden grams' bag of weed the pusher promised either. Just my luck to spend all my cash on a small shitty ass bag of grass that wasn't even good quality and on top of that, lose it. I searched around my room tearing through everything.

"Abby!"

Angel's yell rudely broke into my frantic searching. My bedroom door swung open only stopping when it crashed hard into me.

"Ow! You dumbass!" I grabbed my elbow, holding it tenderly.

"Girl, watch your mouth. " Angel's said half heartedly as his big head peeked through my door and an annoyingly big fake smile was plastered on his face.

"What do you want?" I snapped, annoyed by being hit and the complete disregard that my brother's usually had for my privacy.

"Bitchy bitchy, settle down princess," he mumbled and chuckled at the annoyed glare I sent him "I was just headin' out for the night and I was seeing if your sorry ass needed a ride anywhere."

I eyed him suspiciously, it was so uncharacteristic of Angel to offer to give me a ride anywhere. Rarely, if ever, did one of my brothers give me a ride without being made to by Ma or needing a favor in return. With Angel it was usually a mixture of the two with a heavy emphasis on the latter.

"And maybe…15 bucks for gas." Angel tacked on after a moment of silence.

"I knew it! Seeing if I needed a ride. My ass you were." I shook my head. I bet Angel was the only hustler in Detroit who had to go to his little sister for gas money.

Although I really needed a ride I knew there was no way that Angel was going to drop me off at the house I was set on attending. Alex Garcia didn't exactly have the reputation that my brother's approved of. I was pretty sure Angel would seal my fate for another boring night at home if I asked him to drop me off there. Besides I didn't even have my damn weed yet.

At the thought of weed I reflexively raked my eyes across my floor. A small green bag caught my eye. Hidden under a pair of jeans that had been kicked under my bed, the bag barely peeked out from under the back pocket. I was relieved but also a bit frustrated at my carelessness. Why hadn't I checked the jeans that I had worn home from school? Of course it would be in-

"Hello?" Angel muttered, waving his hands in front of him and grabbing my attention. "You with me?"

"What? No." I said distractedly, "I um, I don't need a ride."

"Whatever." He said, annoyed that he would now have to go try to get his money from Jack. He waved his hand dismissively and pulled the door shut behind him as he left.

I waited until I heard Angel's 'Hey fairy!' before I grabbed the weed and stashed into the front pocket of my jeans. I had only really smoked twice before, both times being with Jack, before now. Although I would never admit it I had actually been nervous while I was buying today. But Alex's house was the place to be tonight and there was no way I was going to have fun without some weed of my own.

Now, I just needed to figure out how I was going to get there at all. I saw Angel's headlights pull out of the drive and decided that I would try Jack.

I could hear the strum of Jack's guitar as I lightly knocked on the door and pushed it open. "Jack?"

"Abby?" he echoed mockingly.

I walked into his room and sat by his feet at the end of his bed. "What's up?" I asked lightly, doing my best to seem interested in his guitar and not my own agenda. He, on the other hand, ignored me and focused only on his guitar. His hands plucked aimlessly at the strings. "Anything cool?"

He momentarily ignored me. "No, what do you want?" He asked, finally looking up. The hand that wasn't strumming his guitar floated up to his lips, his fingers wrapped around a cig that he inhaled deeply.

I wrinkled my nose at the cig. "Well, I just need a ride." I said simply. If he wasn't going to beat around the bush then I wasn't going to either.

Apparently Jack didn't feel the same way. "Don't bullshit me. Where to?"

"I'm not bullshitting you." I said defensively. Maybe Jack wasn't my best bet after all. "Alex Garcia's house," he looked at me skeptically so I continued hurriedly, "just a couple of people, nothing serious. Maybe have a beer or two. No big deal or anything. Besides it's Friday night and I don't have anything else to do all weekend." I threw the last part in as a stab at his sympathies. Unfortunately, he didn't bite.

He took another long drag. "No."

"What, that's all?" I said incredulously. "You can't just say no! Hell, even fucking Bobby would give me a reason why. C'mon don't be an asshole, it's not a big deal."

"Why didn't you get a ride from Angel?" he asked as he exhaled the smoke.

I rolled my eyes dramatically. "Whatever Jack, no way was he going to drop me off at Alex's. Cut me a break. Why can't you give me a ride?"

"It's not that I can't give you a ride" Jack said, taking his sweet time as well as another drag. "It's just that it wouldn't be right. Morally, I mean. If you knew Angel wouldn't drop you off there then why would you ask me?"

He was shitting me right? Morals, really? I stood up and turned to face him. "Don't go all fucking righteous on me Jack. You know you've spent plenty of time at that house and nothing shady goes on. C'mon just give me a ride. Do it as a favor, I will even owe you one for God sakes. Please just give me a ride, please?" I stood in front of him ready to stomp out of his room the second he started to mouth the word 'no'.

"Fine."

"You will?"

His cig had burnt out and he threw the stub out the open window. "Yeah, but you owe me one then, right?"

"Yeah, sure whatever Jack. Ten minutes sound good?"

I gave Ma a kiss on the cheek, trying to hurry out to Jack who was grudgingly waiting in the mini-van. "I will be back tomorrow morning, okay Ma?"

She held me at arm's length by my shoulders. "Honey, you know Bobby is coming home tonight right?" She continued before I could say anything, "I still want you to do what you want, but he does like to see you when he gets home." She said softly.

I couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty about what Ma said. She had a way of appealing to your sympathies, but I wasn't going to just cancel my plans because the almighty Bobby frickin' Mercer had decided to grace us with his presence. "I know, and I will be home tomorrow morning. Besides, he's probably just going to want to sleep when he gets home."

She looked at me but I couldn't figure out what she was seeing. Taking my chin in her hand, she kissed my forehead. "Be safe baby, you know I love you." I nodded my head and she gave me a light push to the door. "Wear your seatbelt!" She said as I opened the door. "Make sure your brother does too!"

I slid out the door nodding my head. "Okay, Ma."

"Yeah, you're one to talk!" I told Jack sharply "The last day Bobby was home you spent all day in your room crying over your guitar." I may have exaggerated that a little but it got a satisfying rise out of Jack. Besides, who was he to criticize the way I lived; like he's so much wiser.

"Oh, bullshit! At least I'm home the night he comes back!" Jack pointed an accusing finger at me. "Not going to some party to get doped up and drunk! We'll all enjoy that tomorrow!" he finished sarcastically.

"Fuck you Jack, you know-"

We both ended up trying to yell over the other, more or less just arguing because it was more interesting than sitting quietly. Neither one of us closed our mouths until the red and blue lights started flashing.

"Shit!" Jack banged his hands on the wheel. "I didn't even fucking do anything!" He mumbled reflexively.

"Maybe they're pulling you over for being a jackass." I said absently as I wondered why the hell the officer would really feel the need to pull Jack over. I couldn't remember him blowing a red light or rolling through a stop sign. We were both wearing our seat belts. The two of us were more worried about yelling louder than the other to focus on the driving. Slowly the officer pulled up behind us and stepped out of the car.

"Hands where I can see them, both of you!" The officer yelled through Jack's open window as he approached. We threw our hands on the dash. He stopped outside the van and flipped a small pad of paper out. "Sir, do you know why I pulled you over tonight?"

Jack looked nervous, he had done a complete 180 from who he was a minute ago. He never really liked confrontation with adults and especially not confrontation from adults with authority. Jack kept his head down and his eyes low and shook his head.

"Sir, you were going forty-five in a thirty and blew through a yellow light." My eyebrows scrunched together as I tried to remember the part from my Driver's Ed. class where they mentioned that going through yellow lights was illegal. The officer squatted down so his elbows were resting on Jack's window. He peered through at me and when Jack didn't respond the officer said, "Sir?"

I looked over at Jack. He was starting to lock up, I could tell. His eyes glazed over, his lips were pursed tight, and his body had gone rigid. I nudged him with my elbow, "Jack say something!" I hissed with a definite panic in my voice. I hated to see Jack lose himself in his own world. "Jack!"

Jack's peculiar behavior must have clued the officer into thinking that Jack was doing something other than speeding. "Sir, Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to step out of the vehicle." He stood up and opened Jack's door.

I looked over at Jack. He nodded his head reassuringly before unbuckling his seatbelt and stepping out.

I met him on the other side of the van.

"I'm just going to need you both to turn around. Hands up on the car and spread your feet." The officer said, waving his flashlight at the van as if we were unsure about what he meant. "Let's go."

The officer patted down Jack first and only found his cigarettes which he confiscated. Next, he started on me. Running his hands through my hair, around my arms, into my sweatshirt pockets, and then-

He grabbed something from my jeans pocket. "Miss what is this?" he asked. In one quick motion, he held the bag in front of my face, the realization hitting me hard. My heart increased rapidly and my stomach dropped to the ground. My mouth dried up and I could feel the weight of my tongue press against the roof of my mouth. My legs felt weak and I thought I was going to be sick.

I tried to push all my feeling aside and appear confident. "Oregano." I said, shrugging my shoulders. If I was going to go down I was going to go down like a Mercer. Fighting and taking names till the end. Or at least denying everything and trying my hardest to look tough.

"I'm going to have to ask you two to turn against the car and put your hands behind your head."

Three hours and some odd minutes later found us sitting in a Detroit juvenile detention center holding cell. I was scared to death and doing my best not to show it. My thoughts raced faster than I could keep up. Juvie, jail, Ma, weed. My knee bounced furiously. I knew a guy from school who, on his eighteenth birthday, got caught with an ounce of weed and spent three months in jail. I couldn't survive jail! I was only fifteen. I could barely take sitting in school for seven hours, let alone sit in jail.

On the other hand, jail sounded more appealing than the thought of facing Ma. The heart shattering look of disappointment that would surely well up in her kind eyes. The way her mouth would fall just right so that a small frown curved her lips. Her hands would be folded and her fingers twisted together resting somberly in front of her.

I let my head fall back and took a deep sigh.

"Thinking about Ma?" Jack asked quietly. He stood up and stretched out his legs. His long hair fell in his face as he let his head drop. "Me too."

Sooooo?