little bird // r.keene

xxiii. connections.

Robby found Will that evening sitting on his bed once more, like he normally did around that time, reading the same book. The was the same folded, worn out, stained pages. The same creased and battered cover that read in bold letters: Lord of the Flies.

"Hey, Keene." Will greeted mindlessly when Robby entered his line of vision, not even looking up from his page as Robby sat down, putting his feet up on his bed and leaning gently against the white wall behind him.
"Why are you always reading that book? Don't you ever get bored of reading it over and over?" He asked, looking over at Will, who just shook his head dismissively.

"Nah, not really, mate... " Will told him, "Little bird brings them for me, normally swapping them round every visit but ain't seen her in a couple weeks." Robby swallowed, knowing Wren's absence was his fault. "She adds her own little twist on each one and annoyingly, they're all classics. Her classics will be the death of me, let me tell you that right now Keene. Wren knows all too well I almost failed English class in high school." Will whined, Robby just chuckled lightly.

He sighed and wondered what Wren might have been doing at that very moment...

Reading? Working? Playing cards with Mr James? All of these were possibilities but Robby just hoped she was doing okay and that she was getting by. Now knowing about Rue, thanks to Will, he was continuously scolding and beating himself up for wanting to go and visit his mom and not realising sooner that it had all seemed too good to be true. For not realising it was a trap.

Wren had said it was a bad idea. Wren knew. Wren knew something was going to go wrong. She had had a feeling. Robby didn't listen to her. He got caught. Now Wren was the one alone. Again. She was alone again. All because he didn't listen to her.

He missed her, there was no hiding it.

Will looked over at him.

"She's okay Keene, I know that face, I wear it myself all the time... worrying about her, that is..."

"But what if she's not?"

"Hey, look at me, Keene." Robby did as he was told, Will closed his book and discarded it next to him on the mattress and stretched his arms out to push himself up, "One thing I know about Wren is that she can look after herself, you might think we're all she's got and we're stuck here, right? But remember she's got Mr James and that girl Tory too, Wren told me they're still good friends."

"Yeah but that was before the fight..." Robby told Will and the blonde boy knew he had a point. Will was utterly in the dark at how Wren was coping with that since he hadn't seen her. "When I was staying with her, I tried to sleep to escape having to even think about it, but Wren she hardly slept at all because it was all she could dream about." Will's shoulders fell, his eyes dropped. "I'm just... I need to see her."

"She'll come when she's ready but newbies aren't allowed visitors for their first week... Something about letting you adjust to your 'new environment' I think they just want you to sit and stare at a wall and think about what you've done or some shit." Will told him flatly, shaking his head, "Not much you can do about that, sorry Keene."

"It's okay. I get it."

"It's visitation tomorrow and I got a system..." Will said, craning his neck over to look at the door, in it was Archie who fixed his eyes on Will and began to head over. "Right on time." Will smirked and before Robby could ask, Archie was standing at the end of the bed, he was smirking too. "Tell me something good, man." Will leaned his elbows on his knees, Robby remained quiet.

"Your girl's back man, 4 pm tomorrow in the afternoon slot for ya." Robby drew his brows together at the dark haired boy.

"See? I told you Keene, Little Bird always comes through." He smiled and stood, clapping Archie's hand. "Archie, Robby, Robby, Archie." Will introduced them, nodding his head in their directions, Robby stood up, placing himself beside Will.

"Nice to meet you, man." Robby said to him, nodding his head.

"What up, newbie." Archie replied, holding out his hand, which Robby took, the same way Will hand and they clapped each other on the back. Will slung his hands in his pockets, looking between the pair.

"Archie's step dad's brother is a guard here, slips him notices every now and again so he behaves, isn't that right Arch?" Will smirked, Archie shrugged.

"Can't help my connection, you know that Larson."

Robby looked at Will, "I asked Arch to keep an eye out for Wren's name on the visitation sheet... She'll be here tomorrow." Will looked back to Archie once Robby nodded, "Rob here is a friend of Wren's from the outside."

"Nice man, hang on... Here comes Joe." Archie said gently and all three fixed their eyes on the doorway and at that moment, a guard appeared in the doorway of the bunk room. In his hand he held a clipboard.

"Alright, listen up, visitations tomorrow. Valasquez, Binder, Espinoza, Larson...." Joe called out and then proceeded to flip to another sheet of paper on his clipboard, Archie looked back to Robby and Will.

"Oh, and did I mention I might have pulled some strings?" Archie asked, a wide smile cracking on his face, Robby looked over at Will, who looked equally as confused.

"What are you on about?" Will asked and Archie simply looked back over at Joe.

"And Keene..." He finished and Robby's mouth fell open ever so slightly, Will scoffed in disbelief.

"If I call your name, be ready after lunch tomorrow." Joe called out, Robby broke away from Will and Archie and made his way towards Joe just as he turned to leave.

"Does it say who's visiting me?" He asked, hoping for one name. His chest felt slightly tight as his heart beat had picked up when the guard called out his name. Hadn't Will said newbies didn't get visitation rights in their first week?

"Evans, Wren."

Robby couldn't help but look at his feet and smile.

"What the hell did you do?' Will asked Archie, a smile cracking on his face now too.

"Easy man, wasn't all me... Wren put in the request a yesterday," Robby was with them again, listening with wide eyes fixed on Archie, "Took some convincing of course but you know she's a regular here. Luke," Archie's step dad's brother, "let it slide cuz he thinks she's funny." Archie shrugged, Will and Robby looked at each other.

"That's our little bird." Will smirked, holding his hand out for Robby and smiling, Robby took it.

Shawn, who had been sitting on his bed on the opposite side of the room with his head down, fixed his eyes on the three of them.
Staring at the back of Robby's head, his friends followed his eyes... The last thing he needed was a newbie with connections.