My dad gets a ride to work from a friend so that I can take the car to drive up two towns where Robby is having his hearing. Sage helped me this morning on what to wear, so I'm wearing a pair of black dress pants, a white tank top, and a light blue blazer. It took her a long time, but she finally convinced me to wear heels as well.

I'm excited to see my brother again but I know that this day is going to be rough. I don't even know what the hearing is for, I just know that I'm allowed to be there and to see Robby. I know that it's not the actual trial with the jury and judge and everything, and I'm sure that it's going to be totally boring. Sage wants to go out to the bars tonight too, so I know that it's going to be a long day for me.

It's a long drive up to the courthouse but when I get there, I park and head inside to find the right room. I'm right on time, so when I get into the room, it's filling with people interested in the case. I look around for the victim and his wife but I don't see them anywhere. I take a seat in one of the wooden benches behind where the lawyers, the judge, and my brother will sit.

A few minutes later, the prosecutor and Gabby come in and sit at the table to the left of the room as Robby and his lawyer sit at the right side table. Robby is wearing nice clothes and not his prisoner uniform. He looks like he has everything together, like his life isn't falling apart right now. The last time that he looked so nice was when he was for our mother's funeral five years ago.

Just before the hearing is about to start, I notice a familiar blond guy walking into the room. For some reason, Dex is here and he sits down on a bench near Gabby. The last time that I saw him, he was running from her house wearing only his underwear. Just thinking about that memory makes my face flush a deep red.

I keep my gaze away from Dex and just hope that he doesn't see me. I notice Robby looking around the audience, probably looking for me, and we quickly make eye contact. He smiles at me and I offer him a 'good luck' wave and an encouraging smile. I'm not sure if he even has to talk today, but I bet that he's nervous anyway.

When the judge enters the room, everybody stands up and something happens as the judge speaks and then we all sit back down. I guess that I should have read up on courtroom etiquette before showing up today.

"We are here today to discuss the validity of some evidence, and to go over some new witnesses," The judge announces. "Defendant, you may start."

"We move that Mr. Clarke's confession be thrown out," Robby's lawyer claims, standing up from the table that he's sitting at with Robby.

"On what grounds?" The prosecutor seems bewildered at this statement.

"On the grounds that Mr. Clarke was denied access to a lawyer, even after he asked for one, and they frightened him and coerced him into confessing," He defends himself. Maybe he really does know what he's talking about. I'm suddenly feeling hopeful that he'll get Robby a better sentence than what I'm expecting.

"Motion granted," The judge decides. They continue going through the evidence that they have against Robby as his lawyer tries to get as much of it as possible thrown out so that they can't use it in court.

They've got the knife that he claims was attained without a warrant but then the prosecutor says that it should be considered due to inevitable discovery. I don't know half of the terms that they use but I think that I can gather mostly what's happening. It seems like their biggest issue is going to be the security footage that clearly shows Robby stabbing the man.

I think that their biggest defense is going to be that he wasn't in his right mind though. I'm worried that it won't hold up though, because even if he was drunk or high, I think that the prosecution could easily remind a jury that a drunk driver is still held accountable for their actions.

Maybe Robby's lawyer could argue that by saying that when a drunk person has sex with a sober person, it's considered rape because a drunk person isn't accountable for their actions. It's a stupid argument to compare what Robby did to a drunk person having sex, and I don't think that a jury would buy it, so hopefully, he'll think of something better.

Gabby never talks to the judge, but I notice her handing the prosecutor some documents and whispering notes to him between his claims. She's not even a real lawyer, I don't know why she's here. She's just a student, she probably doesn't even know what she's really talking about.

The hearing takes a few hours and by the end of it, I'm absolutely bored out of my mind. They go through the evidence and decide that they'll go through the witnesses tomorrow to finish the hearing. I want to support my brother, but I'm not coming all the way back here tomorrow too.

The judge claps his gavel a few times to end the hearing and then he leaves to go back to his chambers. As Robby and his lawyer start to leave the room as well, I hurry to the front of the audience area.

"Hey," I call to Robby. He stops walking and turns to look at me. "You did good, kid."

"All I did was sit there," He reminds me with a short laugh. I hope that he doesn't say anything about the healing black eye. I drowned it in foundation and cover up this morning in hopes of him not noticing how bad it looks. Although it's healing, it's still pretty obvious without any makeup on it. "Thanks for coming, Minnie."

The officers who are waiting for him at the door start to walk toward us, probably getting impatient. "Your posse is waiting. Good luck tomorrow. Love you."

"Love you too," He says as he starts walking toward the officers. Once he's gone, I turn and start to hurry out of the room in hopes of avoiding Dex. As I'm leaving, I see him talking to Gabby at the other end of the room, so I'm safe.

Well, I think that I'm safe until I get outside and I start having trouble breathing. I'm trying to convince myself that I'm calm about this entire situation but I'm not calm at all. Is that the only way that I'll be able to communicate with my brother from now on? Just a few sentences after his court date before his babysitters have to take him away?

I have so much to tell him about and I need his help. I can't handle this world alone, without Robby there to support and defend me. I need his advice, although he's terrible at giving advice, and I just need him. I need that lawyer to save him from a 20 year sentence because I'm not sure what I'll do if my brother is stuck in prison for two decades.

With my vision blurring and my breath becoming shallow, I have to stop walking and I take a seat on the courthouse steps. I make sure that I'm not in anybody's way and I just work on my breathing, hoping that Dex takes a long time to chat it up with Girlfriend No. 2 so that he doesn't see me nearly hyperventilating out here and fighting off a panic attack.

After a few deep breaths and some calming thoughts of assuring myself that Robby will be fine, I get back up and start heading for my car. I need to keep it together. When I get back to town, I am going to go hang out with Sage, and she's going through her post-breakup reckless phase, so I have to be the strong one. If we're both feeling emotionally reckless, we're going to get ourselves into trouble.

"Yaz!" I hear Dex shout my name as I'm just about to get to the car. If I could have kept my panic in check, I would have made it.

I stop and turn to see him walking out of the building with Gabby beside him. That's just awesome.

"Hey," He greets me when he gets closer. "We're going to head out for a late lunch. You want to come? Gabs, you remember Yasmin, right?"

"Yeah, you're Robert's sister," She looks at me with a friendly smile on her face, like she isn't trying to put my brother in prison for twenty years. She's still as tall and beautiful as I remember her being. Her dark eyes are wildly intimidating and her black hair, now straight, looks so healthy. And healthy hair is always a sign of success. "You two know each other?"

"Yeah, remember? I told you that she lives near me, her friend was dating my friend," He explains to her. "She was the one who saved me from your dad a few days ago."

"Oh," She blinks at me, not really knowing what to say to that, and I'm also not really sure what to say either. "Well, we're not dating or anything, you probably got the wrong impression after that whole disaster."

"We're kind of dating," Dex disagrees with her.

She rolls her eyes at him with as much sass as she can muster, like she is so tired of making this clarification for him. "No, we're not. Having sex and dating are two different things, Dex."

"I'm going to go," I quickly announce to them because this conversation is completely none of my business. I'm not sure what makes them think that I need to be here for that conversation. I'm kind of surprised at how easily she shot Dex down and yet, he had claimed that he's in love with her. I wonder if she talks to him like that all of the time, and if she knows how he feels. If she does, it's kind of crappy of her to lead him on like she is.

I wonder how she does it though. I wonder how she looks perfection in the eye, and says 'no thank you' like she can't be bothered with his handsome smile and his mysterious blue eyes. She has him on her hook—I don't get why she won't reel him in.

"Have a safe drive home," Dex tells me as I start to walk away. I don't respond, I just get to my car and get inside. I know that he came to support Gabby, but I feel like he probably could have supported her in other ways instead of coming to my brother's hearing. Why does he think that it's appropriate for him to be there? I get that he was there as Gabby's little fish, but he should have known that it'd be weird.

Oh well. It's over now, I just want to get home and go out with Sage. I'm feeling frustrated and reckless, so hopefully Amber will be the responsible one tonight. As far as she knows, her life is going perfectly right now, so she doesn't have anything to be upset about.

I thought that the drive back home would calm me down but I keep thinking about Tyson, and how he hurt Sage, and it starts to piss me off. I know that she'll be over it in a few days and she'll be fine, but I'm not fine. She really liked him... kind of. And he just broke her trust like a little twig, didn't even think twice.

I guess it makes sense though—him and his friends always want to be exactly like Dex, it's no wonder that they cheat on their girlfriends too. Just like Dex.

If they don't want to be with their girlfriend anymore, why don't they just break up with them? Why do they have to lead them on like little assholes? Tyson is a coward, and he's pathetic, and I'm going to egg his house.

Sage wouldn't want me to, but I don't care. There's a little discount grocery store near Tyson's house that I can stop and get a carton of eggs. He deserves it for hurting Sage, for leading her on, and cowering away from telling the truth.

The eggs don't cost much and when I get to Tyson's house, I see his car in the driveway. I want to go for his car instead of the house, so that it's more specifically targeted at him and not his entire family. Although, they should get some blame for raising such a piece of shit.

I look around to make sure that nobody can see me, and I let the rage of what he did to Sage fuel me as I chuck all twelve eggs at his car. I make sure to cover it, I aim for the tires and the hood, the roof, the windows, the bumper. I empty the carton and then I get back in my car and speed away from the scene. That'll show him to fuck with my best friend.