All the inmates were filing inside. I was having a conversation with Michael and Sucre, but broke off to find Abruzzi. I hadn't talked to him recently, since he threatened me, and I needed to catch up. I stopped midway when I noticed Seth on one of the top cell rows. It confused me because he celled with Tbag on the bottom. I then noticed that he had sheets tied together and they were tied around his neck. I figured it out and tried to approach him quickly.

"Seth," I muttered, but it was too late.

He jumped and I screamed at seeing the sight. I lost consciousness shortly after. I woke up and a was lying on my bunk. I shot up immediately and looked around. Abruzzi was watching me. He moved over to me when I sat up.

"What happened?"

"You fainted right in front of Tbag's cell. I had to rescue you from him trying to take care of you," explained Abruzzi.

I shivered at the thought of being in Tbag's care, but Abruzzi didn't answer my question. I wanted to know about Seth. He was trying to figure out the best way to discuss it.

"He's gone Laney. There was nothing we could do."

A stray tear escaped from my eye. Why was I even crying? He was an inmate and I didn't even know him, but I still felt guilty. Abruzzi reached over and stroked the tear off of my face.

"He asked me for help," I whispered, "he needed help and I didn't do anything."

"What is it with you and Michael feeling guilty over the kid? It wasn't your fault, it wasn't anyone's but Tbag's."

I shook my head, but I still felt guilty. I could have told the warden or one of the guards, but I didn't do anything. I let Tbag kill somebody else. Abruzzi could sense that I was still upset so he offered to take me outside for some fresh air. I shook my head, but told him to go ahead. He nodded and left me alone. I let a few more tears fall before someone else entered my cell.

"What's gotcha down, snowflake?" asked C-note.

He asked, but he already knew the answer. Most of the inmates were inside when it happened and they could hear my scream. He told me that everything would be ok, and it wasn't my fault, but I just tuned him out. I had a feeling he came in here to talk about something else.

"What does Bellick have you doing in that break room?" he asked.

His question threw me off guard, and I had to pause for a minute to make sure I answered carefully. I told him we just had to fix up the room since in burned down.

"So what is with everyone dumping these?" he held out one of the rocks from the floor.

C-note was dangerously close to making a discovery. If he kept digging around for answers, he was going to find some.

"It's just some left over debris from the construction," I lied.

"You're a terrible liar," he joked.

I smiled at him to confirm it. I may be a bad liar but that didn't mean I had to confess to him. He just laughed at me again and left the cell. I exhaled a giant breath that I had been holding. Tbag and Abruzzi would both kill me if C-note had figured out about the escape. I decided that before I did any more damage, I should go outside.

Most of the new inmates were outside. Some were true tough guys who were fitting in right away, some guys were acting tough, and some were just downright scared. I saw that cute one still strutting his stuff around the yard. It kind of made me laugh because he was acting how he thought inmates were supposed to act. The poor kid was going to get himself killed! Mistake number one how he was acting. Mistake number two was the fact that he was trying to be friend the black guys. They wouldn't accept him and the white guys would be mad at him for trying. I kept walking and moved right past Tbag and his followers. I heard him joking around.

"The kid is just a Tweener," he laughed.

I made my presence known and stormed away. He called after me but I just ignored him. He caught up to me.

"Laneykins did you get up on the wrong side of the bed," he teased.

I wanted to walk away, but he would only follow me. However, I was in no mood to talk to him after what happened with Seth.

"I do not want to talk to you," I spat.

I started walking again and he didn't follow me. I didn't even know where I wanted to go, just somewhere. I spotted Abruzzi dumping some more rocks across the yard. I started to approach him, but Bellick called out his name. I watched their conversation and John didn't look to happy. He stormed off and went immediately to the phones. I don't know who he was talking to, but I wouldn't want to be on the other line. I figured that I would talk to him about it later. We had to get back to work in the break room, and the guys were just hammering away. My mind kept drifting back to Seth. Why didn't I help him? What was it about Tbag that made me freeze up around him all the time? All Seth wanted was a friend he could talk to or to help him out, and he felt alone. I made him feel alone. I promised myself that I would not let another inmate end up like Seth.

Sucre came bolting into the room and told us one of the guards was coming. We barely had enough time to cover the hole before he came charging through.

"Get out cons," he demanded.

We questioned why he wanted us to leave, but he only yelled at us to get out. The guys did what they were told and were so angry and confused they didn't see the real reason. I laughed to myself as the guard told us to go around the corner and not move a muscle until he comes and gets us. We were all standing around the corner and the guys were nervous he knew something was up. I was tired of their whining.

"Guys do you want to know why he asked us to come out here?"

They all turned to look at me and they gathered around me. I took their attentiveness as a yes.

"You didn't see the secretary standing in the corner. I think they were meeting for some afternoon delight," I laughed.

They all looked at me like I was crazy. I told them that they didn't have to believe me, but I know what I saw. Sure enough, a few minutes later the guard and the secretary came sneakily out of the room. The guys looked in disbelief and I sang a little "I told you so" song. They stormed back into the break room, and saw that they did their thing on the table. One more scoot and they could have discovered the hole. Michael assessed that they needed to find something to cover up the hole with when they weren't digging. We all left the room, and Abruzzi had a visitor waiting for him. He looked nervous and I wondered if it had something to do with his phone conversation. I got separated from the rest of the guys in Gen Pop and was standing next to the entrance.

I saw that new kid walking around and he tried talking to another inmate. I don't know what he could have said, but the other guy didn't look to happy. I started to walk over there so I could save the kid from doing any more damage. The other guy didn't wait for me and punched the kid right in the arm. He fell and bashed his knee on the floor. I hurried over and stopped the guy from killing him right there. I knelt down onto both my knees and touched the kid on his shoulder.

"Are you all right?" I asked sweetly.

He was staring down at the floor holding his knee. When he looked up at me I gasped for breath. A surge of heat went through me and I felt my face flush. I immediately had to look down. When I looked back up he was still looking at me. More like he was staring at me for a moment. The initial shock of seeing a woman in a men's prison always took a few minutes. He then nodded his head at me. I helped him to his feet and he said he would walk me to my cell. I blushed again.

"I'm Laney by the way," I said trying to break the uncomfortable silence.

"David Apolskis."

I smiled and said it was nice to meet him. We reached my cell and I took a seat on my bunk, but David continued to stand.

"I guess prison won't be so bad if they have sweet thangs in here like you," he said.

I stared at him for a minute trying to figure out if he just gave me a compliment. He smiled and told me he would see me around and left. I was left sitting on my bunk completely captivated by this stranger. I thought that I had an attraction to Michael, but nothing with Michael ever felt the way it did when I just made eye contact with David. It even pained me a little when he left. I laid back on my bunk and smiled. I couldn't wait for my next interaction with David Apolskis.