Ah, Wednesday. The day we get badly made pizza. I guess bad pizza is better than no pizza. Then again, I'd give anything for a slice of hot, pepperoni pizza. Only a few years and I can go to a real restaurant. A guard walked down the hall, stopping in front of my cell. He unlocked the door.

"Come out with your hands behind your back."

"Yes, sir."

I did as he was told. Then, I felt headcuffs snap shut around my wrists. He pulled me along by the chain.

"You got a visitor here."

"Who is it?"

"You'll see."

I was led down the hallway and into a small room. There was a table with my mom sitting at it. I was sat down at the table. A guard stood by the door to make sure nothing happened. My mom smiled at me.

"Hey, Chloe. How's it been?"

"Shitty. I've been stuck in jail."

"Well, David said he hopes you're doing okay. Max says she misses you."

"I wish she could come visit me."

"She has college. She's busy with her own life, now. You know Max really does care about you, but she's growing up."

"I'm not stupid. I know that Max has moved on. I'm happy for her."

"You are? Last time I checked, you didn't care about anyone else but yourself. Now you're over here telling me you're alright with Max moving on and going off the college?"

"Since I got here, I've had an awful long time to think about things. I've had a few people to talk to. I think I've changed a lot. I'm a different person now. I'm not as upset. I don't blame everyone else. It's okay for things to be my fault. I have to come to terms with that. I almost got you and David broken up. He made you happy, and I couldn't see that. I messed up my own life,"I said,"You coming here just reminds me of all the shit I fucked up."

"Chloe? What are you trying to say?"

"I don't think you should visit me anymore."

"What?! Why?"

"Look, mom. I was a nightmare when I lived with you. I don't understand why you'd want to put yourself back in that position. I know you think this is all your fault, but it isn't. This is all my fault. I fucked up my own life. You tried to help me, but I just wouldn't listen. I was a stupid teenager."

"I won't stop visiting you."

"I'll tell the guards not to let me visit you. They won't mind. That's less work for them to do. Just, please. Live your own life. Stop getting caught up in mine. I'm not your problem anymore." I gave her a smile. "Just be happy. Okay? For me?"

By now, she looked about ready to cry, but she nodded.

"Okay. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too. Love you."

She reached across the table and hugged me. I wish I could have hugged her back, but I was still handcuffed. If things had been different, I would have swung my arms around her and hugged her just as tightly as I did when I was younger. Instead, I rested my chin on her shoulder.

The guard led me out of my chair and back down the hallway. He uncuffed me when he arrived at my room and pushed me inside. For once, he wasn't so rough. When he pushed me, he didn't seem angry. It was almost like he felt bad for me. For once, I didn't care that someone felt bad for me.

"What was that about?"

Victoria. I almost forgot there was someone that talked to me. It's tought to get used to talking again after so long in solitude.

"My mom wanted to talk to me."

"She was here?"

"Yeah."

"How did it go?"

"I think it went okay. I told her to move on and stop visiting me."

"Oh."

I walked acoss my room and laid down on the matress. I looked up at the ceiling. I didn't really feel much like talking to Victoria. I felt a little bad, but I'd only been talking to her for a week or two. I didn't really feel like talking today. I decided to take a little nap for a while. Just to regain a little bit of my energy.

When I finally woke up, it was to two knocks on the wall. I knocked back, letting "Star" know I could talk. A few moments later, I saw a slip of paper appear through the crack in the wall.

Star: What was your childhood like?

Blue: What do you mean?

Star: Some say people that end up in jail had really messed up childhoods. How was yours?

Blue: I think it was pretty normal until my dad died. Then, lonliness and drugs became the new normal. Then, lots of shit went down a few years ago.

Star: I thought mine was pretty normal. I used to pretend I was from outer space. I'd tell everyone I was from a planet even farther away than Portland. Their eyes would widen because we were just kids, we didn't know how far away things were. I'd say things like "My home planet was way better than this place. We don't have nap time there."

Blue: And where is this mystical place?

Star: Okay so once you leave the Milky Way, you hang a right and go straight until you get to the Trest Galaxy. On the end of one of the spirals, there's a little planet called Illuna. That's where I'm from.

Blue: Wow, space girl. How far away is it?

Star: A few hundred light years, at least.

Blue: You don't say?

Star: It's just a guess. I used to tell people the mother ship was on the way to get me. If they were mean to me, the mother ship would take away all their crayons and they could never color again.

Blue: Oh my. How terrifying of a threat!

Star: Watch your back, Blue. The mother ship is gonna take away all your cookies AND your milk.

Blue: Oh no! Not the milk!

Star: What did you used to do when you were a kid?

Blue: Me and my best friend, Max, were pirates. We'd sail across the seas and steal everyone's cookies at snack time.

Star: I guess we're both cookie stealers. I didn't get in here for stealing, though.

Blue: Me neither. Dealing out drugs and killing a guy.

Star: Possession of "illegal substances," assault, destruction of public property, and resisting arrest.

Blue: Jesus fucking Christ. What did you destroy and why did you assault someone?

Star: Okay, first off. He started it, okay? How was I supposed to know he was a cop? He was like "Hey, pretty lady. Where you headed?" I think I said something along the lines of "Go to hell." Then, I punched him in the face. He pulled out a gun and I bolted. Along the way, I knocked over a bunch of stuff. I guess he called backup and they cut me off at the end of an alley. I would have gotten away if they wouldn't have shot me in the leg when I was climbing up the fire escape.

Blue: Oh my god. That's a great story. That guy deserved way more than a punch in the face, though. You should've ripped his eyes straight out of his head.

Star: EW!

Blue: Don't be a wuss. It'd be cool.

Star: Whatever.

I stopped replying, and I guess so did she. I went over to the door and looked through the tiny window. I saw a hand grasped around the bars on the other side and brown eyes staring back at me. If anything, Victoria looked tired. I guess not everyone can sleep well on a mattress on the floor.

"Yo, Tori."

"You've already made up a nickname for me?"

"Your name's too long."

She scoffed, but said nothing.

"What was your life like before all this?"I asked, letting go of the bars and leaning my back against the wall.

"I was a spoiled brat. I still am. Just a rich girl living in a town of poor people. I was practically famous at my highschool. I finally bagged a job as a photgrapher and I get caught with drugs."

"Seems like everyone around here was, as my step dad would say, 'toking up' while no one was looking."

"It's an easy way to get away from your problems."

"Maybe we were the problems."

I let myself slide down the wall until I'm sitting with my knees to my chest. It's a sad thought, really, but a true one. We made too many problems. We were unruly. We weren't fit to be with others, so they stuck us in here. Nobody wants to be kept away from the people they love, but maybe it's what's best for those people. God knows we aren't good for them. Before I was in here, I just made everyone's lives miserable. Max, Joyce, David, everyone. They're better off without me making them angry. Every conversation I ever had with David ended up with one of us shouting and both of us getting hurt.

"I think you're right,"Victoria said finally.

I briefly wondered what problems she made for people. Max once told me something about thinking before I say things. Asking Victoria what she did to make people hate her would probably make her hate me. That is, if she doesn't already. Then again, you can't really hate someone that much when they're the only person you can talk to for the next few years. That is, until the first of next month. Speaking of which, that was in a few days. Ah. A single day out of the month to see the sun. Wonderful.

"There was this... girl at school. I saw her at a party and she was making out with a bunch of guys. I wanted to stop her because I could tell she wasn't sober. I don't know what she was on, but she was on something. When you go to enough parties, you develop a kind of sixth sense for that sort of thing. I did the only thing I could think of doing and took a video of her. Then, I posted it on the internet."

Her words were choked out, like she was trying not to cry. If she was right next to me, I think I would have put an arm around her and let her cry on my shoulder. Sure, what she did was pretty shitty, but so far, it just seemed like a harmless prank.

"Honestly, I think I was just jealous. I've thought about it and it was jealousy. I wanted to be the one she was making out with. It's stupid, I know."

"It's definitely unexpected. Is that the end of the story or is there more?"

"Well, not exactly. The next day at school, everyone had watched it and we were all making fun of her. I started calling her awful names. I feel terrible about it now, but I think we all just wanted to fit in."

I think I vaguely remember a song telling people not to do that.

"So, it goes on for a while. The most common name was 'viral slut.' I was the one who started calling her that, really. It goes on until one day, she's standing on the roof of our dorm building. Max is up there trying to talk her down. Then, suddenly, she just steps off. Max has her hand reaching out after her. I feel really shitty, but I have a video of it. Well, I did until my phone was confiscated by the police."

It takes a fucked up person to bully someone to suicide. It takes a really fucked up person to video tape it. If I had put my arm around Victoria, I would have removed it by this point. I'd be staring down at her with cold eyes and she'd look up at me with tears streaming down her cheeks. I'd get up, mumble something and head off to clear my head. I don't have that luxury. Instead, I have to deal with the problem head on.

"That's really shitty, Victoria. Last time I checked, Max still beats herself up over not trying to save her and here you are video taping it? Why? What did that girl ever do to you?"I asked.

"I-"

"What horrible thing could she have done to you that would make you drive that poor girl to suicide?"

"W-"

"Surely, it must be a terrible crime for such a punishment, right? You've got to have a reason, right, Victoria?"

"..."

"I mean you wouldn't just do that for no reason, right?"

"You don't think I have these conversations with myself everyday? I do, you know. I feel real shitty about doing all that. Fuck."

She let out a sigh. I think she would have hit me with how tightly she gripped the bars of her window. A part of me knew how she felt. She probably was imagining the bars as her own throat. She just wanted to stop talking, but now she was spilling out all these deep feelings to someone else. Sure, I knew how that felt, but not the feeling of driving some girl to kill herself. Victoria was on her own in that category.

"I just don't know what to do. It's not like I can say sorry, now. One of the few people at my highschool that I thought was pretty cool hates me, another is dead because of me, and a few more want nothing to do with me."

"That sucks."

I sounded a little colder than I had wanted, and she seemed close to tears. I felt a little bad, of course. It wasn't like I wanted her to cry. She obviously knew what she did was wrong. I mean, who wouldn't? I think I might have put my arm around her if she was there. Against my better judgement, I would let her cry into my shirt as she began rambling on about anything else she wanted. I'd never seen her, but her voice was pretty enough. I kind of wanted to keep her talking just so I could hear her.

"Victoria?"

"Hm?"

"Are you okay?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think so."

She had released her grip on the bars and was moving away from the door. I felt a little bad for yelling at her.

"I'm sorry,"I said.

"It's okay. I deserved it. Nobody really yells at me. I mean, I'm Victoria Chase. Everyone is scared to talk to me like a normal person. Well, not you, but everyone else."

"We've both hit rock bottom. It's not my place to judge people. You seem nice enough. I didn't even know you were rich until now. Still, I don't really care. We're on the same level, here."

"I know. Maybe it's just karma."

I nodded. "Karma's a bitch sometimes."

"The people who do bad things will have those bad things come around in the end. Maybe this is the universe punishing me for all the shit I've done."

"Who else did you piss off?"

"Just about everyone at my school. You know those white bitches you see on TV that bully everyone else?"

"Oh shiiiiiiit. That's you, isn't it?"

"Pretty much. I was awful to everyone. I once threw Caulfield's phone in a swimming pool."

"Max told me about that. I thought it was pretty funny, but she was upset."

"Putting people down made me feel stronger than I actually was."

"Some people are like that."

"I didn't want to. It was just an instinct to be mean to people. I don't know."

"I was always an asshole to people so I could avoid getting close and actually developing feelings. I might be reverting to my old ways."

"You know what they say, old habits die hard."

"Yeah. I guess so."

I heard Victoria sigh from across the hall. "When do we get to go outside?"

"In a few days. I guess we'll get to see each other."

"I can't wait."

I talked to her for the next few days. Then, the day came when we would be let outside. We were handcuffed to a metal chain that a guard held. He led us into a closed off area with grass. A fifteen foot barbwire fence surrounded the yard. The sun felt warm against my skin. When we got outside, we were uncuffed and allowed to walk around. I stretched out onto the grass and let the sun hit my face. I decided to study the other prisoners.

"Chloe?"

I looked to the side. A girl with short, blonde hair was standing there. I knew this had to be Victoria. Who else have I been talking to besides Star. She doesn't even know my real name. She also wouldn't know what I looked like. Victoria was beautiful in a weird sense. She seemed to be one of those girls who could make anything look good. Her hair was messed up and she wore the prison uniform, but she was beautiful.

"How'd you know it was me?"

"There isn't anyone else with blue hair."

"You got me there."

"Mind if I sit here?"

"Sure."

She sat down next to me. We stared at each other for a long moment. I tried my best to burn the image of her into my head. I wanted to think she was doing the same. Then again, I'm not much to look at. Before I got locked up, I was a mess. I can only imagine what I must look like now.

"Hey, Tori?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you come here?"

"I'm right here."

"Closer."

She moved closer to me. I grabbed her by the shoulder and brought her into a hug. She tried to squirm out of my grip until I started laughing.

"I haven't showered in, like, a week. You don't want to hug me."

"I do, though."

"You're messed up, then."

Even though she protested, Victoria put an arm around me. With one hand, she messed with my hair. She rolled off of me and into the grass. She was laying on her side facing me. I copied her and propped myself up on my elbow.

"Whatever happens, we've got each other,"she said,"I may not have known you for a long time, but we've both shared so much about ourselves."

"Okay. Is there a point to this?"

"I was wondering if you want to, maybe, be my girlfriend?"

"That's a little quick, don't you think? Don't get me wrong, you're great. You're nice and pretty and smart, but I don't know if I'm ready for a relationship yet."

"It was just a thought."

"I'll think about it. I just need some time, okay?"

Victoria didn't look at me. Instead, she looked up at the sky and watched the clouds. I took her hand in mine and kissed one of her knuckles.

"Tori? It's not anything you did. I just need a little time is all. Can you wait for me?"

"We have a long time until we're out of here. Take all the time you need."

"Thanks."

"You always take what you have for granted until you don't have it anymore. I never used to look up at the sky and watch the clouds. I was always like 'it'll be there tomorrow. It's always there.' Now, I'm stuck in here with only one day out of the month to go outside."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"You're cute."

I stuck my tongue out. "Fuck you."

"No thanks."

"I wasn't offering."

"Sure you weren't."

I managed to get her to play basketball against me. With all my practice, I easily beat her. I decided to make things interesting and only use one arm. I still beat her.

"You're not very good at sports."

"Shut up!"

"Yes, your majesty."

"Ugh."

I spent the rest of my time outside teasing Victoria. It was so easy to get under her skin. If you said the right things or did the right things, she'd lose it. I may have told my mom to fuck off, but it ended up being a good day. I found out the girl across the hall is hella gay and in love with me (not to mention hot as hell). Who knows? Maybe I'll have a girlfriend by the time I get out of jail.

A lot of these chapters skip around. Honestly, it's kind of hard to write things that are interesting when nothing really happens in jail. Most of this story is going to be dialogue. That makes it really hard to write so not too quick of updates on this, I guess. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions and I'll try to get back as soon as I can.