Page 14 of Freshman

Alfie sighed slowly, stirred his straw in his coffee, then leaned over the table and showed Tia how a whisper should be done. “They’re rapists, murders, and violent criminals.”

Tia shrugged. “Doesn’t immediately mean they’re ugly, you know, physically. Their ugliness might just be on the inside. Their faces might be nice, and what else is there to do inside but work out… Some of them must be buff as hell.”

“I work the night shift, so I don’t actually see them.”

Tia smacked her lips together and slumped in her chair. “Voices then, do any of them have voices that make you go all tingly?”

As soon as the word tingly left her lips, Alfie dropped his gaze to the table and fought to contain the red pigment in his face. He couldn’t keep his reaction to Nate secret this time.

“Knew it,” Tia chirped before sucking on her straw. “You wouldn’t turn beetroot red unless one of them was hot.”

“Beetroot?” Alfie asked. “More purple than red, the kind of purple my face would go if one of them got out and strangled me like they say they will.”

“You might like a little breath play.”

“Tia!”

She sucked on her straw while giving him innocent eyes. Tia leaned back. “Sorry, I guess it must be kind of scary being around people like that. Do they…”

“They?”

“Shout out threats?”

In the space of a second, her voice had changed from joyous and energised to worried. Alfie hated having that effect, especially when he was lying. No one had threatened him since the first roll call.

He sighed and rubbed at his head. “No, they’re not so bad. But none of them are hot, so if you’re hoping for some prison pen pal, think again.”

Tia waved her hand. “No need, some really cute guy came in earlier and gave me his name.”

Alfie rolled his eyes. “It’s your job to take his name. You write it on the cups.”

Tia smiled, and her bright blue eyes sparkled. The complete opposite to Nate’s. She pushed herself back into her chair and dug her hand into her pocket. The crumped cup she retrieved had obviously been used. She wrestled to unfold it, then showed Alfie the scrawled letters and numbers.

“Chris, you have Chris’s number?”

She nodded. “You should have seen him. You would’ve thought he was attractive too, a pretty guy. I know guys don’t usually like being called pretty, but he was.”

Alfie bowed at the word and studied the last slosh of coffee in his cup. Pretty. He would’ve scoffed and grimaced at someone calling him pretty weeks ago, but when Nate said it, he blushed and shuffled about like a twelve-year-old.

“Red hair, freckles, a nose ring.” She sighed dreamily. “Do you think he has piercings anywhere else?”

“I don’t even know the guy.”

“I hope he does,” Tia said, ignoring him. “It’s a shame it would never work out between us.”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

She winced. “He is shorter than me.”

“So?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” she said, stirring her straw.

“Then explain it to me.”

“Heels, Alfie. I like to wear my heels, and I can’t wear them if I tower over him.”

Tia pouted.

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