Monday.
"Yo, red. I need to ask a favor."
Nicki took a break from trying to master the art of making toilet wine, and turned to see Black Cindy in the doorway of her room. She let her eyes settle on her before the right corner of her mouth inched up into half of a smile.
"A favor, eh?" She stepped in her direction. "That's cool. Never been with a black chick before. I'm with it though, I got with three Latinas when I was on vacation for my 18th birthday, so in a way… I mean, that equals to one black girl."
"Shut yo white ass up. I need to trade you somethin'. Not no sexual favors; I was raised in God's house bitch that shit nasty."
Nicki threw her arms up defensively, exasperation with a teasing humor present in her eyes. "Alright, alright I was kidding. Let's calm our twerkin' booties down." She ran her hands through her untamed mane. "And this is isn't red, it's ombre. The stylish way of sayin' 'Fuck you, my roots are comin' in."
Black Cindy reached into her pockets and pulled out three small white jars. "Three things of cocoa butter." She reached out to Nicki, who took it hesitantly, trying to stay a step ahead of the joke that she was clearly trying to pull.
"And what am I supposed to do with this? I'm white. I don't get ashy. I got that Irish in me, I mean my cheeks get red when I drink but that doesn't get fixed with this." She looked down at the cocoa butter before meeting Cindy's gaze again. "Uh-face cheeks."
"I heard you stock up on cough syrup from commissary." She raised her eyebrows. "I need a bottle or two. We surprisin' Taystee with some sizzurp for her birthday Friday. But they don't let me use my credit for cough medicine anymo' cause of the shit that went down for her last birthday. Shit's racist, man. All white people are the same yo."
"Sizzurp, huh? Hoe this ain't punch, I'm sipping on sizzurp. I roll a fat joint and do my fingers like scissors." Nicki spit a line in her typical dragged out, effortless voice.
Black Cindy jumped up and let out an excited laugh. "Ohhhhhh, SHIT! Yo guys white girl got game! Y'all see that?!" She stomped out onto the halls, throwing her hands up at anyone that would share in her excitement. Red walked by, her thin lips pressed tightly together as she walked towards the kitchen, her old home. She stared at Cindy while she walked, and Nicki laughed and motioned for her to come back into the room.
"Listen sister, I'll help you. I like you Nubian women a lot better than the Taco Bell crew." Black Cindy clapped her fist to her palm and jumped up. Nicki reached into a box underneath her bed, which held ten tiny bottles of cough syrup. She took out three and kicked the box back out of sight. She handed them to Cindy, and then pulled them back before she was able to grab them. "I wanna come to the party though."
Black Cindy let out a chuckle. "Deal. Don't say nothing' though, I told you it's a surprise. Friday at 2 wiggah. In the TV room."
She grabbed her prize and turned and left the room. As she exited left, Morello came from the opposite direction, her gaze already peering into Nicki's room. Not knowing she would be standing directly in the room, she was startled and awkwardly averted her gaze. Nicki sighed. They hadn't had much to say since their big fight over her make believe wedding. Nicki wasn't big on going back and apologizing when she knew she was right, but she always had a soft spot for Morello. Or at least, as soft as she would allow her heart to get for another woman in prison.
"I'll let you massage my ass."
Morello stopped and looked at Nicki. A small smile creeped up on her face. For someone to say something so ridiculous, she was standing so calm and cool, her hands on her hips and her weight shifted on one leg as she waited for Morello to respond. "…What?"
"I have like a life time supply of cocoa butter. It's good for the skin. I'll let you massage my ass with it."
"Ohhhh, thank you, Nicki. That's really sweet. You would let me do that? For free?"
Nicki shrugged, her smirk never leaving her face. She put her leg up on the bed and leaned on her knee, her eyebrow cocked up in a promiscuous arch. "What can I say I'm a fuckin' saint." She threw the cocoa butter at Morello, whose slow instincts allowed her to catch right before it hit her in the face. "You in?"
"Awh Nicki I'm not in the mood for any ass touchin' what can I say. Feelin' kinda down lately, I don't know what's botherin' me."
Nicki hopped up on her bed and patted the area next to her. "You wana talk about it?" Her demeanor didn't seem particularly warm, but Morello knew that that was her "sympathetic voice."
"Na, you don't worry 'bout it. I'm tryin' this new thing where I keep my mouth shut." She gave her a small smile and threw the cocoa butter back at her. She lingered in the doorway for a bit before she turned to leave again.
"Hey-"
Morello looked at her.
Nicki struggled to find her words. "You know just because you're an idiot don't mean we can't be friends anymore. I mean you don't have to walk by my room like you're in a fuckin' haunted house." Morello let out a small chuckle. "Seriously, you look like a petrified 8 year old boy. A nerdy boy. With down syndrome."
Morello laughed. "What?! You're so crazy Nichols." She gazed deeply into her eyes, a mutual fire between the both of them drawing them closer. "You always made me laugh. And I know exactly what you're gettin' at. You're tryna apologize. For bein' rude t' me."
Nicki dramatically rolled her eyes. "Oh boo-hoo. I'm not apologizin. I'm just-I feel bad for that talk we had. I got regret, in a way. And I want us to make things right."
Morello squealed with laughter. "That's apologizing Nicki!"
"Well it's foreign to me."
Morello looked at her sympathetically, standing between her legs. She moved a piece of her hair out of her eyes and behind her ear. Nicki looked up at her touch, a mixture of sadness, compassion, and fear in her eyes. It was that look that made Morello melt at her feet. Tears brimmed in her eyes, and she smiled to keep them down. "Fuck," she muttered, laughing a little.
Nicki put her hands beneath Morello's rear, drawing her closer but not allowing her to kiss her. Morello often wondered what Nicki was like when she was in love-if she ever had been. She was tough but she allowed Morello to see her soft side. Surely that meant something.
Their ten second silence was ruined by Daya, who had just come from the kitchen. The morning sickness was starting, so Gloria allowed her to leave early, but not before giving her a five minute speech about how she was pregnant four different times and still worked at her two jobs and didn't believe in maternity leave or bed rest. "He trabajado todo el día y toda la noche," she told Daya sternly. "I'll let you go this once. But I don't want to hear it. After this you puke in the fregadero and move on like the rest of us hard working mothers. Got it?"
"Fregadero…fregadero…" Daya muttered to herself as she flipped through the Spanish-English dictionary she got from the library. She finally got to a page, and wrinkled her nose. "Sink? They want me to puke in the sink? Ay that's disgusting Gloria, sucia lady."
She looked up to see Nicki and Morello, who had now put some distance between each other. "Oh. Sorry ladies. Didn't mean to interrupt."
"It's cool. Hey can I ask you something?"
Daya looked at Nicki.
"Your name's Daya. Short for…Dayanara?"
"Yea, that's right."
"But Dayanara. Sounds like sionara. And that means goodbye. In Japanese. What do you have to say to that?"
Daya let out a laugh, enticed by Nicki's weird humor. "You're an idiot, whitey."
"Damn! That's like, the third white girl comment I got all day by you people." She looked at Daya and shook her head. "Won't you let me live?"
Daya smiled and laughed lightly, until a wave of nausea hit her and she felt her breakfast coming back up. "Excuse me," she muttered as she ran towards the bathroom. Nicki stood where she was, shaking her head. Everyone knew that Daya was pregnant, it was only a matter of who said it out loud. She always enjoyed a little prison drama, and she was excited to see the outcome of it all.
"I think my next girl should be Spanish."
Morello turned her head to Nicki, trying to hide her jealous rage. "…Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah. Not the one with child. But I need some culture in here. Nice cultured pussy, ya feel me?"
Morello kept her lips tightly pressed together, not saying a word. Nicki quickly picked up on how quickly her mood changed, and grinned from ear to ear. "Well. Good luck with that. But remember what happened in West Side Story. Tony and Maria fell in love but didn't make it because they came from two different worlds. And it just. Didn't. Work. Forbidden love. It won't work." She stormed out of the room and exited in the direction she came from.
Nicki watched her go, her expression barely changing. "Yeah, no shit."
Nicki walked into the dining hall, scanning the tables to see who she would sit with today. She preferred not to have a set group, although most of the time she ended up sitting with the white girls, or by herself, depending on how she was feeling. Suddenly she felt something push up against her right buttcheek. She turned around to swing, then realized it was Boo, holding Lil' Boo on her hindlegs and using her paw to smack Nicki's butt.
Nicki grinned and scratched Lil Boo's ears, then looked up at Boo. "What's the matter, too chicken to touch me yourself? Had to molest me through your dog?" She shook her head, and patted the dog on her head. "That's child abuse man."
"Oh, fuck off. Lil' Boo has a little lesbian in her. Look at her mama." She turned Lil' Boo around to face her and spoke in her annoying baby voice. "Who's mommy's little dyke? You're mommy's little dyke! Are you mommy's little dyke?" She laughed as the dog covered her in kisses. "Oh you're such a sweet little girl. My wittle baby waby!"
"Holy shit, get a room." Nicki turned and got on the dinner line behind Sophia. A loud ruckus arose from the other side of the cafeteria, where the black girls had clearly gotten excited about something and were celebrating by dancing on the tables and throwing food up in the air.
Sophia sucked her teeth and turned back around. "So tired of these children. Always making a scene. Making us black girls look like we all the same."
Nicki stared at her. "Yeah. 'Cause I've never seen you get up on a table and shake that plastic pussy in our faces before."
Sophia took a tray with an apple on it. "I'm just sick of the same old fools acting up in the cafeteria. Have some respect for yourself."
"Well I'm definitely with you on being tired of everyone. It's just like my old high school-I wish we could see a new face or two every once in a while."
"Well didn't you hear? Apparently tomorrow we're getting four new inmates. They'll be here in the morning. That should liven up the party a little." The Spanish girls dumped a spoonful of beans onto Sophia's tray, who took it and walked away.
Four new inmates, Nicki thought to herself. Please, give me someone sexy.
