"Listen, he wasn't doing anything wrong." Jionni's lawyer plead. "All he was doing was firing his girlfriend to his home."
"But he wasn't even supposed to be out of the house, Mabel." The district attorney said. "How'd he get his bracelet off?"
Jionni sat in the courtroom with his lawyer and his mother, looking down in embarrassment. Jionni's lawyer looked over at him, then looked down himself.
"No answer, your honor."
"Mabel, does your client have a license?" The judge asked. "If so I can minimize his sentence to house arrest and probation for 4 years. Do you have a license, sir?"
Jionni looked up at the judge, slowly shaking his head.
"No."
"So you were driving WITHOUT a license or a permit?"
"Yes."
The judge shook her head and gave Jionni's lawyer a serious look.
"I'm gonna have to sentence him to 6 months in jail for violation of his probation and another 12 months for driving WITHOUT his license-"
"Please, your honor. Jionni has to finish his high school year." His lawyer plead. "Can we lower this down to a month of house arrest and 5 years probation?"
The judge paused, making one final statement.
"I will lower his sentence down to this, but I will have robbery, driving without a license, and probation violation added onto his record."
"WHAT!?" Jionni said out loud.
"Or I could give you the jail sentence ALONG with this information that will have to be added to your record regardless, Jionni." The judge said in a serious tone. "Will this be an issue?"
Jionni froze as the judge banged her gavel against the podium.
"I thought so. Hopefully, I won't see you in here again." The judge said. "Case dismissed."
As Jionni, Diana, and his lawyer left the courtroom, Jionni's lawyer had some words for Jionni and his behavior.
"Listen, I'm not going to continue to represent a client who continues to act out of line since he's sliding through the cracks of the damn system." Jionni's lawyer growled. "I've been dealing with this for TOO long-"
"He ain't done anything, Mabel!" Diana scowled in a low tone.
"Hasn't done anything? Sneaking off his house arrest bracelet? Driving without a license!?" The lawyer whispered aggressively. "Is that what you call not doing anything?"
Jionni's lawyer shook his head and tightened his grip on his briefcase, walking out.
"This is your last warning." His lawyer said in a serious tone. "Otherwise, have fun finding yourself a new lawyer."
Jionni stood there in disbelief as Diana looked at him.
"That girls family called the police on you?" Diana snapped. "Fo' what?"
"Cause dey think i'ma criminal when in reality I ain't 'eem done shit!" Jionni scowled. "They probably just cost me a damn job!"
"Well da next time you get caught, you'll be goin' ta jail for 18 months." Diana murmured angrily. "So you think 'bout if you wanna hang around this lil' girl anymore. Cause her and her damn family just cost you a lengthy record on yo' resume."
Jionni now had a criminal record at the age of 17, was now on house arrest, and was about to lose the one lawyer he's had since he was 14. Stuff was starting to get out of hand really quick.
And the second Melissa got to school, she was catching heat.
When Melissa walked into school, she heard almost all of the large crowd of students in the entire hallway talking about Jionni going to jail. She planned on running to class just to get away from all of the gossip, but it was pretty much unavoidable. As Melissa started squeezing through the large sum of people, a girl tapped her on the shoulder.
"Why yo' parents send Jionni to jail?" The girl scowled. "He ain't even do shit!"
"I don't know..." Melissa groaned.
"Wait, what the hell they call the police on Jionni for?" The boy next to the girl snarled. "He ain't even do shit."
As Melissa was walking, she saw Chevy and the crew walking together. Chevy quickly grabbed D'juan as he wrestled and kicked in his arms. Since he was short, it wasn't difficult to hold him back.
"You got my cousin sent to da' damn feds!?" D'juan yelled as Chevy carried him up the upcoming stairs. "I knew yo' ass was gone get him caught up!"
Jay stayed behind, walking closer to Melissa.
"What the hell is going on?" Jay whispered.
"I have no clue! My asshole parents called the police on Jionni and now he's in jail!" Melissa said nervously. "I had no clue that it would lead to all of this!"
While Jay was talking, Melissa saw Kiara walk past her.
"It was only a matter of time before he winded up there." Kiara said blankly as she walked past Melissa, not giving her any eye contact. "I'm surprised that this is the only thing that they caught him doing."
Melissa looked at her, looking at Jay.
"What is she talking abou-"
"Nothing. She's been miserable ever since her son died." Jay groaned. "Anyway, we've gotta do something. We can't just leave him there-"
"Well what are we gonna do?"
"Come on! Come on!" The principal yelled as he stood in between all of the loud students. "Get to class now!"
Jay turned back to Melissa, walking away.
"I'll talk to the boys about it."
After the dreadful three classes and during lunch, Melissa skipped walked to Jionni's house to check up on him. Word around the school is that he was out of jail and still on house arrest. When she got there, she saw him sitting on his porch with a metal bracelet on his ankle. Melissa rushed up to him and stood in front of him, giving him a blank stare.
"Hey..." Melissa murmured.
Jionni scrunched his lips up at her as he felt on his ankle bracelet.
"Hey..." Jionni mumbled back.
Jionni stood up and gave Melissa a hug. She clutched onto his back and sat next to him as he squinted his eyes out at the street.
"So, what happened?" Melissa asked. "You didn't get any jail time?"
"Nah."
"How?" Melissa asked. "I thought that you violated your probation?"
Melissa could tell by Jionni's demeanor that something was wrong. He didn't say anything for a while, then looked down.
"My lawyer had ta' pull teeth with the DA jus'so I wouldn't go to jail. Dey agreed, but dey put dis' shit on my record." Jionni sighed. "So nah every time I try to get a job, robbery, probation violation, and drivin' without a license gone pop up on my record..."
Melissa's eyes widened as she gave him a shocked look.
"Are you serious, Jionni?"
"Ain't fuckin' around." Jionni answered, scratching his shoulder.
"I am so sorry, Jionni." Melissa plead. "I promise I didn't mean to-"
"Don't blame yoself' fo' dis, Lissa. It ain't yo' fault..." Jionni said in a low, yet serious tone. "I shouldn't ha' been out dere fuckin' around when I was young..."
"Still, it was my parents fault for calling the police. They get on my damn nerves!" Melissa scowled in agitation. "I swear they both are old and miserable as hell! The next time we hang out I swear they're never gonna-"
Before Melissa could finish her sentence, she saw Jionni shaking his head and placing his tongue on the right side of the inside of his cheek. Melissa gave him a confused glare, wondering what was wrong.
"What's wrong?" Melissa asked. "Did I say something wrong?"
Jionni remained silent, scratching his shoulder.
"Lissa, ion' think we should hang out outside a' school no mo...." Jionni groaned.
Melissa's eyes widened more than before as she gave him a look of shock.
"Wha.......w-w.....I said that I was sorr-"
"Lissa I told you dis' ain't got nothin' to do wit' you."
"So what happened to you not being afraid of my parents!?" Melissa scowled in anger.
"Lissa ion' give a shit about yo' parents. This my life das' on the line!" Jionni scowled back at her. "If I get caught wit' you and yo' parents call da' police again, I'm goin' to jail the next time. JAIL! My momma already stressin' ova dis shit I'm goin' through and I'm not about to be in da pen for 10 years!"
Melissa's eyes started to well with tears of worry. Louis's words were starting to rock back and forth in her head. Her parents were really about to mess up one of the only friendships she had at her school.
"But you're my only friend..." Melissa said in a shaky tone.
"We can hang out at school-"
"But the only time we'll only be able to talk is at lunch!" Melissa panted. "We don't even have any classes together-"
"Lissa this shit is gettin' too risky. And until yo' parents loosen up on you or some shit, I can't risk violatin' this probation..." Jionni said, looking down. "I swear dis' ain't got shit to do wit' you like I said..."
Melissa stared out into space, slowly getting off of her porch.
"I've gotta go back to class..."
Jionni felt bad, but he did what he had to do. Once Melissa got out of distance to where he couldn't see her, she cupped her face and started to bawl silently as she headed to school. Taking away her phone was one thing, taking her car was another, but now Melissa lost the only close friend at her school that she cared about the most.
All because of her parents.