Noah
My first day of community service was today and the ironic thing was that I was helping to clean up any graffiti that had been done anywhere, including my own, to make space for the new mural I had to paint. As well as myself cleaning up graffiti, I was told that other 'delinquents' near me would be picking up litter around the town.
Looking at the clock I saw that it was 8 a.m. I tensed my jaw realising that I had to be heading out if I wanted to make it in time for strip searches at our first destination. Not that getting groped by different police officers wasn't my favourite activity but if I didn't want to land myself back in court then I had to put up with it. I grabbed my keys which were in a glass bowl at the front of the door. I felt my phone buzz as I headed to the car; to avoid all contact from anyone besides before I went back to school, I personalised all ringtones and buzzes so I knew who the calls would be from. By the buzz in my pocket, I knew it was Tyler. Opening my car door and started the engine before I pulled out my phone from my pocket.
Tyler: Dude, I'm freaking out. Call me.
I plugged my phone into the car, pressed dial and started the car to make my way. "What took you so long I texted you two minutes ago."
"Chill. I had to plug my phone in, I'm driving."
"Where you going?" He asked.
"Community service. I start today, remember?" I scoffed.
"Oh yeah..." He paused to take in what I had said.
"What did you call for again?" I pointed out.
"Right. Dude. I'm freaking out, I'm supposed to take Isla on our first date today but I don't know what to do. I don't know where to take her or want her to be bored cause I get so nervous around her because you know she has those boobs. Which is not why I'm with her! But you know they're nice and I don't want it to be awkward but that's kind of har-" He waffled.
"What is it that you called about again?" I interrupted.
"Come with us. On the date, with Sienna. I'm begging you."
"Sure, if Sienna agrees." I uttered.
"Why wouldn't she agree?" Tyler enquired.
"Never know, she's been distant lately." I shrugged to myself as my car pulled into the first community service destination. There was a long pause on the phone call, but with Tyler's dodgy phone it was probably his service. "Listen, I gotta go. I'll see you at 3, alright?"
"Interesting... See you at 4." I disconnected the phone then turned off the engine and made my way into the centre where one of my painting's was graffitied on the wall.
"You're just in time." A stout police officer shouted in my direction, "Sign in, in the front office," He pointed towards the building with pastel yellow walls. "They'll strip search you and you'll go through the metal detectors. After that they'll give you your jumpsuit and you'll line up with your friends over there." He pointed towards the other guys and girls lined up by one of the walls.
I nodded in reply then took deep breaths as I walked in into the office.
*~*~*
After 4 hours of long scrubbing, it was finally twelve. And the long first half of community service was over; we were allowed to go on lunch breaks but not off site so we had to get bland chicken sandwiches from the vending machine inside. There wasn't a sandwich choice for the vegetarians so they just had to wait for the whole thing to be over which disgusted me so I offered to give them money to buy them lunch after this.
After eating my sandwich, I sat down on a bench, beat from the hot summers day and the humidity. I scoped my surroundings and shook my head at the whole thing. "First time here?" Two guys approached me, one African American with light brown eyes and a high top and one Caucasian with piercing green eyes and blonde hair. I nodded my head in reply and they sat down on the bench next to me.
The Caucasian spoke this time, "It was pretty obvious when you saw his face after he took a bite of the sandwich." He had a strong European accent as he laughed out his sentence.
"How long have you guys been here for?" I asked tensly, not wanting to make any rivals on my first day.
"790 hours I have to do." He answered, "This is my..." He calculated the hours we had done on his watch, "401 hour." He rolled his eyes, "I'm Robertas."
"Josiah, hour 503. All together I have 810." He brought out his hand for me to shake. "What about you?"
I paused as I felt my jaw twitch, "Noah. 720 hours. Hour 4." There was a momentary silence as we took all the information in. "Do you mind me asking, what did you guys do?" Josiah scoffed.
"Wrong place, wrong time. You're born with this skin colour and they think all you are is trouble, even if you've never been in trouble before."
He paused and propped his head on his palms, "Every afternoon I used to walk down this street after work. Very quiet, mainly white folks. It was New Year's Eve and it was dark and it's the quickest way to my house. Guess a couple of kids went round blasting fireworks, soon as they set them off, they ran for it. Old lady came out, starts yelling, 'You! Stop!' Me baffled I just assumed she was losing her mind so I ran... Next day I was being dragged out of my house onto the pavement with charges of vandalism and intent to cause disruption. Worst afternoon of my life man." He shook his head and I shook mine too at his horror story. "I was lucky I got away with community service 'cause that 'ol lady was persistent."
"That's disgusting." I sighed.
"It's not easy for me too you know. They see an immigrant with a funny accent and automatically assume him to be booky." Robertas added, "Look at my eyes, what do you see."
His pupils were dilated, "Your pupils are big." I uttered.
"Yup. I've never smoked in my life, would you believe me from my eyes?" I shook my head no in all honestly, "Yeah, well, neither did the cops... I'm driving home one night and got pulled over, assumed it was because of my broken tail light. One look at my eyes and he thought I was on something. Started to explain myself but he took my accent as if I was intoxicated."
I winced at their stories realising that many people had it much worse than me. "Spent the night in a jail cell and got charged with DUI. No drug test, nothing." He hissed. "I'm Eastern European, I'm not a criminal."
Again there was a momentary silence, "Sorry to get so deep on you on the first day. It's just annoying you know," I shook my head in understanding as Josiah spoke, "What landed you in here?"
My cheeks went red now, "It's nothing. Really."
"Come on, we shared our stories. You share yours." Robertas added.
I sighed, "You know that painting we've been scrubbing all morning." They nodded, "It's mine."
Josiah leaped up, "No way! That was you?" I nodded sheepishly, "You realise your story's as big as the time
that woman murdered her husband by injecting him with lighter fluid!"
"I don't think it's that bi-"
"Dude yes it is!" Josiah interrupted then paused in realisation, "How can that," He pointed at half of my painting, "Land you here? Was the judge racist to Latinos or?"
I shrugged, "Bitter lesbian. Lawyer had an old fling with her." They both burst out laughing and I laughed with them realising how stupid that statement was.
"Okay! Breaks over! Get back to work!" The stout police officer shouted.
"It was nice meeting you." Robertas directed towards me, "Not many nice people here."
"You too." I smiled and shook both their hands, "Hey when this is over, do you guys wanna grab a bite to eat? We can talk some more then." They both nodded and smiled. "See you later."
*~*~*~*
"Dude, what the fuck." Tyler freaked out on the phone when I told him about inviting Robertas and Josiah.
"You said you didn't want it to be awkward. This way it won't be." I chuckled.
"Yes, because what every girl wants is to hang out with offenders on their first date." He scoffed.
"Hey!"
"Ugh, sorry. I'm just... nervous. That's all." He breathed out.
"See you in 15." I said before I disconnected the call and signalled for the boys to come over into the car.
*~*~*~*
Tyler
I screamed internally, "Shit."
*~*~*~*
Hi guysss!
I really hope you're not mad at me :(. It's been a long time I know. And this chapter is short but it's 1:40 am and I stayed up to write this after wattpad deleted the 800 words I already had😕.
I promise to write and have a new chapter before Tuesday so you guys can see how the plan works out.
I really wanted to do this chapter because of all the chaos that's happening with the Black Lives Matter movement and how immigrants are portrayed. I orginally wanted to do this during black history month but we can see how that worked out 😂. I hope it was a small inside to the discrimination people do face not just in America but everywhere.
Shout out to @eisvina_1 for helping me pick out Eastern European names ♡
And I pray that all Americans stay safe in the next 4 years with Trump... as their leader... God bless. And any Mexicans that wna move to London and live with me come bby come❤ (not just Mexicans tho I'm kidding, you are all welcome)
IN OTHER NEWS WE REACHED 100K. OMGGGGG I REMEMBER WHEN THERE WAS ONLY A HUNDRED OF YOU :'} THANK YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH
I LOVE YOU ALL.
- Busayo❤