Rage (Blue Rose Series Book 1)

Chapter 4

*TRIGGER WARNING* This chapter contains talk and an actual but not detail scene of SA.

Four years ago.

"Keep moving." a guard yelled at me.

I hurried and walked faster. I couldn't help but look around me. To look at the Hell of a place I was now calling home until I turned eighteen. I heard the sounds of girls screaming, guards yelling, and the closing and opening of jail cells. A few other girls and I get led to our cells. The door to my cell opened up. There was a single buck bed, a sink, and a toilet. A girl was lying on the bottom bunk writing in a journal. I set my stuff on the top bunk and the door to my cell closed. The loud clang was so final. This is it. This is my life for the next year, all because I trusted and loved the wrong people. I'm such an idiot.

I lifted myself onto the top bunk, too scared to spare a glance at my new cellmate. She had other ideas, though. I heard her get off the bed, and she looked up at me. She was a bit taller than me, with brown skin and tattoos covering her arms, and her hair was in two braids.

"I have two rules. Leave me the fuck alone, and don't touch my shit. Follow those and we won't have a problem. Understood?"

I nodded, too scared to speak.

"Don't act scared. These bitches can smell fear. How long you got?"

"A year."

"What do they have you on?"

"Arson and first-degree murder. But I didn't do it!" I said quickly.

She looked me up and down. "Nah, you don't look like no murder. Trust me, I've seen enough murderers to know."

My eyes widen. "You are the first person to say that. No one even thought twice that I did it."

"Who'd they say you killed?"

"My foster father."

"He white?"

"Yeah."

"You didn't stand a chance. I would have figured you'd go straight to prison. I'm surprised they put you in here. You're seventeen, right?"

"Yeah."

"Shit, you must have a good ass lawyer. I'm here for stealing a car, and they were trying to put me in prison. I'm still sixteen. Thank fuck for that."

I thought about that. I didn't know much about the legal system, but a murder charge and me being so close to eighteen. They should have charged me as an adult. My lawyer told the judge how Mike had been beating me and how I was a straight A student. But the trial seemed to go a little too fast.

She returned to her bed, and I made mine with the sheets they gave me. I don't even want to know what the stains are on this thing. It's all I have, so I laid down on my pillow, grabbed my extra uniform set, and did my best to muffle my cries as I fell asleep. Day one down. Just 364 more to go. Before possible life in prison.

****
Time moved slowly as I fell into a routine over the following months. Wake up, breakfast, school, rec time, back to cell, stay out of my cellmate's way, who I know is named Riley. I did chores, had dinner, and went to bed. It was like that every day. The only thing that changed was my relationship with Riley after I started helping her study to get her GED. She wanted to get into a college and study criminal defense. She never wanted to return to the prison system; like me, she was a foster kid.

We opened up to each other, and she told me how her mom couldn't take care of her, and she left home after one too many visits to her bedroom from whatever man her mom brought home. When she tried to get help from her other family about it, they had a 'keep it in the family' policy. Meaning shut the fuck up and deal with being sexually assaulted by strangers and family members. It made you look at your life differently, seeing how much worse someone else had it.