Okay.
Don't freak out.
These people seem nice, right?
No one's giving me any threatening looks and I've only seen a couple of girls with face tattoos (though it's unnerving to think about what they could possibly mean).
As I walk down the sterile, yet dirty corridors of Litchfield penitentiary, seizing up unfamiliar faces and avoiding ones that scream danger, I'm reluctantly reminded of what actions brought me to where I am now.
I stole a car.
Well, I was never meant to keep it, some Mafia guy would sell it on to the black market. But I never ended up bringing it to him on time.
At least I can brag that I manipulated some rich guy into letting me ride Gran Cabrio with 485 foot-pounds of torque - I doubt anyone in here will ever even get to touch a car so beautiful.
A small Italian girl called Morello (who seems a little loca) leads us down a smaller corridor and into a room furnished with three bunk beds and a couple of draws. Down to the bare essentials for prisoners. It's gonna be hard to get used to this.
"Alright, Warren." The jumpy girls eyes snaps to look at Morello like she'd done something wrong. She doesn't seem right in the head and by the looks of everyone in the room, I'm not the only one thinking it. "You're sharing with Miss Rosa."
I watch as a nervous, wide-eyed girl, looking significantly more terrified than the rest of us, walks over to her bunk bed with a not so bothered, bold lady watching her.
"Nichols, you're in the empty bunks. Pick whichever one you like."
I see Morello slip the girl a bunch of extras like a toothbrush and toiletries that I'm sure is only exclusively for white people. I guess things in here play out just like on the outside then.
"Thanks hot stuff, appreciate it." The frizzy haired girl adds a wink for emphasis.
"No problem, and call me Lorna. Ramos, you're with DeMarco." My eyes wander to the middle aged woman who greets me with kind eyes and a smile. She seems nice. "Enjoy your time here in Litchfield ladies."
Morello leaves us three new inmates with the first two prisoners we'll properly get to meet.
I begin unpacking the very few necessities I brought with me on my top bunk, not knowing how or if these people want to have any kind of conversation with me. They're probably sick of seeing so many new faces come in and out of their room.
"We don't bite you know."
I look down at the older woman who still holds a warm smile.
"Sorry, hi." I reach out to shake her hand. "DeMarco, right?"
"Yeah, Anita DeMarco, nice to meet you Ramos."
Hearing people call me by my last name sounds so weird. I don't think I'm ever gonna get used to it.
"You can call me Maritza. I mean, only if we're aloud. I don't wanna break no rules on the first day." I add with a nervous laugh.
With a smile telling me it's okay, DeMarco nods her head.
The frizzy haired girl without a bunk mate, Nichols, breaks the silence me and DeMarco were filling. "So uhh, when do we get food around here? Are there bells or do the guards come and get us?"
"We usually know where and when to be somewhere. No one ever skips out on meals so it's safe to say you'll know when it's time to eat."
"And the food? Is it alright?"
"We have good and bad days depending on how much of Caputo's budget it spent on the food supply. Though we have a head chef, Red." DeMarco leans off her bed slightly, inching herself closer to Nichols so she can whisper. "You don't want to get on the wrong side of her. Don't complain about anything unless you want to get a bloody tampon or something worse in your sandwich."
Nichols grins and gets back to making her bed. "Sounds like my type of gal."
I never even thought about what food people in prison eat. What if everything's yucky and full-fat? I like candy and pizza sometimes, but even I know I need veggies. From the few people I've seen, no offence, I assume I'll have to start doing cardio if I still want to look this good when I get out.
"Are we aloud to take food back into our rooms?"
Everyone's eyes fall on me, except for the shyer Warren girl. They look confused, maybe even a little amused.
"It's not good to stuff your face all at once. You know, I read this Buzzfeed article that said separating meals into snack type portions that you eat every 2-3 hours keeps your metabolism in check, whilst also giving you that perfect hot bod."
Okay, now they look even more confused. Nichols is grinning at me now.
"Plus, I get real bad cravings that make me all light headed."
Now she starts laughing. DeMarco's nice enough to keep the laugh, I can tell she's holding, inside.
"Trust me, you're not gonna get cravings for the stuff they serve here sweetie. And we can't take any leftover food into our rooms either. If the guards catch you, it could be enough of a violation to get you a strike."
Disappointed, but not completely surprised with the answer, I nod my head. Prisons gonna be a big readjustment for me.
"You'll want to stay and eat in the canteen anyway. Today especially."
"Why?"
"That's where you'll meet the group of people you'll spend all of your free time with for the rest of your sentence."
"Like cliques?"
DeMarco chuckles. "Kinda like cliques but based on your colour. We stick to our own kind. The blacks with the black, whites with whites, the Golden Girls and Spanish Harlem. Those are the ones you're gonna want to sit next to."
I didn't know prison was so... superficial. Not that I mind much though. I've always gotten along better with Latina's.
"Okay. And how do I approach them?"
"Approach them?"
"Yeah, you know, like how do I get 'accepted' in the group. Is there a test or something?"
DeMarco bursts into laughter, I even catch Miss Rosa smiling.
"Hunny, you're brown enough, they'll accept you with open arms. By the way you talk, I can tell you're gonna to fit right in."
I give her a thankful smile, happy that at least one person here's confident that I'll make friends. It doesn't stop me from doubting myself though. What if they think I'm a manipulator or can't be trusted for what I done to get in here? I'm sure a lot have done worse, but I was never the best at keeping my mouth from getting me into trouble.
DeMarco notices my insecurity.
"But if you want to know who you should probably talk to first, I'd say Gloria Mendoza. She'll explain to you how things work around here. You'll spot her straight away, she's the only one with short hair and the ass that makes up for it."
I giggle, but make sure to remember her advice. I'm curious about the others... It would help to get a little info on everyone before I'm set off into the unknown world of prison.
"How about the rest of Spanish Harlem?"
"There's a mother and daughter, Aleida and Dayanara Diaz. Look out for the mother, both are nice girls, but she's not to be trusted as much. There's Blanca who's a little coo-coo in the head. Maria Ruiz has got a bit of a temper but I think you'll be alright with her. And there's Flaca Gonzales. She's young and pretty feisty like you. You'll get along with her."
They sound like a colourful bunch. They're Latina's so of course they would be. But I'm feeling kinda excited to meet them now. I'm even more intrigued by who this Flaca girl, that DeMarco thinks I'll get along with, could be.
Feeling a lot more better now when it comes to meeting everyone at diner, I begin making my bed. It's easy enough... until my small arms can't reach either corners of my bunk.
"Umm... DeMarco?" She looks up from her bunk, wondering what the problem is. "Can you help me out with my bed? My sheet keeps falling down."
She sighs apologetically before responding. "I would give you a hand but I have a bad back, that's why I stay on the bottom bunk."
Before I could ask anyone else, Nichols offers to help me.
"I've got it." She hops down from her bunk and grabs the end of my sheet, both of us tucking it into the mattresses opposite ends.
I'm about to thank her for helping me out, but something I see makes me forget.
It's her tattoo.
My eyes caught a glimpse of it in the split second her shirt rode up. I saw enough of it to read the name of her soulmate, 'Lorna'.
Nichols spots me starring.
"I know what your thinking, that broad with the lipstick had the same name."
"... Yeah. I didn't mean to see, sorry."
Nichols scoffs. "What the hell are you sorry for? I don't care who sees."
Her laid back attitude makes me smile. You can never know how people feel about their tattoos so I tend to never talk about them.
The second you turn 18, everyone gets a tattoo of somebodies name. It might be on your back, your butt, I've even seen a guy with one on his chin.
What most people dream of, but never usually get, is finding that person. They're your soulmate.
Some people completely reject the idea and never try to seek out the person who's name their tattoo belongs to. They date other people, maybe even get married and have kids. But in the back of their minds, even if they don't believe in it, they must secretly wonder what would happen if they met the person they're meant to be with.
Some people go their whole lives, searching, practically hunting down their soulmates. But the potential billions of people they'll never meet make it practically impossible. Imagining how many people have the same name is discouraging and some consider the possibility of their soulmate not even being born yet. So they settle for someone else in fear of dying alone.
Some don't settle. Some people never give up searching. They can go their whole lives looking at the same letters, but never actually finding who they belong to. But there are times, rare and far between, when two soulmates find each other. They turn out to be the destined ones.
I hope I'm that type of person.
I decide to press Nichols about her soulmate further, she seems comfortable enough to talk about it. "So... are you gonna ask Lorna about her tattoo?"
She shrugs. "Probably not."
My eyebrows creased in a mixture of shock and confusion. "What? Why?... What if she's the one?"
"Well if she's the one then she's the one. We're gonna be stuck in here for a while. We'll see what happens."
I could never do that. If I ever saw someone with the name 'Maritza' written on them, I don't think I could watch them walk away without at least asking for their name.
"You got some guts Nichols... If it was me I'd want to know straight away."
"Call me Nicky. And you're a believer then, uh?" She smirks, nodding her head. She believes too. "Whatever man has you waiting for him is a lucky guy."
"Lucky girl."
The conversation between Nicky and I instantly gained an audience as soon as I'd mentioned my soulmate was a girl. Even Warren's brave enough to look over, debating whether she heard me right.
It was a shock to me too. I'd always only dated guys, I even have a beautiful baby because of it. My whole family was crowded around me. I'd even asked my now ex-boyfriend to be there because I was so sure that he was the one, even if the chances of it were almost impossible.
So you could imagine how shocked I was when I not only saw that it wasn't his name, but that it was a girl too. We froze for a minute, my mum, dad, boyfriend and mostly me needing to process it.
The more I thought about it, the more the idea that I'd end up with a girl became obvious. I couldn't stop thinking about what it would be like to be with a girl. Then I couldn't stop thinking about how pretty the name sounded. And how pretty the girl must really be.
"You're swinging for the right team. Maybe if things with Lorna don't work out and your princess charming never shows up, me and you could, you know, comfort each other."
Her now signature wink made me laugh more than it was meant to.
"Sorry. Even if it takes a million years, I'm gonna keep looking for this girl." I huff, looking down at my highly saturated orange uniform. "But I can't whilst I'm stuck in here. So I'm just doing my time and then I'll begin my search."
"Hey, don't see this place as a complete waste of time. I've caught a few chicks giving me and especially you the eye already. This is an all you can eat." I was too busy looking for potential threats to notice anyone ogling me. I am in prison for a while... I'm not completely against experimenting whilst I'm in here. "Your soulmate can wait Ramos."
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I AM SO EXCITED TO START THIS FIC!
I was playing around with the idea of making a multi-chapter flaritza fanfic, so fuck it. There aren't enough flaritza fics and I love soulmate au's.
There'll be around 4-5 chapters and next updates in 3 days. Check out my other 2 flaritza fanfics in the meantime if you haven't already: Hiding Under Miss Gonzales Desk and Laundry Room - Flaritza.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
-D