Second Chance

Chapter 22

I walked into the courtroom, suddenly feeling way more nervous than upset. Maria took a seat in the front row, looking worried. I walked over to the table Jen was sitting at. Beside her was the person that was going to be arguing for my imprisonment. She was a middle aged woman as well with short blonde hair. I then turned my attention back to Jen, who was saying something to me.

"Leave all the talking to me." She said quietly. "We don't want you messing anything up."

Ha. Like you even cared. Instead, I kept my mouth shut and nodded. A moment later, the rest of the courtroom fell silent, as the judge came sauntering in from a back room. He sat down in his fancy judge chair and gave me a calculating look.

"Today we will be discussing the murder of Riley Sumit." The judge said, getting right into it.

Death. The death of Riley Sumit. I didn't mean to kill him. It was a goddamn accident! I so badly wanted to shout, but obviously didn't. I felt someone's eyes on me, and I looked to my right to see Riley's parents glaring flaming poisoned daggers at me from across the room. I shrunk down in my chair slightly, feeling absolutely terrible. I may not have killed him, but it was my fault that their son was dead.

"Justin Blok is the one convicted of this crime, and we are here to determine his innocence or guilt. Mr. Blok, may you please start off by describing the incident?" The judge continued.

Before I could say or do anything, Jen popped up from her chair. "There was some sort of explosion, which-"

"Mrs. Vaughan." The judge cut her off. "I believe I asked Mr. Blok that question."

Jen reluctantly sat back down, giving me a hard look. I then stood up nervously, not knowing what to say. I couldn't exactly explain it by saying 'my dumbass thought it would be cool if I strapped dynamite to a firework and blew it up, except it extremely backfired and killed the one person in this entire world I genuinely cared about'.

"Uhhh...." I started. "It was Friday night when it happened. Riley and I were in a field shooting off fireworks, and one firework blew up too early. Riley shielded me from the explosion, which was how he died."

"Why did the firework go off earlier than anticipated, do you know?" The judge asked.

"I, uh. I attached some dynamite to the firework. So the explosion was from the dynamite first, then the firework." I said slowly, feeling supremely stupid.

"And you did that, why?" He pressed.

That was a fantastic question. Why? Why did I think that was a good idea? Probably because I was drunk the entire night, and I was more of a moron than usual. "I was drunk." I answered. "I didn't know what I was doing."

"You're file here says that you are seventeen, while the legal drinking age is eighteen. Are you aware of that, Mr. Blok?" He questioned, frowning his bushy eyebrows at me.

"Yes, I am aware of that." I said, trying to keep the exasperated sigh out of my voice.

"It also says that you have a criminal record prior to this past incident. You stole a car a year ago, and recently sold illegal drugs. Additionally, you set off illegal fireworks and stole yet another car. Is that correct?" He listed off.

"Yes it is." I answered, looking at the ground.

"Do you have your driver's license?"

"No, I never got it."

"Who's car was it that you stole?"

"It was Jake Newfold's car, well, truck actually."

"I see. Well, we can arrange for him to come here as soon as possible and make a testimony."

Great. That's exactly what I needed. There's no way in hell that he'll cover for me. He probably hates me more than he already did now that I fucked up his truck. He's probably going to say that it was all an elaborate plan to kill Riley and pin it on him or something. Which was absolutely ridiculous. Who would believe me though? Everyone here hates me, and I bet everyone here wants to see me behind bars, or dead.

"In the meantime," The judge continued. "we will start from the beginning of the night to the end. Mr. Blok, you will tell every detail that you remember. After that, we will have the defendant speak."

That's going to be a problem. I barely remembered what happened after we left the motel. Everything from the party was a blur. All I could remember was stealing Jake's car, driving around for a bit, shooting off fireworks, then blowing up Riley. I tried my best to explain it though, although I didn't see why it mattered. Any of it. It was pretty obvious that I was guilty, so why are we dragging through this if we already know the outcome?

Finally, once I was finished telling my story, the judge spoke again. "Thank you. Now it is the defendant's turn."

I sat back down as Jen stood up. I gave her an unreadable look, but on the inside I was filled with anxiety. I had no idea how this was going to pan out. Would she actually try and defend me? Or was she just trying to put me under the ground?