The Lady Darkness

Chapter 4

I am woken up by a gentle knock on the door followed by a quick "Ivy are you awake?" It sounds like Charlie, so I kick the sheets off, get up and make my way to the door. I open the door and see Charlies grinning face before his eyes go wide and he slams his hand over them.

"Ivy where are your clothes?" You can't just open the door in nothing but your bra and underwear," he manages to sputter out through his embarrassment.

"What why not? At prison we didn't even have privacy to shower," the guards never cared about my state of dress, so why do these people?

"That was the norm in prison, here it is considered inappropriate," it wasn't Charlie who said this, it was someone around the corner. Leaning my head out the door a little I see the guy who had spoke up and quieted everyone down at the meeting yesterday. He's awfully cute up close, he has those eyes that feel like they are peering into your soul. They aren't looking at me though, they are looking at the wall across from us. Does seeing me in my undergarments really make people uncomfortable?

"This is Damien, my roommate that I was telling you about yesterday. Damien give Ivy her new clothes so that she can get dressed and then we can go get breakfast. I am starving," Charlie says with his hand still over his eyes.

Damien holds the bag out in my general direction, still without removing his eyes from the wall. I take it and shut the door. Emptying out the contents of the bag onto my bed I take an inventory of what was inside. There is a long sleeve shirt, some track pants, socks and underwear. I quickly discard the clothes I am currently wearing and put on the underwear. The shirt and pants I notice as I put them on are a little bit too big, but they are clean so I put them on anyway and just pull the drawstrings of the pants tight. I slip my shoes on and open the door back up. Both of the guys are leaning against the wall across from my door. Damien is the first to look up and let his eyes wander over my figure.

"They are a little big," I say with a shrug.

"We will see if we can't find anything smaller after breakfast," Charlie stands straight and starts to make his way down the hallway.

I follow behind him and Damien follows behind me. We make our way down the stairs and out of the building. Charlie leads us to the building that I have yet to be in. From there we turn right and go down the hallway. Soon I can hear voices bouncing off the walls. This is where the masses of people must be at this morning. We finally make it to a door on the left and enter through it. Once inside the noise is overwhelming because of the amount of people they have squished inside the room. This room was not meant for this many people. There are tables lined up throughout the room, most of them are filled with people and who ever is not at a table is standing in a line holding a tray waiting to get to the window where they are serving the food.

"Let's get in line before all the good food is gone," Charlie was almost running to get in line. How old is he anyway that he is getting this excited about food?

I slowly follow along, grabbing a tray from the same spot that Charlie does along the way and stand behind him in line and wait for my turn to be served. When I finally get up to the lady who was serving the food she does a double take before sending me a small smile.

"Ivy League, I heard you were back from the dead. What would you like for breakfast dear?" I have a choice as to what I can have for breakfast? In prison it was the same meal everyday.

I take a glance at Charlies plate, which is full of eggs, sausage, and toast. The person in front of him has what looks like a bowl of fruit.

"I'll take a bowl of fruit please," I give her a small smile in return of her own.

"Sure dear," she reached back into a fridge and takes out a bowl that is overflowing with different kinds of fruit.

Charlie led the way to a table where the three of us sat down. Once we had sat down I noticed that a lot of eyes were on us. In fact, most everyone was either staring at us, or glancing our way trying to be inconspicuous. Why were they staring at us? Did they know who I was just like the lunch lady had?