“Ellie!” Heather said as she tried to pull her away from Rebecca.

“Um, miss I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I can’t have you…um, yelling at our patients.” Bruce said.

“What?” Ellie yelled at Bruce.

“Can’t you see that she’s the one who egged it on? She’s taunting Ari. She’s trying to get an excuse to put her in jail!”

Just then, the door opened and two APD officers walked in.

Fuck me. This wasn’t going to turn out good.

***

“I cannot believe they arrested all three of us. I’ve never even been in detention before for fuck’s sake!” Heather said as she paced back and forth.

Ellie and I both glanced at each other and smiled.

“Wow, being in the slammer really has given you a mouth, sweets!” I said with a laugh.

Heather spun around and glared at me. I quickly stopped laughing as I looked down at the floor.

“Heather, it’s going to be okay. Ari called her father, and he’ll get the charges dropped. Don’t worry. You’re not going to have a record.” Ellie.

She started to laugh and then I lost it.

“Oh yeah, the two of you just keep laughing. I want to be an elementary school teacher you bitches. What am I going to put on my application? Oh…well, you see, this one time my crazy-ass friend talked me into dressing like a slut. She told me to flash my tits around at a male reception guy…who by the way…is gay as all get out! Oh, and I was supposed to somehow magically get him to tell me how far along my friend is. Even though if she was really my friend, I would already fucking know that information! Then, my other friend went crazy and started threatening a pregnant woman by poking a finger in her chest and calling her a whore. The best part of all is that, we all got arrested, and now, I’m in jail looking like a goddamn hooker! How in the hell is this not that bad, Ellie?”

Ellie sat there with a stunned look on her face as she stared at Heather. I, on the other hand, lost it again and just about died from laughing so hard.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph…you swore like seven times just now, Heather!”

When I looked over at Ellie, she glanced at me and let out a giggle. I had tears running down my face. I peeked up at Heather, who was now smiling. She started to laugh, too. Oh my god, I so needed this.

I laughed so hard that I was pretty sure I might have pissed in my pants.

Just then, I heard voices. One sounded like my father. I looked up to see my dad standing there with Jeff, Gunner, and Josh.

“I’m glad to see you find the humor in this, Ari,” Jeff said with a dead-ass straight face.

I immediately stopped laughing and tried to get Ellie and Heather’s attention. I stood up and looked at my father. He didn’t look very happy either. Oh shit.

After Ellie and Heather got themselves composed, Heather leaned over in my ear and whispered, “Holy hell, your dad called Josh?”

I let a small smile play across my lips. I turned and shook my head.

“I bribed the officer to let me have two phone calls, I called Josh. There was no way in hell that I was going to pass this up. I had to let him see you dressed like that! I just didn’t realize that he’d bring Jeff and Gunner with him,” I said as I turned back to look at Jeff.

This is going to be one long-ass ride back to Mason.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

JEFF

The moment Josh got the phone call from Ari, I was pissed. I wasn’t sure if I was more pissed that she called Josh and not me or that she was in jail for breaking the restraining order against Rebecca. What the fuck was she thinking?

During the whole drive into Austin, I never said a word. Gunner was on the phone with his mother. They were coming in a day early and would be in Mason around six tonight. I could tell Gunner was beside himself. Now, he had to deal with getting my damn sister out of jail.

What in the hell were they doing?

Mark called to say he’d just pulled up to the police department and would meet us inside. I could tell from his voice that he was pissed. Then we heard the three of them laughing. I had never felt so damn angry in my entire life.

After the girls got processed and their items were returned to them, we all walked outside.

Before Mark could even say anything, I turned and started in on Ari.

“Of all the stupid-ass things you could do, Ari, why would you break the restraining order? What in the hell were you thinking by threatening Rebecca? Then, you laugh about it like it’s some joke. What if you caused her to go into labor early? What if something happened to the baby? What the fuck, Ari?”

Everyone stood there and looked at me, stunned.

Mark stepped between Ari and me. Giving me a dirty look, he asked in a calm voice.

“Where did you get your information from, Jeff?”

“Well, Josh at first, since Ari felt the need to call him to come get them out of jail. Then, Rebecca called and left me a message, saying she wasn’t feeling well and was turning her phone off. I called her back and she said Ari threatened her today. She couldn’t even talk.”

I looked at Ari, who had her hands balled in fists. She looked really pissed.

“Fuck you, Jeff, and your baby mama, too! Daddy, can I please come home with you?” Ari said as the tears started to roll down her face.

“Jeff, you’re a prick! Why don’t you at least let us explain before you go off attacking Ari? You don’t even have the facts straight,” Ellie said as she poked her finger in my chest.

“Okay, everyone just calm down. Ellie, honey, just back off your brother for a second, sweetheart. Why don’t one of y’all explain to us what happened.” Gunner said.

I looked at Ari and she was still crying and in her father’s arms. Gunner pulled Ellie back away from me and whispered something in her ear. Josh was…well shit…Josh was trying to look at everyone but Heather.

“Fine, I’ll explain what happened.” Heather said as she also gave me a dirty look.

“We were at Dr. Wyatt’s office, waiting for Ari to finish up with her appointment. Rebecca walked in, and the moment she saw us there, she started asking why we were there and if we were following her. Ellie tried to explain to her that Ari had been seeing Dr. Wyatt for years and that she had an appointment. Well, crazy Rebecca started raising her voice to Ellie, and that’s when Ari came out. Rebecca was egging Ari on, Jeff. I mean, she was really going after her. She mentioned how you had your hands on her stomach the other day and how happy y’all both were with each other. It actually was Ellie who got in Rebecca’s face and started to threaten her.”

Heather looked over at Ellie, who was smiling like the Cheshire cat at me.

“Wait a minute. Y’all didn’t know that Rebecca would be there?” I asked.

“How the fuck would we know that, dickwad? I had this appointment already set up. Her appointment was supposed to be next week. She said she had tried to call you to tell you that she had to change it to today. Funny though, huh? I bet you never got a phone call from her, did you? Oh, but wait. I’m sure she’ll have an excuse. Her call must not have gone through since you were in Mason,” Ari said.

My heart started to beat faster. Shit, I just fucked up big time.

Ari turned to her dad and said something to him. I didn’t even hear what she had said my mind was spinning so fast. Rebecca changed the appointment day? Why? She’d told me she was going to drop the restraining order against Ari first thing this morning, but she didn’t. I looked back at Ari. She was just glaring at me.

“Ari, I’m so sorry, baby. I guess I didn’t realize where you saw Rebecca at and.”

“Just stop. I can’t do this anymore with you. You need to make a decision, Jeff, and you need to make it soon. I’m not really sure how much more of this I can take,”