Mr. Ballin

It just felt like that would be a whole lot better.

About 16 hours later, around 1145 p.m.

that night, Bonnie brushed her teeth and put on her PJs.

The house was quiet for once, except for the TV humming in the living room.

She'd gotten a call from the juvenile detention center that afternoon, and Bradley was being held there on theft charges, which Bonnie thought was for the best.

But his friend Jason was 18 years old, so he was not held.

Instead, he was just given a ticket and released the same day.

And Bonnie knew that as soon as Bradley was out again, he and Jason would reconnect right away and just fall right back into their same old antics.

Before she went to bed, Bonnie went to the living room where her other two kids, Candace and Brandon, were on the couch watching TV.

And she told them it was time for bed, time to turn off the TV and go to your rooms.

But they just ignored her and just continued to watch TV.

It was a Friday night and the two kids didn't have anywhere to be in the morning.

And Bonnie had just done enough fighting for the day.

So she just decided, you know what, let them stay up.

They can go to bed when they want to.

And so she told the kids to, you know, don't stay up too late and go to bed soon.

Then she left, you know, leaving them on the couch.

She went to her own bedroom and she turned out her lights.

A few hours later, Bonnie woke up and looked over at the clock and saw it was near 3 a.m.

And she also could still hear the TV on out in the living room.