As I was speeding down the street, I saw a police car in the distance in front of me that was stopped at a red light that I was now approaching. I slowed down and pulled up alongside the police car. I motioned for the police officer to roll down his window. He did and I told him my story while sitting on the street.
He saw how upset I was and had me pull over to the side of the street. He was a Bevely Hills police officer. I asked him if he could help me find my friend.
I know that he saw my tears and that I was a teenager in distress.
He was a very polite police officer and said that he would have to take me to the police station. Then he told me to follow him and I did. I trusted him.
When we arrived at the police station, he had me follow him to a parking area where I could park the car. From there he walked me into the station.
He took me to a room where there were other people including several teenage boys that were handcuffed to a bench. He told me to sit on the bench and that he would come back for me shortly.
I sat on the bench without handcuffs. The other teenage boys looked at me in strange ways. I was now so exhausted that I no longer felt any pain, and I had no more tears to let out.
The police officer came back for me and took me to an office where he said that he must book me into custody. I think he felt bad, but it was his job.
So, I was placed into custody.
He told me that since I was a juvenile I would be sent to a juvenile facility until someone could come a get me released into their custody. I had heard about these places, and I feared that I would be taken advantage of. It was not a good feeling.
I remember they let me sleep for a few hours in the office. They also brought me some food and a soda when it was time for me to be woken up. All the officers working that night and that morning had heard my story and were like on my side. I think they also felt my pain.
They made sure I felt safe.
By late morning I was being taken to the juvenile facility and processed into this large scary place. Now, I do not feel safe anymore.
As part of the processing, I was taken to this ward where I would be staying. I saw all the beds lined up with a narrow space between each one. I was shown my assigned bed. It was more like a big cot and did not look very comfortable. The bed lines were stacked at the end of the bed.
One of my biggest fears was what was called “A blanket party” where the boys will place a blanket over you while you are laying in your bed holding the blanket tightly over your body while other boys take turns hitting you.
This was extremely frightening that this would happen to me in just a few hours. I was the newbie and I knew that they would come for me.
I was told that 3:00 PM is when they stop doing custody releases on Saturday. I looked at the clock, and it was about 1:00 PM. I felt anxiety growing inside of me.
I began to hope, and maybe I prayed, that someone would come and get me out of this place before the cutoff hour passed that guaranteed my nighttime torture.
I remember that around 2:50 pm I was called to one of the offices. As I walked in, I saw my mom. I was being released to her custody. It was just before doomsday time for me. And she was there with her boyfriend. Yes, her boyfriend.
My mom’s lie was even bigger than I knew.
He had driven her to Beverly Hills from Las Vegas as soon as she had heard of my whereabouts. The Beverly Hills police had called the Las Vegas police to see about a runaway teen and got my mom’s phone number.
I was so upset that I couldn’t remember my address and my phone number when they were placing me into custody.
As we walked out of the juvenile facilities, I felt a humongous relief and began to cry again. This time the tears were my relief tears.
My mom told me not to worry. And that everything would be ok. And that she would explain what she meant later once we return to Las Vegas. But we were not going back today.
She had communicated with my friends’ parents who were out of town, but the boys were home. She told me that I was going to stay the night with my friend and the next day we would return to Las Vegas.
This meant that, in a crazy way, I had found him. I was happy but confused.
I could not find him because they were unlisted. And they now lived in this big house in Bel Air. So much had changed since the last time I saw him.
When we arrived at the house, he opened the door. I could see in his eyes that he had missed me.
He was so happy to see me, and I was so happy to see him. I hugged him for as long as I could. I did not want to let go. This was an important moment for me.
He was told by his parents what had happened and why I was here. I think he felt my pain as well.
He showed me where I was going to sleep. It was his room. Since his parents were out of town he would stay in their room.
I asked him if he would keep me company until I fell asleep. He agreed. I didn’t want to be alone. What had just transpired over the last 30 hours was beginning to overcome me.
The next morning, we sat in the kitchen talking about my fight in the desert, his bar mitzvah, and my sudden trip to Florida. His face expressed his thoughts of hearing my experiences.
I didn’t mention the details about the thing that happened to me causing the Florida trip. I did not know how he would respond to that experience.
My mom and her boyfriend came to the house later that morning with his car and my mom’s car. Thay had to get it out from the police lot and there was a cost for the parking. I am sure my mom wasn’t happy about this, but she seemed more concerned with how I was doing.
I said my goodbyes to my friend and walked out of his house wishing that I never had to leave.
We began our journey back to Las Vegas.
I was riding with my mom, and her boyfriend was following us. We got onto the main highway and my mom slowly sped up to merge with the traffic.
After about an hour or so of driving in some traffic we began our climb into the surrounding mountains on the other side of the valley. As we were making the climb I heard a loud pop and the car began to swerve violently.
I saw my mom holding the steering wheel with white knuckles. I knew she was scared. But she handled the situation very well.
She was able to slow down quickly and pull to the side of the road. We had just experienced a blowout. This incident would now delay our trip back home. Her boyfriend pulled over and we began the process of changing the tire along this very busy highway.
Once the tire was changed, we restarted our journey. While driving my mom looked at me a said, “I am getting an annulment when we get back.” That meant she would no longer be married to the alcoholic who had convinced her to feed me beer for my bad acne.
And she had a boyfriend that I did not know about.
Yep…
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