Chapter 20- Take One Last Breath

‘We call your people bleeders, the Workers call you self-injurers,’ Nadia explained. ‘Hey, James. Who were you running from earlier?’
James shook his head while opening his milk. ‘I cow-tipped the warden.’ He took a sip of his drink as Nadia and Kitty stared at him, baffled. ‘What? The b***h tried to give me electroshock therapy again so when she was trying to strap me down I shot up and pushed her fat a*s down.’
Nadia started laughing hysterically and Kitty grinned slightly. ‘Dude, you are so screwed. You’ll be put in the hot box for sure.’
James shrugged and took a bite of his pear. ‘Better than getting electrocuted,’ he replied then looked over a me. ‘Whose the new victim?’
Kitty spoke up, ‘Alice the Bleeder.’
I looked at all of them. ‘Why does everybody keep saying victim?’
‘Ugh, newbie’s,’ Nadia said bitterly. ‘Dumb asses. All of them.’ She rolled her eyes and started talking to Kitty about the horrible food while James explained.
‘You do know what victim means, right?’ he asked patiently; I nodded. ‘Okay, well obviously it’s not good being here. The Workers are horrible to us, the scientists study us like insects. How long are you here for?’
‘Until 8 hopefully.’
‘Yeah, well you better be on your best behavior cuz the White Coats will think up of anything to keep you here.’
‘White Coats?’
‘The scientists, they are the ones who watch you during evaluation. You seriously need to watch the Workers though, most of all. They’re bad news.’ I looked around and saw the Workers, people dressed in multi-colored clothing, sneering and glaring at the patients.
‘I have to get out of here tonight, I have a lot of stuff to do.’
I realized that Nadia had stopped talking to Kitty and they were both listening in to the conversation. ‘Rarely anyone gets out of here. Hell, Kitty and I have been here about 5 years. Nadia’s been here way longer.’ Nadia straightened at her name.
‘How long have you been here?’ I asked her.
‘Since my 9^th birthday, soooo about 9 years. When you turn 21 they send you to the Asylum, which is where James is going in a couple days. I turn 19 in seven months so I have awhile. To the Workers after you’re 18, you become a piece of meat. I swear, they’re the ones who should be patients. The sick b******s do whatever they please.’ I took this all in as a couple people in purple walked up to the table, one being the boy named Kyle that Nadia had introduced earlier. Nadia and James glared while Kitty looked back at her half finished grits. ‘Kyle.’
‘Nadia. How’s your temper?’
‘Flying colors. How your drug mule?’
‘In jail again.’
Nadia smirked, ‘Still mad about me yelling at you yesterday, Kyle?’ She tilted her head in mocked pity.
‘Excuse me b***h, but you also slapped me if you don’t remember, and the next time you do that I’m gonna kick your f*****g a*s.’ Nadia’s eyebrows rose and she stood up not six inches from him.
‘I don’t think I heard you right,’ she held her ear closer to his mouth. Then before he spoke again, she pushed him back into two of his friends. ‘If you call me a b***h again, you’ll be regretting you ever knew me. Now get your scrawny a*s out of here before I tell Mrs. Yakka about your stash.’ Kyle narrowed his eyes before storming off with his buddies.
I looked back at Nadia who was still glaring at them. When she looked back she had a smile on her face, ‘Now, love. Here’s some advice about the uniforms. Purple’s like to start s**t, Green’s are attention grabbers, and Black’s are bad news. They mainly keep to themselves so you don’t have to worry about it much.’ I took a bite of my apple as I looked around the auditorium.
While I was scanning, my eyes stopped at a Black. He was staring at me, not glaring or looking like I was food just staring like he was interested. He had black hair and piercings on his nose and lips, he had a tattoo on his arm of a Death Bat from A7X. His sharp grayish-blue eyes looked soft and gentle. There was a ghost of a smile on his face but I wasn’t sure.
I was still staring at him when Nadia waved in front of my face. ‘Earth to Alice. Who are you staring at?’ She looked in the direction that I was. ‘Oh, god. Are you serious? Wasn’t I just saying that the Black’s are dangerous? You don’t listen at all… Hello?’
I reluctantly turned towards her, ‘Hm?’ She did a face palm and Kitty sighed which I figured was a giggle for her. ‘What?’
James answered, ‘You were just staring at a Black, dear. That’s Nick.’
‘Nick.’ I said quietly and glanced back at him. He had gotten up to dump his tray, people giving him room as he walked.
Kitty spoke to Nadia, ‘She’s interested, Nadia.’
‘Yeah, I can tell, Kitty. Well, let her make her own mistakes… At least she’ll fit in perfectly with the crazies!’ Nadia said brightly. I half listened in and half watched Nick walk out of the auditorium outside.
‘Hey,’ I looked back at my new group. ‘What time is it?’ Kitty pointed at a clock on the wall above the cafeteria line. It was 8:43.
‘Oh, no no no no no. Don’t you think about it Alice. You are not going to follow him.’ I was about to get up but Nadia and James pulled me down. ‘Why don’t you hang out with us for awhile?’
I thought for a second before nodding, ‘I guess. What do you guys do for fun around here?’
Nadia laughed, ‘Well we’ll show you as soon as you’re done eating.’
I took one last bite of my apple and set it on my plate. ‘Done,’ I said, getting up to dump my tray. Nadia, Kitty and James looked at me.
‘You only took two bites of your apple,’ said James. I nodded wondering what he meant by that. ‘Is that all you’re going to eat?’
‘Yeah..? Is that bad?’
‘Well normal people tend to eat all of their food.’
I smiled, ‘Now if I was normal I wouldn’t be here, would I?’