Alternate Tings

Jerrell

Jerrell POV
     The silence in the room was deafening. No one had anything they wanted to say to each other. I mean there was nothing anyone could say to make this situation any less shitty.

"Alright you guys get phone calls, so who's going fi- hold up is that Juice", said the officer peeking into the cell.
"The one and only", I said smiling and flashing my grill.
"What you doing in here", he asked.
"I had a gun. These niggas over here got into some fights", I said motioning around the room.
"Don't act like you aint start this shit", Zay interjected.
"Wouldn't have had to if ole dude wasn't messing with my girl", I said.
"Alright settle down. What y'all doing about bail", the officer asked.
"I don't have anybody here to pay for me", Shae said. Almost everybody nodded in agreement except for Zay.
"Nah don't look at me. My parents won't help pay for my tuition for grad school if they find out I got locked up", he said shaking his head.

Everybody looked around waiting for someone else to speak up but they were truly out of options.

"Aight imma fan so let me help out. If you can pay $5,000, I'll let everybody outta here, no charges", the guard said checking to see if any of the other officers were listening.

"Lemme make a call then", I said getting up and going to the door of the cell.
The officer opened up the cell and walked me into one of their offices. I sat there for a minute trying to figure out who I should call and only one person came to mind. I dialed the number and hoped they would be up to answer it.
"Hello? Who is this", the voice said once they picked up.
"Daiya it's Jerrell. I'm in a bit of a situation", I said reaching up to rub the the back of my head.
"Shit bae. What'd you get yourself into this time", she asked and you could hear the hint of annoyance in her voice.
"I got locked up. Bail is $5000 and I won't be charged if I pay it. I just need you to wire the money to this account number", I said reading the number off this paper the officer gave me.
"It's always something", she said and I could tell she was shaking her head. "Luckily I got some news that's just as shocking".
There was a pause in the conversation, while I waited for her to continue talking.
"We're pregnant!", she practically squealed.
"Fuck you mean pregnant", I blurted out.
"Don't act like you pulled out when we were in your office a few weeks ago, you shoulda known this was coming", she said nonchalantly.
"Shit. We gonna have to talk about this later, I gotta go", I said trying to get off the phone.
"You could at least be happy. I - I thought you loved me", she said and you could hear her voice cracking as if she was about to start crying.
"I'll call you when I get out", I said and hung up the phone.
The officer smiled as he looked down at his phone - obviously the money had went through. He walked me back to the cell and proceeded to release everybody else. We got outside and everyone was about to go their separate ways but something was still making me feel uneasy.

"Yo um, how about you girls get each other's phone numbers? I got a bad feeling about that cop. So assuming none of y'all want to go to jail, I think we need to keep in contact to keep our stories straight", I told everybody.
"Why don't you guys do it", Melody said motioning towards all the guys.
"Personally , I still wanna beat dude's ass so I don't think thats the best idea aight? Just get each other's numbers", I said growing slightly more frustrated.

A collective wave of sighs let out amongst the girls as they took out their phones and created a group chat titled "ThisNight 🙄".

"What kinda dumbass name is that", Zay asked thoroughly confused.
Although the guys didn't see the significance, the girls seemed quite happy over the creation of their first inside joke. Who knows what else would come from this?

After that, everyone finally ended up going up and I was left alone with Noelle. I needed a way to get away from her so I could talk to Daiya but that didn't seem to be happening anytime soon. She still seemed a little shook up from having to sit in a holding cell most of the night.

"You alright bae", I asked once we finally got back to the room.
"I mean yeah. I just don't know if this is what I signed up for Rell", she said quietly.

She wasn't comfortable with the idea of me carrying around guns or starting fights over her, obviously, even though she didn't want to directly tell me that.

"Don't put me in situations like that then. Why were you even letting be on you like that Noe", I asked her.
"I wasn't trying to. I don't know it just happened really fast, I was just watching them perform. I didn't know he would do all that. Doesn't mean you need to go threaten and kill somebody tho", she said getting slightly more frustrated with me.
"Your my girl. You just gotta expect that shit if anybody tries to take whats mine. That's just how we handle shit where I'm from, get used to it", I say nonchalantly.
That's what pushed her over the edge. She's not one to argue and cuss but you could tell I had her blood boiling. Instead of saying anything she just walked out of the room. My plan worked. I had to get her out of the room and now I've bought myself a good 30 minutes to handle this shit with Daiya.

"Daiya your not keeping this baby", I say as soon as I get on the phone.
"How are you gonna tell me what I can and can't do with this baby. Why don't you want to have one with me", she said, her voice starting to tremble.
"I got a girl, you know this. What I did with you was just a one time thing. Wait a minute. How long ago did we fuck in that office", I asked.
"Four months ..", she said quietly.
"You're four fucking months pregnant Daiya? Why didn't you say something before now? You waited this long so I didn't have a choice in it didn't you? This is some bullshit and you know it", I said yelling at her through the phone.
"I just found out okay. My period isn't always consistent so I didn't think anything of it. How am I supposed to raise this baby without you Rell", she asks and you can hear her start to cry.

I sat there silently for a minute, shaking my head. I can't be this much of an asshole, at least not to her. Although I do love Noe, I knew Daiya first and I always have a soft spot for her.

"You won't man. We'll figure something out, just give me some time. We gotta have some rules though. Noelle can't find out about this", I say just as Noelle walks back in through the door.

"I can't find out about what", she asks.
"Uhh this surprise I'm on working on for you with Daiya. I'll call you back later Dai", I said and hung up.
Before she had too much time to think about it, I started to overtalk her.
"Look I'm sorry Noelle. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did earlier. I know if I wanna be with you, I got some stuff to work on but I do wanna be with you, okay", I say.
She smiled slightly and came to give me a hug.
"It's okay, I think I overreacted a little anyway. Can we just get some sleep now", she asked.
"Of course", I said leaning down to kiss her.
We were going off to sleep and all I could think about was how not to fuck this up.