Three hours ago Antwan Dixon had been out on the hard-court putting up a record high fifty-nine points. Now he was sat in a Pickett County Sherriff’s Department interrogation room ignoring the questions of a Deputy Calhoun. He’d wondered when he’d saw the name on her badge whether she was related to Coach Calhoun, he wouldn’t have been surprised, Pickett County was a very small place at the best of times. It was certainly small enough that when news spread of his arrest he’d be hearing about it from a lot of people. That was the last thing Antwan needed. 

Deputy Calhoun sat back in her chair and muttered, for what must have been the twentieth time, “Where’d the weed come from, Antwan?”

“Lawyer.”

Antwan wasn’t stupid. He’d seen enough cop shows to know how these things worked. They weren’t meant to be asking him questions without a lawyer in the room and given he was a minor that was doubly bad.

“That’s how you want to play this one? You sure about that?”

Antwan smiled, “Lawyer.”

Deputy Calhoun swore under her breath with frustration and leant towards him.

“Work with me on this and we can work something out here.” 

Did this bitch really think he didn’t know the old good cop/bad cop routine? Any minute now some longhaired, stubbly motherfucker that smelled of whiskey was going to burst into the room and threaten to wail on him with a phone book. He would sit it out and wait for his lawyer to get here and he wouldn’t say another goddamned word until that happened. Anything he’d say now would only get him in more trouble.

Sensing her line of inquiry wasn’t working, Calhoun let out a heavy up from her seat and rested on the back of it. She stared at Antwan for a few moments before she let out a heavy sigh.

“You’re a good kid, Antwan, a talented one at that. What was it last night? Fifty-nine points? You could walk into any college team in the country off the back of that performance, even with this on your sheet. But what about Jayson? You think the world’s going to be as kind to him?”

Jayson? As much as it embarrassed him to think it, Antwan hadn’t thought about Jayson at all since he’d entered the interview room. What if he’d said something? Jayson wasn’t exactly a soft touch but he was a little too sentimental for his own good at times. Growing up big can do that to a person.

The weed had come from Jayson’s side. What if they’d made him say something? He wouldn’t last a second on the inside, Antwan knew that much, from what he’d heard about prison them boys would eat Jayson alive. He couldn’t let that happen to him. He wouldn’t let that happen to him.

Clearly Calhoun sensed his apprehension because she smiled in his direction, “I didn’t think so.”

“You help us on this and we’ll take that into consideration, Antwan. I don’t want Jayson sitting in a prison cell over this any more than you do, but the only way we can make sure that doesn’t happen is if you tell us where you got the drugs.”

For a second Antwan considered what his Uncle Chew might do in his situation. Chew was a soldier through and through, he’d keep his mouth shut and do whatever time he had coming to him and he’d expect the same of any of his friends. But if the other day had taught Antwan anything it was that Chew was not the man he thought he was and that he certainly wasn’t anyone to admire. There was nothing brave about rotting away in a cell when you didn’t have to and there was certainly nothing brave about letting a friend do it because of your mistake.

He wouldn’t let Jayson get punished for his mistake.

“You’ll help Jayson?”

Calhoun’s eyes began to glow with anticipation. “You have my word, son.”

Antwan opened his mouth to speak but faltered slightly as the door to the interview room burst open and another Deputy came striding in. Emblazoned on his chest was the surname “Andrews” and from the way he carried himself he seemed like Calhoun’s superior or at least he thought he was, Antwan couldn’t tell. He wasn’t sure what the hell was going on in truth but the man seemed like he meant business.

“Deputy,” Andrews said abruptly as he gestured outside. “A word.”

A look of incredulity appeared on Deputy Calhoun’s face for the briefest moment. Once she noticed Antwan was looking at her she smiled politely in his direction and pushed the chair she had been leaning on back underneath the table.

“I’ll be back in a minute, Antwan.”

[center][b]*****[/b][/center]
Michelle Lewis walked back to her car with Antwan and Jayson in tow without saying a word to either of them. She had not long arrived home after her son’s game when the called had come in from the Deputy’s Office that her son had been arrested shortly afterwards. At first she thought it was some kind of prank but when the nice man on the phone had told her about the Dodge Charger her son had been riding in she knew it was for real. Drugs? Drugs? Michelle knew she wasn’t exactly in a position to say much to her son on that but she never thought he’d be stupid enough after how hard he’d worked.

She’d had to wait a time after arriving there. It was so much busier than Michelle had thought it would have been, she’d even overheard an argument between two of the deputies, though over what she couldn’t quite work out. Not long after they’d let Antwan and Jayson go on verbal warnings given neither had actually smoked any of the weed and warned them that next time they’d be seeing the inside of a prison cell. Michelle was thankful they chose to use their discretion on this one. Maybe PCSD wasn’t too bad after all?

As they entered Michelle’s sedan, Austin muttered in a defeated voice. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

Michelle couldn’t bring herself to look at her son, she was so angry at him for doing something so moronic. It wasn’t the drugs she took exception to so much as his potentially squandering the gifts for nothing. He didn’t realise how lucky he was to have those gifts. How close he’d come to losing them tonight.

Finally she turned her head to face her son and glared at him, “Where’d you get the drugs, Antwan?”

Antwan stared down at his hands. It was in these moments that Michelle wanted to reach out and embrace her son, tell him everything was okay, but that wasn’t what he needed. 

“Answer me, boy.”

They sat in silence in the parked car as Michelle waited for her son to speak up and take ownership of his mistake by telling her where the drugs had come from. That he was so unwilling lead her to suspect she already knew where he’d got them and Jayson answering in Antwan’s place confirmed her suspicions.

“It was Roland.”

Antwan looked back at Jayson in the passenger seat with eyes brimming with contempt. “What the fuck, Jayson?”

“I knew it,” Michelle said with a bemused smile. “I knew that vulture was behind this.”

It was one thing when Roland was giving Antwan gifts and buttering him up because he knew her baby was on his way to the league. That made sense, in a kind of depraved, self-serving sense, as much it might have incensed Michelle that Roland did it. What possible benefit could he get from giving the boy weed? It didn’t make any sense, all it did was hurt the boy’s prospects and make it harder for him to get a return on all the “investments” he’d made in Antwan.

From the look in her son’s eyes she could see, despite all of this, Antwan was still fond of Roland. “He’s not a vulture, Mom.”

Now more than ever she wanted to tear into the man but from the look in her son’s eyes she could tell it wouldn’t do any good. Instead she started the car and began to back out of the tiny Sheriff Department’s parking lot.

“You’re getting rid of that car he gave you,” Michelle said firmly. “Yes, the one you think I didn’t know about.”

A look of disgust spread across Antwan’s face.

“What? Why?”

“I don’t want his ill-gotten money anywhere near you or our family anymore, Antwan. Do you hear me? That means the car goes. Any cash or jewelry he gave you goes too. And if I so much as ever smell weed on you, boy, I’ll kick your ass to the curb.”

Antwan shook his head. “No.”

Michelle scoffed in disbelief at her son’s front, “Excuse me?” It was like he had zero concept of exactly how much trouble he was in. That was her fault, Michelle thought, she had been too soft on him.

Instead of backing down, Antwan doubled down. “You heard me.”

She couldn’t believe her ears. In her mirror she saw Jayson trying desperately to glance out of the window as he acted as if he weren’t there. Kind of hard to disappear when you’re nearly three hundred pounds. Maybe Antwan was acting out, trying to front for Jayson.

“You think you’re a big man now, huh?”

“All I know is that Mr. Spencer put food on our table when you were more concerned with putting that filth in your veins. Where were you then? Huh? Where were you? And now you want me to throw his generosity back in his face? No, I won’t do it.”

Every word was like a dagger in Michelle’s heart. She’d never heard her son talk about that part of her life before and she’d never considered how much hearing about him talking about it would hurt. If only he understood what she’d been through, what she’d lost, maybe he’d forgive her for her weakness then. If Marcus were still around she’d have been strong for Antwan, so strong, but the love of her life was gone and she’d let her baby boy down when he needed him the most because of it. When he ought to have been mourning for his father he was worrying about where his mother was that night.

She’d never forgive herself for that fact and apparently neither would Antwan. Not that she blamed him. Michelle wanted to open her mouth, to tell her son he was wrong, to give him the firm hand he desperately needed but her whole body felt weak with shock at Antwan’s words. 

For the first time in his life Antwan Dixon sounded like a man. Not one that his mother liked.