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“Don’t feel like it, but you will be,” she said, and I looked more closely at her.
I guess I would put her in her thirties with red hair, a lot of makeup, and the kind of outfit that, given the day of the week, I ventured a guess meant she was possibly a sex worker.
“The first time is never easy,” she said. “You getting charged?” she asked.
“I, ah, yes. I think so, yes.”
“So, this is just a holding cell,” she told me.
“Holding for what?” I asked.
“Until the van comes from the county jail. And that’s where they’re going to keep our asses until your arraignment.”
“Arraignment?” I asked, suddenly cursing myself for not being one of those true crime girlies, so I would already understand all of this. I felt as clueless as a baby. And I suddenly regretted all of those rom-coms and romance dramas that I was obsessed with. They were getting me nowhere here.
“It’s when you’ll go before a judge to plead guilty or not guilty,” she said.
“I’m not guilty.”
“‘Course not. Me neither,” she said with a wicked little smirk. “If you don’t have one, you’ll have your court-appointed lawyer with you then.”
Right.
A lawyer.
That was what Detroit had said to me.
I needed a lawyer.
God, Detroit.
He’d witnessed my humiliating arrest. Did he think I was some sort of drug dealer now? I shouldn’t have cared what he thought, but I did. I guess when you saw someone day in and day out for years, you kind of felt self-conscious when they saw you hauled away in handcuffs.
“Okay,” I said, nodding toward the woman, trying to understand. “How long until then? Today?” I asked.
To that, she let out a raspy laugh.
“Nah, girl. They got forty-eight hours to get you in front of a judge. Then you plead whatever you’re gonna plead, and the judge will decide if you get bail or not.”
Bail.
Money.
Money I most certainly didn’t have.
Money my sister and mom didn’t have either.
Oh, my God.
I was going to have to tell them about this.
That was mortifying.
But they would have to believe me that I was innocent. Right?
“If I can’t make bail?”
“Then it’s back to County.”
