Jesus POV
Time: 7:55PM
I think we have been sitting here for some 30 minutes, 40 minutes tops. The bench was really uncomfortable. The guy in the other holding cell, on my right, by the look, was really enjoying the same kind of bench. Or maybe he was enjoying that he had a place to sleep at night, because he looked homeless, and right now he had turned on his other side and continued to snore.
I look back to the others on my left. Callie has her head leaned back at the wall, eyes closed for the moment, but I know she isn't sleeping. Frankie is still using her as a couch, I don't think Callie has moved ever since Frankie crawled from my lap to hers and laid her head to her chest. She said I was too muscular. That I wasn't comfortable enough to be slept on. I wasn't even mad, that means my workouts are good and I am getting more muscular.
I look to Jude who still was holding his left hand close to his body.
I bump him softly with my left shoulder "Hey…" he looks up to me "How does it feel?" i ask concerned
"It doesn't hurt, but it is getting kind of stiff and I think it is still swelling" He says back. I reach for his hand and softly pull up his left sleeve to have a look at his wrist. It was swollen, but it wasn't getting into any other color, which was good. At least I think so
"Can you move your fingers?" I ask and he does just that without too much problem
"Do you think it is broken?" He asks as I still hold his left in my palm gently "I don't think so. I hope it is not. I am no doctor, but this does look like the same way Brandon's wrist looked like when I tried to teach him to skate. He fell down just like you did, landed on his wrist. He had it just sprained…but…I don't know. I hope it is not"
If his wrist will turn out to be broken, I will definitely feel guilty for it. It is not that I was directly responsible, that i pushed him or tripped him, because i didn't. But I was trying to teach him to skate and and I do feel responsible for him, on some level.
He looks down to his wrist "You didn't have to do what you did." he says quietly, I could barely hear him. This was no longer about the skating, this was about the kids that gave us a hard time in the skate park
"If he hadn't, I think I would have" Callie said from his left as she opens her eyes "Either way, he had it coming. I am just glad I didn't have to mess up my left hand to punch that kid" At least Callie is on my side on this one. I know moms won't be.
"Moms are going to be so mad that we got into a fight and-" Jude starts to say but is interrupted in half sentence, when a familiar voice speaks up
"YOU ARE RIGTH, WE ARE!" Lena was standing suddenly out of nowhere by the cell, looking at us, hands on her hips. She nods to the guy behind the desk, he grabs the keys and walks to the cell doors. I stood up relived that we are going to get out of here.
I was first one up to the doors, but once the officer opened the doors, Lena gently grabbed my chin with her right hand, turned my left cheek to her, to look at my gash. I peak a look at her and then she lets go my chin and softly pushes me back in the cell
"You two-" She says to me and also looks to Callie on the bench "-sit and think about what you did for some few more minutes! Jude!" she says the moment she walks up to Callie and as careful as she can, takes Frankie out of her hands. She stirs and wakes up thou
"Hi, baby…mama is here" she says softly to Frankie, running her hand over her hair
"Jude…with me!" She says in a tone that means you don't want to mess with her. Jude looks back at us, with scared look on his face as he stand ups
"If we don't see each other, I hid the Mario game, is in the third drawer, under my drawings. Callie, you can have my teddy bear!" he says and as Lena calls him again ,he follows her out, with a doomed look on his face, head hanging down. The officer closes the cell doors behind him and walks back to the desk.
He took the Mario driving game and hide it after one afternoon. What happened, was that we had a gaming marathon and he lost, badly. All the times we played actually. He hated the game so much after that didn't want to play it anymore, ever. So he decided to grab it and run up to hide it from me.
I look back to Callie, who had just watched it happen, without saying one word. I walk back and slump down on the bench.
"Yeah" Callie says her lower lip between her teeth, she is nodding slowly "we are official dead kids walking"
"If mama was this mad I don't even want to picture my mom" I say to Callie. Mom always took these kind of things harder and always was eager to lecture us longer and ground us longer. It was official - i was scared of what is going to happen to us.
Callie looks to me and just like mama had minute ago, she takes my chin and turns my left cheek to look at the gash too. She moved my head slightly, so the light would light up my gash better. She then stands up and walks to the bars
"Could I get some first med kit…I want to clean Jesus gash…" she says to the officer as she holds on to the bar with her left hand. The officer nods back and stands up "Coming right up"
He walks to the end of the table, grabs the med kit and get is to Callie. She sets the med kit down on the bench next to me, gets out some hydrogen peroxide and some gauze.
"You don't have to do this, you know." I say watching her get the stuff out. She struggles with getting the cap off the hydrogen peroxide bottle, but eventually she get's it off
"I know" She says back and stands in front of me holding the two objects in her hands
"I actually think I could earn some sympathy points with mom if you don't clean it. You know, i would be all hurt and stuff" I smile at her lightly to light up the mood
"You shouldn't leave it un-cleaned. Lean your head back" she orders me softly but when I don't do it at first, she takes the gauze in her left too and then with her right she softly pushes my head back to and bit to right side. My head is now laid back at the wall behind and I close my eyes.
"I'm sorry about your black eye" I say back as I feel the drops of the hydrogen peroxide dropping on my gash.
"It wasn't your fault. Just like you said it wasn't my, when I was the reason Frankie chipped off her tooth"
"Ouch" the gash stung. I hear her chuckle and feel her wipe the gash dry "You are such a baby"
"Shut up" I say smirking and then she pours some more on my gash. There was a pause where neither of us said anything. I heard her put down the bottle, so I open my eyes to look at her. She is going thought the med kit looking for something.
Few seconds later she gets a butterfly bandage out. She rips one open and places over my gash. Then she takes another one but she hesitates with placing it on the gash
"Do you think…" she says looking at me "that Jude is gay?"
"I don't know. I wouldn't care if he was. He is my brother either way." She smiles sadly at me and then places the second bandage on my gash
"Do you care if he is?" I ask back as she is still standing in front me. She had this sad look on her face.
She shakes her head and bites her lip "I don't-I think not. It is just…" she trails off "What those kid said to him, how they called him and your moms. I don't want him to get bullied for that. I don't want him hurt. Kids can be really mean at that age. And I just hate that…" she stopped and picked up the med box, placed it in her lap as she sat down next to me.
I wait for her to continue
"I missed 6 years of him growing up already. And now that I have him back in my life I want to protect him. But I don't think I can protect him from being bullied about him maybe being gay. I can't be with him 24/7 and I can't save him from every person that says something mean to him"
"Jude is more tougher than you think he is. He can stand up for himself, maybe not the way I or you would. He would never get violent, he would probably try and talk it out with the bully, kind of like Lena would. That's pretty rare I think, in a kid. He is more smarter than all of those kids put together. And besides, even if you are worried that he is…gay, he lives with two moms, that can help him. They understand him and they do not think something is wrong with him or he is being a freak or anything like that. He has a family that loves him no matter what." I console her the best way I know how. I am not really good with words and most of the time I have no idea what to tell the person, to make them feel better.
After few second of just staring at the med box in her lap, she finally looks up to me. Callie has some tears in her eyes, she nods back to me, still biting her lip. I think she is just trying not to cry. What would moms do? – I ask myself when I saw Callie so…vulnerable, emotional and sad.
I place my left hand on her shoulder and squeeze it softly like mom would "We will always have his back, no matter what, Callie. You don't have to worry about him being alone or not wanted, or not loved"
She once again nods back, looking at her lap and once single tear falls down her cheek. She quickly with her left wipes it away and she sits up straighter. I take my hand back as I do believe the bonding moment is over.
"So" I say after few second of silken "You really would have punched him?" I ask her and when she looks to me, I flash a big smile to her.
She was about to answer me when we both heard a throat clearing sound. We both looked up to the other side of the bars and saw Amy and Stef standing there.
Time: 8:10PM
They looked angry. Mom is in such a cop mode right now, just like Amy is. Amy crosses her arms on her chest first and second later mom does it too. Why do I know and have so many cops in my life?
"I have rights! And with my rights I demand to talk to mama!" I said standing up pointing my finger to the ground, taking my stand against mom. I so wished mama was here now, she would calm mom down.
"Sit your ass back down" mom said sternly and pointed me to move back to the bench. I quickly did just that, not wanting to cause any more trouble. I had to try something. With the look mom is giving me now, I won't probably see daylight for a year.
"Talk, we are listening" Mom said to both of us
"It is all my fault!" Callie quickly says to Stef
"Don't even try to cover for him!" Amy didn't even wait a half a second to reply. Callie quickly shut her mouth and looks down guilty
"You have 5 seconds to start talking, if you don't we are going to leave you here for the night!" mom said next looking between me and Callie
"I don't see the big deal mom-" I said but I couldn't even finish my sentence when mom uncrossed her arms and stepped closer to the cell bars. And the moment the words left my mouth, I knew I should have not said that.
"YOU DON'T SEE THE BIG DEAL!? Are you trying to make me laugh because that is NOT working, son!" Her tone indicated that too. She did not find this situation funny at all.
"Do you even know what is the penalty for driving without drivers license?" Amy asks me, looking to me now too.
I just look back to her not sure if I should answer, but then mom adds firmly "Well, do you? Answer her!" I think i know have a sense of understanding how mom and Amy work together every day. They complete each other. Not the same way mama completes her. She completes her in a scary, lecturing, tough, cop mode way.
I shake my head first and they say it out too "No"
"First option : You can get probation up to 3 years." Amy was counting it off on her right hand fingers
"Second option: up to 6 months of jail time. Third option: A fine, that could cost your moms up to 1'000 dollars. Or last but not lease the fourth option: the car could be taken away for up 30 days. Which, by the way, IS MY CAR! And if you are lucky, and judge" she then raises her hands up and adds quotes "LIKES YOU" she lowers her hands back down "you could get all of the options! Anything sounded good to you?"
"And the-" mom uses quotes with her hands too "BIG DEAL" she crosses her arms back on her chest "-is that your two younger siblings were in the car with you! Not only you could harm them, Callie or yourself but also other people on the streets! People who were just walking in the street, other people in the car! DO you want to be responsible for injuring someone? Living with the conscious of you possibly killing someone or paralyzing them, hurting someone?"
This horrible feeling in my stomach made me now feel 100x times worse than I did before. I knew they were right. They are always right. Mom was right, I could never live with the fact that I could have hurt someone, hurt my family or even worse killed someone. That guilt would kill me.
"I know I messed up" I say quietly looking to ground. I felt too guilty, too ashamed and scared to look into moms eyes. And Amy's for that matter.
"Look at me!" Mom said and then just waited for me to raise my head up to look at her.
When I did she continued "There is a reason, son, that you need to be with an drivers ED teacher or an adult that has experience in driving. You don't even know the driving rules! Who has priority in an junction, huh? There are rules, each and every one of the drives have to notice, that we have to learn, before being even allowed on the street! Callie has been barely been driving for what…8-9 months? She doesn't have the experience to teach you! Not yet at least. And the fact that you thought of doing this with your younger siblings in the car, is even worse. Plus it was already starting getting dark, and you are not ready to drive in the dark! "
"How did you even allow this to happen Callie?" Amy asked Callie in the same stern voice. I guess they moved away from me to her. "What made you think, that THIS…was a good idea?"
She surged as she looked down "At least look me in the eye!" Amy said similar to what mom had said to me just few seconds ago. They wanted eye contact from us. To see how much we regret what we did, to see if we get what they are saying, to see our guilty looking faces.
"I just agreed to teach him in the parking lot how to shift gears. There was just one car there. I didn't think he was going to drive out to the street!" That was when mom and Amy both shot me an angry look.
"I just wanted him to like me more" Callie then added very quietly. Amy and mom both looked back to her
"Is this what you call bonding?" Amy was still very much angry at her "Putting yourself, your brother and his siblings in a dangerous position. It is safe to say Callie, I am really disappointed in you. This is the stupidest thing you two could ever think of doing. And i am not saying you two are stupid! Because neither of you are stupid! You both are smart kids"
"I am disappointed in you too, son!" Mom said looking to me "In both of you, actually." Mom added and looked over to Callie too
"You two were supposed to be the responsible ones." Amy continued "Callie you promised to Lena and Stef that you would look out for all of them. You are the oldest. And most of all, you know what really happens when you screw up, don't you? What happens when you make a BIG mistake. Do you want to get back to juvie, because this-" Amy pointed to down to the floor and looked around the holding cell we were in "-this is a way for you to get back. You would get an express ticket back to Juvenile Detention. And we all know, you don't want that."
"You both were lucky, today." Mom said but now she had turned to bit more softer tone, but that still was stern "You know why?"
We both shake our heads back
"If any other cop in the city would have pulled you over. Anyone, who wouldn't have know that you are our kids" mom points between herself and Amy "You would be arrested. For real! Jesus you would have handcuffs on. Your mug shots would be in the system, so as your finger prints and you would have a record!"
"Callie you would have another line in your record. And with another arrests addition to your previous one, it would get harder to get it sealed when you turn 18. And i know how badly you want it sealed. To have your past...left in the past" Amy said to Callie
"I'm really sorry mom" Callie blurred out, holding back her tears "I didn't mean for any of this to happen"
"I know, Callie" Amy said back to her in a softer voice. Mom then moved to the cell doors and simply opened then and walked in
I then jump up from the bench and gesture to it "IT WAS OPEN ALL THIS TIME!? WHAT THE HELL MOM!"Amy stepped inside the holding cell too
"Sit you ass back down, right NOW! You have no right to raise your voice to me, young man! And yes it was open all the time!" Mom said again very firmly. I quickly sat back down. They fooled us. They tricked us, we could have just walked out of here on our own. I have to give them a point for the creativity thou.
She walks up to me, looks at the gash that was now covered in the bandage. Mom looks down to Callie, almost knowing the second she saw my covered gash, that Callie cleaned it up. She says nothing for now and then she grabs my right hand and looks at my bruised knuckles.
She takes a step back and the two of them again crosses their arms on their chest. They look to one another and then Amy starts.
"Callie, no TV, no computer, no phone, no video games for a month. You are grounded for YET undetermined amount of time, that is until I think you have redeemed yourself. That also means no friends over , not even Jude. At least not for few days. That is until you have gained my trust back, because you have lost it and I believe you have also lost some trust from Stef and Lena too. Also, you won't be driving for undetermined amount of time, but for your information, you won't be getting behind the wheel for at least 2 months! And I honestly feel this is the worst thing you could ever do. Not even the fact that you two got in some fight, which we don't even know a thing about, is worse than this."
Callie just nod back at her mom, agreeing to everything. She accepted her punishment like a real trooper. Then mom starts with me.
"Same as Callie, no TV, no computer, no phone or video games for a month. And no – I do not care what will Haley say. You brought this on yourself. You are grounded for 3 months. You will be on dish duty for a month. And guess what?" she now has a smirk on her face. This was not good. What else can there be.
"What?" I ask quietly looking to mom
"I won't be teaching you to drive for few months wither. Neither is mama going to teach you how to drive, Mike, Amy, your grandparents, your friends parents AND not even the teachers in driving ED. Because I will make sure, you won't be sitting behind a car anytime soon. With that said, you won't get your license to your birthday, like Mariana will. You can trust me on that!"
"MARIANA will get license before ME!? That's not fair! I am older than her! She will rub it in my face that she can drive and I cannot!" I can already imagine the smug look on Mariana's face when she will drive me to school or some skate park. She is not going to spare any jokes. She will be enjoying it so much…ugh, but I can't blame no one else but me for this.
"You think I care about that? Do I have to remind you what you did? How you broke the law!? How there could be a picture of your mug shot in the police database?"
"You two are lucky we didn't sign you up for community work on weekends" Amy said and mom looked to her, pointing to her "Hey, that is not a bad idea, Amy!" Mom said and then the two smiled to one another
"It was just a thought that just popped in my mind…" Amy shrugs back not sure of it herself
"No, no…that's good idea! I like that!"
"You think so?" Amy said now fully turned to Stef "I was reading into that when I was looking for something Callie could do, when her PO wanted her to be active in community life. There are different jobs every week, for example, helping at the youth center, helping elderly at their homes, cleaning up streets from graffiti…"
"I definitely like that idea-" they started to discuss the option of giving us community work right in front of us. Slap in a face if you ask me. Mom looked even excited about the idea.
I turn to look at Callie, she has the same horrified look on her face. I opened my mouth to protest but Callie's left flew over mouth, stopping me from saying what I was going to say. She had closed her eyes for a second and just shook her head at me. Then lowered her hand back to her lap.
I shut my mouth close and look down. She probably saved my ass just now, from adding a month to dish duty. But then, the guy in the other cell speaks up, causing all of us to look at him and stopping Amy's and mom's discussion about community work.
"Boy, you kids are in trouble" he chuckles, standing just by the bars, holding on to them with his hands
"SHUT UP!" Both mom and Amy said to him in such cope mode that they guy jumped back from the bars, he raised his hands up and walked back to sit on the bench.
"Now…who did you get in the fight with? Why does Callie has black eye? And why is Frankie's tooth chipped off?" Mom asks turning back to us.
"We have all the time on our hands so don't even think about saying, it is a long story. Spare no details please, because one way or another, we will find out the truth" Amy adds and takes a step back, leaning with her back against the bars, looking at us.
I glance over to Callie, who was now looking back at me. We shared a look, basically having a silent talk, discussing who will start to talk first. Callie takes a deep breath in and then sight, which basically said – she will start.