“Landry Everton, the jury has found you guilty of breaking and entering, and theft, you will serve out a fifty year sentence in prison.”

My heart dropped, no, this could not be happening. I looked helplessly at my lawyer, his head sunk into his hands. The room started spinning, my hands trembling with the realization of what was happening to me.

“Look Lan, I get that you’re trying to help me but I don’t need it.”

I shook my head, “No, Casey, you do need my help. How are you going to face your parents when they find out about this?”

“They don’t have to find out.”

“Case you know that I always have your back, but this, this is crossing the line.”

She huffed, “It won’t hurt them if they don’t know.”

The guards that had been hovering over me like they were fruit flies and I was a piece of pineapple, grabbed my arms and pulled me to my feet. My screams echoed off the walls as I was dragged away. My orange jumpsuit rubbed tightly on my arms, making my skin crawl. Hot tears slipped from beneath my clamped shut eyelids, making me shiver as the cool air turned them frigid. I was thrown into a holding cell, quite literally, thrown.

Stumbling forward, I sniffed and rubbed my eyes, the cell was perfectly empty, bland to the t. It struck me that I would be in a cell probably very similar to this one when I was transferred to actual prison. I couldn’t believe that this was how my life had turned out, alone, afraid, and trapped in an unforgiving place. My life had been perfect up until this point, good job, on the honor roll, an amazing best friend. Until everything, until my life had spiraled out of control.

“Casey, what are you doing?”

She turned around, her mouth falling open into a wide ‘o’. “Landry, I um.”

I glanced down at her, the necklaces looped around her arms glinted in the harsh Texas sun. “I thought we talked about this. Have you not taken enough already?”

She huffed, I knew she was frustrated with me constantly nagging her, but I didn’t care. “I’m only a thousand dollars short, you know if I don’t pay them off they’ll kill me.

“Exactly why you shouldn’t have gotten involved with this cartel in the first place!”

“I didn’t have the money for-”

I cut her off, my tone full of rage, “For what? Your drugs. That you shouldn’t be using in the first place? Oh right, I warned you about that, didn’t I. You didn’t listen and look where you are!”

“You don’t get it because you never had to deal with the fact that the only person who ever loved you didn’t want you anymore.”

I raised my eyebrows, “So, this is about James now? Seriously. You cannot tell me that you got addicted to whatever crap you are putting into your body because you got dumped. That was four years ago, and if he was the only one to love you then what the hell am I doing here.”

“That’s not what I-”

“No, you don’t have to tell me twice, if I don’t love you then I’ll go, I guess the years that I have spent putting you first over me meant nothing to you.”

“Lan, wait.”

Spinning on my heel, with tears in my eyes, I felt a sharp pain in my heart as I left my best friend in the shop, letting her steal all she wanted from it.

I passed out the second my head hit the thin dusty pillow, the bed bending from my weight. It wasn’t long before there was a bright light shining into my eyes,

“It’s time to get up, you leave in ten minutes.”

I groaned, forgetting for a second where I was. My back creaked as I straightened myself up. The joints in my body stiffer than a board. Wincing slightly, I swung my legs off of the low bed and stood, feeling every bone in my body popping.

“Where exactly am I going?”

He smirked,

“The prison you’re gonna be living in.”

Right. I almost forgot about that, almost.

The sounds of sirens pierced my skull, whipping around, my hand flying to my face to shield my eyes from the flashing lights. What the, oh no. Casey. I looked inside the shop and saw that she was gone, she had vanished, of course she had. Three cop cars surrounded me in the alleyway and came out quickly,

“Put your hands where I can see them!”

Startled, I slowly raised my hands, confusion spiking in my head, clouding my rational thinking. They rushed at me, quickly cuffing my wrists together,

“You are under arrest for the burglary and vandalism of the US Keybank.”

“What?! I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The rough metal pinched my skin, he grabbed something from my bag, a string of diamonds.

“You don’t know what we’re talking about huh?”

No, no no no no no. Casey, she must’ve shoved them into my bag when I was leaving and called the police, but why would she do that? Strong arms latched around my arms, pushing me to their cars. Forcing me to duck my head, and be trapped in the gated back seat. I bit my lip, tears filling my eyes, I tried to hold them back but they fell anyways. My life had been flipped upside down, in a matter of minutes.

The guard wasn’t very chatty, as I would find out. He led me through the twisting halls of the building I was in and stopped in front of a door. Shoving it open, he nodded his head to the left, telling me to go through it. I obeyed silently. The light blinding me, I saw there was a bus parked on the concrete square I was standing on. I sighed, feeling the weight of my body sink down to my feet as I pulled myself forward. A second guard stood at the door to the bus, nodding at me. I shook my head and stepped onto the bus, choosing to sit in the front, I didn’t want to walk past the menacing looking prisoners that lined the aisles.

I knew I was in for a bumpy ride.

Twenty years later.

“Landry Everton has been tried and found innocent and will receive a pension for false accusations against her.”

I broke down, falling to my knees. Finally, I was thirty eight now, after serving out nearly half of my sentence, they decided to re-open my case. Half of my life, wasted, but now, now I had it back. I got back to my feet, tears streaming down my face. My lawyer, Bennett, wrapped his arms around me, sighing.

“Finally, you made it kid.”