Hierarchy

XII

August 2016

"Josiah used to always tell me how pretty I am," Bambi says and I smile as she looks down at the card she received.

It seems her family found a way to contact her without seeming like they were in on her extortion.

"Josiah your brother?" I ask and she nods her head. "Are you going to respond?"

She hesitates before shaking her head, "I can't. I don't know how it may implicate them. They're better off without hearing from me."

I hate that she constantly feels like a burden to her family when to be truthful, everything she did was so that they can be better off. "You know, they'll stop writing if you do that."

"Ethan doesn't stop writing to you. If they loved me enough, they will keep writing," she says, "And if they do stop writing, then it's okay. You're my family now."

I smile at her once more as she moves to keep the little card but I was able to see the name on the card, well the initials.

CJM

***

October 2018

"And can you believe she had the audacity to then put red paint in my locker?" I seethe on the phone to Bambi

"God, I wish you weren't on parole so you could beat her ass." she replies, "I know you're going to do something to make her pay."

I laugh a little, "I've already talked to Eddie and he's put me into contact with a private investigator. I know she has some skeletons in her closet and I'm going to get it."

"I'm out in two years, we can get both her and Paulett-"

the phone cut and I knew our time was done. I should go visit her in prison so I could actually have a longer conversation with her. Better yet, I should find her family so we can go together. I don't really have much to go off on except the fact that they don't have the same last name and her brother is called Josiah. I'll tell the PI to figure it out.

"What's going on with you and Quinton?" Ethan asks as he enters my room, without knocking by the way, with the house phone in his hands whilst covering the speaker

I want to laugh but he looks serious, "Nothing."

"So why is he on the phone now asking for you?" he questions gesturing to the phone in his hands.

"Cause he doesn't have my number?" I respond, offering my hand so he could put the phone in my hand.

He doesn't look happy, "If you're going to go out with any of those fools please let it be Caleb." He says before placing the phone in my hands and moved to leave but I stopped him and asked why "He's the only one I can trust to take care of you."

I give him a slow nod and he leaves the room. I raise the phone to my ear, "Why are you calling me?"

"Wow, very friendly." Quinton's voice rumbled through the speakerphone, "We just wanted to invite you out."

I glance at the time which showed 18:30, "Who's we?"

"Well right now there's only Caleb, Jude and I but Vivi is coming soon." he informs me, "We're at that Juice bar near school but we're gonna go catch a movie."

It baffles me that none of them have really mentioned what I went to jail for. They all seem to have glossed over it, even when I used it to threaten Kayla. It's like it's just a joke to them. Or maybe them being able to spend time with me before it all came out showed them that I'm not a dangerous person.

"You sure you want me there?" I question

"We want you here, Regina." Caleb's voice responded. Am I on speaker?

"Better you than the dumb dumb twins," Quinton says referring to Kayla and Paulette.

I groan, this means I have to get up and get ready, "Pre-warning, I'm not looking cute -"

"Just come," Caleb states and I roll my eyes, this guy is definitely talking a lot more now.

"Fine. I'll be there soon."

*

The first people that notice me are Jude and Vivian who are in the booth facing the door. Vivan smiles and waves causing the other two to turn and look at me.

I let out a breath before entering the bar and making my way over to them

"Finally, took you long enough," Quinton says as he shuffles down and I come and sit down next to him.

I ignored him, "What movie are we watching?"

"We're not watching a movie." Jude says and I frown, "We're going to stay here and talk. Get to know each other."

That doesn't make sense. They've been in the same school since freshman year. They know all about each other but they don't know about me. This must be their way of asking the questions they haven't asked yet.

Trying to keep cool and get all the information on what exactly 'getting to know each other' really means, "How are we gonna do that?"

Quinton puts down an empty bottle onto the table, "Spin the bottle."

"Isn't that a kissing game?" I reply whilst taking off my jacket, aware of Caleb's intense eyes on me.

"We're not kissing anyone. If the bottle lands on you, you answer a question." Quinton answers and proceeds to spin the bottle.

The bottle slows down and lands on Jude first, Vivian jumped to ask the question, "What's going on with you and Kayla?"

Everyone looked at Jude to answer and he just smirks a little, "You think Caleb is the only guy she wants?"

Answering a question with another question never answers the original question but he knows that and they seemed to accept it.

I wanted to say that it seems like she wants Caleb a little more but I decided against it. Clearly, since he's not giving a straight answer, there is something deeper than that going on.

Jude spins the bottle before anyone could say anything and it lands on Vivian and Quinton asks the question, "When are you going to give up and become my girlfriend?"

Vivian gives a coy little smile, "When you stop sleeping with anything that walks, I'll consider it."

"Come on, I can't be celibate when I'm not getting anything in return."

Vivian shrugs, "Then you don't deserve it." she spins the bottle and like in slow motion the bottle lands on me.

Jude shifts forward like this is what he's been waiting for. "Who's Bambi?"

This whole thing stinks. His little thing with Kayla means that he's on her side always. "My prisonmate," I reply vaguely

"Like your roommate?" Vivian asks and I nod my head, "Why do you call her Bambi?"

"I thought it was one question per spin," Caleb utters as he goes to spin the bottle which landed on him

"Kayla or Regina, looks-wise," Quinton asks and Caleb looks me up and down slowly

"Regina. always."

This confidence seemed to leap out of him in different situations and it made me giddy inside.

"He's only saying that cause I'm here and she's not," I say with a little smile and he shakes his head slightly before spinning the bottle again.

This thing must be biased since it landed on me again. Jude straightens up again, "Who did you kill?"

They looked at me as if wondering if I would really answer that and I'm shocked he asked me that but at the same time I knew something like that would come up.

"She not going to answer that." Caleb says and moves to spin the bottle but Jude stops him

"Come on, Caleb. It's part of the game. She knew what she was getting herself into."

"It's all good," I say Caleb who was engaged in a death stare with Jude. "His name was F-"

"Kicker?"