The Love of Jury Duty

Hardship:Broken Car

I couldn't wait to get out of this room. The woman sitting next to me felt the need to talk to me and it made me even more uncomfortable. I stood in the hall surrounded by 50 other people waiting for the elevator.

I slowly scanned the room. Since I'd never been here before I was taking the time to take it all in. The building was gorgeous and state of the art. Everything was clearly labeled and easy to find. The old courthouse was small, cramped, old and didn't have air conditioning.  I looked behind me and saw Nicholas going up the stairs. Against my better judgement I made my way up the stairs. Fourth floor isn't that high up.

I climbed the first three flights of stairs with no problem. But I was admittedly out of shape and climbing up stairs like this was a bad idea. I kept climbing though. Every time he would reach the platform between flights he'd look down in my direction. I HAD to push on and pretend like my legs didn't feel like jello.

We walked through the door to the fourth floor. He sat on a bench directly next to the door. My legs and chest burned. I was out of breath and embarrassed but didn't want to let it show. I walked by him quickly placing my phone against my ear pretending to have a call.

The bailiff came to the door and explained that it was going to be crowded in the courtroom and to do our best to file in. I tried really hard to go slowly and stay back so I could maybe sit next to him, but I was pushed in another direction and he sat in the jury box.

There was a big calendar with a bunch of green x's that extended past the end of August. God I hope those aren't trial dates. I can't afford to be out of work that long.

"I'm going to do a quick role call before the judge enters"

Oh good. I get to hear him talk again. Hehe. I giggled to myself as the court liaison read over the list. My ears perked up waiting to hear his voice. I smiled to myself hearing his name and glanced over in his direction and then back down at the floor shyly.

"All rise"

We stood for the judge and then sat slowly. He started out by introducing himself, the bailiff, the liaison, the prosecutors, the defense and lawyers.

"So before we get started I wanted to go over the timeline of this trial. We expect jury selection to be finished today. Once that is taken care of opening statements will begin. And if you look here on this calendar...everywhere you see a green X indicates a day we will be in trial...."

The judge started explaining hardships but all I could think about was how I was going to be able to afford being out of work that long. Sure I got child support and alimony, but that only got so far. My income supplemented food and all of the bills that weren't the mortgage.

"I'm going to release all of you back down stairs. Fill out your hardships and turn them in. I will then go through each one and grant them or deny them. Someone downstairs will announce the decision either way."

I quickly got out of my seat when he let us go. I didn't even bother with the stairs. Sure I enjoyed staring at Nicholas but I wasn't going to do that again. Too many people filed into the elevator and I found myself pressed against a corner trying to not choke on the different cheap perfumes and colognes taking over this space.

The doors slowly opened and I quickly went into the juror room to grab a form. It reminded me of a mob of people trying to buy a Wonka bar to maybe get a golden ticket. I took a form and the first pen I saw...a green Copic artists pen. Seems like a waste of an expensive marker.

The room was packed and adding our group to the mix packed us in like sardines. I was able to fill out my form quickly and find a chair. I looked around and spotted Nicholas. I nearly gasped seeing him lean way over the counter to fill out his form