She Sends Kisses

 

 

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Part Seven: Battle of Who Could Care Less

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Will you never rest?

Fighting the battle of who could care less

Unearned unhappiness

You're my hero, I confess

- Ben Folds, 'Battle of Who Could Care Less'

 

It's probably around two in the morning when I wake up, my scalp tingling. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and turn my head towards the bars, blinking at the pale fluorescents. Something's going on. There's an electricity in the air that's got me suddenly wide awake.

A shadow darkens my view and a male voice calls out, "Lehane!" I raise my hand in a half wave, and the guard snaps a little. "This isn't head count, Lehane. Out of bed. And get her up, too."

Shit. What did I do now? I stand up and slap Jay's leg a couple of times, and she sits up sleepily. The guard waves us forward, and I swallow my panic, approaching the bars. He holds up a pair of handcuffs and Jay and I both stick our hands through the bars. He cuffs me and unlocks the cell door, motioning towards her bed. She frowns and he looks at me, like I'm supposed to help him.

"She reads lips." That's all I'm giving him. Not my job to interpret.

He nods a little. "Get your stuff," he says, facing her. She glances at me briefly before going back to her bed and tossing all her stuff onto it before pulling up the sheet and slinging it over her shoulder.

"What's going on?" I ask, leaning my head tiredly against the bars. I just wanna go back to sleep.

"You've got a new cellmate." Great. I look around, but I can't see anybody else with him. He closes the door after Jay walks out and leaves the cuffs on me as he leads her down the row. Even better. Not only do I get a fun new roommate, but I'm cuffed and I gotta pee.

The buzzer goes off, and I hear the steel doors open. Must be guard number two, coming to bring me my new bestest buddy.

Sure enough, Ricky's working the night shift now, and here he comes down the block, leading a scrawny looking chick who's dragging her feet. He nudges her in the back with his nightstick, hard, and I take a deep breath. Ricky's one of the only ones that doesn't get off on getting all violent with us, so at least now I know why they're rooming this bitch with me.

She's a psycho, and they figure no one else will be able to protect themselves against her. Fuck. Now I gotta worry about gettingshanked in my sleep or something.

They stop in front of the cell and it's a good thing I'm cuffed to the bars, cause when I see Buffy's face under that tangled mess of hair, I almost hit the floor.

She stares straight at me, her face blank. She's got bruises on her arms, and she looks like she hasn't slept in weeks.

I look up at Ricky curiously as he unlocks the cell and lets her in. He shrugs and closes the door, mouthing 'sorry' at me before unlocking my cuffs and pocketing them. I turn around to face her, and she looks back at me stonily.

"Long time, no see." She doesn't even react, just dumps her shit onto the floor in the corner. "You know they won't let us go to breakfast if the cell ain't clean."

She doesn't even shrug, just sits down on my bed and narrows her eyes at me a little. Oh, we're playing that game. Just what I need in the middle of the night. I break eye contact and go over to the toilet, whipping down my pants and doing what I've gotta do. If she wants to ignore me, I'll ignore her right back.

I finish up and turn around to flush, and when I turn back, she's laying on my bed facing the wall. "That's my bed." Nothing. I sigh and lean over, grabbing her sheet and pillow case off the floor before climbing uneasily up to the top bunk and stretching the sheet out over it.

"Thanks," I say sarcastically as I lay down, pressing myself as close to the wall as possible, but of course there's no answer.

She always manages to fucking win.