Love or Money - Elizabeth Roderick Page 0,1

the hole for sure.”

“Psh,” Marissa said. “Cheney would have put us there too if you weren’t getting out tomorrow. Too much paperwork for no reason.” Her eyes lingered on Riel’s for a moment, and Riel’s heart twisted at the sadness in them. “I’m gonna miss you,” Marissa said.

Riel blinked back tears. “I’ll miss you too.” She tried to smile. “But you’ve only got another thirty-two months, and I’ll be waiting for you.”

Marissa’s lips twitched into a grim smirk. She looked away at the grey-green walls. “I know you will, baby.”

***

Riel had a hard time sleeping that night. She lay on her top bunk, listening to her roomie’s familiar snore. She’d been in this place fourteen months, which seemed like a lifetime. She was lucky she hadn’t gotten a longer sentence, considering the amount Isaias had her carrying when she was busted, but he’d gotten her a good lawyer.

It was hard to believe that this time tomorrow she’d be out in the wide world, able to eat and sleep whenever she wanted, go where she wanted. She thought of all the things she wanted to do on the outside—play her guitar, eat a huge plate of carnitas, get a pedicure, sit in the park. But when she thought of Marissa, her racing heart stumbled. And when she thought of what else was waiting for her out in the bricks, she realized that, other than the food and the pedicure, she didn’t really have much to look forward to. At least in prison she’d found someone to love, and someone to love her. Outside, there was only Isaias and friends who hadn’t even written to her.

Riel forced the pain from her mind. She had her sister, and she’d make new friends. Plus, she only had about two and a half years to wait for Marissa, and that wasn’t long, really.

She thought of the way Marissa looked when she was fucking her. The way her body moved. She thought about her tight, wet pussy, and how she would moan when Riel found her clit with her tongue. Riel’s fingers crept down inside her own panties, finding her clit and stroking it lightly. Her eyes closed, and she saw Marissa’s firm, round tits. She rubbed harder, arching her back, then slid the fingers of her other hand inside herself, thrusting them deep and hard until she came with a gasp.

The fantasy drained from her mind, leaving her to stare at the light from the hall, which splashed across the concrete ceiling. She felt empty and alone. Riel curled around her pillow and eventually drifted off to sleep.

She had a horrible dream in which they’d decided to not set her free. Instead, Isaias came to live with her in her cell. He insisted on having the top bunk, and covered the walls with posters of bald eagles, muscle cars, and vapid, naked women. When Riel tried to take them down, he caught her by the wrist and slammed her into the lockers.

Riel woke with a start as the overhead lights clicked on, the glare burning through her eyelids. Her thin mattress squeaked as she flopped over and pulled her pillow over her head, craving a few more minutes’ sleep before they called breakfast.

A jolt flew down her spine. This was the last time she’d be awoken by the dismal glare of fluorescent lights.

“It’s Riel’s last wakeup,” Nora sang gruffly from the bunk below. She pounded the bottom of Riel’s bunk with her heels, making the steel frame vibrate.

“Stop it, Nora!” Riel groaned.

Nora laughed. “Wake up, cutie pie, you’re going home!” She stopped kicking and lumbered out of her bunk with a groan. “Goddamn, I hope they don’t give me some stinky bitch for my next roomie. You’ve been real good to live with, and I’m going to miss you.”

Riel smiled, sitting up and stretching. “I’ll miss you too, Nora.”

Nora blew a raspberry as she went over to her locker. “Don’t waste time missing anything here. Go out and make yourself a new life. Be a good girl so you don’t have to come back to this shithole.”

Nora started singing “Ring of Fire” as she stripped down and put on fresh clothes. Riel couldn’t keep from glancing at the other woman’s tired rolls of dimpled flesh, her jiggling underarms and spider veins. Nora had been in this place for over twenty-seven years, serving a thirty-year sentence for armed robbery. In her early twenties, after her husband had died in a drunken car accident and left her