Falling For An Inmate

Chapter 8: A consequential privilege

CHAPTER 8

Arya Crawford

What are friends?

Friends are strangers with whom we have memories.

And what are strangers?

Strangers are people we know nothing about.

But if we knew something about people and they knew something about us, we could have memories with them.

So basically, strangers are friends waiting to happen.

But if you've made memories with them before you know anything about them, does it still work the same way?

I realized that I knew nothing about him, besides his name, to call him a friend.

Carter Reynolds was still a mystery to me. I call him a mystery because the thing about a mystery is that it doesn't want to be solved. It makes it so that it is near impossible to solve.

It shows you a glimpse of its true self enough to captivate your attention and for a second it makes you believe that you can see the rest of it too. But then it laughs in your face because there's no way it's going to let you untangle its finely woven web.

It taunts you and ignites your curiosity.

I am a very curious person by nature. That is where mysteries and I collide head on. I don't let up till I've stripped it bare of the curtains of questions it hides behind.

You taunt me, you tempt me.

The paradox that was Carter Reynolds was taunting me. And I was tempted.

But first, we had to be friends. And I think I had figured out how to make it happen. It was like playing Chess. You had to create a diversion while making moves for the opponent's king in the sidelines, all on the same board in plane sight.

One thing I did know about Carter Reynolds was the fact that he wasn't like most guys I knew. He wasn't one of those who pretended to be aloof but gave away hints at discovering their history because in actuality they really wanted to be found. No, he actually didn't want his past coming up.

Now call me intrusive or nosy or annoying but just knowing that he didn't want me to know, made me want to know it all the more. It's a bad habit, I'm aware.

Having said that, it doesn't mean that I'm reckless. I believe in stealth to accomplish tasks. And since this inmate was so particularly explosive when it came to his past, I was going to play it safe and ask the other inmates, in a very subtle way, about him. Granted, I sucked at being subtle before but this time it would go much smoother.

"So Adam...are you friends with Carter Reynolds?"

My fourth mentee, Adam Mayer, looked up from where he was reading a college pamphlet I had brought for him with a strange look on his face.

"Why would you ask that?"

I felt like I had somehow asked the wrong question. "Um I'm sorry if I..uh..you know what, never mind."

I tried to smile at his serious expression and drop the subject but to no avail.

"You shouldn't be interested in a guy like him."

A slight blush rose to my cheeks at the insinuation and I automatically began to defend myself. "I-I'm not. I'm mentoring him too so I just wanted to know a little about him. He doesn't talk about himself much."

Adam locked eyes with me. "With good reason. All you need to know is that he's the most important man to a mob boss. And they do horrible things, Arya. He should have sided with Thorpe."