Let Me Love You | A.G

XII

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"I told you not to get arrested right before I left and that's the first thing you do?" Ariana shouts through the county jail phone.

I hold the phone a great distance away from my ear. Damn, she was going in on me.

"It wasn't my plan to get arrested Ari," I let out a huge sigh of frustration. If I could get out of this situation, I would.

"I'm calling Mom, she's gonna come bail you out," I can almost hear her attitude through the phone.

"Don't do that. I got myself into this situation, I gotta get myself out," I say, looking around the jail I was in.

As soon as I came in the station, I was immediately booked and transferred into the county jail. They had just finally let us out of our cells this morning, since last night was too late, to make a phone call and do whatever else we needed to do.

"No, I'm calling her and letting her know where you are. Stop thinking you can do everything on your own," She snaps, breathing heavy on the other line.

"I'm just letting you know that this was my fault. What's so bad about taking accountability?" I throw my hands up in frustration. She has a bad habit of telling me shit I already know.

"You can take accountability for your actions without acting like you don't need help, Jay," She huffs. I can hear her shuffling around the room, probably pacing around.

"I understand my love and I'm sorry. Thank you for calling me and trying to help me out," I apologize. If I didn't, she would've kept going.

"I can't believe I'm calling you from jail," I already know she's shaking her head, "What did you even do anyway?"

"Tried to sell coke to Ricky," I mumble, hoping I didn't have to repeat it.

"Jayce, baby, I'm gonna kill you when I see you," She responds in an oddly calm tone. The automatic voice then tells us that we have one minute left on the call, meaning we had to wrap this up. Thank god.

"I gotta go okay? I'll call you whenever your mom comes to get me," I silently thank whoever for ending this call when they did.

"We're not done with this conversation but I'll let you go. Call me as soon as you get out or I swear to God you're gonna hear my voice from your grave," She says with a serious tone. We then say our goodbyes and I hang up the call, leaving to go back to my cell.

"She cussed you out didn't she?" My cell mate, Elias, teases. He's an older guy, probably in his mid-thirties.

"Sadly, you're right. Went off on me for like twenty minutes straight," Letting out a deep breath, I climb up on my bunk.

"She loves you man. That's the only reason she's doing this. Don't take it personal," He stands up from his own bunk which happened to be at the bottom, grabbing something from under it.

"How do you know?" I sit up in my bunk. He chuckles and shakes his head.

"Girls only worry that much when they have deep feelings for you. That girl has real, genuine feelings for you kid," He grabs out a bag of food, which I'm assuming is commissary, tossing me a bag of Doritos and grabbing some for himself.

I open up the bag of chips, leaning my head against the wall behind me, "Dude, she said she was gonna call her mom to get me. I'm fucking shitting my pants."

"Her mom a bitch or something?" He raises an eyebrow, taking out a chip from his bag and eating it.

"Nah, she just treats me like one of her kids. I've been living in her house since I was seven. I literally just moved out last night," I grab a couple chips from the bag, stuffing them in my mouth. God, I was so hungry.

"Slow down champ, it's not going anywhere," He laughs.

Champ? Only Phil would call me champ when I was little.

"Damn man, you just reminded me of someone who used to call me that," I smile just think of him, "He used to call me that when I was little. He's kind of like of father to me, raised me when I was dropped off on the street by my biological parents.

"Sounds like a great dude to be honest," He sighs, "Kind of makes me miss my kids."

"Go call them Lias, I'm sure they miss you too," I encouraged.

"I called them a little earlier. Wife and kids are good, just a little anxious for my court date," He shakes his head, his eyes getting a little watery, "They're saying I could possibly get life in prison."

"I never asked but what happened?" I watch as he tenses up a little, "You don't have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable or something."

He takes a deep breath before speaking, "Some dude tried to sexually assault my daughter. So, I hunted him down and killed him. She's only twelve, she doesn't need to be exposed to that type of shit. I was only tryna protect her."

"You didn't do anything wrong man, I would've done the same thing if I was in your shoes," I tell him truthfully, "How many kids you got?"

"Just two. Two beautiful girls. One's four and one's twelve, like I said," He takes his now empty bag of chips and crushing them into a ball, reaching for my empty bag. I give it to him and he puts it in a separate bag that he uses for all his trash.

I thank him as he sits in his bunk, "I hope you beat your case. Your daughters need their father and from what I can tell, you seem like a great one. Trust me, I would kill to have a father like you."

"That means a lot that you said that Jay, I appreciate it," He gives me a big smile. I don't respond, just simply lay back on my bunk, closing my eyes and wishing I was out of this place.

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A/N: Hope you guys are enjoying your holiday break so far (if you have one). I'll be posting a couple more chapters before the year ends.