Lead Me Out of the Dark

Life Whilst Incarcerated

The next day, I heard the familiar calls for breakfast. They were usually very lenient here depending on who was working. For example, if Steven was working, he made every single person get out of bed, like it or not. If other nurses were working, like Molly or Lauren, they usually let you sleep. Of course, if you don’t wake up in time for breakfast, you’re stuck waiting until snack with a grumbling stomach. There was at least one snack between every meal, and the meals were given at stupid times. Breakfast was okay, and lunch was alright, but dinner was given at 4:30.

I rolled out of bed, wishing I had makeup. To get toiletries, you had to walk up to the counter and ask for them. They put little amounts in paper cups and gave them to you. No hard plastic was allowed in the rooms. You were allowed to have your toothbrush, but you had to give it back as soon as you were finished. I showered quickly and ran a comb through my hair, returning the toothbrush, the deodorant, and the comb to the counter once I was finished. They placed them in a small cubby that was assigned to me.

I went and ate my breakfast. There were two rooms that had many purposes- we ate meals in those rooms, had school in those rooms, and endured group activities in them. As of right now, they were separate meal rooms. Boys and girls couldn’t eat in the same room, for some stupid reason. I grabbed a random tray off the cart and walked into the lunchroom. The rooms were small, and only had four tables.

“Skye, over here!” a tall girl with green and yellow streaks in her hair commented. I didn’t recognize her, but I walked over, sitting at the table with her. She sat with an overweight black girl, a young brunette, and a small Hispanic.

“I’m Natalie, your roommate,” the girl introduced. “This is Taschia (the fat black girl), Danielle (the young brunette), and Ashley (the small Hispanic).”

We talked for a while, and thankfully, no one asked how I got here or why I was here. For the most part, they just asked me questions about Deck. Apparently, he’d come out of his room wearing only a towel. He’d forgotten that there wasn’t any soap and shampoo in the shower. All of the girls had been reading one of Danielle’s magazines and everyone had started talking about him.

“Are you guys talking about Deck?” A girl asked, traipsing over to our table. I guessed she had been here longer than 24 hours, because she had on a t-shirt and leggings. The leggings were slightly too tight and the shirt came to just above her belly button. She had trashy fashion sense, but she was very pretty. She had fake black hair (by fake I mean it was obviously dyed) and chocolate colored eyes. She had a killer body.

“Yeah, Skye came in with him,” Ashley explained. I shot daggers at her with my eyes.

“Oh my LAWD, that boy is so FINE!” The new girl gushed, her voice excessively loud. I winced as she sat down. She told me her name was Jackie, and then began firing more questions about him. I answered them as vaguely as I could. This made me way to uncomfortable. None of these girls knew him. They were judging him on his looks, temporarily forgetting that he had been admitting to a mental hospital. I wasn’t sure why, but the subject pissed me off.

Suddenly, there was a loud pounding on the door. A guy I didn’t recognize was pounding on the glass. He looked like he was trying to make trouble.

“Hey! Sexy Skye! How about you give me-” he began, but Deck flew out of nowhere, tackling the guy out of the way. I paled, leaning my head against my hands. How could Deck do this to me!? He knew I hated that nickname! He was so dead to me. I ran to my room, washing my face with some cold water. Once I was calm enough, I walked to the lounge, where the Community Meeting was taking place. It happened every morning. Ashley and Danielle began waving me over and my stomach dropped. They were nice and all, I just didn’t want to spend the entire meeting talking about Deck.