Page 51 of Caged In

Izz blinks at Sinj. How does the man know his name? The man is a walking talking art gallery on a model’s body, and apparently he’s a mind-reader as well?

Goes perfectly with the pale vamp in The Gang.Izz’s inner voice mutters inside his head.

He shakes his head to clear it out. Hopefully,he canrattle the loose wires back into place, get things working properly again. The tactic always worked on the television remote, so why not on his brain wires too.

He can’t help the speechless mute he has become. He’s never met this inmate before and they know things about him. His luck hasn’t been the greatest in here, another inmate knowing his name is worrying. He doesn’t want another Levis sniffing around him.

Izz must have stayed quiet for too long, as Sinj offers up an explanation, “Zid wouldn’t shut up about his newbest friend,with a weird name like him, and blah, blah, blah—the entire time we were stuck in The Hole.”

“Oh. . .” Is the only thing Izz can think of. His mind’s racing over mixed feelings with Zidie’s return—unsure if Zidie will be angry at him or forgive him.

Zidie is still calling him‘hisbest friend’,so it stands to reason Cupcake isn’t completely filled with hate towards him?

~~~

Sinj is an easy-going guy. Someone Izz could find himself becoming fast friends with. The red-head has a level of high energy and happy vibes to rival Zidie.

Izz joins the rest of The Gang as they wanderdown the corridors. He’s going back to his cell to use the toilet. Surrounded by The Gang, well protected and at ease. For the first time in a long time, he is at peace. A part of the group. Not a shunned outsider. He hasn’t looked at or spoken to David since the fight and the overheard conversation—but it’s not like they’d ever spoken before that. But now . . . yeah. He’s not doing it. He is not going to pretend that David isn’t an asshole. And he definitely isn’t going to be the guy’s friend.

“. . . you’re a paid companion, it’s not like they actually like you hanging around, they only like what you can do.”

Izz zones back into the conversation, unsure what Erik is talking about . . .Paid companion?Who?

“You’re just jealous I have skills and can walkinto whoever’s turfI want to.” Sinj cracks his knuckles, blowing a kiss towards Erik.

The red-heads reply does nothing to fill Izz in, he’s still confused. Who’s paying who? And for what? Is it a drug thing?

He can’t stand it, he has to ask, and Sinj is a stand-up guy—at least in the few hours since they met. He won’t mind Izz nosing into their conversation?

“Paid companion?”

Sinj smirks, bouncing his eyebrows at Izz—

It doesn’t so much dawn on him as slap him in the face with its reality check. He can feel his face literally erupting in heat, his blush hitting him so fast it’s liable to melt his face off. All the blood in his body must be in his face by now.

Sinj is an escort.

Hooker? Whore? He isn’t sure what they like to be called, or what will offend. He doesn’t have a problem with it, to each their own. He’s just never met one, let alone a guy one. In prison . . .

Everyone around Izz burst into hysterical laughter. His blush deepening by the second. How is his body still able to find bloodto push into his face, without him having a heart attack, or passing out? He’s sure his neck is flushed right along with the rest of him.

This is so embarrassing. I feel like a blushing virgin.

“I have wicked mad skills,” Sinj uses Izz’s words, mocking Izz’s voice from the previous conversation with Zidie.

Glad to see I amuse people. Izz tries to be annoyed about it. But he can’t help but feel joyous that he’s settling in with The Gang. Enough for them to be playfully teasing him—

Sinj destroys Izz’s composure completely—sticking his tongue out, and flicking it between two fingers—

Izz trips on nothing, stumbling a few steps before catching himself. Nearly face planting the prison floor.

Sinj has a split tongue—

It’s literallysplit down the middle. A snake’s forked tongue. Two separate pink-muscled pieces of flesh where there should only be one.

“How . . .” Izz squeaks, his eyes as wide as saucers.

“What? Never seen body mods’ before,” Sinj grins, enjoying every second of Izz’s shock.

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