One Night

Maruice grew up with his two childhood friends Danny and Mel, on the west side of Detroit. Living in poverty, in a low-income neighborhood. The three had a lot in common, coming from a broken home, where their mothers were the bread winners and had to work hard just to provide the essentials. The boys tried to find ways to make money the legal way and stay out of trouble. In high school, they wore less expensive clothes, they weren't able to afford the high-priced gym shoes the other kids wore, and that encouraged them look for different ways to get some fast cash. Maruice and Mel maintained a high-grade point average throughout school, they were both intelligent students and they helped Danny as much as they could to see to it that he graduated from high school with them. The three had plans to move out the hood, away from the city, so that they could have a better future. They always talked about living in the south where they had an opportunity to make something of themselves as entrepreneurs and buy their mothers nice homes and cars. As the boys grew to become young men, they found interest in different things, Maurice and Mel continued to make good grades while Danny chose to drop out of school to pursue other things. Danny met a group of older men, who introduced him to ways to keep his pockets filled. Danny had no interest in finishing school he was impressed with how much money he was making and how fast he was making it. He was the first to buy a car out of the three boys and he started to dress in the nicest clothes and latest gym shoes. He was even able to start putting money on the bills at home to help his mother out. Although seeing how well Danny was doing at such a young age, Maurice and Mel keep a leveled head and stayed focused on school. They had goals of making it the legal way and wanted to graduate top of their class. The boys had reached their senior year, Maurice was awarded an academic scholarship for a full ride to University of Michigan and Mel was accepted into a HBCU in Gorgia. They were both on the right path which made their mothers so proud. 

One Friday night the boys were walking home after a football game at the school. Danny pulled up alongside of them in his clean Chevy Monte Carlo and offered them a ride home. The boys jumped in the car, impressed with how nice the car was. They weren't surprised that Danny was driving something like that, because it was his style and they knew that he was in the streets making a lot of money. The boys rapped the words to songs blasting from the speakers of the car, bobbing their heads and enjoying the cool breeze that blew through the tinted windows. Danny glanced in his review mirror and noticed he was being followed by an unmarked police car, instantly he got nervous, and it became obvious to the police, so they turned on the sirens and flashing lights. Maurice and Mel, asked Danny questions like, was everything okay, and was his license good? But everything was not good. While the other boys looked around outside the windows Danny reached under his seat and pulled out a nine milometer pistole. He slid it into the side pocket of Maurice backpack that sat between him and the middle console. Maurice was too busy looking in the side view mirror at the two police offers that got out the car when Dan pulled over. When one officer stepped to the driver side window, he asked Danny to step out the car. The other officer shined his flashlight into the car in the boys faces and asked them if they knew that this vehicle was reported stolen. They didn't know that, and they answered the question honestly, but the officer had them step out the car also. After showing their IDs and answering a few questions about where they were coming from and where they were headed, the officers made them sit on the curb. One officer went into the car and searched while the other officer kept an eye on the boys. The whole time Maruice had a bad feeling, he was shaking in nervousness. He had never been in any trouble and had never been stopped by the police. He was growing angry with Danny for picking them up in a hot car. Maurice stared at Danny with a frown in his face and wanted to say how he was feeling but didn't want to draw attention to himself from the officer. Mel kept shaking his head, he couldn't believe that Danny was riding around with them in a stolen car. The boys had never done anything like that and had never stolen anything, so this was so surreal to him. After five minutes of the officer looking around the car, he walked back with Maurices backpack and the gun in his hand. He asked the boys whose bag does this belong to. Before Maurice saw what was in the officer's other hand, he answered. He told the officer that it was his bag. The officer asked Maurice to stand up and that's when he told him that he had found this gun in his book bag and that he was under arrest. The other officer instantly put Maruice in hand cuffs. Devastated, Maruice yelled "No Sir that gun isn't mines, I never even saw that" and he started crying. Mel added that the gun belongs to Danny and that they didn't know this car was evens stolen. The officers weren't interested in hearing anything else. The officer got on his walkie and asked for back up, and he put Maurice in the back of the police car. Maruice's life flashed before his eyes, all he could think about was his plans for his future and that he wouldn't graduate from high school. He was convinced that Danny had betrayed him, he couldn't believe that his best friend would put that gun in his bookbag and let him go down for something like this. Maurice was full of regrets. Feeling like he should have left Danny alone once he saw what he was into. 

Moments later, Maurice saw the second squad car pull and two more officers. They put Mel and Danny in hand cuffs and into the car, then they were all taken to the police station. Maurice was booked and fingerprinted, then put into a cell alone. All he could think about was his mother and how worried she's going to be. So many thoughts ran through his mind, and he cried his self to sleep on the hard cold bench. One unforeseen situation changed his future, Maurice never imagined being in betrayed by someone he called his best friend, someone that grew up with like a brother. He never saw this coming; he trusted Danny.

Maurice was woken up by the guard, and he was allowed to make a phone call. He called and mother and explained that he was at the police station. He explained what happened and told her that Danny put a gun in his bag. Knowing that her son would never carry a gun she believed him, and she told him that she would get him some help. After his phone call he was taken to another room where he would see a judge on a camera. He told the judge that he was a good kid, he stays out of trouble and that he had no idea his friend had stolen that car and that the gun didn't belong to him. He went on to tell the judge that he just got a scholarship to attend U Of M and that he is not into the streets at all. The judge had Mercy on him, they had already dusted the gun for fingerprints and learned that Maurice had not touched the gun. She decided to let him go with the understanding that he would not be put in this type of situation again. Maurice was so grateful and thanked the judge for understanding. He had no intention of ever talking to Danny again. This type of betrayal could have costed him his life and being friends with someone like Danny wasn't worth the trouble.

Maurice and Mel both graduated from high school months later. Maurice went on to pursue his academic career at the University of Michigan and studied Business communications. He never heard from Danny again.