Page 95 of The End of Summer

“Not really. I’m sorry to wake you, but bro, we need your help.”

“We? Huh?”

My mom rolls over in her bed. “Everything okay, honey?” she asks.

“Yeah, Ma. I’m sorry. Go back to sleep,” I say, hopping out of bed. I go into the bathroom and squint at the light, closing the door behind me. “What happened? What do you need?”

“There was a bust at Cosmo. Cops raided the place.”

“Oh, shit.”

“We’re all being held at the Wellingham Police Station.”

“Held?” I ask, rubbing my eyes.

“Like, in jail. We were arrested.”

“Who was?”

“All of us, dude. Me, Gretchen and the girls, Max, Billy, Tommy, and even two of the chicks from this party. Shit got out of hand tonight.”

My heart drops when he says Gretchen’s name. “Okay, so what do you need? What can I do?”

“We each need to post bail of $500. Also, I need you to call Gina.”

“Okay. I’ll figure out the money. How do I do that? Can I use a credit card?” I start to sweat. My trip to New York was expensive, but I still have $1,200 in my bank account, so at least I can cover Big Mike and Gretchen. “Also, why didn’t you call Gina?”

“It has to be cash, Brady. And I called you first because –” He lowers his voice and says something else.

“Wait. What? I can’t hear you.”

“Gretchen’s not allowed to leave,” he repeats, only a fraction of a decibel louder.

“Why not?”

“Her dad won’t let her.”

“What? Why not?”I don’t understand. What the fuck is happening right now?

“Gretchen’s dad led the raid, Bray.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

GRETCHEN

Little known fact: the jail cells at the Wellingham police station are in the basement.

From the outside, the precinct looks pretty similar to a house. But they renovated it a few years back and turned the basement into a space with three jail cells. They even hosted an open house to show the renovated space to the community.

Because the Wellingham chief is his friend, my dad went to that open house. I remember him telling me and Mom that it was pretty exciting to see what they did over there.

I can assure you my father never anticipated that his child would be taking up residence in one of those cells.

But by Saturday morning, not only am I locked up in a cell, I’m theonlyone left.

Last night wasmayhem.

I can only remember pieces of it. Everything happened all at once. The cops came in, a tornado of activity went down, an ambulance arrived, more squad cars came, and ten of us were carted off to jail for processing.

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