Convicted [4]
"HEY, BITCHES!! DON'T GOBBLE UP THE FOOD ALL TO YOURSELVES!! SHARE THEM!" An inmate shouted from the benches as the prison guard delivered three boxes of pizzas to the furthest cell.
"Let's all be friends here~ let's all share our blessings~" Her friend chipped in.
Some yelled and even a few of them went up on their door, banging it. Inside the cell, Melissa was sticking out her tongue on the inmate who came, while Alice just began opening the boxes. The smell of pizzas permeated the room, making the inmates outside drool.
"Hoi, are you really going to do this? You'd better look out whenever you're out!" the inmate threatened, eyes flaring with envy and anger.
Alice flinched. Among the two, she was the more rational and careful, while Melissa was the war freak.
Alice anxiously looked up at Melissa, and spoke, "Let's share them."
Melissa, sporting an annoyed look, turned to Alice and hissed, "You're the one who ate a lot here, and those three boxes won't be enough for us! And you still want to give them away?!"
"But we will lose favor! We're already walking on eggshells having that madwoman in the same cell, and they were helping us before!" Alice stood and reasoned. She pointed at the silent girl hugging her knees on her bed and claimed, "She can just buy another box, can't she?! Let's save our butts first!"
Melissa went silent. Then, slowly a wicked grin appeared on her face. She walked to the bed in the corner and looked at the pathetic girl huddled in her dirty blanket. She aggressively pulled the sheet that made the poor girl jolted, "Hoi! Buy us food again! The sisters are asking for it! If you want someone watching your butt here, better give them respect and feed them as well!"
Brianna, with eyes donned with bags under them, hair that hadn't been combed for days, and chapped lips, looked up at Melissa. Her eyes were dull and lost vigor, but what filled her gray irises once shined like crystals, was fear. She trembled, hugged her knees tighter, and answered in a stammering voice, "Ah…ah…I…ah…don't…have...money any—eek!"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'DON'T HAVE MONEY'?! DON'T BE STINGY! SHARE YOUR MONEY! YOU'LL BE LIVING WITH US HERE! DO YOU REALLY WANT TO EARN OUR IRE?!"
Alice nonchalantly covered her ears and looked away. She spotted the inmate outside watching the spectacle with a grin. She wriggled her eyebrows at Alice and put her thumbs up. Alice returned a forced smile and unlocked the door.
The inmate rejoiced, "Yeah! Girls, get them!"
Another two inmates followed inside and took the food. Melissa frowned and glared at Brianna. She grabbed her collar and shook her until the poor girl cried, "Don't f*cking cry, bitch! I'm not hitting you yet! Those sisters won't leave us in peace if we don't give them what they want!"
Brianna sobbed, "B-But…I…really don't have m-money anymore!"
Truthfully, Brianna has still a few thousand, but the kind female officer who accompanied her inside advised her to stop splurging her money since it'd be tough for a rich kid like her once she ran out of commissary. And the fact that her father stopped transferring money to her account devastated her more. She hysterically shook her head and struggled free from Melissa's grip like a child throwing tantrums.
Melissa snapped. She dropped Brianna but yanked her hair instead.
Brianna, "Ack!"
"I'm not asking you to give it all, you pathetic bitch! Just buy us food from now on! The food here sucks! We've been eating them for years now, damn, I feel like throwing up just smelling them! So, buy us food and we won't hurt you! UNDERSTOOD?!"
Melissa didn't get an answer so she pulled Brianna's hair harder. The girl cried louder and nodded repeatedly after. Melissa grinned successfully and let go. She patted Brianna's head and praised her like an obedient dog, "Good girl, good girl, you should have answered so. Look at you, I feel guilty now." She tenderly combed Brianna's disheveled hair and looked back at Alice, she winked at her and mouthed, "Call our favorite guard, quick!"
Soon after, the inmates were having a blast partying over the foods they ordered using Brianna's money. The guard who helped them just shook her head, and when she noticed Brianna on her cell, she just shrugged her shoulders and walked away.
Brianna was left in the room, stomach grumbling from hunger, and nails clawing her palms until they bleed. From the corner of her eyes, she saw a glare. Turning her head in that direction, she saw the sunlight seeping through the barred window of the cell hitting the mirror.
Inside the mirror was a reflection of a skinny girl, with messy hair, sunken eyes, dried lips, and a gaunt face. Brianna lifted her hand to touch her cheek, and the reflection did the same. She bit her lips until they bleed.
It has only been two weeks since she got convicted, and yet she already looked like someone who served for years. Even though her eyes were so dry and red, tears still formed and streamed down her face.
Melissa was right. She really looked so pathetic. Two weeks wasn't enough for her to come to terms with the sudden turn of her life. She felt as though she was abducted and thrown inside another world, forcing her to live a completely different life.
She looked down at herself at sobbed at what she witnessed. Her nails which regularly got the treatment done every month were now looking like unwashed farmer's nails, filled with dirt stuck inside and breaking due to her constant clawing and biting.
She curled into a ball and sobbed, "P-Please…da…dad…take me out of h-here…ngh…hic…"
Her pitiful self was still hoping that her father would come one day. However, even when she used all her free calls, his father never once lifted the house phone and answered him. She continued to wallow in that misery until the day her third cellmate came back from the isolation cell.