“Leela.”
“No! Shut it. Shut it, and don’t say another word to me or anybody else until you have representation. Who’s your lawyer? I’ll call them right now.”
She’s trying to be pragmatic when she has no idea what she’s talking about.
“Babe, I don’t have a lawyer.”
“Then, as your attorney, I am telling you right now to keep your big mouth shut!”
“You can’t represent me; you’re a law student.”
Leela is fidgeting around in her handbag for something. She produces a business card and hands it to me.
“Call this number as soon as you can. I’ll meet you at the jail,” she says.
“Stay out of this, Leela. It’s not going to be good for you.”
As the cops put me in the back of the patrol car and we drive away, I look back at Leela, standing in front of the restaurant, surrounded by her friends.
If there ever was a demonstration of how she doesn’t belong in my world or I in hers, it’s this moment right now.
I take one last look at the girl who was almost mine, and I swallow that pain. Black out the previous 24 hours, so I don’t have to feel any regrets. That’s the only way I’ll be able to face whatever the fuck kind of future awaits me.
FOURTEEN
Leela
I don’t liketo ask my mom for favors, but today I’m asking.
I wait impatiently outside of the interview room, where my mom’s associate, Dean, is helping Crosby answer questions by the police.
When he leaves the interview room, Crosby is hopping mad.
“I told you I don’t need you to bail me out. I have money.”
I jut out my hip at my stubborn boyfriend. “So I’ve noticed. Don’t worry, you won’t need money to get out. As your lawyer, you’ve already been sprung.”
“Leela, what did you do?”
“Got your ass out of jail is what I did.”
“I told you to keep out of it. This doesn’t concern you.”
“It one hundred percent concerns me.”
“Where are we going?”
“Straight to my mom’s office. We will get this all straightened out; don’t you even worry about it.”
As we’re being trundled away in a behemoth SUV that my dad sent, Crosby asks,
“Where’s my bike?”
Dean leans forward and tells him, “At the impound lot.”
“Fuck!”
“But don’t worry, we’ll get it back as soon as we get this mess straightened out.”