Divas Prison Ch27
The random attacks continued. Not in any kind of pattern though. Some days it would happen, sometimes it would not. It was always behind a closed cell door and the guards continued to deny Paige's accusations. She did her best to defend herself and had made things a little easier by deflecting as many of McCool's shots as possible, but what was doing even more harm was the waiting during the day. Serving time had taken on a new meaning for Paige since she was transferred as all she did was find anything to help pass the time by herself. She was missing her friends from A block, a certain Irish girl in particular. Nobody in her new block had made any attempt to talk to her and Paige felt she had enough problems right now but hoped the chance to communicate with anyone other that a guard who just wanted to put her down and a supervisor who seems to live in a different world to the rest of humanity, would present itself.
It was many weeks into her time in the new block when the opportunity finally presented itself. Lana sat down opposite Paige with the self satisfied grin she always seemed to have plastered all over her face. "Now will you take a look at what I've found." Lana said, making no attempt to actually clarify her statement.
Paige sighed. "Fine, I'll bite. What have you found? I'm sure I'll regret asking."
"You really need to learn respect for your betters. We are here to help transform you from the criminal classes into decent people, like me. And I found something that's going to help you start." Lana put down the work application that Paige filled out when she was first imprisoned.
"Where did you find that?" Paige found herself at a loss. She'd assumed that was gone for good."
"In your prisoner file. I told you i had read it. I know all about you. It just so happens that there is now a gap that I think you could have the basic skills to fill and suits your place in this world just right."
Paige rolled her eyes, knowing that whatever this job was, it amused Lana enough to hold her in suspense. "You keep looking down at me, I just want to work and earn a little money to pass the time. I'll take what you've got."
"Excellent, you've been assigned to the block laundry detail. You start right now, Guard Strowman will escort you. Go."
Paige kept her feelings from the guards, she knew that laundry was seen by many as a job too good for the cockroaches but it was an income. It was low paying, even for a prison job, but it pays for the essentials. She certainly preferred to focus on the pay check than the reality of having to sort through other prisoners dirty clothes.
Strowman opened the door and glared at Paige until she went into the laundry room before locking the door behind her. The background noise wasn't too bad and the heat in the room was unpleasant, but none of that was a surprise. What was a surprise was the two other women working there. One was the blonde who she had seen have most of a lunch tray dumped over her on a regular basis, and the other, a much shorter blonde, was one of the women who was responsible for it. They weren't talking to each other but that had to be expected as the two clearly weren't friends. Paige hadn't had a lot of interaction with the prisoners on this wing so wasn't going to pass this chance up.
"Hi, so where should I start?" Paige asked.
The shorter one directed her to a pile of bags. "Get that load into the machines, don't lose track of what's where or we will be here forever."
Paige did as she was directed and got everything done as instructed, not that the job required a lot of thought. "Ok, that's done." She spotted a pile of,shirts and started to press them. "So my name is Paige, I've seen you both around before, it's good to meet you."
"Alexa." The shorter one said with a nod. "Glad you're here, this isn't a two person job and being stuck just me and her isn't helpful." The other woman didn't make any attempt to join the conversation, trying to hide herself behind anything she could.
"I had noticed that you don't seem to be friends." Paige then turned her attention to this other woman. "Hi, you don't need to hide from me, I don't intend to throw food at you. In fact, this may sound crazy, but have we met? I thought I might know you from somewhere?" Alexa started laughing hard at that question.
"Yeah, you probably do, she tries to hide from it but there's no mistaking her. There was a time where you couldn't turn on a tv without seeing her face."
"Oh that's it, Summer, Summer something you were on that sitcom for years, I watched it with my family, it was great." Paige smiled at finally realising what the link was. The praise did have a positive effect.
"I'm Summer Rae, thanks for the compliment." Paige shook her hand.
"Yeah, you can kiss her ass all you want, if you want to be a sad little groupie. A bit of advice for you, don't mention the 'D' word." Alexa scoffed at the two showing any sign of friendship.
"Oh god, please don't tell me the 'D' word is anything like what I'm thinking is it?" Paige didn't know whether to be intrigued or horrified.
"Not that D word, I wish it was. I meant daaaaaaance" Alexa sang the last word as she waltzed herself over the the next pile of clothes.
"I told you to stop that!" Summer screamed as she threw a sack at Alexa. She tried to charge her but Paige was in the way, catching her and holding her back.
"Oh I get it, you were on Dancing With The Stars weren't you. Hold on, didn't you come second? Only that football player beat you. Why does that make you so mad? There's no shame in coming second."
Summer ran her hands over her face and through her hair. "No it's not, I deserved to win though. It's just if I hadn't done that show, I would still be living in my beach house, instead of being here."
"Hold on, any second she's going to go on about how she shouldn't be here."
"Stop it!" Summer screamed again "I shouldn't! I can't take it in here! I don't belong in prison!" Paige grabbed Summer's arms to try and calm her down.
"You've got to slow yourself before you bring the screws on us and we all get in trouble. Ok?" Eventually Summer slowed her breathing and could talk normally again, although it quickly became more and more angry.
"If I hadn't met that bastard they put me with on that show. I hate him so much."
"What happened, you two looked so good together." Summer's face told Paige that whatever it was wasn't good."
Alexa couldn't help adding to her misery. "I thought you said you saw the show? You couldn't tell that they were sleeping together? Yeah, she got in loads of extra practice and wouldn't let little things like twisted ankles or maybe your partner being married get in the way. Life of the rich and famous. What a superstar."
Summer didn't look at Alexa, not attacking her this time. "I didn't know he was married at the time, I've told you this before. I never would have slept with him if I did. Then I wouldn't have fallen in love with him. Everything fell apart because of him."
"Are you serious? You're blaming everything on him?" Alexa's tone went from superior to disbelief.
Summer tried to focus on Paige as she spoke. "When I found out he was married, I lost it with him and we got into a fight. I was so mad I hit him with everything I had and I could find. I left him unconscious in his apartment and vowed never to see him again. Because I used a wrench from the kitchen, they called that a deadly weapon. I was all over the news again and the cops took me in. They said my celebrity wasn't going to save me and gave me four years. Just for losing my temper once. It's way too harsh, people get probation and community service for less. I'm dying in here. I can't live like this for much longer."
"Oh will you stop your moaning! Waah waah waah! You're pathetic! You had everything and could have had more. Everything I'd have killed for. I'm a loser, I lived on the streets, not that you care. I'm almost lucky to be locked up, because it means I'm not dead! I wanted to be you, have people love you, be a public marvel. Even your arrest was more loved by the public than the rest of us can dream!"
Paige was stunned by the way they spoke to each other, but just as stunned that they weren't. They clearly had gone at each other like this before. More than once would be her guess. "Stop this, whatever any of us did, we are all doing the exact same job right now. Summer, you'll get through this, somehow. I didn't think that way once, but I do now and I've got twice as much time to do as you do. Alexa, why judge yourself on her standard? We all did things we regret, but nobody loves the image of any person getting arrested. You're equal to her now so treat her the same." Summer appreciated Paige's words, but Alexa shook her head. "She's not on my level, or yours, or anyone's. If you think people didn't love seeing her get what she deserved, it was on live tv nationwide. When they announced her as the prime suspect on the news, the stupid bitch decided to run. The live car chase was covered by everyone with a camera and lasted so long they said afterwards it was one of the highest rated segments ever. I watched it and laughed my ass off. It was great footage too. When you crashed the car it looked like the cameras got there before the cops." Summer tried to focus on the task but it was clear she was reliving it as Alexa talked, unable to speak to either defend herself or stop the tirade.
Alexa continued, now really enjoying herself. "I tell you Miss Dancing Star, there was no grace in the way they pulled you out of the car through the window. The cameraman who got close enough to watch you struggle while they put you in handcuffs deserves an award. You really were a to star to the end, refusing to walk, making the police carry you to the cruiser and even taking the time for an interview when they put the microphone and camera in your face, I bet it's all got millions of views online since. Truly an Oscar worthy performance. Let's see if I can do it. "Noooo, you can't do this to me, I can't go to jail, let me go, please let me go! Noooo! Please don't take me to jail, this isn't fair!"
It sounded like Alexa had a lot more to say but Paige couldn't watch Summer fold into herself anymore. She wasn't over the memory of this and maybe she never would be. Paige put up her hand to Alexa. "That's enough, it's no wonder she feel like this if you treat her like this. That's enough. I'm not telling you to like her, but we are going to get on in here, OK?"
Alexa relented and went back to work. Paige left her to it and went to help Summer, who looked at her and mouthed "Thank you." Paige had her own smile for the rest of the work shift, feeling better that she might have somebody to talk to now.
Paige and Summer sat together to eat that night and again the next morning. Paige stayed away from the subjects Alexa brought up as much as possible, despite all the questions she wanted to ask. They didn't get any trouble from Alexa or anyone else as far as Paige saw and it gave Paige the opportunity to find out more about her cellmate and why she went through the abuse she did.
"Oh God, you're in the same cell as McCool? And she gave you those bruises?" Summer asked after breakfast, having to ask as Paige was sporting a new, bright purple bruise around her left eye that morning.
"Yeah, I don't know what's wrong with her, but sometimes she just decides to swing at me without me doing anything to her. I tried talking to her when we met and that was it."
"Why don't they do something, isn't it their job?" Summer asked.
"They don't believe it. They say she's on medication to keep her from doing it, or something like that anyway. You've been around her for longer than me. Have you ever seen anything that might help me?"
Summer shook her head, "I'm sorry, but we haven't really crossed paths. She's always been quiet and off on her own, and I'm just trying to stay out of trouble till my lawyers get me out of here."
"Come on, think, you must have seen something, anything. Look at me!" Paige was showing the first signs of desperation. Summer tried to think, not wanting to upset anyone else.
"The only people that she seems to have any kind of contact with are the guards. Especially the one who seems to be in charge of them, you know the weird...the weirder one."
Paige shivered a little. "Don't, he's not on this planet. But he did talk about her to me, saying that she needs to be treated with special care. He knew that she did this to me but he refused to accept it."
Summer shrugged. "Maybe that's it. Maybe there is something between them?"
"You don't mean? There's no way that there is anything like that going on, but it's something to go on, I'll have to keep an eye on them in some way."
"Keep an eye on who? You should learn to keep out of things that do not concern you. Then again, you continue to show that you make very bad choices." Paige groaned at the unmistakable accent coming from behind her. Lana walked to face them from the other side of the table. "And Miss Hollywood, you claim not to be like this scum, yet I find you talking to ...her." The distain in that last word rang in Paige's ears, but she tuned her mind out, fed up of the condescension.
"Why not? She's been nice to me, unlike you and everyone else." Summer said, although she wouldn't look Lana in the eye while she said it.
"You should just be careful around her. You might regret getting close to her. You might end up in the same situation as the last woman she was close to."
Paige snapped back into the conversation. "What does that mean?"
"I mean you are a dangerous person to know. Our celebrity guest here is desperate to get released, which may never happen if she gets close to you as well."
Paige's mind was now spinning. "Stop being like that for once. What are you talking about?"
Lana leaned over a little "Remember your last cellmate, it's been a few months so let me remind you. Orange hair, nice smile, a vice like hug that we nearly had to use tools to break up?"
"I know who she is!" Paige shouted, making a lot of people look her way. She lowered her voice when she realised. "Why are you talking about her like this?"
"I thought you'd have known by now, it's all over the guards room. Well I'm sorry to have to tell you this." Lana said with no sincerity whatsoever. "They rushed her to medical this morning. Found her on the floor of her cell. Suicide attempt. They saved her but she's a mess. Probably all your fault."
Paige felt numb, unable to believe what she'd heard.
A/N: Thank you for reading.
Although I'm about to lose a lot of my time, I hope to keep up a good writing/releasing schedule and if you read this, you're a reason why.
The recent reviews have been inspiring and I'm glad that people have enjoyed the Paige/Becky relationship. Obviously there have been some roadblocks for them but it's certainly not the end. Stay tuned...
