Velvet and Veneer's Epilogue

•Bunk Mates•

   Velvet was sat in her personal cell block, laying on her back in her extremely uncomfortable bed. She flipped through an extremely outdated magazine, trying to do anything to numb her mind before bed. The supper they served was filling but nothing close to what she was used to.

She craved the day she'd be able to have her phone back, and be able to return to her nightly routine of scrolling for hours before she fell asleep. Today would mark two months since her incarceration.

Originally she was set to have three other cell mates, but due to her status in the community it was deemed a threat to her personal safety to be housed with other inmates. She knew it wouldn't be long before she would be sent out on parole and was due at the halfway house so she could "reintegrate" into society, as her shrink had put it.

Although she was sure her brother was going to be eligible for parole much sooner than herself, due to good behavior. Ugh, Veneer. Velvet felt her face heat up with anger just thinking about him. Why did he always have to be such a goody-two-shoes?

Upon intake, they were able to see each other throughout most of the day as it was a coed facility. Different time slots throughout the day had allowed the two to be able to hang out and catch up. Although Velvet was very unhappy with how social Veneer was being when she was not around. That insufferable little shit, she thought, picturing the few new friends Veneer had made.
While Velvet only had 'fans'. They didn't much like her or want to stick around once they had a real conversation with her.

It's not like she wanted to spend all her time with Veneer, no she had better things to do. But she was extremely uncomfortable with the way he was branching out, acting like he was all that and a bag of chips, making her look like a fool who couldn't socialize at all for herself.

All that built up resentment for Veneers social success had led up to 'the incident', which landed them in different time slots for the common room. She hadn't seen much of him at all in about a month now. Only in passing. Velvet pictures the last time she had seen him.

Oh, it made her so mad when she looked across the common area to see him sitting perched on a table top with his hair in the tiniest ponytail, flirting with another inmate. Who did he think he was? She watched as the other young man tucked a strand of Veneers hair that had eluded his ponytail behind his ear.

A million thoughts had raced through her head; how dare he try to grow out of the mold she had made for him, the image she had created for him. And ponytails were her thing! How could he just parade around like that, without her! He had never even so much as talked to a guy without her approval first. And now this?

He was a secondary character, she was to be the main character. He had to be in the background, and she in the foreground.

Before she realized what was happening, inmates were pulling her off of her brother, guards were yanking a jacket out of her hand and she was being whisked back to her cell. Ah, one of her oldest moves: hitting her sibling with the hard zipper of her jacket. It must have been the only 'weapon' she could access when she has so few belongings to her name, and in such a short span of time between deciding to attack and when she would have inevitably been restrained off of Veneer.

She didn't actually remember pouncing on him and knocking him off the table and onto the floor, but she was shown the footage the next day and her nose was rubbed into it. Because it had escalated beyond the low-level threat of the usual cat fight she was prone to, and she had legitimately injured Veneer, the two had been separated indefinitely.

'It wasn't even that bad' she thought back, knowing she had only popped a blood vessel, leaving his eye a bit red for a few days. 'What a baby', the image of him starring at her like she was crazy burned into her mind.