Los Carnales

Chapter 14: Sweet Tooth

Aleesia Morales:

4:35pm - South Bay Correctional Facility

Dinner was served way too early, in Lauren's opinion. Lights out was at ten, which meant six hours of not eating and six hours of not feeling like a normal person having supper at a normal time. She didn't have any money for canteen yet, therefore snacks were off the table. Other inmates were used to this, even the new ones didn't mind so much, but it bothered Lauren too much to ignore. Or perhaps she was just too touchy, that any minor inconvenience made her angry enough to blow a newborn baby's brains out—not that she'd actually, just to be clear. When she received her tray of food, she immediately noticed the mashed potatoes were very runny and the small piece of chicken breast was too thick and overcooked. Lauren hated coleslaw, she couldn't bear the sight of it. The only thing that looked remotely appetising on that tray was the fruit cup of tangerines. So not only was supper too early, it wasn't even good enough to fill her belly and keep her calm for the remainder of the day.

Perfect.

As she walked down the aisle of the cafeteria, her eyes bounced from rectangular table to table in hopes she'd find an empty seat isolated from a large group of inmates. Majority of them were looking at Lauren like she was a piece a meat that forgot to land onto their trays. Each table had either all whites, all latinas, all blacks, or all asians. She tried finding familiar faces from back home but, truth be told, Lauren never met every gang member in Los Carnales to know that they were part of it from first glance.

And then she spotted Sugar sitting at the right end of the cafeteria, eating her meal while in the company of her closest associates and two other girls Lauren hasn't seen before. She debated on whether or not to go over there but she seriously needed some questions answered. Who was Sugar and why the fuck was she important? Why did her last name sound so familiar yet so distant? To their own volition, her feet carried her all the way to Sugar's table and stopped right in front of Mallozzi and Nova. Lauren kinked an eyebrow as she met Sugar's gaze.

"Can I sit here?" she asked.

"Nice to see you again, Lauren. Yes you can. I saved you a spot just in case you came to your senses," Sugar snapped her finger for Rogue to get up and fill in another seat that wasn't next to hers.

"Smart girl...so far," Rogue remarked, grilling Lauren as she took her spot.

Lauren sat down next to Sugar and kept her eyes glued to her fruit cup as she peeled off the plastic. She could feel Sugar's eyes map out her facial features and the outlines of her tattoos; quite frankly it made her feel uncomfortable. "Why'd you want me to sit with you so bad? What's your interest in me about?"

"I figured you and I could work together. And I wanted to call dibs on you before anybody else did."

"Excuse me?" Lauren arched her brow.

Sugar chuckled. "When newbies come into Prison, you HAVE to stick to your race. Ain't even got nothing to do with racism, that's just the way the system works on the inside, darling, and you have to follow it. Now, you would be sitting with the Hispanics, but I didn't want that. You're white passing and it's looking like you can be a lot more useful to me just like I can be to you."

"I'm not getting added years to my sentence just for joining your little prison gang and doing your dirty work. First of all, I never follow orders, I give them. Second of all, I'm just here to do my time and plot my next moves. I can't afford to be distracted."