Chapter Text
The rec room had this particular hum on slow afternoons, the kind that settled on people’s shoulders like dust. Sophia liked those hours. They gave her space to breathe and arrange the world in neat lines, the way she once arranged hair products before everything in her life folded in on itself. She sat at one of the scarred plastic tables, pretending to flip through an old people magazine, though half the pages were missing and the rest were scrawled with someone’s sharpie love confessions.
Across the room, Gloria Mendoza was lecturing two girls from her block about cleaning the microwave after heating up their cheap cheese noodles. Her voice carried that no-nonsense tone she used like armour, but her face softened every so often when one of them nodded like they actually listened. Sophia watched that little softening without meaning to. It was just a habit now, one she didn’t talk about.
Gloria glanced over, probably because she felt eyes on her. She always could sense things like that. Sophia pretended to look back at her magazine, but she caught the faint smile that tugged at Gloria’s mouth. Not a mocking smile, just a knowing one. It warmed something low in her chest. Later, when the rec room emptied out and the CO’s shuffled people back to blocks, Gloria slowed down near Sophia’s table. She drummed her fingers along the surface as if checking for dust.
“You reading that or communing with spirits through it?” Gloria asked.
Sophia snorted “Honey, if this thing could summon spirits, I’d’ve asked it to get us all out of here years ago.”
Gloria laughed under her breath. She dipped her head closer, just a little. Close enough that Sophia caught a faint smell of onions and cilantro from lunch prep lingering in her hair.
“You good today?” Gloria said. Q
The question wasn’t casual. Gloria never asked anything casually. She had a hundred things to do every day and she only used her energy on people for a reason.
Sophia nodded. "Good as I can be."
Gloria studied her like she didn't quite believe it, but she let it go. "You coming to dinner early? I made arroz con pollo before the kitchen ran out of the good stuff."
"For me?" Sophia teased.
"For whoever gets their ass in line on time." Gloria walked off, but Sophia saw the small lift of her shoulder that meant she'd heard the teasing and wasn't dismissing it.
That evening, Sophia showed up early.
The kitchen smelled warm and heavy with spices, the kind of smell that made prison feel a little less like punishment. Gloria scooped a generous serving onto Sophia's tray, just a bit more than she gave anyone else. If anyone noticed, they didn't say anything. People respected Gloria too much to poke at her choices.
Sophia took a bite. "You're gonna ruin other meals for me."
"That is the general idea," Gloria said, and her eyes lingered on Sophia's hands around the tray, then rose to meet her gaze.
Something slow and electric passed between them. Not the loud kind of spark, but the quiet heat that made Sophia suddenly aware of how close they were, how the air between them felt like it leaned in.
Before anything else could gather between them, a CO shouted at someone on the far
side of the cafeteria. Gloria stepped back, the moment snapping like a thin thread.
Sophia tried to shake the feeling off, but it clung to her.
That night, she thought about that softening in Gloria's eyes again.
The next few days moved unevenly. Little moments kept happening, small enough to be brushed off, but too warm to ignore.
In laundry duty, they worked at adjacent folding tables. The machines clanged loudly, shaking the concrete floors, but somehow Sophia still caught the quiet rhythm of Gloria humming under her breath. A soft, steady melody. Something old, maybe from her mother, maybe from a long time before the walls.
Sophia folded sheets, pretending not to watch the curve of Gloria's smile when she realized Sophia was listening.
"Don't look at me like that," Gloria said without heat. "I'm not auditioning for anything."
"You got the voice for it though." Gloria rolled her eyes but didn't hide the pleased look on her face.
They kept folding, shoulders brushing occasionally in a way that felt accidental but also somehow not at all.
After a while, Sophia's fingers grazed Gloria's hand when they both reached for the same stack. Just a tiny touch, no more than a second. But it shot straight through her like a spark in a dark room.
Gloria stilled. Her breath caught, barely noticeable unless someone watched her closely. Sophia was watching closely.
For a heartbeat too long, neither of them moved.
Sophia swallowed. "Sorry."
"It's fine," Gloria said softly. Tenderly. Too
tenderly. But she pulled her hand back.
That night, the rain hammered hard enough on the windows to drown out the usual noises of the dorms. Sophia laid awake, turning on her bunk, trying to ignore the twist of longing pushing at the edges of her chest.
She kept seeing that moment in laundry.
The soft look. The held breath.
That maybe.
A tiny maybe, but enough to keep her awake.
Two days later, tension hit the prison like a gust of hot air. A fight in the yard left people twitchy and restless. Sophia kept to herself more than usual, but Gloria still found her in the corridor outside the showers.
"You alright?" Gloria asked, voice low.
"Yeah. You?"Gloria shrugged, though her eyes were tight around the edges. "Been worse." Sophia wanted to touch her. Just a hand on her arm. But she didn't.
Instead, she said, "You want me to check in on you after dinner? I don't mind." Gloria looked at her for a long moment, searching for something. Then she nodded once, slow. "Yeah. That'd be nice."
They met in the hallway between C and D block later that night. It wasn't private, but it was quiet enough, dimly lit, the kind of place where people didn't linger unless they meant to.
Gloria leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. "People getting jumpy today."
"Yeah," Sophia said. "But we're still here."
"We are," Gloria murmured.
Then she tilted her head slightly. "You really came to check on me."
"Of course I did."
Something in Gloria's face softened again, and this time it wasn't just a flicker. It lingered, warm and deep. She reached out carefully, almost like testing the air.
Her fingers brushed Sophia's. Not by accident.
Sophia exhaled shakily.
Gloria stepped closer, slowly, giving Sophia time to refuse or step back. Sophia didn't move.
Their hands slid together, fingers curling instinctively.
Sophia whispered, "Gloria."
Gloria whispered back, "I know." She lifted her other hand and grazed Sophia's cheek with her knuckles. The touch was gentle enough to break someone's heart.
Sophia leaned into it without thinking.
Their faces were close now. Too close.
Sophia felt the warmth of Gloria's breath against her lips. Her heart thudded hard, almost painfully. She wasn't sure who moved first. Maybe they both did.
Their lips touched, soft at first, almost hesitant. A question waiting to be answered.
Then Gloria deepened the kiss just a little, enough to make Sophia's breath hitch and her knees feel unsteady. The slow burn of swept through both of them, a heat that rose with every second.
Sophia's hands slid up Gloria's arms.
Gloria's fingers curled at Sophia's waist.
The kiss grew warmer, steadier, the world narrowing around the two of them and nothing else.
It would have kept going, maybe too far, too fast, if footsteps hadn't echoed around the corner.
They broke apart instantly, hands dropping to their sides. Their hearts still thudded, their breaths quick and shaky.
Three inmates rounded the corner, talking loudly. None seemed to notice them.
Sophia forced herself to look casual. Gloria looked like she was wrestling every emotion she had into stillness.
When the hallway emptied again, neither moved toward the other. The moment had been cracked open too abruptly.
Sophia whispered, "I didn't want that to stop."
Gloria's voice was rough. "Me neither."
But she stepped back anyway.
Not out of rejection. Out of fear of being seen, of getting hurt, of losing something before it even had a chance to be real.
"We should go" Gloria said.
Sophia nodded, even though she wanted to stay in that hallway until the world softened again.
They walked away in opposite directions.
But they kept glancing back.