Page 53 of Caged In

Choosing one of the chocolate bars, Izz ripsinto it. Munchingon the chocolate to keep his mind off the joint he desperately wants to light up—he has no lighter for one, and two, he needs somewhere private to smoke.

How is he going to find something to light it with? Will he have to rock-and-stick-it like a caveman—

Reni appears in the cell’s entrance, a frown scrunching his normally relaxed features.

Izz breaks off some chocolate to hand over.

“Nah, man, I’m good.”

He shrugs, stuffing the pieceinto his own mouth. His cellmate is still frowning at him weirdly . . .

“What? You’re killing my chocolate bliss,” Izz grumbles, devouring the last morsel. Ready to find another to eat.

“You might want to stop accepting these . . .gifts. You have no idea who they’re from. And things in here don’t come for free. There are prices attached to everything. Prices you may not want to owe people.”

Reni folds his arms over his chest, the way he doeswhen he’s displeased. Like it’s a protective barrier between him and whatever is threatening him mentally or emotionally. During a physical threat Izz had seen how Reni reacted, and it is in a defensive attack, not a cowardly timid retreat.

He isn’t sure what the big deal is. “It’s only chocolate. Lighten up.”

Izz watches his cellmate’s face change from an annoyed frown to intenserage—

“Where did you get that?” Reni jabs an accusing finger at Izz’s bed, “do not tell me it was left under your pillow.”

Izz doesn’t need to look at where his cellmate’s eyes are glued. He already knows. He’d stupidly left the joint out in the open. Foolish mistake. And after he’d been worrying where to smoke it so no one caught him—he leaves it lyingaround where anyone walking past could have spotted it.

Reni curses, dropping his arms down by his sides, “seriously, man. You are digging your grave deeper.”

“How? It’s been days and days.” Izz gesturesaround the room, like that’s supposed to mean something—what?—he has no idea, maybe that he’s still here in one piece and not dead? “Nothing has happened. You’re just jealous I have a secret admirer.”

Yes, he’s aware how stupid he sounds. But it is the only defence he can think of. And it absolutely sucks. He’s hopeless at handling these new situations he keeps finding himself in.

He needs to stop shorting out, like a defective fuse, and start defending himself. Especially if another attacklike the one in the kitchen takes place—he can’t avoid Levis forever. And his body would not cooperate, all it did was waste energy being scared and shaking uncontrollably. It doesn’t help him, and he would have been raped if that guard hadn’t stepped in.

“These gifts are getting bigger,” Reni mutters, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose in irritation.

Izz picks up the joint, raising a brow at the smallroll. It’s tiny compared to the chocolate bars, and other snack items.

“I’m talking about in value,” Reni snaps, as if he too can read minds like Sinj.

It’s freaky the way Sinj reads Izz’s body language and knows what he’s about to say before he says it—and Sinj has only been around him for what? An hour? Two hours?

Why can everyone read him like a book? Are his emotions that obvious?

Shit . . .

Reni has a point. The gifts are going higher in the price range. He’s now receiving—well, according to his cellmate’s claims—drugs.

He curses under his breath. Tucking the jointout of sight into the pocket of his prison-issue pants.

Out-of-sight out-of-mind.

He can live in denial a little longer. No point worrying about make-believe scenarios that have not come to pass. And may never happen.

Over the past weeks, nothing dreadful has happened to him as a result of taking and enjoying the gifts. He should be safe, shouldn’t he?

16

Izz walks to the showers, halfway through breakfast, as today is the day Reni and Zidie have to attend their anger management meeting during the meal. He’s not sure why the group runs at different times on different days. But its schedule is all over the place. Most often it’s held during the work periods, or the break before lunch. Though recently it’s been getting more and more out of whackand starting at very inconvenienttimes. For instance, halfway through a meal.

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