Chapter 21: Hate Crime

One day when I was at work, Jason met up with one of his regular customers to sell them a sack in a park near his house. The park was empty, so they decided to pack a bowl in a pipe Jason was carrying on him.

One of the neighbors must have seen Jason and his friend smoking and called the police. Jason had only been in the park for ten minutes. Twenty squad cars pulled up in the park parking lot. The uniformed officers jumped out of their vehicles with guns drawn. It was complete over kill.

Jason and his friend decided to try and run. Jason took off towards the opposite side of the park. He found a good spot to hide in a bush behind the bathrooms. He climbed into the bush, scratching up his arms and face on the branches and loose twigs in the process.

Jason sat in the bush as quietly as he could. Two police officers ran past the bush. He saw their feet from the bottom of the plant. They circled back and stopped in front of Jason. Jason held his breath.

"Fuck it, tell the captain to release Rex the K9 unit for one last sweep of the park. Maybe we can find where they ditched some grass!" Jason overheard one cop say to the other.

Both cops walked back towards the parking lot.

The police let out the K9 unit, and it quickly found Jason in the bush. It barked loudly in front of the bush. Jason feared getting bit by the dog, so he came out of the bush with his arms raised and surrendered. The cops quickly found the pipe and a small amount of weed Jason had on him.

Jason was taken to the local station in Manhattan Beach where he was processed. Jason called his mother and she came to pick him up. They were given paperwork and a court date in the future.

In the end Jason got charged with possession of smoking paraphernalia and put on probation. Like me Jason had to complete mandatory drug tests. For two awful months, Jason quit smoking and no one was allowed to smoke in his garage. We still met less often to drink but the vibe wasn't quite the same. I still made an effort to hang out with Jason even though he was no longer smoking.

Jason's dad took him and his brother on a two-week camping trip. In Jason's absence I was forced to call Oli myself to buy weed. I also reluctantly funded a dispensary run from the opportunistic Donnie Barrow.

Theoretically as Jason's drug test day approached, he should have been on course to pass. He had resisted weed long enough; the THC should have been out of his system. Jason still failed his drug test. 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. The punishment for failing to comply with probation was time spent in juvenile hall. Jason's mom was able to convince a judge to let him go to rehab instead. Jason 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 was constantly hitting on Jason. Jason was uncomfortable and tried to get his roommate switched several times. The counselors just ignored him.

A few days into his stay Jason was able to call me from a pay phone. He told me to pass along the number if any of the homies felt like talking to him.

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.

He mostly complained about not smoking, or his gay roommate. Once his time in rehab was over his probation would be lifted. He was counting the days until he was free and could smoke again.

"When I get out of here, we are having a huge kickback at the garage. Everyone's invited. Make sure to bring the bitches!"

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