That Girl Is Poison (23 page)

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Authors: Tia Hines

BOOK: That Girl Is Poison
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“Well, tell your homegirl Tameka to come ask me herself.”
The girl smirked at me and then walked away.
Whatever. I don't have time for the bullshit.
I got comfortable on my bed as I watched homegirl go over to, I guess, Tameka's bed, and tell her what I said. She didn't come back over and say anything to me, so I wasn't worried. I just knew that these girls in here were already hatin'. They knew what the deal was though. Anyway, I lay my head down on my pillow and closed my eyes.
Deep into my sleep, I turned over because I got uncomfortable lying on my stomach. I lay flat on my back, and out of nowhere, I became a punching bag. Someone was pounding the shit out of me. I opened my eyes and I saw nothing. I tried to lift myself up, but somebody was holding me down.
I screamed for help, and the lights came on. Tameka, Ginger, and Torrey were standing over me. Security ran in, along with other staff, and grabbed a hold of the three girls. I guess they didn't like me. They got me good. If the supervisor didn't turn the lights on just now, then I probably would have caught a worse whupping.
One of the guards reached out to help me up, but I got up on my own and made a break for it to the bathroom. I was embarrassed. Everyone had awakened, and of course, they saw that I had just gotten my ass beat. The blood coming from my mouth was a dead giveaway.
I examined myself in the bathroom mirror. My lip was split down the middle, my eye was swollen, the inside of my mouth was bleeding, and I had welts and scratches all across my face. My shirt was torn too, and I had scratches on my chest and arms.
Chapter 26
My second night here and these girls got me on fear mode. I was trying to fight being scared, but it was impossible, knowing that I was going to be in this hellhole for a month. I took a good look again at myself in the mirror. Tears start to stream and sting the wounds on my face.
Embarrassed, I ran into a stall, sat on my ass, and balled up into a knot. I wanted out of this place. This was not the place for me.
Someone walked into the bathroom. “Honey, let me clean you up.”
I looked up to see the nurse standing in front of me. I put my head back down and started sobbing. She reached over and lifted me up. I was reluctant, but I let her take control.
As she cleaned me up, a staff member on duty, Gina, came in.
“Are you almost finished, Aileen?”
“Oh yeah, just a few more spots and she's done.”
“How you feeling, Jones?” Gina asked.
I didn't answer. She got closer to me and put her hand on my shoulder. I flinched.
“Jones, it's cool. I won't hurt you. I know you're a little shaken up, but don't let these girls get the best of you. You just got here.”
“I wanna leave.”
“You know that's not an option.”
“All done,” the nurse announced. She gathered her things and walked out of the bathroom.
I watched her leave, wishing she wasn't done just yet.
“You ready, Jones?”
I was mute.
“Jones, you can't sleep in here.”
“Then let me go home,” I whispered.
“Look, you need to suck it up. You were tough enough to get your ass in here, so toughen up to stick it out. Let's go!”
I got into one of my stubborn modes. I wasn't going anywhere.
She began to walk ahead of me, and I didn't follow. She looked back at me and noticed I wasn't behind her. “Let's go, Jones!” Gina yelled.
I didn't want to break the rules. I didn't, but I wanted to go home. My heart started to race. I wanted out of this place. I was about to pull a nutty. She walked toward me, and I sat down, determined not to go anywhere. She grabbed me by the arm.
“No, get off of me!” I screamed, resisting.
She gripped me tighter. “I was trying to be nice, but you one of them feisty ones. I gotta get down and dirty with you.” She forcefully lifted me to my feet.
“No, get . . . get off . . . I wanna go home. Just let me go home!”
“You need to calm down.”
“No! Get off me!” I yelled, kicking in the air.
“Not until you calm down.”
There was no calm muscle in my body. I tried to wild out to the point where she would let me go, but it didn't work. She gripped me tighter.
“Get off me! Let me go!”
She loosened up on her grip, and I broke free. I made a run for it, but got outside of the bathroom and ran into Alexis, another worker.
“Jones, calm down. You're not going anywhere.”
I tried to break free, but it was no use. She had me on lock.
Gina ran out behind me to find me hemmed up. “Thanks, Lex.”
“No problem.”
Next thing you know, I was being dragged from the bathroom, down the corridor to the black hole.
They threw me inside as if I was a dirty rag. My arms were screaming. They really manhandled me. My shoulder was feeling dislocated again, and my muscles were aching. I tried to soothe the pain, by massaging it and rotating it. It was working a little, but it wasn't completely doing the job.
I need to sleep it off.
I made my way to the twin-sized bed that had an aroma of piss. Disgusted, I tore the sheets off and just parked by the wall on the concrete floor. I balled up into a knot, lay my head in my chest, and closed my eyes, boohooing.
 
 
“Jones, you got breakfast,” someone yelled.
I lifted up my head out of my lap, and my neck ached. I noticed a light shining through the door. Then a tray of food came sliding under it.
I stood to my feet quickly, and my body felt like it was about to break into pieces. Sitting still for hours in a fetal position is no joke.
“Aw! Ouch!” My back was stiff, my legs sore, and my shoulders felt like I had been carrying stacks of bricks.
I waltzed over to the tasty-smelling tray of food. I picked the tray up to examine it closer, and it looked disgusting. The scrambled eggs with cheese looked dirty, as if it had been dropped on the floor a couple of times. The toast was burnt and hard as a rock. The one strip of bacon, my last bit of hope, looked raw. I threw the tray down and walked back over to my corner, where I sat down, pissed. I was starving, but I refused to eat that food, which meant I had to wait until lunchtime.
I tried to position myself comfortably, but my body wasn't allowing it. Every way I moved, my body was crying out for relief. I couldn't take it. I had to lie down on the bed. I walked over to the dump of a bed, and the piss whiff hit me strong. I put my nose inside my shirt and lay down. That didn't alleviate the stench all the way, but at least it wasn't as strong.
I laid down for, I didn't know how long, but all I knew was, I was up now and feeling a breeze. I was shivering in place, and then I heard this loud, roaring noise. I looked up at the ceiling and noticed the vents. I looked over at the blanket on the floor that I had tossed off the bed earlier. I was hesitant about wrapping it around me, but I was cold.
I got off the bed and picked it up off the floor. The stench on this thing was unbelievable. I thought I was going to pass out. I threw the blanket back down in disgust. I lay back down on the bed and curled up into a ball, trying not to inhale. The damn bed smelled just like the blanket. I needed that blanket though. I was cold as hell. It was already bad enough that I had to deal with this shithole. And now I had to be cold.
Tears streamed from my eyes as I got off the bed, exhaling through my mouth, and grabbed the blanket. I walked back over to the bed and lay down with the blanket. I cried as I inhaled double whiffs of piss.
 
 
I woke up when I heard the door open. I knew my eyes were red because I was feeling high from all this piss funk I was inhaling. I couldn't even smell it anymore.
I glanced at Gina walking over to me with lunch in her hand. I sat up on the bed.
“How's it going, Jones?” she asked, examining the room. “How was breakfast?” She laughed.
“I wasn't hungry.”
“I can see that. You were nice enough to let the floor get a taste too.”
I looked down at the floor where the food was.
Yeah, I did myself a job there.
“You hungry now?”
I looked up at the tray of food she had in her hand, trying to pick up an aroma, but my nose was so clogged with piss funk, I couldn't get a whiff.
“You don't have to answer, 'cause I know you are. I can see it in your face. I can hear your stomach barking for bits too,” she joked.
I watched as she held the tray at her waist. I glanced at the chicken fingers and the crispy French fries on the plate and reached out for the tray.
Gina took a step back. “Ah-ah, you know the rules. You can't eat the second meal until you eat the first.”
I looked at her puzzled. I had never heard that rule before. In fact, I didn't even think it was a rule. I thought she was making up her own shit now.
“Don't give me that I-didn't-know look. You need to eat your breakfast before you can eat this lunch.”
I looked down at the floor. “There's nothing to eat.”
“Oh, there's something to eat. You better get on your hands and knees and start chowing down, baby.”
“I'm not about to get on my hands and knees and eat that expired food. I'm going to stay right here and not move a lick.”
“I wasn't asking a question, I was giving an order.”
Before I could say or do anything, she put the tray on the bed next to me, snatched me off of the bed by my arm, and tossed me to the floor. I landed on my ass near scraps of the scrambled eggs.
“Pick it up and eat it!”
I refused. I didn't even care about lunch now.
“You better move. Pick up them eggs and eat them.”
When I didn't move, she smacked me on the back of my head, and my neck jerked forward out of control. I began to cry.
“Crying ain't gonna get you out of this. If you ever want to get out of here and have a decent meal and a decent night's sleep, then you better eat up. And I ain't got all day.”
About five minutes passed, and I remained seated. I was serious. I wasn't eating anything that had made face with the floor.
Gina got down on the floor in front of me and went bananas. She grabbed me by my hair, picked up the eggs, and shoved them in my mouth. I resisted as she kept trying to push loads of dirty eggs in my mouth. The bit that slipped in made me gag. Then it was vomit time.
As soon as the vomit fell, Gina pulled her hand back, let my hair go, and jumped to her feet. I stayed on my knees, coughing, feeling choked up.
Gina, all huffy and puffy, grabbed my good-looking lunch and tossed it to the floor. “Clean all this shit up! And if it ain't cleaned up in time for dinner, then you better get real used to this place,” she yelled, walking out the door.
I propped down on my butt and just sat there crying.
The door opened back up, and Gina wheeled in a mop and bucket. “And all that food better be gone when I come back in here. I don't mean mopped up either. If I see any food inside that water, you best believe that dinner will be out of the question. Oh yeah, and it will be another night in this shithole too.”
This is some bull. I'll be damned if I'm going to eat any bit of it. Wait, let me think about this again. I do want to get out of here. And she did seem pretty clear about it having to be cleaned up. I gotta do what I gotta do.
I cried and gagged as I went from spot to spot eating the food off the floor. I didn't vomit again, which was a good thing. Once I was done though, it was all she wrote. In a matter of minutes, chunks of food came hurling up. It splashed inside of the bucket.
Gina came in just in time to see me in action. She smiled then grabbed a hold of the bucket. “Let's go, Jones. You're out of here.”
I can't be out just like that? She didn't even check to see if I did what I was told. I'm mad at that. I tortured myself for nothing. What the hell?
I walked toward the door, wiping the corners of my mouth with my T-shirt. I was too ready for a shower and a mouth scrub.
Forget a meal. I wanna wash my ass.
“Go straight to the mess hall.”
“Can I shower first?”
Gina stared me down without answering.
I glanced at her and put my head down, knowing exactly what that look meant. I got to the mess hall, walked in, and all eyes were on me. I noticed everyone had been well into their meals, but I swear, forks went down when I walked in.
I ignored the stares and proceeded to get my food. I filled my plate with the remaining leftovers. I wasn't too hungry, but I needed to put a little something in my stomach. I slid my tray off the counter and turned around to a crowd of girls, who all looked like they had hate in their eyes for me.
I hesitantly walked down the aisle between the tables looking for a seat. There were a few seats available but not any that I had cause to sit at. I stood for a moment scoping out a seat, and then, just like that, dinner was over.
I made eye contact with one of the staff, who walked over to me.
“I know you just walked in,” she said. “But dinner is over. I'll give you five minutes to eat. Hurry up.”
I took the seat closest to me and picked at the burnt garlic bread, the dry, rubber chicken, and the sticky, overcooked rice. When I couldn't take any more of just staring at my plate, I threw it away and proceeded to the bunk area.
I gathered my things, preparing for a nice, cool shower. And, of course, falling asleep came with no sweat.
Tameka and her crew were out of the hole too, but I had no reason to be scared. The facility put a night guard on duty to sit in the bunk area, so no one had a chance to do anything.
My days at the center didn't get any better. If one group of girls wasn't tryin'a jump me, then another crew was. Their excuse was, I had an “eye problem.”
They're my eyes, and I can stare at whoever I want.
I didn't think there was any harm in that.

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