The next morning, Tyler had woken up to find the white cover shielding his bed gone and Josh was no longer in his arms. He rubbed his eyes, awakening to a spotless cell.
Josh had woken up before Tyler and had tidied up all of the mess Tyler had created in his living space. He looked over to the corner of cell and saw Josh sitting at the small table with his nose stuck in a book.
With two bowls of cereal at either end, some buttered toast placed in the middle along side two boiled eggs and some orange juice. Tyler looked at Josh for a few seconds in admiration and stood up, catching his attention. "What's all this?" Tyler asked groggily.
Josh put his book down and stood up, kissing Tyler gently before taking his hand to sit him down.
"An officer came to check round the cells and give out breakfast. He was going to wake you up but I told him not to because I knew how tired you'd be. I just put the food on the table and cleaned up a bit whilst I was waiting, I hope you don't mind," Josh replied, beginning to pour the milk into his bowl. Inmates would only be able to eat dry cereal and some fruit juice unless they had enough money for commissary, but Tyler and Josh needn't worry about expenses with their income.
"Wow, I - I don't know what to say," Tyler said bewildered.
"Don't say anything. Eat. I'm starving," Josh gave out a light-hearted laugh and starting eating straight away.
"How come we're not eating in the pod?" questioned Tyler.
"Someone flooded their cell deliberately by blocking their toilet and flushing it but since they were closer to the stairs, the water went down there too," Josh stated after swallowing his food. After they devoured their breakfast, Tyler thanked him for what he had done and stood up to hug him.
"Hey, Tyler?" Josh said.
"Yes," Tyler answered, prolonging his response and beginning to pepper Josh's face with kisses. Josh squirmed in the embrace, trying to speak but a forced laugh replace the words he wanted to say due to Tyler kissing closer and closer to his mouth.
"Just... sit down," he said, grabbing Tyler by the arms and placing him on his bunk.
"I guess I'm just going to say it," Josh began. "I know my release date..."
"What? That's great!" Tyler exclaimed. "Why don't you seem happy about it?"
Josh didn't answer, leading Tyler to repeat himself, this time more seriously. "Why aren't you happy?"
Josh rubbed his face before sighing and telling him, "Tyler, I'm leaving tomorrow." Any sign of happiness on Tyler's face had now faded and Josh couldn't anticipate his reaction.
"Say something," he instructed nervously.
"How long have you known... because they can't just tell you the day before, right?" Tyler's voice cracked as his eyes welled up with tears.
Josh hesitated before speaking. "Since you came in," he mumbled.
Tyler stood up and paced the room with his hands on his head, trying to calm himself down but it was no use. Josh went over to him and touched his arm sympathetically but Tyler just shook him off.
"You knew all this time and you didn't think to tell me until now?!" Tyler said raising his voice.
"I thought you would've figured out that my sentence was 5 years when I told you that I was in here for armed robbery with wounding! I said that I've been in here for nearly that long, how was I suppose to know you wouldn't get that?!" Josh argued.
"Don't try and blame me for not knowing! You had all his time to tell me about it but you chose to tell me now!" Tyler began shouting. "For fucks sake Josh, we've even had sex," he said more quietly, but his anger was still evident. "What, was this your plan all along? To use me until you got ou-"
Before Tyler could even finish getting the last word out of his mouth, he grabbed Tyler's collar and pushed him up against the wall.
"Don't you dare accuse me of using you!" Josh shouted. He looked into Tyler's eyes for a few seconds, the anger disappearing from his face. "You know why I didn't want to tell you?" he asked, much more calmly. "Because I care about you. I didn't want to hurt you. I didn't want you to know that I'd be gone soon. I love you, Tyler." Josh pulled him into a hug as Tyler began to sob into the crook of his neck.
"It's okay," Josh reassured. "Hey, you'll still have the other guys. They're sticking round for a bit longer."
"Not for 11 years though," Tyler responded after his sobs had stopped, not realising what he had just said.
"What?" Josh asked confused, "Why 11 years? You told me you were in here for 2?" His eyebrows furrowed as he pulled away from Tyler to view his entire face as he spoke.
"I killed somebody, Josh. I was convicted of voluntary manslaughter."
Josh's eyes widened in disbelief. "You're kidding me, right? Tell me you're joking."
"I wish I was," Tyler looked down at the ground in shame.
"So you lied to me all this time?" Josh said as a single tear streamed down his face.
"I didn't want to be treated like shit whilst I'm in here because of something bad that I did on the outside. I didn't want to scare you off," Tyler defended himself.
"Out of all the people in here, I thought you could've at least trusted me."
"I do, trust yo-"
"Just stop it, Tyler," he interrupted, "no more lies."
The pair stayed silent for what seemed like eternity until Tyler spoke up.
"So what do we do now?" he asked.
"I don't know. I better start getting my things together," Josh murmured.
Later that day, everyone was let out of their cells once the pod had been cleaned up. The gang were gathered together in a circle where Tyler and Josh had their first kiss and the two were greeted with smiles as they approached.
"Hey guys," Josh said gloomily and sat down with Tyler.
"What's up?" Tiger asked.
"I'm going soon," he gave a small, insincere smile.
"We're gonna miss you, buddy," Matty spoke sympathetically.
"Remember that time when we all went streaking and got chased by officers before getting tased," Jace started chuckling.
"Or when we started bellowing Britney Spears' songs at night and kept everyone awake," Brett added. The group laughed at all the memories they recalled but had their mood dampened when they were called back into their cells.
Before they went back into the pod, they got an officers attention and asked if they would take one last photo of them all. They got in to two rows, the front row consisting of Matty, Brett and Jace squatting down and the back row with Tyler, Tiger and Josh in the middle. They all showed off the matching tattoos by giving the camera a clear view of their biceps with clenched fists. They all put on their toughest faces but burst out laughing once their photo was taken. They didn't know it but the officer also took a photo of them all laughing and smiling too. He told them he would print out enough copies for one each and drop them by their cells later. After their laughter settled they all looked at each other and came closer into a group hug.
"So, this is it," Josh said. "This is the last time our gang is together as a whole."
"We'll all be out one day. We can have a big reunion once we're old and grey," smiled Tyler, trying to lighten the mood.
"Deal," the guys agreed.
They all slowly walked to their cells, not wanting the moment to pass but before they knew it, their cells were locked. And that was the last time they'd all be together for years.
