“We?” his friend asked. “Where do you think you’re protesting? You’re locked in a prison.”
“I’m graduating at the end of the semester. When I get out, I’ll—”
“You think they actually let anyone out of here? Clearly you’re insane. They’ll send you to the adult penitentiary if they hear you talking like that.”
I ignored the argument, because I couldn’t take the fuckers in this prison. I stepped forward as the line moved and ordered a Calming Cappuccino.
The girl at the counter rang up my total. A dog barked beside her, and I realized it must be Heather. She was an Elementai in some of my classes— Earth, like me, and she even had a husky Familiar. Last week we found out we shared a birthday, and she joked that I was trying to steal her identity.
“Oh, um… I’m going to have to cancel your order,” Heather said.
I furrowed my brow. They must be running low on ingredients. “That’s fine. Just give me something with caffeine in it.”
“The problem is with your account. You’re out of Commissary points.”
I couldn’t beout. I was careful about where I spent my points, never spending more than I earned. I refused to go back to being broke, so I budgeted meticulously.
I realized this had to be a mistake. “Check again,” I insisted, quickly running through the balance in my head. I knew what had been in there yesterday, because I’d just checked. I wondered if someone could possibly hack the system and use my points.
“I did. I’m sorry, Charlie, but your balance is at zero,” she said sadly.
No. This wasn’t possible. I felt like melting into the floor as I realized I was, once again, completely out of fucking money. I had nothing— I’d beenrobbed!
Talk about fucking identity theft, only this time, it wasn’t a joke.
I’d stolen plenty from loads of people in my life. I was getting a taste of my own medicine, that was for sure. Everything else I thought impossible apparently existed. Why not karma, too?
“Charlie, there you are!” Ava called out to me from far away. She must’ve pushed through the crowd, because her hand was suddenly on my wrist, and she yanked me out of line.
She couldn’t wheel herself with one hand, so I helped her out of the room. Oberi ruffled her feathers from the back of Ava’s chair.
I stopped in the hall, already losing my shit. “We’re out of Commissary points. Someone robbed us! That’s all we have to live on! When I find out who, I’m gonna beat their ass!”
I couldn’t help freaking out as I paced in front of her. Our Commissary points were one of the few things that gave us freedom inside this prison, as well as the only ways we were able to buy things we needed. If our Commissary points could be taken away, anything else could, too.
“Charlie, calm down,” Ava insisted. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal…?” I trailed off. She sounded like she knew what happened. “Ava, what’s going on?”
She didn’t say anything right away. I tried to search her mind for the truth, but she wouldn’t let me in. Her thoughts were locked down tight, and unless she gave me permission to hear her thoughts, or they slipped through on accident, I wasn’t getting answers.
“Ava, did you have something to do with this?” I pressed.
Oberi hissed with what sounded like laughter.Caught red-handed.
“I didn’tmeanit, okay? I didn’t realize our Commissary points had been combined when we got married,” she said nonchalantly. “I just thought I had extra, so I thought, why not spread the love?”
My jaw dropped when I realized she’d spent them.She fucking spent them!
She must’ve seen the incredulous look on my face, because she groaned and mumbled, “Ancestors, this is worse than when I maxed out Daddy’s credit card. Please don’t be mad.”
“Don’t be—?” I gaped. “I know you didn’t have to think about money growing up, but I never had access to resources. So forgive me if I’m a little angry that’s been ripped out from under me.”
She took an annoyed breath, about to launch into one of her long explanations. “Look, I wanted a macchiato, and Oberi wanted a cookie, so we went to get those things. But the line washuge, and I felt bad, because a couple of people ahead of me couldn’t pay for their drinks, because their parents didn’t load up their card. So I bought a coffee for them— or two. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be so nice if I bought a coffee foreveryone? I never got to do the thing where they say, drinks all around! So I thought that this was my chance. And I just started buying, and buying… and pretty soon, I spent the three hundred points we had. Which is like, three-hundred dollars. But to me, if people are happy, it’s money well spent!”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You’re manic again.”
“What if I am? This morning, I’m the coffee queen!”
