"What if we sell the orchard?" I ask my dad. I've been trying to figure out ways to get Robby a good lawyer. At first, I wanted bail money but that's only a short-term solution because sure, he'll be home, but then after his trial, he'll be locked up for two decades. Maybe if we can get him a good lawyer, though, he might stand a chance.

"What?" My dad looks at me like I've just grown a second head. "Sell the orchard? For Robby?"

"Why not?" I wonder. "You haven't been out there in years, it's all dead. It's a wasteland out there, Dad, but I'm sure that somebody would pay money for it. It's a lot of land."

"That's your mother's orchard," He reminds me as if I didn't already know that.

"Nobody has touched it in five years, Dad," I inform him slowly. I knew that he wouldn't like this idea but I had to bring it to his attention because I think that there's maybe just a little possibility that it might work. It is a lot of land and I guess the soil is probably in good condition so some aspiring farmer would love to have a go at it and grow whatever it is that farmers want to grow around here. Maybe just try to revive the orchard or something.

"It's your mother's," He repeats because that's his only argument but it's a stupid argument.

"Well, she's not here anymore so she doesn't need it," I respond. "Mom is dead so it's useless to be doing her any favors. But Robby is still here, we can help him. He's still in our reach and we can save him. He's your son and I know that he's an idiot but we can't just abandon him just because you can't let go of some dead trees."

"Don't you have to get to work?" My dad tries to push the conversation away.

"It's not like if you sell the land, her memory will vanish. What is Mom going to do with that land now? You really just want it to sit there and rot while Robby is doing the same thing in prison? Mom would want you to sell the land for Robby."

"Don't you dare tell me what your mother would want," He snaps at me, now losing his patience for me. I'm surprised that it took him so long into the conversation to start getting angry because usually, he'll start yelling immediately whenever anybody brings up my mother.

I know that they were soul mates and that my dad loved her more than anything in this world. It's been five years but he still hurts so badly and he misses her so much. I can't imagine what that must feel like, to have your soul mate ripped away from you like that. She really was a wonderful woman but I know that if she was alive today, she would sell the land if it was the only thing that could save Robby. Even though sometimes, it seemed like she loved the apples more than she loved us.

"You know that I'm right," I persist but I'm stepping away from him. He's never gotten violent before but when he gets mad, it's pretty scary so I don't want to take my chances. "I'm going to work but seriously, Dad. Think about it. I'm taking the car."

"Yasmin, no."

"You've been drinking," I motion toward the whiskey bottle on the table beside the couch that he's sitting on. "And you already have two DUIs. You'll be in jail with Robby if you get another one, you know."

After that, he doesn't argue again about me taking the car so I grab the keys from the counter and I start heading for the front door. I don't forget to pat Zero on the head a little bit to say goodbye to him as I head out.

"Don't end up like us, Yaz," I hear my dad mumbling from the couch. I don't even think that he intends me to hear that because he says it so quietly.

"Just think about the orchard idea, alright? I want Robby to come home," I plead one last time with my dad before I leave and hop into the car to drive through the neighborhood to the empty gas station.

I haven't moved the money that Robby gave me from the orchard yet. I know that the right thing to do with that money is to give it back to the old man who was stabbed. But every time that I go out there to dig it up and give it back, I picture Robby sitting in prison for twenty years. He's such an idiot sometimes and he's got a smart mouth so he would probably get himself killed in there.

I also think about myself, how I'd survive here without him around. I know that it sounds kind of selfish but it's only been a few weeks since he's been arrested and I already feel like I'm going crazy in that smoky house without him.

The old man deserves his money back, even if the insurance company did repay him for what he lost. It's not my money to use, or Robby's. So if I could just find another way to get some money to hire a good lawyer, maybe giving the money back to the old man would be easier.

When I arrive at work, I make sure that my work polo is straightened up and I lock the car doors before heading inside. The teenager working before me is quick to clock out and get off of his shift so I take my stance at the front counter for what will most likely be a long and uneventful afternoon shift.

I doodle in my sketchbook to keep myself busy most of the time but I'm also still thinking about what I am going to do about Robby. It's possible that I could get him a really good lawyer before the trial and maybe a good lawyer can get him a better deal if he pleads guilty. I still can't see how he's going to plead innocent and think that he can get away with it.

It's on camera that he physically stabbed the guy and although there were other people there, he was the one who did it and he was the one whose face they have on camera. Of course, he could also get a lighter sentence if he turned in the guys that he was robbing the store with but I know that he won't do that. He's an idiot but he's loyal and he definitely won't turn in his friends.

He's basically just sabotaging his own chances at getting a decent sentence for this. I think that he's just terrified of going to jail at all so even the five-year sentence sounds awful to him. I mean, it is awful but it's still fifteen years lighter than the alternative. I wish that he'd just own up to what happened instead of making this harder on everybody.

I'm running out of options here. I want to bring him home but it feels like I'm the only one who is actually trying, or who actually cares about getting him back. My father isn't doing anything and Robby is sabotaging himself so unless I do everything that I can, I have a terrible feeling that he's going to go to be locked up for a very long time.

Interrupting my paranoid thoughts, the front glass door of the storefront opens up. The bell above that door dings loudly through the empty store as the customer walks into the small store. I would greet her but she's on the phone so I just let her come in without being bothered.

She's speaking very quickly and in Spanish so I have no idea what she's saying. I only took a few years of Spanish in high school so I can pick up a few words that she's saying but just the short words that mean things like 'good' or 'yes'.

I pretend to look busy by grabbing a rag from under the counter and wiping it around the already-clean counter top but I stop fake cleaning when I get a second look at the woman and I realize that she looks kind of familiar.

She's turned away from me, looking at the fridge that holds the twelve packs of beer so I keep looking at her since she doesn't notice my staring. Eventually, I remember where I saw her. Naked in the park underneath of Dex.

This is the girl that he was having sex with when Zero had knocked him off of her. I hadn't really looked at her face, I just remember seeing her boob and then I looked away as quickly as possible. But she has the same light brown skin, the wavy dark brown hair that's big and long, and she's tall too like the girl in the park.

I know that I didn't get a good look at the girl in the park but I definitely think that this is the same girl. After scanning the beer fridge, she grabs a twelve back of Coors with the hand that isn't holding her phone. As she's walking up to the counter, she ends her phone call and I'm starting to freak out about her recognizing me.

How will she react if she does recognize me from being that creep in the park that found her having sex? I try to hide my face with my hair as much as possible and angle my face away from her but I still offer her a short smile and glance up at her just because my customer service self won't let me turn my back completely to her.

"Just the beer?" I ask her, my voice becoming a bit high pitched and shaky. She's still focused on her phone, texting somebody or something, so I'm hoping that she won't even look up at me.

"And ten dollars of gas on pump four," She says without looking up from her phone. The twelve pack of beer makes me think back to the first time that I'd met Dex. The beer that he brought into the basement that day was a six pack of Coors. And he told me that he's only twenty, so somebody had to buy that beer for him.

"Sure," I put it into the register and then scan the beer before giving her the final price. She scans her credit card through the machine. "Can I see an ID for the beer?"

The woman starts looking through the large purse hanging from the crook of her elbow until she comes to her wallet. A silver Kate Spade wallet. When she hands me her ID, I gather that she's 23 and that her name is Gabriella Briggs. I've never heard that name before and although I don't know every name of the people in this town, I know most.

I hand her back the ID and tell her to have a nice day, making sure to keep my face tilted away from her. She grabs the beer off of the counter and heads out of the store. She's wearing a pencil skirt and a matching blazer with high black stilettos, looking very professional but also wildly intimidating at the same time.

When she's out of the store, I watch cautiously out the front windows as she fills her Cadillac. She's so pretty and I can tell just by the way that she carries herself, she knows it too. From her clear skin to her high cheek bones and thin narrow eyes, she could be a supermodel.

The way that she's dressed though, makes it seem like she probably has a really good job. Probably in an office somewhere and based on the expensive wallet and nice car, she's probably really good at that office job that she has. She's probably really smart.

Not smart enough to know that having sex in a park is illegal but smart nonetheless.

I wonder if she's going to go see Dex now. Maybe that's who the beer is for. Does she know that he has a girlfriend? A girlfriend who is really nice and sweet and doesn't deserve to be cheated on? Does she know that all he does with his free time is hang out with immature teenagers like Jake?

Then again, she might not be going to see him at all. For all I know, that day in the park could have just been a onetime thing. It's absolutely none of my business though so I just get back to my sketching and worrying about my own problems.

Because that Gabriella chick and Dex are not my problem. Robby is my problem and I have no solid solution to fix it.

I could go see that old man again just to get a sense of reality. If I see him, I'll remember that he didn't do anything wrong and that he doesn't deserve everything that has happened to him. The least that he deserves is getting back what was taken from him.

But Robby trusted me to keep the money safe for him. I promised him that I'd hold onto it for him. We've always been able to trust each other so what would we come to if I violated that trust?

Then I remember what my father said as I was leaving the house today, how he doesn't want me to end up like him or Robby. Before my mother died, my dad was actually a lot better to be around. He was really nice and always liked to spend time with me and Robby.

He would help me with my homework, buy me art supplies, and ask me about my newest projects. He'd cook dinner sometimes, buy my mother flowers, and he'd listen to music all of the time. The house never smelled like smoke because he rarely ever lit a cigarette but when he did, he did it out by the garage. He only ever smoked when he was having a fight with my mom but that didn't happen a lot.

Robby has always been hopeless. He's never done well with authority, even before my mom died. Both of our parents had tried to get him on a straighter path. They tried to get him to do his homework instead of drinking with his friends. They tried asking nicely, bribing him, and then threatening him but nothing ever worked.

When my mom died, my dad just stopped trying altogether to get Robby to do better. Robby was eighteen when my mom died, he was just about to graduate high school—barely. But he did it. He got the cap and gown and everything but our mom wasn't there to see it and I think that it hurt him a lot that she didn't see him graduate. Especially since most of the reason that he was even able to graduate was because of my mother pushing him to be better.

But when she died and my father stopped trying, nobody was there to push him. I tried but I was too weak to do it all by myself.

I'm definitely not like Robby. I've never broken the rules or questioned the law at all. No drinking, no drugs, and I don't really hang out with the bad kids. Jake and Tyson aren't the best but it's not like I'm really friends with them.

I guess I won't know if I'm like my father or not for a while. He only fell apart when his heart was broken so unless my heart breaks, I don't think that I'll end up like him either.

I guess only time will tell.