Unbroken Promises Read Online Free Page A

having glass bottles on the beach.” The cocky Wyatt Earp wannabe smiled as he flashed his badge.
    They all just stared at him with open mouths.
    “You’ve got to be joking!” Beth finally said since they were closest to her.
    “No ma’am, I assure you, we’re not.”
    “Bu-but arrest! Th-that’s too drastic!”
    “Ma’am, I don’t believe the three kids and one adult who had to leave their fun-in-the-sun this week to stay in the hospital all day waiting to get stitched up would agree with you.”
    “But arrest?” Beth cried out in bewilderment as she chewed on the fingernail of her thumb.
    Can’t you just give us a warning or even a ticket?”
    “Ma’am, we started out the summer doing just that,” the sheriff thinly placated. First we gave warnings and then tickets, but neither seemed to work. We want the news of today’s clean-up method to spread into Texas. So hopefully, by the beginning of next summer, we won’t have this problem. Believe me, you won’t be alone today.”
    “Oh, Lord, please don’t let it spread into Texas,” Beth silently prayed. “But this is our first day to ever come here. We didn’t know you weren’t allowed to have anything glass on this beach.” Beth hands were open in a pleading gesture.
    “If you look, you’re sitting under the sign that says ‘No glass on beach’ right now!” The sheriff said heatedly, pointing to the sign to the left and above their heads.
    Beth moaned and closed her eyes tight. Tears were seeping out at the corners. She opened her eyes wide in hope that no more would follow. What little patience the sheriff seemed to have ran out.
    “I’m afraid all of you are going to have to come with me to the police station. The one who drove can follow in her car but the rest will have to ride in our cars. You can pick up your things and put them in the driver’s car. Let’s go please.”
    Everyone got up as if they were robots and started picking up. When they got to Julie’s car, she told everyone to calm down.
    “When we get to the jail we’ll have to call our parents to pick us up. We’ll do just like we did when we told our parents where we stayed last night. Jana can tell her parents that my parents said we could come here today and everyone else will say it was Jana’s parents. We will call home at different times to be sure no parents meet up with each other. If they question you as to why you were left, just tell them you could only leave with the person who was responsible for you, which will be the truth. Tammy and I won’t be able to bail ourselves out even though we’re 18. We may not be able to talk to each other after we get there, so who wants to call first?
    It doesn’t matter to me; 30 minutes apart should do it. Jana, why don’t you go ahead and call so that we can get your parents out of the way. It won’t matter as much if the others happen to meet up. Trust me, it’s going to be okay,” Julie said bravely then added unsurely, “Hopefully they won’t put us in the cells.”
    “Hurry up ladies,” one cop interrupted.
    After they put everything in the trunk of Julie’s car, the cops escorted everyone but Julie to their police cars. They opened the door for Beth, Jana, and Becky to get in one car and Tammy and Annette in the other.
    It only took them a few minutes to get to the police station. It didn’t matter what Julie said; Beth was scared to death. Beth knew that, if she told her guardians the story Julie said to tell, Susan and Jordon would be furious. It wouldn’t matter to them which parents said she could drive to Louisiana to go to the beach. If she had not asked them and not gotten their permission, she was going to be in major trouble. She also knew that the lie was still better than the truth. If she could get around by only telling them the story of getting up this morning and driving over, maybe she would only get grounded for a few weeks. Beth closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and let it out slowly