Till Death

Morning 6

I walked inside the large building and to court room 4. When I walked in I noticed a few people were already here. The Rojas' and Chesley's. My mothers were right behind me. I walked past Mr, and Mrs. Chesley. He gave me a weird look. 

"Ariel, have you seen Jacob? We need to talk to him," He said as he held his phone out. 

"He left my place a few hours before me, but I haven't been able to get a hold of him. He's probably with some friends." 

If only he knew where he really was. He would be so shocked. 

"Well when you see him, can you tell him we're going on another business trip after court."

I only responded with a nod. When I sat down, I noticed Mr. James wasn't here. It was so sad and disappointing. 

A few minutes passed and Ashton finally walks out and right after her, the judge. We listened as the officer read out her charges. My eyes didn't leave Ash. She looked disappointed and upset. I knew I had to do something to help her. When the officer was done, Mrs. Rojas stood up. 

"Mrs. Rojas, it's good to see you on this warm evening," I watched as she flipped through some papers, "whats your verdict?"

Mrs. Rojas cleared her voice and stood up straight, "three months of probation your honor. This is Ms. James first offense and I believe it'd only be fair to give her a warning.

"You use to be in track, right?" 

It was a weird and irreverent question. What she did has nothing to do with her trial. So why was it being asked?

"Yes your honor."

"And you were kicked out because you never showed up to practice," she said it more like a statement instead of a question. This judge was weird with all of her statements and questions. 

"Ms. James, you will be given four months of probation and you will attend a rehab session twice a week until you're clean. You will report where you are and where you're going to your probation officer. You will have random house searches and random times for when your probation officer will come to your house. And Ms. James, get back into track, Case dismissed."

She hit her gavel against her desk and everyone got up. Ash was taken out of the cuffs and walked down the aisle. I followed. I needed her help with something. I couldn't do it alone. We walked out of the building and into my parents car. They dropped us off at my place and left to go take care of their shop. I noticed my car was in the driveway. Ellen must have brought it when her and my other mother, Angie, came to pick me up. I don't know how I didn't see it. 

"Ash, I need you to help with something." 

All she did was nod. We walked through the living room and through the kitchen. I opened a door that lead to the basement. The moment I opened it, it smelled like something was rotten. I could hear Ash start to gag. I gave her a nod and we walked down the stairs. I had to cover my nose to try not to puke. We continued down the stairs and took a right. 

I flipped a switch and the room lit up. There were boxes and old things laying around. But the one thing I knew caught her eye was a black tarp covering something. I watched as she slowly walked over to it and grabbed it. I smiled under my hand. The moment she pulled it back, she almost fell backwards. 

"What the fuck Ariel!" She looked over at me with pure shock in her face. I ignored her and wrapped him back up. 

"We need to get him back to his place."

"No! Fuck Ariel. Why did you do this?! You killed him."

She started to walk away. Back towards the stairs. I couldn't let her leave. She needed to know why I did it. What he was planning on doing. I needed to tell her before she left.

"He was going to expose us. Just like Jasmine. I had to stop him. He was going to get us all in trouble." 

I looked over at her. She was looking down at the floor, it looked like she was thinking. She turned around and helped me pick the body up. 

Snitches go to hell.