Tyler is happily engaged when his life takes a turn. After a couple bad decisions, he ends up in California State's Prison. Surrounded by bad boys, hot guards, and a lot of testosterones, is Tyler going to manage to keep himself out of troubles?
(Erotic Drama - sequel to My First Year in College).
****************************
My First Year in Prison
Chapter 22: The testimony
"Inmate 328, Tyler Braxton, please come take the stand."
I was nervous, my armpits were sweating. I did not know the room would be so full of people. Some journalists, some other inmates who were supposed to testify after me or who have just testified, like Ralph, and some closed-ones, families.
Austin, Ryan and Janice were there.
An old black man was leading the session. He was not a judge but an auditor. At least, that was what I understood. Because it was not a trial but a public hearing, I did not have a lawyer, we were all testifying as witnesses.
The prison was represented though, a fierce woman, in her forties, wearing a fancy grey woman-suit and very high heels. Her name was Jenny Kooper, with a K. Later on, I learned that she became a hot-shot lawyer for a big pharmaceutical group.
A real bitch, if you want my opinion.
Every time an inmate would budge from the official version (a terrible series of events only caused by a lunatic convict), she would come at him aggressively, disqualifying his testimony or bringing evidence to show that Kim was mentally unstable. The warden was sitting next to her, his right leg shaking under the table, showing obvious signs of stress.
I cannot count the instances where that evil woman repeated: "What happened on December 12th was an awful but unexpected tragedy and only the prison's smooth action had allowed to avoid more casualties."
Every time I wanted to scream at her. The prison's smooth action! Who was she kidding? Apparently, enough people...
Anyway, I stood up and walked to the stand. I still had no idea of what I was going to say. I had woken up in Kurtis' arms that day. We were both naked but we did not have sex. Our relationship had passed that point, we could spend time with each other without fucking.
I think that he loved me. I was still reluctant to commit to anything. I was not sure where my heart was at and I did not want to make any empty promises. But apparently, Kurtis did not need them. He was patient and was semi-expected for me to forget him once I would be out.
There were less than two weeks left before my release.
"Mister Braxton, do you understand that anything you will say on this stand will be said under oath and any lie or misconstruction of the truth might lead to prosecution?" The severe auditor asked me.
I swallowed my saliva. I glanced at Ryan and Austin, they seemed worried. They were both wearing a suit, quite unusual for them. They looked sharp though.
"I do, Sir."
"Mister Braxton, can you confirm you were present in the cafeteria on December 12th during lunch time?" It was a short woman, sitting at the right of the main auditor who was speaking. She was conducting most of the interviews for Ralph and the other inmates who had talked before me.
Ralph's interview had been short. He pretended that the trauma had made him forget about everything from that day. He confirmed that, as shown on the surveillance video, a fight between the inmates broke down and one of convicts took a gun from a guard before shooting. There was not much else to say.
"Busty Girl", his girlfriend, was in the room, wearing an impressive cleavage. You can say what you want about that woman, but she was dedicated to be herself, no matter how dire the circumstances were!
From where I was now sitting, I saw another woman. She was more discreet, she looked almost afraid. My heart skipped a bit. Mindy was there, still wearing her wedding ring. Her eyes were teary but she was not crying.
"Mister Braxton?" The short woman repeated.
"Sorry. I... Yes, I confirm that I was there in the cafeteria. I... We were coming back from Xander's wedding ceremony."
"You are referring to Xander Dantons, one of the victims, right?"
"Right, madam."
Mindy looked at me. Damn, that was difficult to do this with her staring at me.
"You were assisting to the wedding ceremony. I imagine you and Inmate Dantons were close?"
My voice was shaking a little when I answered:
"We were. He was my cellmate and..." I looked at Ralph. "We had become friends. Xander was a great person."
"He was still convicted of a serious crime and sentenced to prison." The woman representing the prison's interests, Jenny Kooper, said.
I thought her remark was misplaced but I did not say anything. I did not even know whether I was allowed to speak or not.
"Mister Braxton, the argument in the cafeteria seemed to originate from Mister Ray Kennedy's comments towards Mister Will Torres. What was it about?"
That was exactly the kind of questions that Ralph eluded, claiming not to know or not to remember anything.
"I think that Ray was angry that some of the inmates might have brought drugs inside the facility. He thought that Will had proposed some to his son, Trevor." I answered, trying to hide my nervousness.
"Right." The auditor commented. He knew all of that already.
"Several inmates started to argue, you were one of them. Why?" The short woman asked.
"It is hard to say... The atmosphere got heated." I looked at the warden, he was smiling at me. Asshole.
I thought it was maybe the right time to say that the guards were refusing to take action, causing the tension to escalate. I can still see the bald face of Falcon standing by, letting things unfold before his eyes to not confront Romano and his crew.
I was not that brave though, at least, not yet. Austin, Ryan, Kurtis, Ralph, all of them had advised me not to make waves, not to compromise my own freedom.
The interview kept on going. I refrained myself from any out-of-the-box comment until one tense exchange with Jenny Kooper shifted the whole course of the day.
"Among those who started fighting afterwards, we can find all of the inmates who ended up dead. Romano, Dantons..."
She started listing people but I cut her off:
"Xander Dantons did not take part in any fight."
"Mister Braxton, we have the footage." She claimed.
"So, you know that he was trying to calm things down! Precisely, he was trying to stop the fight from happening!"
We heard a sob in the room. Shit. It was Mindy, but she was smiling at me. I was probably the first one to put my neck up, even just a little, to stand up for Xander. It was barely nothing really, but I could see that it had moved her.
An old man who looked just like her, probably her dad, was helping her standing up to leave the room. I could see that he was trying to convince her to go outside. She seemed very affected by what was going on.
That was when I noticed it. Or maybe she purposely showed it to me. I am not sure. All I know is that she was carrying a very clear baby bump, she must have been around four or five months pregnant.
It was like my world was suddenly turned upside down. Mindy eventually sat back down but everything had changed. The whole room was looking at her, now. The pregnant widow.
Everything clicked in my brain. That was the news that Xander wanted to tell us when we got back to the cafeteria, right before the shooting. That was the news she must have whispered to him after they had exchanged their vows. Mindy was already expecting Xander's baby when they got married.
