Vincent ignored me the rest of the lunch period. He didn't look, speak, or even glance my way. Did calling him an ass really piss him off that bad? It seemed like a stupid reason.
After lunch was when we went outside on the courtyard. The guards and other people called in recess, like we were going on the playground.
When in reality, it was a open area with nothing but a few bench presses and pull up bars. Tucker abandoned me when we got outside to go use the bench press and build up his muscles, at least that's what he said.
I had no clue what to do, really. My feet felt like layers of skin were being ripped off due to the hot concrete comment floor. I hopped from to foot to foot, looking for shade. Underneath the canopy of the entrance is where I could finally relax.
I sat down on the cooler concrete where Naomi came and took a spot next to me. "So, Kanin. How do you like JDC?" she said with a rueful smile. I shrugged.
"Never expected to like it." I said simply. Naomi nodded.
"Vincent D'Amore is your cell mate, right?" she asked me. I blinked and saw him, a few yard off, staring at us. "Yup," I said, popping the p. Namoi's brows lifted and she sucked in her cheeks, making a hollow noise.
"Damn. Be careful with him." she warned. I frowned. Two people had warned me of Vincent yet the both were friends with him. "Why? Why are you telling me to stay away but your friends with him?" I voiced my concerns. Naomi looked around, her eyes passing on his dark figure. "Tuck told you what he did, right?" she asked me. I shook my head yes. "That was when he was fifteen. He is seventeen now and was never released. He was supposed to, though, this year. But he beat his cell mate and guard up. His old cell mate is in a coma and the guard is paralyzed from the waist down." she told me.
I didn't know what to say. So I said nothing. "Nobody knows why, but that's why he is here for another year. If he can't pull his act together, he is going to be going to jail. As in real jail. He will eventually turn eighteen." she muttered the last part as if she felt pitty or him. Did she? This didn't make sense on why they were friends.
"But why do you hang around with him?" I asked her.
Her eyes dragged over me. "I trust him. He trusts me. But you did something to set him off. I am just warning you, Kanin, he doesn't like new people." she says, very vaguely.
"I only called him an ass!" I threw my hands in the air in frustration. "How is that so bad?" Naomi's eyes widened a bit at my outburst. It caught Vincent't attention and he turned and zones in on me. "Fine, you know what? I'll just say sorry."
I stood up and dusted my pants off. "No, Kanin. Don't do that, he'll just get mad." she says, tugging me back by my hand. I shook her off. "I have to sleep in the same room as him, I might as well get it over with." I tell her, trying to convince her I was right.
Or was I convincing myself?
I walked to Vincent, feet burning, with Naomi shouting protests at me. I stopped when I was two feet away from him. I opened my mouth but shut it back quickly. I didn't seem to be able to find good enough words to say I was sorry. Vincent scanned me with his eyes and quirked an eyebrow. "Yes?" he said. I gulped.
"Uh," I stumbled in my words, my confidence draining. "I wanted to say. . ." I messed with my hair nervously. "Mmhm." he hummed in anticipation. "Sorry." I blurted. "For calling you an ass." Vincent smirked, finding my discomfort funny. "Why are you sorry?" he asked. I felt my eyes twitch. "Because it wasn't nice." I phrased it more as a question then an answer.
Vincent leaned against the brick wall, and examined me. "Do I make you nervous, Kanin?" he murmured. I was unable to form words, so I settled for shaking my head. His smirk grew, making me feel small.
"No, I feel fine." I lied. I was about to pee my pants.
He nodded in a way that made it look like he didn't believe a word I said.
"Could I kiss you then?"
My eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. heat creeped up on my neck and my mouth was in danger of losing it's jaw. "W-what?" I stuttered. "Kiss you. Because your just so comfortable around me." he purred. He scooted closer and I took a step back.
"Well, you see. Um," I didn't want to seem afraid but I surely didn't want to kiss a boy who managed to paralyze someone. Vincent was getting far to close for my linking.
As handome as he was, he was convicted for three years in this place. Who knew where he had been before. "Uh, I can't" I managed to spit out. He grinned, happy to know he was right.
"I have bad breath." I said out of absolutely freaking nowhere.
I could kick myself. Bad breath? Why didn't I just say something like, I don't know, no?! Instead I had to say my breath smelled so bad, it would be awful to kiss me.
Atta girl, Kanin.
Vincent let out a low laugh. He was a mere six inches or so from my face. And what made it incredibly creepy was that he didn't move away. "Your funny." he laughed. I was glued in my spot, eyes studying his oddly colored ones.
He noticed and his face hardened. If I looked hard enough, I could see a pale line running through the iris of his pale eye. "What happened?" I mumbled before I could think about my words. He blinked and squinted at me. "Excuse me?" he asked. It wasn't the snotty excuse me, but the genuine one where he didn't understand the question. "Your eye," I said, gesturing to his face.
"Oh," he said. He rubbed the back of his neck and pulled away. "I was cut with a knife in my first year here." Someone cut his eye here? This place was crazy. "He still goes here, actually." he added. He peered around the courtyard, looking for someone. "There he is." Vincent's finger led straight to Jake. The same Jake who attempted to break my wrist. "J-jake?" I stammered. I really did need to hide.
"You know Jake?" Vincent asked me. His whole demeanor changed in a second. From relaxed and clam to uptight and concealed in secrets. I managed to nod my head. As if Jake could hear us, he looked over at Vincent and I. I gulped, unconsciously clutching my still aching hand to my chest. Jake noticed and gave me a evil grin along with a wink.
Jake was actually attractive, unlike all the villains in movies. It would be a lot easier to despise him if he had warts and was overweight. But no, he was tall and muscled, similar to Tuck's but not as tall. His hair was amazingly styled for being locked in a Juvenile Delinquent Center and he was ripped. The only way I knew this was due to the missing tank top. Instead, he simply tied the upper part of the jumpsuit around his waist like the other's had, but wore no undershirt.
Jake turned back to his pull up bar and began lifting himself up again and again. "Do you like him?" Vincent questioned. His voice was laced with disgust and his expression was appalled. I looked up at him. "No, no!" I said in a rush. He seemed unconvinced. "I met him during lunch," I told him. "He was mean, I don't like him at all." I corrected.
Vincent nodded, seeming convinced. He glanced down at me then back to Jake. But then he did a double take, glaring at my hand. "What the hell did you do to yourself?" he roughly grabbed my wrist. When I let out a small shout of pain, he instantly loosened his hold. "Jesus, one day and you've gone and sprained your wrist." he scolded. I wanted to say it was Jake but when I looked up, a hard pair of chocolate eyes were boring into me.
I was rendered speechless. His hard gaze was easy to read: keep your mouth shut. And I did. It wasn't like Vincent would or could do anything about it; he didn't care. Vincent sighed. "We'll ask the guards to get you a bandage or whatever." he said.
"Why?" I asked him, confused. Why would be have any concern about my health? "Would you like your hand to heal crookedly?" he was getting annoyed. I shook my head.
"Then stop being rude and say thank you." he snapped at me. I jerked back at his sudden anger. I didn't say thank you, but rather walked back to Naomi. She was watching me the whole time from the same spot. "What happened?" she asked in a quick voice. Her eyes were big as she leaned towards me to hear better.
"Nothing." I muttered. And nothing did happen. He was clearly mad at me again. I could tell by how he glared at me. "He is still mad." Naomi frowned at this. "What?" she said confusedly. I shook my head and thankfully, the guards began calling people to go back to their cells. I was tired and hot anyways. I felt disgusting and wanted a hair tie badly.
"Naomi, can I use one of your hair ties?" I asked her. She had at least six on her wrist. "Yeah, just ask the lunch ladies for some. They got plenty." I nodded and took the hair tie, knotting my hair in a messy ponytail. I had utterly plain features. I had dirty blonde hair, which could be mistaken for just plain brown in certain lighting. My face free of acne but I had an ugly scar across my eyebrow. It cut through my left brow and it made me look like I had waxed my eyebrows wrong.
I was short. And not the cute short, but the ridiculously short where people laughed. To be exact, I was five feet along with two and three quarters of an inch. At least thats what they told me when I took my mug shots. I frowned at how dull I was compared to Naomi and Claire. Both were stunning attractive and I was. . . meh.
"Let's go kid." I looked up to see Vincent already cuffed and Frank waiting for me a few feet ahead. "Bye," I said to Naomi. She waved and I left to go to Frank. Vincent's hair was dark and a strand had fallen out of place into his eyes. He struggled to fix it with his hands locked down. Not even thinking about it, I reached and bushed the strand of air our of his eyes.
My fingers lingered at the side of his ear as he stared down at my frozen figure. "Get Your. Hands. Off. Me." He spit out, each word said with delicate fury. He hated being touched, he hated being called names, and he hated me. My year at JDC was going swell.
. . . . .
"You got 15 minutes to shower." Frank pushed us into the bathroom and then turned around to wait. I was lost on what to do but Vincent took no hesitation. He saw how confused I was and groaned.
"You get in the shower and there is soap and shampoo. Wash up then get out and you should get your new uniform." he said briefly. Before I could ask anything else, he turned down the row of showers. I followed silently.
He found a available stall first and entered quickly, slamming and locking the door in my face. A few doors down, there was an empty shower. I peeked around quickly before stripping down and getting inside. I twisted the knobs to try and make the water as warm as possible but it didn't do much. The water stayed at a lukewarm temperature and the water pressure was so low, I could pee harder than it.
But it felt good to use soap to wash my body. I felt clean and fresh. "Five more minutes group B!" someone hollered from far away. I began hurrying to wash my hair, not wanting to be pulled out with unclean hair.
I used whatever was in the bottle which was labeled shampoo and scrubbed my hair. I combed out as many knots and possible with my fingers, because there was no brush. I rinsed off, soaking up the water, even if it want much.
But then I was told time was up and had two minutes to get dressed. I suppose someone had come in and hung the clothes on a hook on the outside of my door. There was the faded blue jumpsuit and now pair of underwear and a bra. How did they know I was a girl? I would have to ask Vincent. But for now, I used the ripped bath towel to dry off and slip on my undergarments. The bra was a cheap type of bra and was a bit too big
I didn't have much size in my chest area. I yanked down the jumpsuit and saw a white tank top that looked as if it could possibly fit. I slipped the bra on and contemplated on wearing the tank top. I decided to shove it into the side pockets of the suit instead. Throwing on the jumpsuit, I stepped out onto the way floor. My shoes were still in the cell, so I had to walk down the soapy floor. Near the entrance, I saw Vincent.
God help me.
He was shirtless, his toned stomach on full display as he brushed his hair in the mirror. He used is fingers, like me, to style his black hair. In the reflection of the mirror, his yes caught sight of me and smirked. I looked away as he zipped up his jumpsuit. I watched as he walked out of the shower rooms and left me alone. I took a deep gulp of hair and held it for ten seconds.
Okay Kanin, relax. I took the damp hair tie of my wrist and twisted my hair into two braids that hung over my shoulders. I nodded in approval and exited the steamy room. Out in front of the doors was an angry Frank.
"I said five more minutes, not ten!" he said angrily. I grimaced. "Sorry." I apologized. He rolled his eyes at me. I swallowed thickly and let him clamp the metal traps on my wrist. "Stupid, ignorant, selfish teenagers." he mumbled as he led us to the cell again.
"Dinner is in two hours." he said before slamming the metal door shut. I plopped onto the thin mattress and curled up in a small ball. There was a small square of fabric at the foot of the bed which matched the same pale grey blue as our uniforms. I grabbed it to see in unfold into a blanket. I nestled up inside and closed my eyes, breathing steadying.
"Kanin?"
"Hmm?" I hummed, half way into my nap.
"Are you scared of me?" he asked. I was a little confused and surprised at him question. My brain was slowly falling into sleep, my eyes feeling like heavy weights trying to be lifted by a mouse. "A little." I yawned before falling asleep for good.
He pushed himself further against the wall of his bed.
"Good."