This boy next to my room

8

June

Sitting alone at a table, I chew with a sickened look the piece of bread I was given. It is cold and flabby, disgusting. On my plate there is powdered milk and butter that is much too yellow for my taste.

The hubbub around me doesn't help either. The residents of this reformatory are all chatting with their friends while I feel like the friendless loner of the lot.

And as for my state of mind, it's total chaos. I can't stop replaying the bathroom scene in my head. And I thought that our intimacy would be respected here..

When I finish swallowing the bread, I get up to clear the lunch tray in a container near the exit. I walk along the cafeteria, staring blankly, still pensive, and I don't even notice the group of girls approaching me. Can you smell the disaster too? As I was about to raise my head I bumped against something or rather someone so hard that I dropped what I was holding in my hands.

The next thing I know, the food that was left on my tray is scattered all over the floor with a disastrous noise. But that's not the worst of it yet; because when I look up I also notice that I accidentally soiled the shirt of the girl in front of me.

"Oh my.. I'm so sorry! I'll clean this up.." I panicked.

This scene unlocks an old memory from my childhood, when I had once spilled hot coffee on my mother-in-law by accident. She got mad at me and hit me hard leaving bruises on my skin that stayed for over a month.

After that, she apologized and asked me not to tell my father. I must have been around six, seven years old and I think it all started at that age before things got much worse with her.

My heart starts to speed up abnormally when this memory that I thought I had forgotten suddenly resurfaces.

Laughter echoes throughout the room. I can feel my face turning tomato red as I stare at the dirty floor.

"It's okay, don't worry. I'll help you wait." Finally answers the girl in front of me.

She pulls out a pack of tissues from her pocket and bends down to wipe up the spilled milk. I look at her puzzled that she hasn't insulted me and also stoop to help her.

The group of girls who were behind us also start to help us. One hands me a wipe to clean up.

The laughter fades and the discussions start again.

Ten minutes later, I'm in the bathroom scrubbing the girl's shirt I stained with soap. She is next to me and watches me do it.

I insisted a lot that she let me clean it because she had told me that she would take care of it.

"So you're new?" She asks.

"Yes I arrived yesterday." I reply still rubbing her top.

"Oh I see. It's always hard to fit in here when you've just arrived, but you'll see that in time you'll have fun."

"I hope. Anyway, you are the first nice or at least normal person I have met so far." I said with a laugh.

I hear her laughing next to me as well.

"Thanks but I can assure you that they are all nice here. You just have to know them well."

Maybe all but one.

I shrug. When I finally finish my washing, I hand her her t-shirt still a little wet and tell her to put it to dry. She thanks me with a big smile, this girl is really nice.

"Thanks a lot, what's your name by the way?" She asks.

"June and you?"

"Oh pretty name. I'm Kathy but you can call me Kat."

I nod and smile generously at her. I was about to turn around to leave the bathroom, but her arm calls out to me, holding my wrist.

"And.. June, tonight a friend is having a little secret party in her dorm after curfew and I would love for you to join us so you can get to know the people here and maybe even befriend them." Kat tells me. "So if you're OK, I can give you the dorm number." She finishes.

A secret party ?