Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
There was no staring up at the ceiling. No tossing and turning on the mat masquerading as a mattress. No counting down the days until Nora came for a visit. Nothing but thoughtless sleep while time melted off my sentence.
That was the main goal. Stay busy, try not to think, and sleep as much as allowed. Time passed faster that way.
Shower. Eat. Cut hair. Work out. Eat. Read. Sleep.
And that had been it. That had been my entire life since I was seventeen years old, minus a few months while I was working to complete my GED.
Now that I was free, I was standing in a bathroom, staring at myself in the mirror because I was so fucking bored and I had not one goddamn idea what to do.
I’d woken up before the sun.
I took a shower, not realizing until halfway through that I didn’t need to wear my shower shoes. I shaved with an actual razor that didn’t leave a red burn on my neck. I brushed my teeth with a toothbrush that hadn’t been snapped in half for fear someone would use the handle end to make a weapon. I walked around the room naked for a solid ten minutes, just to remember what it was like not to be surrounded by a roomful of other naked dudes. This led to some other naked activities when I remembered I wasn’t surrounded by a roomful of other naked dudes. This led to another shower, and when I got out, I sat on the bed and rubbed my toes in the carpet for twenty minutes.
After that, there was still no sign of life outside of my room. I knew this because, like a completely well-adjusted person, I put my ear to the door and didn’t hear any movement on the other side. I was too scared I’d run into Thea if I went out to check.
It was funny. I’d spent almost half my life surrounded by the biggest, baddest criminals the state of Georgia had been able to capture. Yet, I was terrified of a five-foot-five woman who for some asinine reason was still in love with me.
I couldn’t be around her. Not if I wanted to keep my head straight and my eye on the prize. I had three years before I got off parole. I needed to get a job, tuck away some cash, and, the second I was allowed to leave Georgia, get the fuck out of there. Maybe, if I was lucky, I’d be able to convince Nora to come with me. We didn’t have to go far. We could stay in the south if she wanted. South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee—there were schools everywhere. She wouldn’t have trouble finding a job. The hardest part would be convincing her to leave Thea.
However, maybe if she did, Thea would finally move on with her damn life and stop obsessing about me.
I’d known they lived together for a while. I didn’t want anything to do with Thea while I was locked up, but I was happy as hell Nora had someone to lean on. I had been under the impression that Nora had gotten her own place when she found out about my release. I had been under that impression because Nora had straight-up told me she was getting her own place after I’d declared there was no fucking way I was living with Thea.
Now, I was hiding in my room, waiting for Nora to wake up, open my door, and escort me to breakfast like a fucking bodyguard so I could avoid confrontation.
Next up in my efforts to kill time was a workout. Sit ups, push-ups, planks, running in place. This was when I realized Nora hadn’t bought me any deodorant.
Another shower.
Another naked lap around the bedroom, and this time, I managed to keep my hands off my cock.
Finally, I got dressed. This required me to pick through a bunch of preppy shit Nora had bought for me to find tattered jeans and a fitted green tee that clung to my chest like a damn glove. In my closet, I found a belt and a pair of distressed brown lace-up boots that maybe could have doubled as combat boots if the war was taking place on a runway. But what the hell did I know about style? I’d been wearing orange or puke beige for almost half my life.
When I was done with all of that and there was still no sign of Nora, I sat on the edge of the bed and decided to give the phone thing a try. I wasn’t totally out of the technology loop. We had computers at the library and we were allowed to use them if we earned the privileges. But they might as well have been dinosaurs compared to the phone she’d bought me. I couldn’t even get it to read my face with the fancy secret laser thing. I gave up trying pretty quickly.