Page 20 of X's and O's

I will.

I do.

Please don’t come to my parole hearing. They probably won’t let you in, but if they did, I don’t want you to see me like this. If things don’t go my way, I don’t want you to see them drag me back to prison.

Because if you’re there, that’s what they’ll have to do. I won’t be able to walk away from you. So please, just don’t come.

The guards say I need to be more pozitive. And shit, I don’t know, maybe they’re right. Maybe I’m jinxing myself by being so pezemistyc (no idea how to spell that properly, sorry) about my chances. Maybe the universe needs me to get on board. I’ve never done that before, and it all sounds like a bunch of woo woo bullshit, but I’m desperate enough to do anything right now.

So meet me at the Saint View bluffs next Sunday at six. That’ll have given me a week to get my life in some sort of order. To find a job. To get a place to stay. I know it’s notmuch time, but I don’t think I can wait any longer than that to see you.

One week, Violet.

One week until I get to hold you in my arms.

Levi xxx

A sense of calm washed over me at the familiar words. Words I’d read a thousand times since I’d received his letter on Friday.

I’d written and rewritten my reply so many times I’d run out of notepad paper and killed three pens.

But eventually, I’d replied with just a single word.

Yes.

It was the letter I’d dropped in the mailbox that morning. One I prayed he would receive tomorrow before he left the jail.

Because he was getting out.

He had to.

The thought of meeting him in person, after writing letters to him for the past twelve months, was terrifying.

But I already loved him. And meeting him on that bluff next weekend was the only thing currently holding me together.

We could run away. Disappear somewhere.

Leave everything that had happened today behind me, where I never had to think about it again.

I sank deep beneath the blankets and let dreams of Levi push away the nightmares.

6

LEVI

“Ready to go home?”

The springs of my prison bed squeaked beneath my weight. “Don’t jinx me.”

Officer Pritchard jerked his head toward the hallway that would lead us out of the prison to the courthouse rooms, where my parole hearing would take place. “Let’s go. Van is waiting.”

Lynx slapped me on the head a few times from where he was lounging on the top bunk. “I’m gonna pack up all your stuff for you while you’re gone so it’s ready for when you get back. Once you’re a free man, the quicker you can get outta here, the better.”

I rubbed my hands over my face and moved toward the cell door. “Don’t bother. It’ll only piss me off more if I get back and have to unpack it all.”

Pritchard tutted. “Nuh. None of that. Today is your day. I feel it in my bones. Don’t forget your support letters and your portfolio.”

I nodded, grabbing all the documents from my desk.