Page 72 of Freshman

“Does that mean you’ll stop calling me fish?”

Henry nodded. “Albie from now on.”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s Alfie.”

“Is it?”

Alfie glared at the old man until his confusion morphed into a smile. “Course I know your name. Us and them, and now you’re officially one of us.”

Ben clapped him on the back, and then his brother did the same. “You’re in the exclusive headbutted by a criminal club.”

Alfie pressed his palm to his chest. “I feel honoured.”

If he had known all he needed to do was get a hit to the nose and they’d use his name, he would’ve let it happen sooner.

By the time roll call arrived, his face only hurt when he pulled an expression, and his voice sounded nasally with his blocked nose. Marie tugged her mini mirror from her pocket and turned it to Alfie. The skin under his eyes was puffy and bruised, but his nose looked straight with minimal swelling.

“Not broken.”

Glen shook his head. “Worse from shaving.”

“When have you ever smashed up your nose from shaving?” Alfie asked.

Glen waved his hand. “It’s just a saying.”

“A stupid one,” Alfie muttered, then followed Marie through the gate.

With each step closer to Nate’s cell, Alfie’s smile grew. His pain faded as excitement began to mount. It was an unconscious reaction that he tried to cure by rubbing the back of his hand on his smile. It didn’t work. The giddiness of talking to Nate after hours of waiting remained. The dim lights of the prison thankfully hid his face from Marie and Glen. It was not the expected reaction when approaching a man who had killed three people.

“Queenie?”

Alfie listened as the bed creaked in his cell.

“Yeah, I’m here. You got a cold?”

“Something like that…”

“When you going to move to day shift?”

Alfie shrugged. “No idea. Not up to me. Why?”

“It would be nice to see your face, that’s all.”

“Is my voice not good enough?” Alfie laughed.

“Yeah, sure it is. You just got a face too.”

There was a groan from Nate’s cell, and Alfie looked to his door.

“Stop flirting with Freshman, Queenie. I’ve been waiting all night for him.”

Queenie tutted. “I’m only saying, it would be nice to see Alfie on day shift.”

“Leave off. He’s mine.”

Alfie hugged his clipboard and darted looks at both cells. “I’m not yours, thanks.”

“Sure you are. You accepted my pizza date.”

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