*A/N: Hello Readers! This is an alternate universe oneshot where Chloe is writing a college entry essay and Red is stuck in a juvenile detention center. If you like this oneshot and would like it to turn into a story, please let me know. (I already have a few ideas flowing).
The loud alarm and clanging of metal gates overwhelmed Chloe. For a minute she wondered if she'd been trying too hard with this research project for her college entry essay. Sure, they wanted a fresh piece but even this was a bit of a reach for her. All the tables in the juvenile detention hall were empty…except one in the middle that sported a hardened girl with flame red hair and her arms crossed protectively over her chest. The guard escorted Chloe over to the table, even being so much of a gentleman he pulled out a chair for her. He loomed over by the door, making sure the encounter never got physical or violent.
"You have an hour," he said in a gruff voice.
"Oh, uh, okay," Chloe said, shocked at the unexpected harshness as she sat down in the metal chair. She set her notepad down on the table, making sure her pen never left her hand.
Chloe cleared her throat out of nervousness before she spoke, "Hi, I'm Chloe Charming and—"
"I don't need an introduction. I know who you are. What I don't know is why you're here," the redheaded girl said, cocking an eyebrow at Chloe.
"Oh, uh, I'm interviewing you for a research project," Chloe said, nervously tripping over her words.
Red scoffed at her, rolling her eyes, "So…I've been the topic of countless newspaper articles, YouTube videos, podcasts, and now a research project. Gotta say, that's a new one. Why should I even answer your questions anyway?"
"Because…it's for a good cause?" Chloe bit out anxiously. Her heart was starting to speed up in her chest.
Red let out a quiet laugh, and Chloe took in the view of the girl before her. Her red waves fell over her shoulders, and even though she was in a juvenile detention center, somehow she made them look well kept. The girl's right arm was sleeved in tattoos, a collage of playing cards and their suits, roses, dice, pocket watches. Her face was decorated with a gold hoop pierced through her nose, a gold barbell through her right eyebrow, and numerous ear piercings. Somehow even in the poorly-fitting pale blue uniform she looked attractive. Her body was muscular and athletic, and her lips weren't their typical bright red, instead they were tinted a lighter red color from a kool-aid packet she was able to buy on commissary and make a lip tint from. Perhaps if this were any other situation Chloe would feel flustered to be in the presence of someone so beautiful.
"Relax, princess," Red bit out with indignation, "I'm not gonna eat you alive…unless that's what you want." She said the last part with a wink, making Chloe's heart jump. Red noticed the effect she had on the princess and let out a crude laugh. "Okay, fine. What do you wanna know?"
"Uh, why don't we start with the easy parts? What are you doing time for?" Chloe asked as she chewed her lip, ready to write down whatever Red told her.
Red threw her head back before answering. "Well, if you'd done any research you'd already know that about me, wouldn't you?"
"I wanna hear it from your perspective," Chloe said.
"Fine, drug possession and distribution, drug paraphernalia, vandalism, grand theft, arson, theft and burglary, driving under the influence, unlawful possession of a firearm, assault of an officer, and last but not least," she air quoted the judge for this one, "disturbing the peace."
Chloe scribbled furiously on her notepad, trying to keep up with Red's words. "That's…that's quite a bit. When did this all start?" she asked once she was caught up with her writing.
"Well, the illegal shit started when I was fourteen, all the small shit started when I was little. Even bad attention is better than no attention—you already know about my mom, I'm sure."
Chloe did know, and Red was right, she had done her research. Extensive research at that. She wanted to be so well-versed in the redhead's case that she would be able to immediately call her on any lies she tried to sell. The Queen of Hearts was ruthless to her subjects, and that treatment extended to her daughter. From what Chloe could tell Red's childhood was laden with abuse—physical and psychological—neglect, and all kinds of mistreatment. How Auradon officials never intervened and removed Red from the situation confused and infuriated Chloe. It was a well-known fact, yet no one did anything to stop it, and now the victim was here serving jail time. Of course she didn't think Red was entirely innocent, but still, her mother had to be held to some kind of punishment.
"How did you get started in the…drug business," Chloe made sure to choose her words carefully. She knew the Princess of Wonderland could be a hothead at times.
Red let out a breath, "There was this guy, he made me feel special, like I meant something to him, and soon enough I was just a drug mule for him. Moving drugs between our vendors so they could distribute it further and we got our pay."
"What type of…drugs, did you help to…move?" Chloe asked, thinking about her words even more now.
"Cocaine mainly, sometimes heroin depending on the buyer," Red said, almost as if she were bored with the conversation. These had to be questions she'd already answered hundreds of times before already, Chloe thought. Chloe knew that people who did drugs, and especially those who sold drugs were bad, yet why did it feel as if she knew this girl for years when they'd only met five minutes ago? For some reason she felt…empathy for this girl. Chloe didn't just feel bad for her, no, she felt like she could suddenly understand why Red did the things she did. She felt like this girl wasn't some hardened criminal, just someone who was horribly misunderstood, and severely mistreated. She had just gotten caught up in the wrong crowd, that's all.
"Who was this guy?" Chloe asked, throwing caution to the wind. She didn't know what type of reaction Red would have to the question, but she hoped it wasn't a violent one.
"My childhood best friend," Red said, almost wistfully. It was as if she were remembering a memory of baking cookies instead of thinking of the man who single-handedly ruined her life. "He was everything to me, and then he ruined me. He took what was beautiful, what we had together, and he crushed it with his bare fucking hands once he started with the drugs. And in the end he sold me out to save his ass. He ratted on me so he could have a lighter sentence. Fucker got probation until he's eighteen and I'm serving time in juvenile detention." The last sentence came out full of hate, the rage starting to burn in her eyes.
"How does that make you feel?" Chloe asked gently, almost as if she knew she were walking on thin ice.
Red's eyes turned immediately to the other girl's face, "Listen here, princesa, you're not my fucking shrink, so don't expect feelings from me, you wanted answers, so that's what you'll get. Nothing else."
Chloe swallowed down a ball of fear, "Okay, I crossed a line. I'm sorry."
"You better be," Red bit out, crossing her arms again and leaning back in her chair. "You forget, I don't have anything to lose in here. What are they gonna do, throw me in solitary?" She let out a bitter laugh. "They got three days before I'm released back into the real world as an adult because I'll be eighteen. I've gone a month in the hole, I think three days will go by just fine."
Chloe's heart thrummed wildly in her chest. "What was it like the night you were arrested?"
"Fun," Red said ironically. "Although you probably wanna hear my own story about it, don't you?" Red sighed before beginning her story. "Me and my…friend—I had just turned fifteen like a week before and that night we had just gotten back from delivering a huge stash of coke and we were celebrating with our own drugs. Feds caught me with his dick down my throat, only fitting since he fucked me over in the end, I guess. At least he got to come one last time before being put on house arrest for the rest of his teenage life." Red let out a curt laugh while Chloe fought back bitter tears. "I guess someone saw this motorcycle I stole on the side of the house and called it in to the police. Other than that I don't remember much of that night, it must've slipped my mind between the cocaine and the alcohol. That was the night I really realized I had to quit the drugs, but not for myself."
"That was…awfully graphic," Chloe said, feeling her stomach start to grow nauseous.
Red scoffed. "What, the truth too hard for you to hear princesa? Not everybody is so lucky to grow up with a silver pacifier in their mouth. You have the perfect little life, at the end of the day who gets to leave here, hm? Because I don't think it's me. And I can already hear your judgy thoughts about me and my life, so keep it to yourself, puta, because I already know how badly I fucked up, I don't need to hear it come from Princess Goody-Two-Shoes over here."
"I don't want to judge you. I want to know your story, from you. Otherwise I just would've googled about you and used that," Chloe said, her eyes gleaming with tears from Red's rapid-fire of insults.
"Lucky me," Red said, ironic.
"What was it like?" Chloe asked. "The…drugs, I mean."
Red sighed as if she were remembering the best day of her life, "Fuck, it felt good. It made me forget about my shitty life for a little bit before I passed out for hours after. The highs were…really fucking high. And God, it made the sex even better. Shit, his dick was good sober, but when we were high it was even better."
"Okay, um, I don't need all those details," Chloe said, growing uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.
Red cocked an eyebrow at the other girl, "What? You never had a good polla inside you?"
"Uh, I don't…" Chloe didn't know why she was explaining herself to a prisoner, much less this specific prisoner. "I don't like men."
"Ah," Red said, knowingly. "You never had good pussy then? I'm sure you understand."
"Uh, no, I don't," Chloe said, her face flushing a shade of red.
Red let out a dry laugh, "Oh, so you really are little miss perfect then, aren't you? You must be waiting until marriage, but that marriage won't be to a woman like you want, will it? Instead your daddy will marry you off the first chance he gets to have a stronger kingdom while your blonde sex-toy of a brother takes over the family kingdom, no?" Red's words struck a nerve in Chloe, and she felt her anger boiling in her veins.
"Don't ever talk about my family," Chloe bit out between her teeth.
"Oh, and yet you never said I was wrong?" Red mocked. "Because I wasn't wrong, now was I? Tell me, Princess Blueberry, was I wrong or was I right?"
Chloe felt a single tear fall from her cheek before rapidly wiping it away. "You're right."
Red scoffed, tapping the side of her forehead with her first two fingers, "I may be incarcerated but I know how you royals play dirty, it's just that you guys don't get caught."
"We aren't drug dealers," Chloe bit out before thinking of her words.
"Look bitch," Red said, leaning forward so she could be closer to the trembling girl in front of her. "You will never understand my life, or why I made the choices I did no matter how many questions you ask me. You will never understand the guilt I feel every day I wake up here instead of out there like the rest of you sad little fuckers. You will never understand what it feels like to know that my daughter didn't have me for the first two years of her life."
A look of horror crossed Red's face as she realized what she'd said, and even more so when she'd realized who she had said it to. Chloe's face was one of shock, and then curiosity.
"You—You have a daughter?" Chloe asked gently. She hadn't read that anywhere, and she was sure that bit of information would make her essay stand out against other news articles about Red. But another part of her wanted to know more not for the publicity of it all, but because she cared.
"Fuck," Red breathed out. "I swear to God if you tell so much as one other soul about that I'll have your head on a spike outside of my window like a fucking cake pop, you hear me?"
Chloe swallowed back the lump of fear in her throat, "I won't," she said. "How did you find out?" Chloe asked quietly.
Red seemed to be in a trance now, remembering about her young daughter, "The night I was arrested. They run drug tests at intake in the jail, and if you're a girl you get a pregnancy test thrown in the mix, and mine just happened to pop positive. I don't know how long it would've taken me to figure it out on my own. I just thought the throwing up was from the come-downs of my highs."
"Were you clean afterwards? Like the rest of your pregnancy?" Chloe asked, trying to be considerate of the other girls' feelings while still finding the answers she desperately wanted.
Red scoffed, "Yeah, even if I didn't want to be, I was clean. I knew better than to use when it was someone else's life at stake. And besides, I was in jail waiting to be sentenced. I mean yeah there were drugs in jail but still, I wasn't gonna use when it was gonna affect someone else, especially someone who didn't have a choice. It was still early when I found out, so I stopped using pretty early on, but I still feel guilty for that little bit in the beginning…"
Red trailed off, and this time it was her turn for a tear to fall down her cheek. The air suddenly felt heavy between the girls. Chloe felt her heart sink, and she couldn't help but feel hurt for the girl.
"Where…What?" Chloe started, but none of her sentences turned into full questions.
"Shut up, and I'll tell you what you wanna hear," Red said, but her tone wasn't angry, instead it was sad, like she was reminiscing. "By the time I was due with her, I had already been here for over six months and they kept me in PC—protective custody—because of my title as princess and the fact that I had a baby in me. They kept me here almost the whole time I was in labor, I was damn near pushing the baby out when they took me to the hospital." Red let out a dry laugh. Chloe's mouth was agape, shock evident on her face. "They let me keep her here with me until she was six months old, and then she went to live with my mom. Hardest fucking day of my life right there. But it's surprising, right? Especially considering the fact that she fucked up rasing me."
"Where is she now? Does her…dad know about her?" Chloe asked gently.
"She's still with my mom but my grandma takes care of her. After having me and seeing how I turned out, my mom decided she didn't want anything to do with raising a kid, so my Nana stepped in and she's much better of a parent then my mother ever was. And no, he doesn't know, and I'd prefer to keep it that way, so don't go blabbing to him. Not that I think you ever associate yourself with people like him. Or that I'd ever even tell you who her dad is anyway. Although it probably isn't hard to figure out who my associate was."
"Do you ever get to see her?" Chloe asked.
"Yeah, I get to see her every Saturday—that's our visitation day in here—and I got a bunch of pictures my Nana sent to me in my bunk." Red smiled as she thought of her daughter.
"Do you wanna talk about her?" Chloe asked, smiling gently at the girl across from her.
"Yeah, I do, but only if you don't say shit to anybody," Red said.
"I won't," Chloe answered quickly.
"She's a beautiful little girl. God, she loves to play. Shit she plays more at this age than I ever did my whole life. Two years old, about to be three soon. She's everything I live for, and the only reason I'm not going back to my old ways when I get out of here in a few days. She's got these dark brown curls that are just so adorable, and her eyes, God, my Nana says they're mine but I don't see it."
"You really love her, don't you?" Chloe said, smiling.
"Yeah, I do, and I'm gonna do better for her. I really hope for your sake you don't blab, I'd hate to have to kill you." Chloe's face paled at Red's words before she laughed in her face. "Relax, I'm not gonna kill you. If I killed you it would mean I was like my mother, and I'd rather kill myself than end up like her."
"You're not like her," Chloe said.
"You say that like you know me, but in actuality you've known me for forty-five minutes, and yet somehow you've managed to figure out more about me than any other flashy news reporter. You act like you know me but you don't. You don't know shit about me or my life," Red bit out. "You sit here and act like you've never made a goddamn mistake in your life, but let me tell you something, sweetheart, you're not perfect, and you never will be. All you are is a fraud, you're just a show-pony that other people see right through. You parade around with your hoity-toity ass acting like you're better than everyone else, so let me humble you real fast, because you, you're nothing."
The words were a slap in the face to Chloe, and she had to bite her lip to stop from hurling insults at the redhead before her.
"Alright, inmate, simmer down," the guard growled from by the door before he turned his attention to Chloe. "Your time is up, Your Highness."
"Uh, thanks," Chloe said as she gathered up her pen and notepad as another guard waltzed in, slapping a pair of cuffs on the redhead before taking her away, leaving Chloe with the clang of cold metal gates and empty air.