Breaking Lies: Stars and Fire

Chapter One (Part Four)

She didn't reply. Now that I realized why I felt bothered by him, I suddenly got an urge to question him. Was it possible we'd met before? He certainly didn't seem to know me, nor I, him. Could it have been he'd been in Daofen before? He didn't seem familiar with it.

"Where's Lucas?" Zelda hit my arm, getting my attention, "I haven't seen him."

Instantly, I searched the courtyard for him. He was on my level, so he should've been here, but he was nowhere in sight. "I don't know," I said, "maybe he got held back for something." It was not uncommon for a prisoner to be held back by the guards. If they upsetted someone, or acted the wrong way, punishment could be losing out on an activity. And Lucas wasn't always the "rule-follower".

Across the yard, a loud bell clanged, signaling our outdoor time was up.

"Get in line, get in line! Hans, stand quietly!" the guard barked out. My stomach rumbled quietly. It was meal time, but it got pushed off because some idiot was messing around. Cedric stood beside me, as the inmates that shared cells had to line up together. His glare was fixed on the guard, as if trying to memorize his face for later. I nudged him, not because he could get in trouble for such a defiant glare, but because I could get in trouble.

"Stop staring!" I hissed.

He looked at me, and blinked once. As if he wasn't aware he was glaring.

"Since you gits acted stupidly, your meal time is shortened. By ten minutes." his dark eyes bored into each of ours.

Fury built inside me. We already missed ten minutes! Ten more would mean we only had fifteen minutes left! I glanced around to see if anyone else reacted, and I wasn't disappointed. A quiet buzz of murmurs.

"Now get goin','" the guard ordered. It took all my willpower not to stick my tongue out at him.

The cafeteria was a massive room. You could've fit at least thirty cells in it, and still had room left over. A room that big, of course, had a lot of guards. A security and reassurance in a strange way.

In rows and columns, metal tables with benches attached were placed. It was always a rush to get to the middle or back ones, for some reason. Ultimately, it didn't matter because the security was all over anyway.

Meals were the one time a day the levels mixed, meaning that you could sit with whoever you wanted. Most sat with their inmate friends, and I was no exception. There were certain cliques. The bigger men with the bigger men. The more cautious with the more cautions. Then, there were the weirder cliques. Like bullies with idiots. Actually, they're pretty much the same thing.

After getting my food from the counter, I scanned the room for possible places to eat. Zelda was across the room, eating with her cellmates. They were new too, and I searched my memory for their names.

The blonde girl with her hair somehow knotted into a low bun was Silesia. She was nice, but pretty stupid. The one next to her was Kayli, but she had been with Zelda for more than a year now. And finally, Baenu, a new attractive young man.

On the other side of the room was...my parents. Hard pass.

"Where are we supposed to sit?" Cedric asked, looking somewhat embarrassed. Whether he was embarrassed to ask me, a girl, or that he was new and ignorant, I didn't know. But my ego pulsed smugly.

"You sit where you want," I said snidely, "I'm sitting there." I started over at Zelda's table.

A hand grabbed my arm and swung me around, making my food slide around on the tray.