The Prison Project (by Bethany Donaghy) novel Chapter 16

Margot’s POV

The second I saw Cara step back into the assembly room, it was like I could finally breathe again.

—

Her blonde hair was a little mussed from where she’d probably run her hands through it too many times, and her eyes scanned the room quickly landing on me with pinpoint accuracy. The moment she caught my expression, her brows tugged together in concern, and she hurried toward me without hesitation.

“Hey,” she said softly, reaching me like she’d been rushing back for miles. “You okay? You look like someone kicked your puppy and then ran it over.”

I opened my mouth, about to answer, but didn’t get the chance.

“Delilah Abbot, Jessie Wade, Samantha Collins… Heather Bowls, Leila Anderson, Erin Greening…!” The guards began calling out the names loudly from the doorway, clipboards in hand.

Three of the mint–green girls instantly turned toward the voices like it was the ice cream truck rolling down the street. The red head – Delilah, I guess squealed after they said her name and clutched the brunettes arm, bouncing in place. “Oh my God, that’s us!”

–

“Yesss, I can’t wait to hear what they have in store for us,” said the brunette, grinning like she’d just won the prisoner prize draw.

“You better hope your guys sound as hot as mine!” the blonde chimed in, fluffing her perfect curls and flicking her gaze toward me for half a second with a smug little smirk.

I quickly averted my eyes again, biting the inside of my cheek and cursing under my breath for being caught guiltily staring for the second time…

The group of girls didn’t say anything else to me, too swept up in their own excitement as three of them strutted out of the room like they were heading down a fashion runway instead of to a serious conversation about their futures.

The room seemed to breathe again as the door closed behind the next lot of girls, their shrill voices finally muffled by the distance.

I didn’t waste a second, I grabbed Cara’s wrist. “Come on,” I whispered, tugging her out of the corner I was currently sat in, moving us toward a quiet row of chairs near the back, where the remaining two mint- green girls couldn’t annoy us.

Once we sat, I let go of her arm and exhaled shakily, glancing sideways to make sure the mint–greens hadn’t thought tofollow me.

“What the hell happened there?” Cara asked, watching me with narrowed eyes, full of concern. “Why did that girl look at you like that?”

“They were just being awful,” I muttered, rubbing my palms against my thighs. “Those mint–green girls – they are like a fucking horny prison cult back there. They caught me staring at them while they were going on about one of their inmates like he was some hot celebrity.”

Cara blinked. “Wait, what? You’re telling me that even after hearing all of the details about how dangerous these guys are, that blonde was still excited about this shit? Either she’s missing a screw or she’s just putting on a front and deep down, is actually shitting her pants!”

“She was boasting about him Cara! Literally gushing over charges like aggravated assault and drug dealing. You’d think they were swapping prom stories. She went on to say that her guy had never felt a ‘real connection’ before like she was about to star in some twisted romance movie.” I grumble, bobbing my head to see her through the crowd – smiling and flipping her hair around obliviously.

Cara made a noise halfway between a scoff and a gag. “You’re kidding? That’s insane.”

“I guess they’re all in it for the early release though, right?” Cara adds, as I nod and sigh.

“It makes you wonder though, should some of these guys be getting the chance at freedom? We’ve only been given a brief on what they’ve done…” I mumble, as Cara nods along with my logic.

“All we can do is try our best to make it to the end of this for the money… fuck these guys… they need us in order to get out, right? If they killed us then they’d ruin their only chance.” Cara explains, filling my head with a bit of sense.

She’s right, they can’t exactly hurt us… but scare us, sure, but nothing physical…

“The worst part is, I forgot to ask his age… he could be an old man for all I know!” I state, my tone shifting as Cara snorts out a laugh.

“You didn’t ask?!” She repeats, as I move to run my hands down my face.

“He was throwing too much information at me! His age was the last thing on my mind after he showed me a photo of him towering over another unconscious inmate!” I recite the memory, as Cara’s eyes widen. “It wasn’t clear, so I couldn’t see what he looked like other than the fact he looked huge!” I added quickly, as Cara shakes her head.

There was no escaping these men now… they were officially ours for the duration of this project.

All we have to do now is learn to survive them.