Chapter 21: Hate Crime

Jason ended up getting in his own serious trouble. One day when I was at work during the day, Jason met up with one of his regular customers to sell them a sack in a nearby park. The park was empty, so they decided to pack a bowl in a pipe Jason was carrying on him.

Someone must have seen them and called the police. About twenty squad cars pulled up in the park parking lot. It was complete over kill. Jason and his friend decided to try and run. Jason found a good spot to hide in a bush in the park and decided to try and wait till the police left.

The police let out the K9 unit, and it quickly found Jason in the bush. Jason feared getting bit by the dog, so he came out of the bush and surrendered.

In the end Jason got charged with possession of a pipe and put on probation. Like me Jason had to complete mandatory drug tests. His testing process was much stricter. He even quit smoking weed long enough to have clean pee.

Jason's problem was the man providing the test insisted on watching Jason pee. He literally wanted to see the piss come out of Jason’s penis and into the test cup to ensure Jason was not faking the test.

Jason told me he was pee shy and uncomfortable peeing in front of his probation officer. After five separate meetings with his probation officer, he was unable to provide a test sample. He just could not piss with the guy watching him. Eventually he got placed in a serious teenage rehab program for 30 days due to his failure to provide a clean drug test.

This rehab center was court ordered and run by the state. It was not as nice as the place Lil Ron stayed at and escaped from. This was a shit hole. Many of the kids there were serious drug addicts and gang members. There were constant fights and lockdowns. It was like jail.

Jason shared a room with a drug addicted pathological liar that was homosexual. He was apparently arrested for committing credit card fraud to buy meth. During the 30-day sentence Jason's roommate constantly tried to come on to Jason. Jason isn't gay so he refused and tried to get his roommate switched many times.

Usually, several times a week myself or a member of our friend's group would call Jason on the pay phone at the rehab. Someone else at the rehab would pick up but typically they would go get Jason.

One day about three weeks in, I called the pay phone and the voice on the other end told me the police had shown up the day before and taken Jason away.

About a week later I received a call from Jason's cell phone. He asked me to come to his house and promised to explain everything.

I headed over to Jason's house as quick as I could. John was there too.

"I told you about my crazy roommate at the rehab, right?" Jason asked.

"Yes." I responded

"He started telling people at the rehab that he and I were gay together and that he was sucking my dick nightly. People started calling me "Gayson". I confronted him in our room and told him to stop telling people I was gay. He did not listen. He started making all these nasty sex noises and saying my name. The whole rehab center could hear him. He would not shut up so I hit him so hard he broke his nose. The security showed up because he was making all that noise and by then he needed to go to the infirmary." Jason said.

"He called his family from a pay phone near the infirmary and told them he was a victim of a hate crime. He made up a story about me being a member of an anti-gay white supremist group within the rehab center. He claimed I had beat him up after people at the rehab found out he was gay. He's claiming it was a hate crime!"

"I am only 16 so they took me to Juvenile Hall at first, but they were talking about transferring me to an adult facility due to the severity of the crime. They want to charge me as an adult with a hate crime. I don't hate gay people! They have the camera footage of me punching him. My court date is set for six months away. My Grandmother sent my mom $7,000 to pay towards the bail and get me out until the court date."

"Tomorrow I am leaving the state of California to flee the case. No matter what, I am looking at jail time either for the fight or failing to complete rehab. All I did was punch a gay guy once in the nose. I have to leave now before they issue any warrants or add me to the no-fly list."

I was shocked. I did not know what to say.

"You guys have been good friends and I wanted to spend this last night in Redondo smoking weed and drinking Jager like we always do. I hit up Dyno Mutt but apparently he can't make it." Jason concluded.

The three of us hung out one last time in Jason's garage. It was bittersweet. No one knew what the future held but we pretended like it would not be the last time the three of us came together.

At the end of the night, I was the last to go. Jason generously gave me everything he owned that he could not take with him on a plane. This included his bongs and the electric scooter. He left the next morning.

Jason moved to New Jersey with his grandma, and we kept in contact almost every week. I told anyone who asked about him that he was living in Mexico. Even his cousin Lil Ron did not know where he was. We had both agreed Lil Ron was a liability.

Chapter 22: Drugs are Bad