Insane Doesn't Even Begin to Cover It...

Insane Doesn't Even Begin to Cover It... Chapter 31

I wake up the next morning, only to discover that Caden is gone. For whatever reason, it upsets me. I sit up and look around the room, just to make sure he’s not sitting on the other bed or something, but no, he’s really not in there.

Sighing, I stand up and decide to get something productive done. I go over to my little dresser by my bed, and pull open the two drawers. One with my underwear and things, and the other with my clothes.

The only clothes I own are 2 pairs of sweatpants, 2 tshirts, 2 long sleeve shirts and one thin sweater. That’s it. They aren’t even good quality either, and they aren’t appealing to the eye. Everything is either gray, blue or black.

I’m wearing one pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt now, and I don’t see the need to change. I close the drawers and turn around, just as the door to my cell opens. Caden walks in, smiling.

“You’re up! I’m glad. You slept through breakfast, surprisingly. Here, I brought you some.” He says, and hands me something wrapped up in a napkin.

I sit back down on my unmade cot and unwrap the food. In the napkin is a piece of toast, a little container of grape jelly, and a breakfast bar. Putting the food down on my lap, I reach for my notebook and pen, which had fallen on the floor, and write ‘thank you’ and show it to him.

“No problem. It was my pleasure.” He says, smiling at me. I smile back and start eating. We stay in silence until I finish the food, and when I’m done, I crumple up the remains and walk outside, going down the hallway to throw it away in the trashcan by the stairs. “What do you want to do today?” Caden asks on our way back to my room, and I shrug. I really have no idea. I don’t have a meeting with Becca today, because she let me off.

I make my bed quickly when I get back into my room and then sit down, putting my head in my hands, thinking. Caden sits next to me and stays quiet, messing with his hair. Eventually, I get an idea.

Grabbing my notebook, I write something down and show him.

‘Talk about yourself.’

He reads and hesitates a little bit, looking between me and the piece of paper.

“You want me to talk about myself?” he asks, and I nod excitedly. He sighs and smiles a little. “Okay, but my story isn’t anything that special, not in my opinion anyways.”

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Caden’s story

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“For starters, I grew up in New York, with my mom and dad. We owned an apartment over an arcade that my dad managed. My mom was a school teacher, she taught 5th graders. I actually had her as a teacher one year, surprisingly. Anyways, I was a pretty good student, if I may say so myself.

“I tended to make A’s, maybe a few B’s here and there. I was in honors classes once I got into middle school, and I played basketball, and was captain of the debate team. I graduated from middle school with an A average and went on to my first year of high school… and that’s when things started changing.

“During the first few months, I was struggling. The classes were harder, especially since I was taking all honors and my teachers had a tendency to assign hours of homework at night. I started coming straight home and locking myself in my room all night, just to get everything done. I grew apart from my parents, so involved with my school work. I had some kind of complex, I needed to make good grades on everything or I would just fall apart.

“Well, one day, I made an F on a test that I studied all night for. But it turns out I got the pages mixed up and studied the wrong thing. I couldn’t handle that, and I started doing extra credit, because that F brought my grade down about 5 points, which took it to an 87.  I don’t know why, but that really upset me.