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"Thanks," Fezco expressed his gratitude for the guard with a mumble as he walked up to collect his mail, trying to contain his excitement to read Vida's letter.

The guard handed him two envelopes, which Fezco paid no mind to until he followed Jojo and one of the other guards back to their cell for free time. Jojo had just received a whole ass package and was going back to their cell to open it, inviting Fezco along since he liked to read his mail in private thanks to Russell's nosy ass.

"Yo girl writing twice and shit?" Jojo joked as he plopped himself down on his bed, watching Fezco smile at that thought, at the thought that Vida sent two letters, but then furrow his eyebrows as he read two different names off the two envelopes.

"Nah...this one from my girl and this other one from someone named Kayla," Fezco glanced up at Jojo with a confused expression on his face.

"Damnn you got two bitches writing to you now? Shit, one mo' you gon turn into Moe," Jojo laughed, referring to their friend Moe, who had three penpals. "Yo open it."

"Wait, ima read Vida's first," Fezco said, his excitement flooding back in as he dropped whoever the fuck Kayla was' envelope on the bed and carefully opened Vida's letter.

Jojo watched as two pictures fell out onto Fezco's lap as he took the letter out, smirking to himself before he went back to cutting his package open with a pencil.

Fezco picked the two pictures up off his lap, taking a quick peek at them, which turned into a good look, which turned into a whole ass heart eyed stare while his white sweats grew a little tight in his crotch area.

Goddamn.

"Aye, you drooling over there," Jojo called out with a teasing laugh, snapping Fezco's eyes away from staring at Vida.

"Yo bro, fuck you, ion tell you shit when you beating your dick to your girl's pictures," Fezco scoffed, opening up his letter to read while Jojo just laughed.

Fezco just ignored him and grinned as he read his name on the header of the letter, followed by my best friend my twin.

He wasn't gonna lie, his heart faltered at that. At being called his best friend. He liked it, he liked having a friend, a best friend, but he didn't wanna be just friends.

Oh shit. Fezco took a second, freezing as he stared down at the letter, taking in his realization.

His mind flashed back to Lexi, and the way he felt when he got her number on New Years before beating the shit out of Nate Jacobs. The way he felt when she walked into his store to grab a drink. The way they held hands watching Stand By Me on his couch. The way they texted day and night and spoke on the phone for hours for months.

The way he wanted to be more than friends with her, even after she cut him off when he got arrested.

During his first two months being incarcerated, he thought about Lexi all the time. He missed her.

But ever since he received that first letter from Vida, ever since he blushed when he read her handwriting spelling out that she thought he was fine and hinting that she really hoped he'd write back, he hadn't thought of Lexi.

Not once. He completely forgot about her, and the way it hurt when he realized she wanted nothing to do with him, and he unknowingly replaced those feelings when he started to writing to Vida.

Vida found him on writeaprisoner.com and read through his profile, decided to write to him despite his charges and even waited and hoped for him to write back, even when he took forever.

Was that a sign? Was that god telling him to stop dwelling on what happened with Lexi and move the fuck on? Did god send Vida to him or something, to help him move on and heal?

Well it was definitely working. Because he had completely forgotten about Lexi and everything he felt for her with Vida starting to flood his mind whenever he didn't feel like getting sad thinking about Ashtray or his grandma or the fact that he was in prison.

Vida was literally, in a way, some light in his life. His vida, if you will.

Reading her letters put the biggest smile on his face, and put him in the happiest mood for a good while. And whenever he was down, he thought about her and what she might be doing. He looked at her pictures every morning and sometimes before he fell asleep, wishing her a good night in his mind and hoping that somehow, magically, telepathically, she could hear him.

He really wished he could have met her when he wasn't in prison. Because he loved and was extremely grateful that she wanted to talk to him even while he was incarcerated, but he really wished he could have known her when he wasn't.

She deserved better than a best friend who was in prison.

She was so sweet, easily the kindest and funniest girl he's ever met. She wasn't scared to talk to him about anything and she asked him questions, she listened–well, she read, and she didn't judge him for anything, she saw past whatever he did.

And she was beautiful. She was the prettiest girl he's ever seen. Pretty girls deserve better than missing their penpal best friend who they've never met.

His heart warmed at her saying she missed him, and apologizing for it if it seemed stupid or clingy. It didn't, it definitely didn't. He hoped she didn't feel that it was stupid because he missed her too, the same exact way and at the same exact times.

After reading her entire letter over again, he let out a few laughs, at her white friend's name, and at her saying they were gonna record songs where he pretended to be Mac Miller.

He smiled at her saying she wanted to talk to him on the phone, and at her attempts to try to convince him because she didn't care about the money she would have to spend to do so.

She was so insistent about it, it was cute. Fezco didn't think he'd ever had someone other than his brother really wanna talk to him unless they were looking for drugs like Rue, or money and business like his suppliers or people he worked with, or to have him listen to all their problems like Lexi.

Yet here Vida was, wanting to pay to talk to him. He didn't know why but it made it feel special and shit. He couldn't help but smile, giving in with a little sigh. He already couldn't say no to her.

Fezco's heart warmed as he read her signature off the bottom of the second back page. She signed off as Life and not Vida, but she still dotted the i in her name with a heart, and she still drew a little heart besides her last initial.

It was cute. She was cute.

Fezco was so excited to talk to her that he completely forgot about the second letter, reaching for a pencil and his notebook to start writing back to Vida asap.

"Yo, I know you're pussy whipped with Vida and all but you got that other girl waiting now too," Jojo pointed out. "Open it."

"I'll do it later," Fezco disregarded as he flipped his notebook open, making Jojo kiss his teeth and get up out of his bed to go sit with his cellmate.

Fezco glanced down at the new pretty pictures he held in his left hand and showed them to Jojo, finally allowing him the literal privilege to see what his penpal looked like.

"She let me pick her new hair color, I said orange," Fezco grinned, glancing up from the pictures to see Jojo's reaction, laughing at his raised eyebrows.

"Yo–that's your penpal?" Jojo asked Fezco.

"Yeah, this Vida. Why you look like that, am I gettin catfished or sum?" Fezco questioned.

Jojo laughed, "Nah bro, that's definitely Vida. I know her!"

"Word?"

"That's my girl's friend, bro. Hold on, that's crazy as fuck, what the fuck?" Jojo continued laughing, taking one of the pictures from Fezco to get a good look and to confirm that he wasn't seeing things and that the girl was actually Vida.

"You for real?" Fezco asked him.

Jojo gave him a smile and a nod, "Yeah, she be popping up sometimes when me and my girl Kiara get on video calls. Damn, my girl was telling me she wrote to a prisoner and shit, and it's you?, that's fucking crazy. Small ass world."

Fezco looked back down at the pictures from talking to Jojo and nodded in agreement, cracking a little smile. "Word."

Jojo took advantage of Fezco being distracted, caught up with drooling over Vida's pictures, and snuck behind him to snatch the letter from that Kayla girl, opening it himself.

Fezco looked at him upon hearing some paper rip, kissing his teeth, at both himself and at Jojo, at himself for not noticing Jojo's sticky hands and at Jojo because he was grabbing his shit.

"Bro, c'mon," Fezco sighed. He didn't really care for the letter, but he wished Jojo would actually learn from his time in prison and stop snatching shit.

"Not like your ass was any interested in it anyways," Jojo snorted as he pulled a letter and two pictures from out the envelope, handing one of the pictures to Fezco and keeping the other to himself.

Fezco glanced down at the picture in his hand, his eyes sweeping over the girl in it. She was pretty and all but she wasn't Vida.

That being said, he didn't get hard like he did a few minutes ago when he laid his eyes on Vida's pictures. He glanced at Jojo as he started to read out loud, rolling his eyes and laughing a little at the high pitched voice he spoke in to mimic a female voice.

"Dear Fezco O'Neill, hi my name is Kayla. I'm 18 and I'm from the Bay Area. I found you on writeaprisoner.com and I wanted to contact you but before we go any further, I wanted to ask what's up with your charges?" Jojo read.

Fezco cringed at that as Jojo looked at him, making Jojo laugh.

"What? She don't live up to Vida?" Jojo joked.

"Hell nah, you wanna know how Vida started her first letter?" Fezco smiled, unaware that Jojo was just playing as he reached into his drawer to pull out the letter and read the first sentence to Jojo. "Dear Fezco, I would be lying if I said I didn't click on your profile because of your pictures because respectfully sir, you are fine. You need money on your books?"

Jojo raised his eyebrows in amusement, "You're so fucking whipped for her, man."

Fezco just flipped him off and folded the letter back up, glancing down at the one in Jojo's hands.

"Nah, Vida got some decency though. She ain't fucking ask me wassup wit my charges right off the bat, she tried to get to know me before that, you know what I'm sayin?" Fezco explained.

That all meant a lot to him, it showed him that Vida wasn't gonna judge him, because she hadn't asked right away.

"Yeah, I do. Yo but, if you get em both putting money on you, you won't have to do all that bullshit ass yardwork no more," Jojo brought up and handed him Kayla's letter so he could read the rest.

Fezco kissed his teeth, "I ain't gonna use nobody like that, mane. Why don't you do it?"

"Nah, my girl will come beat my ass," Jojo laughed. "I'm faithful. And it's cool if you are too, even if you not together," He winked.

Fezco let out a laugh and shook his head–Jojo was something else.

"Yo, how thie Kayla girl even find me anyways?"

"She literally said in the first sentence bro, on the site," Jojo answered.

"How do I take my account down?" Fezco asked him.

Jojo raised an eyebrow, "Already? You just put it up."

"And I already got a penpal, ion need the account no more. Especially if it's other people finna write to me and shit, I'm good with just Vida," Fezco insisted.

"Man, whatever. Fuckin simp. I'll help you take it down tomorrow in class," Jojo told him.

"Aight, thanks man," Fezco smiled, reaching his hand out to dap him up. "Yo, you know you be sending your girl pictures, though? How you do that?"

"Vida asked you for pictures?" Jojo smirked.

"Yeah," Fezco nodded, fighting the smile that threatened to appear on his face.

Jojo laughed, "Shit, I'll help you with that too then. I got you bro. But just wait til I tell Vida how fuckin whipped you are for her."