Sam and Colby: The Penitentiary

73 (jake's pov)

*Jake's POV*

Corey snored like a little bitch. So fucking loud. I missed having Colby or Sam as my cellmate. Corey was way better than Ray, though.

It was definitely the middle of the night, but I couldn't sleep because of how nervous I was for tomorrow. I really didn't want to go through this shit again.

I decided that no matter what, I was not letting Colby be the last one to escape again. Hell nah. I'd go last. I didn't want Ness flipping shit and killing Ray again. If I died, I died. At least I'd have sacrificed my life for my friends. For my family.

I wondered what in the fuck I'd tell Tara if we ever made it back. Sam was probably in his cell awake too, thinking the same thing about Kat. I hoped he'd be able to scheme up some big plan on what to tell everyone when we got back with jack shit on our cameras.

I tried my best to think of any way I could bring back some proof, but if we'd woken up without anything we'd had on us back in our year, then I doubted that I'd be able to bring anything back to show anyone. That kind of pissed me off, that if we made it back we'd have nothing to show for the months and months we'd spent in this hellhole.

I hoped Ness was right about us being able to make it back to our time on Sunday. I don't know what would happen if we came back and it actually was months later. The girls would have gotten freaked and called the police. Maybe they'd even fly out to Tennessee to come looking for us.

Whatever. Worrying didn't help and it wouldn't change the outcome of what was going to happen. I rolled over and set my pillow on top of my face in a poor attempt to drown out Corey's snoring. It didn't work.

Before I knew it, the lights on the other side of our locked cell door flicked on and the morning alarm blared through the air. I hopped down off of my bunk on the top and stood next to where Corey was sleeping and crossed my arms.

"Oh, hey brother. Good morning," Corey said, rubbing his eyes as he sat up. "You good?"

"You are the loudest fucking sleeper, I swear to god," I said.

"Huh?" asked Corey.

"You snore so loud. How does Devyn put up with that every night? I've barely made it these past couple nights," I complained.

"Sorry, man. Dev usually falls asleep before I do so I guess she doesn't hear it," Corey reasoned.

"Ugh," I grunted, running my hands through my hair.

"Morning count!" Jinx's obnoxious voice echoed from downstairs. Our cell doors popped open and Corey and I shuffled out onto the platform we stood on every morning and evening for count. Waco made his way down the line, starting with us and ending with some dude named Cox. What a shit last name.

Corey and I let the few people in between our cell and Colby's go down the stairs first so we could walk with Colby and Ness. We made our way to the cafeteria, got our trays, and sat down with the center at our two tables Big had shoved together.

"Shit dude, you look worse than I probably do," I said to Sam as he made his way over to the table with his breakfast tray. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Nah. I couldn't stop thinking about what I'm supposed to tell Kat, man," said Sam.

"I was up all night thinking the same shit about Tara," I replied. "Yo, Ness. What are we supposed to tell everyone when we... you know."

"You know, that's a good question. I'm not sure. I haven't thought about it too much since Colby's in here with me. Y'all are probably stressed about telling the girls, huh?" asked Ness.

"Yup," said Corey.

"Do we tell them the truth?" asked Colby.

"I wouldn't believe Tara if she told me something like that," I pointed out.

"I wouldn't either," said Sam.

"It's okay. We'll figure something out," said Colby.

"For now we should focus on the task at hand. We won't be able to tell them anything unless we actually make it back," said Ness.

"True," I replied.

"Work time. Let's go!" Jinx yelled at the loud cafeteria.

"You heard the man," Rock sighed as we all stood up to dump our trays. We all trailed behind Blaze again, making our way down to the mailroom.

"Hey, where'd Corey go?" asked Ness. I turned around. Corey had just been behind me.

"I thought he was right here," I said.

"He'll turn up. Ain't got many places to disappear to around here," said Blaze. "Now come on, before Jinx chews us out for something stupid like walking too slow."