incarcerated

3.

being called to the warden's office was apparently something that everyone wanted to talk about. it immediately became very clear to brett that this was not something eddy did—ever. he could hear the faint whispers of the two of their names coming from the other inmates' mouths. he said nothing. asking anyone in that prison about anything was not something he wanted.

    "yang!" a loud voice rang in his ear and he felt a pair of strong arms around his shoulders. he looked up to find another inmate(who was at least a foot taller than him).

    "what?" he said, trying to keep his voice steady. the man grinned and ran a hand over brett's hair despite the smaller man's attempts to dodge it.

    "what did you and the warden talk about, huh? you a fuckin' teacher's pet or some shit?" he teased. brett rolled his eyes.

    "no," he shook his head. the other man erupted with laughter and picked brett up by his shoulders, pushing him against the wall. his feet dangled in mid air as he was held there.

    "i find that very hard to believe. i'm not going to ask you again. what did you talk about?" the inmate said sternly. brett glanced around to find that there was no one to help him. he took a deep breath.

    "there was a problem with some paperwork. he had to ask me some shit. that's all, okay? put me down."

    each one of the man's yellow teeth were visible when he threw his head back with laughter. he wrapped his hand around brett's throat.

"i'll put you down when i decide to put you down, faggot. you can't tell me what to do."

the other inmate's eyes were a deep shade of brown, almost black. brett could see the hatred and anger living in his opaque irises, ready to come out and end his life at any moment. he didn't utter a word.

"hey! put him down, demarco!" a CO's voice came from the end of the hall, slicing a hole in the thick silence. the inmate dropped brett to the floor and the smaller man tried to hide how badly his body was shaking and how hard it was to breathe.

"that's a shot, inmate. give it a rest, for fuck's sake," the CO, whose uniform said kramer, said. demarco continued to laugh as his shot was written. it didn't even matter to him.

"get up, yang. you should probably get back to your cube before someone else decides you're their target. you've been the talk of the town today," kramer barked, crossing his arms. brett stood up silently and began the short walk back to his bunk.

    in all honesty, brett didn't know how he felt about he and the warden's little talk. yes, it was nice to know that the terrifying man who ran the place he was forced to live in cared about him. but he wasn't sure that the positive aspects of being in close quarters with eddy would ever outweigh the negative ones. being pushed around constantly was bad enough and now people were talking about him.

when he made it back to his bunk, brett crawled under his thin blanket and fell asleep.

;

"get up, inmate."

a loud voice and a strong push interrupted brett's troubled sleep. he sat up and squinted at the man in front of him, unable to make out any of his facial features. the blue blur of a uniform made it clear that it was a CO, but that was all brett could tell.

    "what?" he mumbled groggily.

    "it's dinner time. i'd suggest you walk quickly if you want to avoid everyone staring at you even more than they already will."

brett climbed out of his bed and fell in line with the other inmates shuffling along to the cafeteria. their eyes were burning holes in the back of his head, most of them making no attempt to hide their staring. it was getting to be more than an annoyance now; he was in danger.

anger at eddy and fear for his safety coursed through brett's veins. there was no way eddy didn't know what he was doing. his concern for brett wasn't enough to overshadow the severity of the situation he'd put him in. brett was furious, but what was he supposed to do? making another trip to the warden's office would only worsen things. he was just stuck.

no one spoke to him as he got his food and went to sit by himself. eating was not something at the top of agenda, especially not prison food, so he just sat quietly as he always did. there was no point in making friends in that place anyways. getting involved in the gang/clique aspect of prison was also not at the top of his agenda.

dinner went fine, but brett's stomach inevitably began growling on his walk back to his bunk. he plopped down on his bed and found a lump under his back. it made a familiar crackling sound when he sat on it.

brett pulled his blanket back to find a bag of chips with a note attached to it.

"you need to eat. -w"

he rolled his eyes and crumpled the note up, shoving it in his shallow pockets.

it wasn't that appreciate what eddy was trying to do for him. in any other situation, he would've found the attention from the taller man flattering and almost flirtatious. it wasn't worth it. people were already talking about him because of how small he was and now he had a relationship with the warden. it was a recipe for disaster.

brett ate the chips anyway, trying his best to be quiet. he dreaded someone yelling at him to shut up or asking him where he got them. saying they were from commissary wasn't really an option because anyone with a brain would know that his money couldn't have cleared yet.

no one asked. in fact, the other inmates didn't even give brett a second look as he chomped on the chips as quietly as he could manage in the quiet room. he threw them in his trash can when he was done and pulled the note from eddy back out of his pocket.

staring at the warden's messy handwriting was something to do, but it was not very time consuming. he pulled his blanket over his head and read the words scrawled across the paper over and over again, trying to connect them to a meaning.

why the hell was eddy so infatuated with him? he didn't do anything. all he did was come to prison and now the warden of the place was giving him attention. he wished he and eddy had met under different circumstances.

brett fell asleep clutching eddy's note in his hand.