“JASON!”
The booming male voice shattered the silence of early morning in the Smikle household. “Jason you get out of bed and get down here this instant!”
Jason knew that voice; it was his father, and he was not happy.
Groaning, Jason fell out of bed and wiped the sleep from his eyes. He cracked his knuckles and stretched his stiff limbs before stumbling towards the stairs.
Although it was only eight o’clock, the Texas air already stank with putrid heat, and the AC hardly made a difference.
“What do you want, dad?” Jason yawned, trying to sound innocent and casual. As he squinted his eyes against the light he made out the outline of an all-too-familiar figure.
“Aw, shit…” He groaned.
“You’re in more than just shit now, son.” The police officer stepped up to him. “Where were you last night at around one AM?”
“Sleeping,” Jason said groggily.
The officer did not believe him, nor should he.
“So you were no where near St. Paul’s church?”
“No…” He had to maintain his innocence as long as possible. “I stopped going to church when I was six.”
“Jason, I’m going to be frank with you.” The officer said calmly,
“OK, shoot Frank. Say, weren’t you Adrian last week?”
The young Officer, Albert Nichols, ignored his joke. “You’re fifteen Jason, you’re still a minor, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be punished. We’re considering sending you to a juvenile detention center…”
“Juvey!” Jason cried. “C’mon! I didn’t even do anything. All I did was watch!”
“That’s all it takes,” Officer Nichols shook his head slowly. “This isn’t your first offence either, Jason. You got off easy on those shoplifting charges, but not this time.”
“Please Frank! Can’t you pull some strings for me?”
“Arson is a very serious charge,” Nichols said sternly.
“ARSON!” Gary cried, “Jason, I’m very disappointed in you!”
Jason occupied himself by staring at his toes.
Nichols sighed; “I’m only going to do this once, Jason, but I’ll try and see if the judge’ll give you community service.”
Jason groaned; there was no graceful way out of it.
“Just wait till I tell your mother,” Gary seethed, “Thank you officer.”
Nichols nodded and left, and Gary closed the door behind him.
He glared at his son for a moment, but said nothing. To Jason, his silence was even more frightening than if he were to blow up. He walked back towards the kitchen for breakfast, leaving Jason standing in the doorway to think about how much his sentence was going to suck.
I wonder just how much community service I’ll have to do…?
“One hundred and fifty hours of community service!” The Judge growled, staring viciously at Jason. The young teen squirmed and pulled at his tie. If there was something he hated more than hearings, he didn’t know it.
He’d done his best to sway the Judge’s mind, but with a Judge like Williams, there was no chance.
He’d dealt with Judge Williams before, and he knew that she would have rather given him five hundred hours. Be grateful… But he couldn’t. He moaned inwardly as he listened to Judge Williams as she read out all the different types of community service he would have to do.
His first chore was picking up garbage downtown.
Wonderful…just wonderful…
“I hate Judge Williams, I hate Mike, and I hate all these damn litterers!” Jason stabbed viciously at the garbage that cluttered the ground with his garbage poker. He’d never realized how much garbage there was downtown before. And surprisingly, most of the garbage was scattered around the garbage bins. It was annoying.
“First time pickin’ garbage?” He heard someone laugh.
Jason spun around angrily, but his rage quickly faded when he came face to face with two of the brightest, vividly green eye’s he’d ever seen.
“Y-yeah…” He said as he forced himself to look over the rest of the owner of the laughing eyes.
She was slender, and slightly shorter than average. Her hair was short and blonde, styled in short layers with electric blue streaks. She was dressed casually in a cut-off black T-shirt and short cut of jeans. In her hair was a green bandana.
The girl adjusted the bandana on her head and pulled off a plastic glove before holding out her hand.
“Name’s Kat.”
“Jason,” Jason grinned as he took her hand. “I take it this isn’t you’re first time picking up garbage, huh?”
“Course not!” Kat laughed, “I think I’ve gotten Judge Williams four times in a row now. I liked that old guy, Fergus a lot better. Show him a little skin and I got off easy!” She giggled.
“I remember him…” Jason said fondly, “The most he ever gave me was a public apology.”
“Huh!” Kat snorted. “So what’cha do?”
Jason shrugged, “Arson, but it wasn’t even me. I wouldn’t do something like that. Usually just shoplifting. And you?”
Kat snorted, “Man, you make me look like some sort of demon. Let’s see here, vandalism, disturbing the peace, trespassing, shoplifting, arson, assault and battery, grand theft auto…”
“OK! OK! I get it! I’m an angel.” He grinned and stabbed an empty coke bottle.
“I’m sure you’re nothing of the sort.”
Jason just cast her a wicked grin and kept working. Kat shook her head and carried on beside him.
They had to pick up garbage all day from seven AM to eight PM, with only a half an hour break for lunch. Their supervisor was extremely strict. But the day wasn’t a total loss. Jason and Kat seemed to really hit it off.
“And then the old woman started screaming at me to put it down, and the security guards came runnin’ down…” Kat broke off in a fit of hysterics.
Jason howled as well and let his arm drape around her waist as they stumbled down the sidewalk. Kat was laughing so hard she had to lean against him for support.
“I’ve never had so much fun picking up garbage in my life.” Kat snorted, “We should do this again.” She winked.
Jason grinned and stopped, turning her into him. He lowered his head and captured her lips. Kat gave into him and plunged her tongue into his mouth.
Whoa! Tongue ring… Jason thought gleefully as he deepened the kiss. “How about tomorrow?” He murmured, his lips traveling down her slender neck.
“Can’t,” She said, “I’m serving soup at the shelter till nine.”
“Monday?”
“OK…” She laughed, “Meet me at six.” She grabbed his hand and scribbled something on it before darting off down the street.
“Hey wait!” Jason cried. “Don’t you want me to walk you home?”
But she was already gone. He looked down at his hand and smiled. There was a sloppy address written on his palm. Stuffing his hands into his pockets he started to make his way back towards his house.
Monday came far too slowly for Jason. He’d discovered where the address was on his hand: it was a small café tucked underneath a bookstore.
He dressed carefully that day, trying to look good without looking desperate. It was almost six o’clock by the time he finally decided he was ready to leave. Since he was grounded, he had to sneak out the back door and climb over the fence, then make a mad dash down the street.
He ran all the way to the café and stopped outside to catch his breath.
“You’re right on time.”
He looked up and saw Kat grinning over him. “I wouldn’t have missed it.” Jason smirked. He slipped his arm around her, “We gonna go in?”
“Now where’s the fun in that?” Kat laughed, “I have a better idea.”
“Somehow I don’t think this is a better idea.” Jason said cautiously as he went over in his mind how much more trouble he could get himself into.
“Come on, don’t be such a chicken, Jason! Let’s go!” Kat grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the ominous building.
“You act like you’ve never stolen a car before.”
“Not from the police impound lot!” Jason cried. Kat laughed, “You wouldn’t believe how easy it is! All you have to do is distract the guard and get the gate open, and I’ll grab the car and pick you up.”
Jason eyed her suspiciously but finally gave in.
He waited as Kat began to climb over the fence, throwing and old car mat over the barbed wire, and then dropped down to the other side.
Jason walked up to the guard and banged on the glass. “Hey buddy! Buddy!”
The guard looked up and glared at the teen. “What do you want, kid?” He hissed.
Kat banged something against a car and he spun around to look at the monitors.
“Hey!” Jason had to think fast. He turned around and mooned the guard, pressing his bare backside against the glass to his booth.
“Why you little…”
Jason laughed and pulled up his pants as he took off, the lone guard in hot pursuit.
Jason chuckled and ran around to the booth, grabbed the keys from the counter and fled towards the gate. He had only a few seconds to find the right keys and shove it in the lock. He made it just in time.
The gate flew open and Kat came charging at it at top speed. The guard leapt out of the way but Kat slowed the old pick-up enough for Jason to clamber into the back.
“Woo hoo!” Kat howled as she slammed her foot on the gas and drove away.
“YEAH!” Jason cheered, laughing at the guard as he stumbled to his feet and ran after them. Within minutes they had lost him and were driving out into the country.
He crawled in through the back window and slipped into the passenger seat next to Kat.
“Now was that fun or what?” Kat asked deviously.
“Oh yeah…”
“I’ll make a proper criminal out of you yet, Jason Smikle.” Kat grinned.
She turned onto a background and parked the car.
“C’mon, let’s go look for shooting stars.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the back of the truck.
The truck conveniently had some blankets in the back seat and she spread them out, lying down on one and pulling the other over their legs. She rested her head against the inside of Jason shoulder and sighed deeply as she looked up at the stars.
Soon, however, it became clear that she was interesting in something more than just the stars. Jason was all too happy to oblige to her wishes.
He rolled on top of her and his mouth attacked hers urgently.
Then they were tearing off each other’s clothes, and Jason stopped. “I don’t have anything…” He groaned, patting his pockets. “I mean…”
“Oh well,” Kat grabbed his face and pulled him back down over her. Jason had no complaints.
When Jason woke up the next morning, he was lying in the grassy field, tangled up in the blankets. He moaned and rubbed his eyes and looked around.
Kat was nowhere in sight…and neither was the truck!
“Dammit!” Jason cried. He got up, found his clothes scattered around him and shook them free of grass and bugs before he put them on. He stood up and looked around. He saw the truck parked outside a ranch. Relieved, he began to walk towards it.
“Kat?” He called as he got closer.
“Hey Jason!” She waved to him, “Come over here and meet my father!”
At first Jason wasn’t sure if he’d heard her correctly. Did she say the huge man standing next to her was her father!?
He gulped and walked up to them. “H-hi…” He was afraid he might have gotten himself in too deep.
Jason kept seeing Kat several times a week after that. She was a lot of fun, no matter what they were doing. Jason always enjoyed being with her and participating in their little trysts, but he kept wondering if he was getting himself into more trouble than he wanted to be in.
He found that during the day they argued a lot. It was fun, at first, but now it was just getting irritating. He’d only known her two weeks though, and he thought he should give her chance.
But one day, two week after their first date in the stolen truck, Kat came up to him with angry tears in her eyes and punched him hard across the jaw.
“What the hell was that for?!” Jason demanded.
“I’m going to kill you for what you did to me.” She hissed.
“What? What did I do?” Jason whined.
“You got me pregnant, you idiot!” She cried, hitting him over the head with her shoe. “I’m pregnant, I’m pregnant, I’m pregnant!”
Jason had never heard more condemning words. “You’re what?!”
“PREGNANT!” And she broke down crying.
“OK, Kat calm down.” Jason said soothingly, taking her into his arms.
“I will not calm down!” She screamed, flailing her arms wildly. “This is all your fault!”
“My fault! How is it my fault?”
“I you had just brought condoms like you were supposed to!”
“I did every other time!”
“It only takes once!”
“I know, but maybe if you hadn’t have kept going when I told you…”
“Oh I don’t have to deal with you right now!” She cried. She turned and stormed away from him angrily.
“Oh…shit…”
“Excuse me…” Jessica Smikle’s mouth fell open in shock. “You got that poor girl pregnant?!”
“Jessica, calm down,” Gary sighed. “I’m sure this is nothing we can’t handle.”
“Jason I can’t believe you! How could you just…just…oh that poor girl!” She cried.
Jason groaned. His mom always seemed to have a way to make matters worse.
“What are we going to do?” Gary wondered.
“What do you think we’re going to do?” Jessica snapped. “We’re going to make sure our son takes full responsibility for this! Jason, you are going to get a job a give that girl all the child support she needs!”
“Who says she’s even gonna keep it?” Jason snapped.
“Well you have a say in this too, Jason. If she doesn’t want it, we’ll have it.”
“WHAT! Mom, I’m fifteen! I’m not ready for a kid!”
“Well you should have thought about that before you started sleeping around!”
“I am not sleeping around, mom.” Jason rolled his eyes.
“Then how did this happen?”
“Mom!”
“Jessica!”
Jessica just glared at her family.
“Now,” Gary stated firmly, “Jason, you are going over there tomorrow to talk to her. I’ll leave up to you two to decide what you’re going to do.”
“Gary! You can’t eave this kind of decision to them. They’re…”
“Jessica, please…” Gary sighed. “Jason, I’m counting on you to make the right decision.”
Jason postponed talking to Kat for weeks. He told his dad that she was avoiding him, and he bought it. Eventually, however, he knew he would have to face the music.
He thought a lot about what he wanted to do with his unborn child. Did he want to keep it, or dump it on Kat? Or they could put it up for adoption. And of course, there was abortion. That, he decided, was last on his list of options.
And the idea of just handing away his child to some stranger was not very appealing. He wanted the kid, he decided. He gathered his courage and started off towards Kat’s house.
He knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer.
Kat came to the door. She stopped and stared at him when she realized who it was. “Jason…”
“Kat, we really need to talk.” Jason said urgently, pushing himself inside.
“About what?”
“What do you mean, ‘about what’?” Jason cried disbelievingly, “About this kid. I’ve been thinking a lot about this Kat, and I think that we can do it.”
“What…?”
“Don’t you think so, Kat? Don’t you think we could raise it?”
“Y-you want to keep it,” She asked, her voice shaking.
“Yeah, I mean I could never abort it, and adoption doesn’t sound very appealing…”
Anger and resentment flooded her face. “Well you’re too late, Jason.” She snapped.
“Wha…?” Nothing could have prepared him for what she was about to say. Those few words would change his life forever and would end the biggest ordeal of his young existence.
“I’ve already had an abortion two days ago.”
He would never be the same again.
