Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
RORY
Ihad no concept of time, let alone how many days it had been since I’d been put in here on my own. I just ate what they brought me, went outside and showered when I was allowed, and worked out in my cell between doing school work and sleeping.
It felt like I’d been in here forever, but also only a few days at the same time.
“Donovan,” Miss Jarvis said as she opened my door. “Come on.”
“Can I request to stay here?” I joked, and she huffed with annoyance but didn’t say anything, waiting for me to get off the bed. “What about my work?”
“Leave it. You can have dedicated study time in the library for it,” she replied, escorting me through the building until we passed Medical. The woman who’d been the reason I was in the hole was lying on the bed looking more banged up than how I’d left her, and I frowned.
“What happened to Smith?”
“Ran into a door, apparently,” she scoffed, knowing that was bullshit.
People gave me the usual dirty looks as we continued to my block, but a few gave me small nods, which was new.
“You’re back!” Tilly basically cheered as she leaped off the couch and dove at me, almost knocking me over with a hug. I jerked back, and she winced. “Shit, sorry. I forgot you’re a cactus.”
I couldn’t help the bark of laughter that left me, reaching out to give her an awkward pat on the shoulder. Miss Jarvis’ radio went off, telling her there was a scuffle in the hallway, so she left us quickly, meaning we could talk more freely.
“Did you have any trouble while I was gone?” I asked quietly, and she shook her head.
“Nah. Pretty sure you’ve fixed it. Thanks, by the way. Sorry it got you in trouble.”
“I’m used to getting in trouble,” I grinned as Lexi stepped out of her room. She had a bruised eye, telling me I’d definitely missed something.
“Donovan,” she greeted, leaning against the wall beside her door and crossing her arms.
“You really need to take it easy on Faith if she’s thrashing so bad that you get a black eye,” I joked, her lips twitching into a small smile.
“You mean my black eye isn’t hot? You don’t like it?”
“Are you the door that Smith ran into?” I asked dryly, making her shrug.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure,” I chuckled, walking over to my room to find it seemingly untouched.
“Hey,” Lexi said, and I took a step back to peer out my door at her. “Thanks for having Tilly’s back.”
“I look after my friends,” I replied, glancing at Tilly. “Come fill me in on anything I missed.”
Tilly was more than happy to join me for a gossip session, letting me know all the drama, like two of the girls broke up and were fighting, someone’s hidden phone was stolen, and there had been an overdose in cell block A this morning as well.
“Overdoses usually lead to a cell toss and the K9 Unit coming through,” she sighed, glancing around my room. “You don’t have any contraband in here, right?”
“No. They seriously toss the cells?”
“All the time. It gets worse when someone’s confirmed to be on drugs because they know for sure there’s shit getting in,” she answered, just as Kat stuck her head in.
“One of the girls just said the dogs are coming through right now.”
“Ladies! Out of your rooms and against the wall!” one of the guards called out, making Kat curse as she left the room.
Lexi groaned loudly as we all congregated against the wall, glaring at the warden as she appeared.
“This is ridiculous. It wasn’t even our block.”
“Pipe down, Bryant,” she ordered, making sure we were all out of the way before the K9 Unit entered and started tearing our rooms apart.
Frustration burned through me as they started tossing our belongings out into the main room as they searched, my snacks all getting tossed into the big pile in the process.
“You’re cleaning that up, right?” I asked, but I was ignored as they went from room to room until everything was in one big pile.
The warden seemed to relax a little once nothing was found, and she eyed me seriously.
“You’ll do your best to stay out of trouble, won’t you, Donovan?”
“We’ll see,” I muttered, eyeing my things scattered on the floor.
As expected, they left without cleaning up once they were satisfied, and I cursed them out as I started dragging my bedding back into the room, collecting the smaller items once the bed was sorted. I could hear shouting down the hallway, so I assumed someone had been caught with contraband.
The other girls tidied their spaces, and with the K9 Unit still wandering the prison, we were all locked in our common areas to make sure no one could move stuff around to keep it undetected, so I dropped down onto the couch with Tilly, the others dispersing to their rooms.
“Lunch will be late,” Jamie grumbled as she joined us, putting the TV on to occupy herself.
“How often does this happen?” I asked, not being able to help but notice Lexi and Faith’s quiet disagreement that was happening in Lexi’s doorway. Faith looked pissed about something, but Lexi just seemed annoyed to be having the conversation.
“That’s the second cell toss in a month, but it’s usually less than that.
The girl’s just suck at hiding shit these days,” Jamie grimaced, not looking over at me.
Lexi saw me watching and sneered, stepping into her room more and pushing the door shut for privacy.
“You don’t want to get involved with that,” Jamie said, drawing my attention to the fact she’d caught me watching the drama.
“They’re fighting?”
“Seems like it,” she stated, pausing before speaking again. “Thanks for stepping in with Smith.”
“Who even is she? Any idea why she attacked Tilly?” I questioned.
“Smith runs with Grovers. Tilly runs with you. It was nothing personal against her, it was an attack to try and isolate you.”
“You got hurt because of me?” I demanded, turning to face Tilly.
“It’s always like this in here. It’s fine, they can’t scare me off that easily,” she promised, and I scowled.
“You should separate yourself from me.”
“No. I like you,” she said simply, tucking her hair behind her ear. “We stick together in here, and you have my back, so I have yours.”
“It was kind of a good thing,” Jamie mused, giving Tilly an apologetic look. “Not that you got hurt, but that it went down and people saw Donovan’s loyalty. A lot less people hate you because of it.”
“That doesn’t change the fact she was attacked because of me,” I huffed.
“No, it doesn’t, but it’s gained you some respect. This is why sticking together is important,” Jamie answered, and Tilly nodded.
“Exactly. Trouble is less likely to start in groups. You should teach me some of your moves, babe. Do you fight professionally, or just for fun?” Tilly asked, and I didn’t exactly know how to answer, not wanting to publicly announce the Psychos’ illegal cage fights.
“Not just for fun,” I said carefully, and she raised an eyebrow.
“So, professionally?” She could tell I didn’t want to elaborate, so she steered the conversation away from it. “I wouldn’t know how to knock someone out unless I had cans of beans on hand,” she joked, making me chuckle.
“I’ll train you when you get out. You won’t need beans.”
“I’d like that. You haven’t done work assignments yet, but we manage the laundry room. I’ll teach you how to fold everything properly tomorrow. It’s super easy,” she explained, and Lexi’s door opened as Faith stalked out, heading to her own room before closing the door behind her.
“Trouble in paradise?” Jamie asked as Lexi appeared, giving us a dirty look.
“Fuck off, Mendez,” she muttered, walking towards the locked gate. “Hey! How long until we can leave?”
“When we let you out,” the male guard, who was the good-looking pig that everyone apparently called the creep, said dryly, walking towards her. “Got somewhere to be?”
“I want a shower before lunch.”
“Take it later. You’ll be fine.”
“That’s alright for you to say, I bet you had a shower this morning,” she gritted out, making him grin.
“Indeed I did. It was nice and hot too.”
“You’d better hurry things along,” she warned, stepping closer to talk more quietly. “You know I could get you fired.”
He gave her a dirty look, but he didn’t argue. What kind of blackmail did she have on him? Was she one of the girls that bribed him with pussy, or would she get Archer to organize something to get him fired?
He walked off to check in with the other guards, and Lexi headed back to her room, leaving the door open as she dropped back on her bed with a frustrated sigh.
It was at least an hour before we were let out, and Lexi breezed straight past us with her shower caddy. Kat silently followed, so at least she had backup if needed.
The rest of us headed outside for some fresh air, and Jamie shared her cigarettes as we sat down on a bench away from people. Tilly was invited to play basketball with some of the others, so we kept an eye on her from where we sat.
“You’ve been good for her. She gets out of her shell more,” Jamie murmured.
“Huh?”
“She never really blended with anyone in here. You’ve given her some confidence by standing up for her, I think. She’s one of our girls, but she’s not really part of the crew. She usually stays in her room, but she’s been more social since you showed up.”
“I’ve barely spent more than a few days with her. I got carted off to the hole on day four,” I scoffed, making her shrug.
“Doesn’t matter. Don’t fuck her over.”
I turned in my seat, giving her a dirty look. “I won’t. I know everyone thinks I’m some kind of backstabbing snake, but I’m not.”
“All people know about you is what they saw on TV when you got arrested. Can’t blame them for thinking it,” she tsked, and we smoked in silence for a while until Tilly motioned for me to join them.
“Is this a damned if I do but damned if I don’t situation?” I asked dryly, not sure what to do.
“Absolutely. You’re a bitch if you don’t, but half those girls still hate you, so be careful,” Jamie answered as I got to my feet.
“Thanks,” I muttered, walking over to the others. Jamie was right, some were happy I joined, while others gave me dirty looks.