JAKE'S PUNISHMENT

Chapter 3 - GETTING ON WITH IT

A MONTH LATER

It was a bright sunny day as Jake stood at the bus stop. He examined his wristwatch, a chunky, flashy stainless steel watch that his parents had bought him as a birthday present. The bus was due any second. It still took some getting used to, taking buses when he had always driven everywhere before. It was a month since he had been sentenced and it was his second day of unpaid work. Every Saturday for 7 hours he would be painting and decorating at a local primary school. He had done his first 7 hours the previous Saturday, now he only had another 243 hours to go! It felt like it was going to drag on forever, but it was better than being in prison. He knew he could very easily be in prison right now and he wouldn't be enjoying the sunshine.

The bus arrived and Jake boarded it. He took a seat upstairs and took his smartphone out of his pocket. He would check everything he needed to know as once he was doing unpaid work he was forbidden to look at his phone for 7 hours. He was anxious to see if Cindy had replied to the Whatsapp message he sent her five minutes ago. He was disappointed to find that she had not, but was he surprised? After all, she had ignored all of the other 300 or so he had sent over the past month too. He slipped his phone back into his pocket and sat staring out the window. He felt angry that Cindy was still ignoring him, he felt it was unfair.

He arrived on time for the project, being late was not a good idea as he could be returned to court for that, so he made sure he left that extra bit early to give him enough time to get there. The other men were all hanging around outside smoking as Jake arrived

''Alright mate'' one of them said

''Yeah I'm cool'' Jake replied ''How about you?''

''I wish I wasn't here doing this fucking shit man, I wish I was with my girl having fun. It's the weekend and I am stuck doing this shit!''

Jake nodded his head sympathetically as he lit a cigarette

''I know mate, it sucks right. How many hours you got left anyway?''

The other lad looked very sorry for himself as he replied ''Still another 120 fucking hours mate. How about you, you only just starting right?''

''Yeah, I have 243 hours left to go''

The lad looked stunned ''Fuck that man, you got caned, mate!''

''Yeah but I could have gone to prison'' Jake explained humbly. He was determined not to moan about his sentence when he knew in his heart he was lucky really

''What did you do anyway to get that many hours Must have been bad, like did you kill someone''

''Well yeah....but it was an accident''

The lad gave Jake a look of admiration

''Respect man, you're a real badass''

''Not really, I don't feel proud of what I did''

''You should, it's cool man, proper cool...wanna come pub with me and me mates later?''

Jake was unsure ''I dunno'' He said

''Oh come on man, it will be a wicked night. We always have a lot of fun''

''Well yeah, alright then'' Jake had decided that maybe a good night out would do him some good. He hadn't been having much fun over the past month. He was a little concerned about whether he could really afford this though, he did have that huge fine to pay after all. But what the hell, he needed to have some fun as well. It couldn't all be punishment