Sam and Colby: The Penitentiary

65

"Hi!" I said, strolling over to Theo after my first day in the kitchen with Mandi. It was our second day back here, everything mostly the same as it had been the first time.

"Oh, uh, hello," he said, looking up with a startled look on his face.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. I'm Vanessa. Nessa," I said. "You might have heard of me as Atkins."

"Oh! Yes, miss. I have," he said.

"Oh, come on. Skip the formalities. What's your name?" I asked.

"I'm Theo," he said with a sweet smile.

"Well it's wonderful to meet you. Mind if I sit?" I asked, pointing down by him.

"Uh, sure, I suppose," he replied.

"Perfect," I responded, plopping onto the ratty faded couch. "I love that book!"

"You've read this?" he asked.

"Course I have. Probably too many times," I smiled. "Have you?"

"Uh... no. I'm afraid I haven't. I've wanted to for years, but... I, well, I can't read anymore," he said, getting quiet at the end.

"Well, I can. Can I read it to you?" I asked, offering him a smile.

"You... you'd like to read this to me?" he asked.

"I'd love to. May I?" I asked. I reached over and gently took the book from his wrinkled old hands.

"Of course. Please," he said. I smiled at him again and opened it up, then began reading the first page.

Last time we read the book, it'd taken a long time to finish it. Well, to get close to finishing it. This time, though, I was determined to finish. We'd skip the talking, the jokes, the storytelling, all of it. I'd read as much as I could as fast as I could. I'd finish this book for Theo.

I considered telling him about his forthcoming death, but decided against it. If I was going to die, I'm not sure I'd want to know. It wasn't really my place to tell him, either. I didn't want him to live in fear for his remaining days.

Yard time came later, giving me my first chance to talk to Ray alone. This Ray, at least. I split from the Center and other guys as they went to play their usual game of basketball and walked over to Ray.

He was leaning against one of the fences, studying his hands.

"Hey, stranger," I said, walking up to him.

"Oh, Atkins. Hi," he said with a small smile. "Thanks for, uh, for being nice to me. In the mailroom. Do you even know why I'm in here? Everyone hates me."

"Yeah, I know. And I hate you for that, but now is no time for making enemies," I replied.

"No? Then when is?" he asked with a chuckle.

"After we break out of here on the tenth," I said. He gave a small smile and ran his tongue along his teeth behind his closed lips.

"What are you getting at, sweetheart?" he asked.

"Look, I'm not here to waste time. I know your plan. In fact, I know just about everything about you. But we're not here to talk about that. I'm here to let you know that I'm coming with you, and the four boys I came out here with are coming with us," I said.

"No can do, honey," he said.

"You really want to do this the hard way, don't you?" I asked, stepping closer to him.

"I could say the same to you," he responded.

"Look, James. We're coming with you, or we're ratting you out and doing this without you," I threatened. That was a complete lie. We couldn't do this without him. But I needed to do whatever I could to convince him otherwise. He slowly sighed and crossed his arms.

"And I should trust you why?" he asked.

"Well why wouldn't you?" I asked. He thought for a second, staring into my eyes.

"Well what do I get for it?" he asked. Ugh, gross.

"What do you want for it?" I asked, playing along.

"I can think of a couple things," he said with a smile. He stood up from leaning on the fence, eliminating the few inches between us.

"Me too," I said.

"You want to show me, then?" he asked.

"Mhm," I replied. Dumbass. I was really glad I'd already learned how to fight in here. I looked up at him and put my hands on either side of his face, pulled his head toward mine, and then slammed my forehead as hard as I could into his.

"Fuck!" Ray yelled, rocketing back against the fence. He sprang back up and then held a hand up to his forehead.

"What the fuck is your problem, bitch!" he yelled.

"I don't have a problem. But you sure fucking will if you don't take us with you," I said. I flashed him a sweet smile before turning and strolling back to the basketball court, making sure that I was out of his line of sight before wincing about the pain shooting through my head from smacking it against his.

"Woah, Ness, are you okay?" Colby asked, jogging over to me. Big trailed behind him but kept a slower pace.

"Yup, no, I'm good," I said, rubbing my head.

"Baby, what did you do?" asked Colby.

"Baby? Oh! Are you guys...," Big said, pointing back and forth between us.

"Yeah," said Colby.

"But please don't tell anyone about it. I don't need any extra trouble in here," I said.

"No worries, I was about to tell you guys to keep it on the low anyway," said Big. "You okay, though? Pretty good bump on your little head there."

"Yeah, no, I'm okay," I assured him.

"You can go back to the game, I'll stay with her," Colby said.

"Whatever you say, man," Big said. He clapped Colby on the back before jogging back to the court and hopping into the game again.

"Babe, we've been here for, what? Like, 12 hours or something? What'd you do?" he asked.

"Ray needed a little... convincing," I said shortly.

"I understand that, but let's not convince him of anything at the expense of your wellbeing, okay?" Colby asked.

"Well how else am I supposed to get to him?" I asked.

"He thought you were cute last time, yeah?" asked Colby.

"Well, yeah," I said.

"And this time he's aware you're not interested in him?" Colby continued.

"Uh, yes... what are you getting at?" I replied.

"Well, there's nothing wrong with a little psychological convincing is there?" he asked.

"I suppose not," I said slowly.

"Great. Then let's fuck with his head," Colby said. "Go back over there. Keep trying to talk to him about it. I'll join you in a minute." Colby winked at me before turning and running back to the game with everyone else.