CHAPTER 12
They had no plans except to spend the whole day just being with each other. They had ordered room service for breakfast and enjoyed lying in bed feeding each other. After breakfast they took a nice soothing soak in the Jacuzzi and decided to catch up on some old movies that they never saw when they were at Horizon. Shelby told Scott to go and fill up the ice bucket with ice so that they could ice the bottle of champagne that came with the honeymoon suite. Scott had left the room and Shelby forgot to tell him that she also wanted him to pick up some sodas as well. She ran out of the room without grabbing the key and was locked out when the door shut. Once they realized that they were locked out of their room they decided to go downstairs to the front desk and get a key. While Scott was waiting at the front desk for some assisstance he watched as an elderly man approached Shelby.
"Shelby is that you?"
Shelby turned around and turned white as a ghost. It was an old customer that she used to entertain when she was working the streets.
"Yes it is you. Where have you been? I came looking for you one night and I haven't been able to find you for months. I'm here on a business trip. How about spending some time with me and I'll pay you extra."
Shelby was getting scared and tried to back away. The last thing she needed was to have her past come back and haunt her. "No. I don't turn tricks anymore."
The man reached out and grabbed her arm. "Listen don't give me that shit you little whore. Once a hooker, always a hooker. You are going to keep me company." Shelby tried to pull away but he held on tight to his grip.
"Let go of me," she struggled to get free.
"Hey!" Scott flew across the room and grabbed the man around the neck. "Get your fucking hands off my wife."
The man was taken by surprise at the sudden attack on him. He let go of Shelby and spun around to shove Scott off of him. Scott was pushed back but then came forward with a right hook to the man's lower jaw. A lot of commotion was taking place all of a sudden and people around stopped to stare at the incident. Shelby was screaming for Scott to stop because she could see the look of hate in his eyes. A policeman that was outside the hotel just happen to hear all the shouting and came running in. Shelby was screaming and Scott was pounding the man with his fists.
The policeman pulled Scott off the man as the man pleaded to the police to arrest Scott for assaulting him. Scott was so much out of control that he never even realized that a policeman was there. He spun around and threw a punch at the policeman and before he could retract what he had just done, the policeman had him flat down on the ground putting handcuffs on him. A squad car just pulled up to the hotel because someone else called the police and two other police officers came running in to give help to the other officer. They pulled Scott up reading him his rights as he struggled to get away. They headed him out to the police car to take him down to the station.
"No, you can't take away my husband." Shelby was running after them. "Please, we're on our honeymoon. He was just trying to protect me."
The police officer turned to her and said, "He'll be down at the precinct but I don't think he'll be going anywhere tonight. We'll get his statement as well as the other gentleman's. If he is found guilty than he'll have to spend some time with us."
Scott had tried to brake away so that he could go talk to Shelby but they wouldn't let him. They shoved him into the police car as he looked out the window to see Shelby standing on the sidewalk alone with tears running down her face. The squad car pulled away from the curb as Shelby's heart broke to see the guy she loved being taken away from her. She looked into Scott's eyes as she saw a confused soul reaching out for help. His mouth moved as she read the words, I'm sorry and I love you. She dropped down to the sidewalk and cried because she didn't know what to do. She was in a town that she had never been in before and she didn't know anyone to call. She also didn't have any money to get a cab because Scott had it all.
Shelby walked back into the hotel after she got her composure back and got the key to her room. She started running through all the things that she had learned from Horizon about survival techniques. The first thing that she needed to do was to stay calm. She couldn't remember the phone number to Martin's home because she never really ever called there. She did see the cell phone that Scott's father had given him and decided to check the numbers list column on it. She found the Barringer's home number and decided to give them a call.
She dialed the number and waited. Martin saw the number come up on his caller I.D. and figured it was Scott calling.
"Hello Scott. Is everything ok?"
"Um, this is Shelby. No everything is not ok."
"What's wrong? Where's Scott?"
"I don't know what to do. You've got to help him."
"What do you mean help him? Shelby you've got to tell me what happened to him."
"He was arrested."
"Arrested. What do you mean arrested? "What for?"
"Well he kind of lost his temper and assaulted this guy in the lobby."
"Shit. No, I'm not going to help him. It deserves him right. It might actually do him so good to spend the night in jail until he can learn to control his temper."
Shelby couldn't believe what she was hearing. She hung up the phone before she said something that she might regret later. She wasn't about to give up. When she started thinking about family, the next name that came into her mind was Peter. She knew that Peter and Sophie wouldn't turn their back on her. The next call she made was to Horizon.
"Hello Peter, this is Shelby."
"Shelby, so how's married life treating you?" He could hear her sniffle and realized that something must be wrong. "Shelby what's wrong?"
"Well it seems that my past has come back to haunt me. One of my old customers approached me in the hotel lobby and Scott lost his temper."
Peter could practically figure out the rest of what she was going to say. He knew Scott's temper really well. "Oh no. How bad is it?"
"He was arrested and I can't do anything about it. I don't even have any money to call a cab to take me to the police station. I called his father and Martin thinks that it is best if Scott stays there. Peter I don't know what to do. I don't want to be alone tonight. I need him." Shelby was back to her uncontrollable crying now.
"Ok Shelby. Shelby are you listening to me? You need to pull yourself together. Getting out of control is not going to help you or Scott. You don't need this much stress in your life since you are pregnant."
She was still crying. "I know but I can't seem to help myself. I just can't seem to control my hormones anymore. This whole pregnancy thing has gotten me way off balance."
"Ok you're in Seattle right? It will take me a good four- hour drive to get there but I will come. You just try and relaxed a little. Nothing will happen to Scott today. They probably won't do anything until tomorrow. I'll bring Sophie so that she can stay with you while I go down to the station. We'll get him out don't worry. Just try and rest and I'll see you later this evening."
Shelby was impressed again at the love and devotion that Peter delivered. She lay down on the bed trying to relax but found it hard to think about anything but Scott. She looked over at the champagne bottle and decided that maybe what she needed to relax was a little bit of alcohol. She went over to pop the top when the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hey beautiful how you holding up?"
"Scott, oh my gosh it's you. Are you still down at the station?"
"Yes, the asshole is going to press charges so it looks like they are going to book me. There is a lot of political shit going on because of my age. When they found out that I was seventeen, they were going to charge me as a minor and call my father but then they found out that I was married so they might charge me as an adult. They don't know what they are going to do yet. I think that they are contacting some lawyers or something."
"I called your father and he thinks that you should stay there for the night. It might build some character or something. I than called Peter and he is on his way up here. He'll be here in 4 hours."
"Shelby they're telling me times up. I've got to go but I just wanted to make sure that you were all right. Shelby I know that you must be stressed and you are probably looking to find comfort in that champagne bottle but you need to promise me something."
"What?"
"Promise me that you won't drink it. As a matter of fact I want you to go and pour it right down the drain right now so it won't be so tempting. You have to remember anything that goes into your body effects the baby and I don't want the baby to suffer because you are stressed out ok?"
Shelby started crying again. "You are the only one that knows me really well. You're right because I was going to drink it. I'll go pour it out right now and as soon as Peter gets here I'll come down to the station. I love you."
"I know. I love you too. Take care of yourself for me. Bye."
Shelby took the bottle and walked over to the bathroom. She popped the top and poured the whole thing down the toilet. Once she did this she felt some self worth about herself. She realized that she could be strong if she wanted to but it also took Scott to help her stay that way. She walked over and lay down on the bed. When she was lying there she all of a sudden felt something in her stomach that she had never felt before. Little flutters of movement. At first she thought that she was just having a muscle spasm but after a while she realized for the first time that she was feeling the baby move. She wished so much that Scott could be here so she could tell him about it. One of these days the kicks will become stronger and Scott will be able to feel them your himself. She lay there rubbing your stomach gently wondering what their child will look like.
Scott was getting the run around at the police station. The one cop that was getting his statement was a huge football fan and knew the name Scott Barringer from reading the results of the High School State results. He was trying to give Scott a brake because he felt that Scott wasn't really a bad kid. His Captain was a hard ass who saw Scott's rap sheet and realized that this kid had been in trouble with the law before. He was not going to back down on what he thought that Scott deserved. He wanted to put Scott in a holding cell with some hardened criminals while the other cop wanted Scott with under age kids. The Captain won out because of his seniority. Officer Ewan proceeded to book Scott and take him to the jail cell for the night.
"Look kid. This wasn't my idea of where you should go. You're being put in with some pretty bad ass guys. I'll try and keep on eye on things as much as I can but my advice to you is to stay out of their way as much as possible and don't do anything to provoke them." Scott just nodded. "You said that you have someone coming to help you out?"
" Yes, his name is Peter Scarbrow."
"This is the same guy that you were judicated into his custody after your last incident right? What about your parents? Have they given up all rights to you?"
"Just leave them out of this. I have nothing to say to them right now."
"Is Peter going to be able to post bail for you? It might be high since you have a past record."
"Don't worry about it. I know where I can get the money if I have too. It might mean me having to sell my soul to the devil but I can get it."
"What's that suppose to mean? Are you involved in something that you're not telling us?"
"No just forget it. Old family joke."
"Well here we are and remember what I told you." He unlocked the cell, which got the attention of the two other occupants. They were both huge burly looking guys with tattoos all over their arms. They looked like they belonged to the Hell's Angles motorcycle gang.
"Well how nice Officer Ewan. You brought us some fresh meat. And a young pretty boy on top of that."
"Snake I'm warning you right now. Don't even so much breath on him or you'll be doing hard labor for the rest of your life. I'll be monitoring this cell all night and I better not hear anything going on in here."
"Oh you won't hear a peep. We have ways of making them quiet."
"Don't you even touch him or your ass is mine. Do I make myself clear?"
"What ever you say boss."
Officer Ewan locked the door and gave them a warning look as he left. It took a lot to make Scott scared of anything but this definitely was on the top of his list right now. Scott tried to play it off and act as cool as he could. He didn't want to give them the pleasure of seeing how scared he really was. At first they just had a staring battle. Scott was determined that he wasn't going to be the first one to look away while the other two guys were really trying to size him up. It made an impression on them because Scott held his ground.
"So what's a pretty boy like you doing in a place like this?"
"Third degree manslaughter."
They both burst out laughing. "Right and my daddy's the Pope. Baby blue here has a sense of humor."
"Yeah, well I'm glad to see the Pope has instilled some good morals in his children."
"Yeah and baby blue has a smart ass attitude."
"Yeah well you seem to have major problems of your own. We're all fucked up or we wouldn't be here."
Snake backed down a little. "Actually you remind me of my little brother I used to have."
"Used to have? What happened to him?"
"He got involved with the wrong gang and overdosed on some bad shit."
"Gee I'm sorry to hear that."
"You ever do drugs?" Scott didn't say anything. He just looked away. "How could anyone be so stupid? I might be a bad ass, get drunk and get into bar brawls but I've never done drugs. What would cause anyone in their right mind to start using drugs?"
Scott wasn't going to say anything until he realized that Snake was waiting for an answer. "Maybe because it gives people a way to escape all the bad shit in their lives."
"What were you escaping from?"
Scott became subdued. "I'd rather not talk about it right now."
"I don't care what people's problems are. There is still no reason to loose yourself to drugs to escape your problems. I'd still have my little brother if people would learn not to push drugs on kids. What landed you in here in the first place?"
"I punched some guy out for hitting on my wife."
"What you're married. You're not old enough to be married and you're definitely not old enough to be the jealous type yet. You should be out playing the field."
"I'm seventeen and I just got married yesterday. Shelby had it hard in life also. Her stepfather sexually abused her so she ran away. Once she ran out of money she had to turn tricks in order to survive. One of her old customers was in the lobby of the hotel that we were staying at and he was trying to force her to go with him. I told him to keep his hands off her and he turned around and shoved me. I had to stick up for my wife so I pounded his face in. The next thing I know, I'm being arrested and thrown in here."
"You've been done dirty unless you're not telling me the whole story. I've been in the slammer enough times to know that they won't knock you up for assault on your first offense. You got a rap sheet that you didn't mention?"
"I've had a couple of little misdemeanors from when I was using."
"So you were on drugs. Didn't I tell you that drugs won't solve your problems? Did your problem go away once you started using?"
"No but it made it easier to come home too."
"You don't think that you could have handled the problem at home better if you were straight and in the right frame of mind?"
Scott was starting to get edgy. All this talk was beginning to bring up all the old memories again that he worked so hard to forget. He said with a sharp tone in his voice, "No because she was making me go insane."
"Your mother?"
"No my stepmother. I couldn't be straight and live in that same house as her. She was driving me crazy. I couldn't stand to come home day after day and wait for the abuse." Scott collapsed on the bed and dropped his head into his hands.
Even though Snake had the appearance of a bad ass dude, he actually was a very sympathetic guy when it came to kids. His life was tormented with the death of his younger brother because he was responsible for him. He's parents were both gone and he had raised his younger brother since he was seven. When he found out about the death through an overdose, he wanted to make sure that other kids didn't fall into that same situation.
"Hey man it's ok. You are a survivor and no matter what that bitch did to you; you can overcome it. You just have to be stronger than her. Just remember that drugs won't help you get through it. Using your brain is the only way out."
"Yeah but she'll never be punished for what she did. They will always put the blame on me. She just gets a get out of jail free card while I suffer. I want her to pay for what she did to me."
"The only revenge that you can give her is to show her that you became a stronger person and that she didn't brake you."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Of course I'm right. I'm not as dumb as I look. I just want people to think I am." This brought a little smile to Scott's face. They heard noise coming from down the hall. Officer Ewan came to get Scott. He feared the worst but was shocked to see Snake and Scott having a pleasant conversation.
"Barringer, you've got a visitor. Peter Scarbrow is here to see you." Scott got up and walked to the door. He turned around to Snake.
"Thanks man and I'm really sorry about your brother. You must have really cared for him."
"Yeah I did. You take care of yourself and that new wife of yours."
Scott was ushered into an interrogation room were he sat down with Peter and a court appointed lawyer. He told his story about what happened and how the other guy was trying to force Shelby to go with him. When it all came out that the man was trying to get prostitution services, he got scared and withdrew his allegations towards Scott. Scott was free to go with no added charges on his record. Scott was able to go back and finish what honeymoon he had left with his wife.
They had no plans except to spend the whole day just being with each other. They had ordered room service for breakfast and enjoyed lying in bed feeding each other. After breakfast they took a nice soothing soak in the Jacuzzi and decided to catch up on some old movies that they never saw when they were at Horizon. Shelby told Scott to go and fill up the ice bucket with ice so that they could ice the bottle of champagne that came with the honeymoon suite. Scott had left the room and Shelby forgot to tell him that she also wanted him to pick up some sodas as well. She ran out of the room without grabbing the key and was locked out when the door shut. Once they realized that they were locked out of their room they decided to go downstairs to the front desk and get a key. While Scott was waiting at the front desk for some assisstance he watched as an elderly man approached Shelby.
"Shelby is that you?"
Shelby turned around and turned white as a ghost. It was an old customer that she used to entertain when she was working the streets.
"Yes it is you. Where have you been? I came looking for you one night and I haven't been able to find you for months. I'm here on a business trip. How about spending some time with me and I'll pay you extra."
Shelby was getting scared and tried to back away. The last thing she needed was to have her past come back and haunt her. "No. I don't turn tricks anymore."
The man reached out and grabbed her arm. "Listen don't give me that shit you little whore. Once a hooker, always a hooker. You are going to keep me company." Shelby tried to pull away but he held on tight to his grip.
"Let go of me," she struggled to get free.
"Hey!" Scott flew across the room and grabbed the man around the neck. "Get your fucking hands off my wife."
The man was taken by surprise at the sudden attack on him. He let go of Shelby and spun around to shove Scott off of him. Scott was pushed back but then came forward with a right hook to the man's lower jaw. A lot of commotion was taking place all of a sudden and people around stopped to stare at the incident. Shelby was screaming for Scott to stop because she could see the look of hate in his eyes. A policeman that was outside the hotel just happen to hear all the shouting and came running in. Shelby was screaming and Scott was pounding the man with his fists.
The policeman pulled Scott off the man as the man pleaded to the police to arrest Scott for assaulting him. Scott was so much out of control that he never even realized that a policeman was there. He spun around and threw a punch at the policeman and before he could retract what he had just done, the policeman had him flat down on the ground putting handcuffs on him. A squad car just pulled up to the hotel because someone else called the police and two other police officers came running in to give help to the other officer. They pulled Scott up reading him his rights as he struggled to get away. They headed him out to the police car to take him down to the station.
"No, you can't take away my husband." Shelby was running after them. "Please, we're on our honeymoon. He was just trying to protect me."
The police officer turned to her and said, "He'll be down at the precinct but I don't think he'll be going anywhere tonight. We'll get his statement as well as the other gentleman's. If he is found guilty than he'll have to spend some time with us."
Scott had tried to brake away so that he could go talk to Shelby but they wouldn't let him. They shoved him into the police car as he looked out the window to see Shelby standing on the sidewalk alone with tears running down her face. The squad car pulled away from the curb as Shelby's heart broke to see the guy she loved being taken away from her. She looked into Scott's eyes as she saw a confused soul reaching out for help. His mouth moved as she read the words, I'm sorry and I love you. She dropped down to the sidewalk and cried because she didn't know what to do. She was in a town that she had never been in before and she didn't know anyone to call. She also didn't have any money to get a cab because Scott had it all.
Shelby walked back into the hotel after she got her composure back and got the key to her room. She started running through all the things that she had learned from Horizon about survival techniques. The first thing that she needed to do was to stay calm. She couldn't remember the phone number to Martin's home because she never really ever called there. She did see the cell phone that Scott's father had given him and decided to check the numbers list column on it. She found the Barringer's home number and decided to give them a call.
She dialed the number and waited. Martin saw the number come up on his caller I.D. and figured it was Scott calling.
"Hello Scott. Is everything ok?"
"Um, this is Shelby. No everything is not ok."
"What's wrong? Where's Scott?"
"I don't know what to do. You've got to help him."
"What do you mean help him? Shelby you've got to tell me what happened to him."
"He was arrested."
"Arrested. What do you mean arrested? "What for?"
"Well he kind of lost his temper and assaulted this guy in the lobby."
"Shit. No, I'm not going to help him. It deserves him right. It might actually do him so good to spend the night in jail until he can learn to control his temper."
Shelby couldn't believe what she was hearing. She hung up the phone before she said something that she might regret later. She wasn't about to give up. When she started thinking about family, the next name that came into her mind was Peter. She knew that Peter and Sophie wouldn't turn their back on her. The next call she made was to Horizon.
"Hello Peter, this is Shelby."
"Shelby, so how's married life treating you?" He could hear her sniffle and realized that something must be wrong. "Shelby what's wrong?"
"Well it seems that my past has come back to haunt me. One of my old customers approached me in the hotel lobby and Scott lost his temper."
Peter could practically figure out the rest of what she was going to say. He knew Scott's temper really well. "Oh no. How bad is it?"
"He was arrested and I can't do anything about it. I don't even have any money to call a cab to take me to the police station. I called his father and Martin thinks that it is best if Scott stays there. Peter I don't know what to do. I don't want to be alone tonight. I need him." Shelby was back to her uncontrollable crying now.
"Ok Shelby. Shelby are you listening to me? You need to pull yourself together. Getting out of control is not going to help you or Scott. You don't need this much stress in your life since you are pregnant."
She was still crying. "I know but I can't seem to help myself. I just can't seem to control my hormones anymore. This whole pregnancy thing has gotten me way off balance."
"Ok you're in Seattle right? It will take me a good four- hour drive to get there but I will come. You just try and relaxed a little. Nothing will happen to Scott today. They probably won't do anything until tomorrow. I'll bring Sophie so that she can stay with you while I go down to the station. We'll get him out don't worry. Just try and rest and I'll see you later this evening."
Shelby was impressed again at the love and devotion that Peter delivered. She lay down on the bed trying to relax but found it hard to think about anything but Scott. She looked over at the champagne bottle and decided that maybe what she needed to relax was a little bit of alcohol. She went over to pop the top when the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hey beautiful how you holding up?"
"Scott, oh my gosh it's you. Are you still down at the station?"
"Yes, the asshole is going to press charges so it looks like they are going to book me. There is a lot of political shit going on because of my age. When they found out that I was seventeen, they were going to charge me as a minor and call my father but then they found out that I was married so they might charge me as an adult. They don't know what they are going to do yet. I think that they are contacting some lawyers or something."
"I called your father and he thinks that you should stay there for the night. It might build some character or something. I than called Peter and he is on his way up here. He'll be here in 4 hours."
"Shelby they're telling me times up. I've got to go but I just wanted to make sure that you were all right. Shelby I know that you must be stressed and you are probably looking to find comfort in that champagne bottle but you need to promise me something."
"What?"
"Promise me that you won't drink it. As a matter of fact I want you to go and pour it right down the drain right now so it won't be so tempting. You have to remember anything that goes into your body effects the baby and I don't want the baby to suffer because you are stressed out ok?"
Shelby started crying again. "You are the only one that knows me really well. You're right because I was going to drink it. I'll go pour it out right now and as soon as Peter gets here I'll come down to the station. I love you."
"I know. I love you too. Take care of yourself for me. Bye."
Shelby took the bottle and walked over to the bathroom. She popped the top and poured the whole thing down the toilet. Once she did this she felt some self worth about herself. She realized that she could be strong if she wanted to but it also took Scott to help her stay that way. She walked over and lay down on the bed. When she was lying there she all of a sudden felt something in her stomach that she had never felt before. Little flutters of movement. At first she thought that she was just having a muscle spasm but after a while she realized for the first time that she was feeling the baby move. She wished so much that Scott could be here so she could tell him about it. One of these days the kicks will become stronger and Scott will be able to feel them your himself. She lay there rubbing your stomach gently wondering what their child will look like.
Scott was getting the run around at the police station. The one cop that was getting his statement was a huge football fan and knew the name Scott Barringer from reading the results of the High School State results. He was trying to give Scott a brake because he felt that Scott wasn't really a bad kid. His Captain was a hard ass who saw Scott's rap sheet and realized that this kid had been in trouble with the law before. He was not going to back down on what he thought that Scott deserved. He wanted to put Scott in a holding cell with some hardened criminals while the other cop wanted Scott with under age kids. The Captain won out because of his seniority. Officer Ewan proceeded to book Scott and take him to the jail cell for the night.
"Look kid. This wasn't my idea of where you should go. You're being put in with some pretty bad ass guys. I'll try and keep on eye on things as much as I can but my advice to you is to stay out of their way as much as possible and don't do anything to provoke them." Scott just nodded. "You said that you have someone coming to help you out?"
" Yes, his name is Peter Scarbrow."
"This is the same guy that you were judicated into his custody after your last incident right? What about your parents? Have they given up all rights to you?"
"Just leave them out of this. I have nothing to say to them right now."
"Is Peter going to be able to post bail for you? It might be high since you have a past record."
"Don't worry about it. I know where I can get the money if I have too. It might mean me having to sell my soul to the devil but I can get it."
"What's that suppose to mean? Are you involved in something that you're not telling us?"
"No just forget it. Old family joke."
"Well here we are and remember what I told you." He unlocked the cell, which got the attention of the two other occupants. They were both huge burly looking guys with tattoos all over their arms. They looked like they belonged to the Hell's Angles motorcycle gang.
"Well how nice Officer Ewan. You brought us some fresh meat. And a young pretty boy on top of that."
"Snake I'm warning you right now. Don't even so much breath on him or you'll be doing hard labor for the rest of your life. I'll be monitoring this cell all night and I better not hear anything going on in here."
"Oh you won't hear a peep. We have ways of making them quiet."
"Don't you even touch him or your ass is mine. Do I make myself clear?"
"What ever you say boss."
Officer Ewan locked the door and gave them a warning look as he left. It took a lot to make Scott scared of anything but this definitely was on the top of his list right now. Scott tried to play it off and act as cool as he could. He didn't want to give them the pleasure of seeing how scared he really was. At first they just had a staring battle. Scott was determined that he wasn't going to be the first one to look away while the other two guys were really trying to size him up. It made an impression on them because Scott held his ground.
"So what's a pretty boy like you doing in a place like this?"
"Third degree manslaughter."
They both burst out laughing. "Right and my daddy's the Pope. Baby blue here has a sense of humor."
"Yeah, well I'm glad to see the Pope has instilled some good morals in his children."
"Yeah and baby blue has a smart ass attitude."
"Yeah well you seem to have major problems of your own. We're all fucked up or we wouldn't be here."
Snake backed down a little. "Actually you remind me of my little brother I used to have."
"Used to have? What happened to him?"
"He got involved with the wrong gang and overdosed on some bad shit."
"Gee I'm sorry to hear that."
"You ever do drugs?" Scott didn't say anything. He just looked away. "How could anyone be so stupid? I might be a bad ass, get drunk and get into bar brawls but I've never done drugs. What would cause anyone in their right mind to start using drugs?"
Scott wasn't going to say anything until he realized that Snake was waiting for an answer. "Maybe because it gives people a way to escape all the bad shit in their lives."
"What were you escaping from?"
Scott became subdued. "I'd rather not talk about it right now."
"I don't care what people's problems are. There is still no reason to loose yourself to drugs to escape your problems. I'd still have my little brother if people would learn not to push drugs on kids. What landed you in here in the first place?"
"I punched some guy out for hitting on my wife."
"What you're married. You're not old enough to be married and you're definitely not old enough to be the jealous type yet. You should be out playing the field."
"I'm seventeen and I just got married yesterday. Shelby had it hard in life also. Her stepfather sexually abused her so she ran away. Once she ran out of money she had to turn tricks in order to survive. One of her old customers was in the lobby of the hotel that we were staying at and he was trying to force her to go with him. I told him to keep his hands off her and he turned around and shoved me. I had to stick up for my wife so I pounded his face in. The next thing I know, I'm being arrested and thrown in here."
"You've been done dirty unless you're not telling me the whole story. I've been in the slammer enough times to know that they won't knock you up for assault on your first offense. You got a rap sheet that you didn't mention?"
"I've had a couple of little misdemeanors from when I was using."
"So you were on drugs. Didn't I tell you that drugs won't solve your problems? Did your problem go away once you started using?"
"No but it made it easier to come home too."
"You don't think that you could have handled the problem at home better if you were straight and in the right frame of mind?"
Scott was starting to get edgy. All this talk was beginning to bring up all the old memories again that he worked so hard to forget. He said with a sharp tone in his voice, "No because she was making me go insane."
"Your mother?"
"No my stepmother. I couldn't be straight and live in that same house as her. She was driving me crazy. I couldn't stand to come home day after day and wait for the abuse." Scott collapsed on the bed and dropped his head into his hands.
Even though Snake had the appearance of a bad ass dude, he actually was a very sympathetic guy when it came to kids. His life was tormented with the death of his younger brother because he was responsible for him. He's parents were both gone and he had raised his younger brother since he was seven. When he found out about the death through an overdose, he wanted to make sure that other kids didn't fall into that same situation.
"Hey man it's ok. You are a survivor and no matter what that bitch did to you; you can overcome it. You just have to be stronger than her. Just remember that drugs won't help you get through it. Using your brain is the only way out."
"Yeah but she'll never be punished for what she did. They will always put the blame on me. She just gets a get out of jail free card while I suffer. I want her to pay for what she did to me."
"The only revenge that you can give her is to show her that you became a stronger person and that she didn't brake you."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Of course I'm right. I'm not as dumb as I look. I just want people to think I am." This brought a little smile to Scott's face. They heard noise coming from down the hall. Officer Ewan came to get Scott. He feared the worst but was shocked to see Snake and Scott having a pleasant conversation.
"Barringer, you've got a visitor. Peter Scarbrow is here to see you." Scott got up and walked to the door. He turned around to Snake.
"Thanks man and I'm really sorry about your brother. You must have really cared for him."
"Yeah I did. You take care of yourself and that new wife of yours."
Scott was ushered into an interrogation room were he sat down with Peter and a court appointed lawyer. He told his story about what happened and how the other guy was trying to force Shelby to go with him. When it all came out that the man was trying to get prostitution services, he got scared and withdrew his allegations towards Scott. Scott was free to go with no added charges on his record. Scott was able to go back and finish what honeymoon he had left with his wife.