King of the Cell (DNF)

Chapter 2: Mess Hall

George POV.

When I stepped into the cell I noticed someone in an orange jumpsuit sitting on the bottom bunk and reading a book, but the sergeant cleared his throat to catch the inmates attention. “Hey Techno, we got your new roommate.”

The pinkette who was reading on the bed glanced up at me before lowering his gaze again. The sergeant just chuckled before slapping me on the back and walking off. I tentatively sighed before walking over to the two lockers on one side of the room, deciding to put my stuff in there to keep it safe.

There wasn’t much room, and there wasn’t a lock for them either, but I obviously couldn’t complain. Once I’d put my stuff away I just climbed onto the top bunk to sit. A few long minutes passed and I knew that it must be near lunch, after all my trial finished about two hours ago and that was at 10am. As I was building up the courage to ask my cellmate, he spoke to me first.

“Y’know, so far you are a lot less of a pain as my other cellmates have been.” I heard him say, “they’ve all been rowdy, messy, or annoying. As far as I can tell you don’t seem like that.”
“Thanks…” I responded, feeling slightly confused, before hearing the sound of the bed moving underneath me and he stood up.

Our eyes met and I honestly thought that he looked nothing like a prisoner. I mean he had a pair of reading glasses, and pink hair, which is something I never imagined seeing a prisoner wear, especially someone who didn’t seem to care that he was here.

The two of us just stared at each other for a moment, and I couldn’t help but feel as though he was sizing me up. I prayed silently that he wasn’t planning on doing what I thought he was planning on doing, but eventually he looked away. “C’mon, lunch starts in five minutes and I can’t be bothered waiting in line.”

With that the pinkette, Techno I think his name was, turned and took off his glasses, before grabbing a small case from under his pillow and putting some red contact lenses in their place. I decided not to question someone who could probably snap my arms off like twigs and just wordlessly followed him.

Techno walked down several flights of stairs and the entire time I heard the same catcalls and wolf whistles from earlier, which I managed to ignore even though it made me feel super self conscious.

The mess hall was empty at the time, and I followed after Techno as he grabbed a metal tray and walked over to grab some food. There was nothing nice or overly appetising. Mashed potatoes that looked like slop, peas, and some slightly warm flatbread. Finally a plastic bottle of water, and once Techno had all of his stuff he walked to a table in the corner and sat down.

His eyes drifted over to me when he noticed I was staring at him, but then he looked away again boredly. I worriedly grabbed a tray from the same stack that my cellmate had before getting the same meal. Then I looked awkward, there was nobody sitting at any of the tables but I felt like if I sat down at any of them I’d get my ass kicked, or fucked, which is probably worse.

Reluctantly I walked over to where Techno was sitting, hoping that he wouldn’t mind. His attention wasn’t on me when I sat opposite him, and at this time other inmates were coming into the room chatting and rambling to each other loudly. Techno also seemed unbothered by that, but his calm, uninterested demeanour evaporated when he heard the catcalls again.

I watched as his face scrunched up and he glared over at the other inmates while both of us clearly heard what they were saying about me. ‘I didn’t know they were letting play toys in the prison’ ‘he seems like he’d be a good fuck, it gets so boring in here’ and ‘if we get lucky we might see him in the showers later’.

Eventually I managed to block them all out, but I looked to see Techno watching me, seemingly wondering how I would react. Although I’d seen enough prison movies to know that you weren’t meant to react, even though what they said made me feel disgusting, and made me want to curl up into a ball and cry I instead decided to try and make conversation.

“So… uh what are you in here for?” I asked him, since I didn’t know what else to ask, even though I knew that was probably a shitty first question, and the pinkette did call me out on it.
“That is not something you typically ask.” He pointed out. “Plus I doubt you’d want to hear, it’s a long list of overtly boring, and in my opinion, minor things.”

“Oh…” I hesitated for a moment before responding. “I am in here for a personal reason. I was found guilty on the charge of the murder of my best friend.”
“God,” Techno muttered quietly at what I said, and so I quickly added.
“I didn’t kill him though, I was framed. So don’t think of me as a killer.”

“Don’t say that.” He suddenly warned me, glancing around at some of the other tables before looking back at me. “The other guys here usually think that someone who claims they were framed is a suck up. You’ll probably be jumped in the hallway now.”

At his words I whimpered, before immediately feeling pathetic as the pinkette raised an eyebrow at me. To change the topic I asked him, “do you have any tips for someone on their first day in prison?” He paused for a moment to try and think if there was any information worth giving me, before finally talking.

“Don’t drop the soap.” He informed me, and I thought that Techno was joking but the serious expression showed that he wasn’t kidding.
“Anything else? Like what everyone says about ‘beating up the biggest guy in here’?” I asked him, and I saw Techno glance around, which convinced me to do the same.

“If you want to, you can.”
“Just who should I beat up?”
“That's up to you.” He responded, “but pretty much everyone in here has a gang. You take out any of them and their friends will come back over to beat you up in response. Plus you need to keep an eye on the guards cause if they see you, you’ll be in solitary for a month.”

His words annoyed me, but I didn’t complain, especially after what he added on. “Based on the looks you are getting I think if they do get their hands on you it won’t be good for you. Or your legs for that matter.”
Unwillingly, I blushed, and I mumbled “I didn’t know you felt that way.”

“It isn’t me feeling that way.” Techno informed me, “it’s the rest of these animals. A lot of them havn’t had sex in years. You are the most feminine thing in this hell hole and have already been getting looks, and sounds. It’s like putting a lamb in the middle of a pack of starved wolves.”

“Thanks for that.” I mumbled, and he gave me a sympathetic half-smile, but after that it seemed like our conversation was over, and so I decided to start eating the slop and bread I had been given.
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1270 words.