Chapter 1: What It Means To Be Fresh Out

Dirt Road, Conyers County, District Of Colombia...

  The bright golden rays of the looming sun on a hot summer afternoon had been just what the doctor ordered as a newly freed Charley Bayler made his way as far away from the prison as his legs could carry him once the heavy metal gates had been opened and closed behind him. He passed by a busload of prisoners on their way inside and tried his best to keep his eyes on the horizon. The memory of where he'd been just five years prior, arriving at this rather daunting establishment at only sixteen years of age due to theft charges had flickered to life as he opted to suppress the experience.

He kept moving putting one foot in front of the other until a brown 1979 regal buick appeared in his line of sight heading straight for the newly released man. He had recognized it all too well as Mr. Bateman's car and saw the expression on the aged man's face as he attempted to make amends to the younger man he had wronged and allowed to be wronged due to his junkie son Julian's actions. 

Carter Bateman, a middle-aged man with graying short cropped hair and a smooth-shaven face given to wrinkles about his eyes and jawline wearing a rather interesting gray suit with no tie and the collar unbuttoned, had attempted to get Charley's attention. The still relatively embittered twenty-one-year-old had better things to do than converse with the man who had been like a father figure to him and who had ended up betraying him in the worst possible fashion when it came to his precious biological baby boy. 

"Chuck listen," said Carter rolling down his window with the most pathetic expression of sorrow filed across his aged face. "Let me at least give you a ride, and your last paycheck before you cut all ties."

Charley sighed knowing full well that he had no way of getting back to the main part of the city without wheels and that he'd most definitely need his last paycheck for something to eat and a change of clothes, possibly even a room for the night. 

"I'm just gettin' my paycheck and I'm clearing out as soon as," replied Charley in a rather gruff tone. 

Carter nodded as he stopped the car and allowed Charley to walk over to the passenger side and hop inside the seat. The rather distinguished-looking younger man had been much different since the last time he'd seen him carted away on his court date insisting to him of his innocence with tears behind his sorrowful blue eyes. 

  The moment the door slammed shut on the passenger side, Charley stared out the window taking in the view of the wide open sky and green grass as the concrete prison walls got further and further away from him as they pulled off into the distance. 

Carter had not known what to say as he drove in relative silence with Charley beside him at least grateful to be able to offer the newly released lad some form of assistance after causing his life to crumble in the past five years. Charley had been drastically different from the scrawny sixteen-year-old he found sleeping in one of his cars at his auto repair shop terrified of what the next day would bring and starving by all accounts. Carter had known the boy had gone through abuse the world over and had been cast out into the street and offered him a job and a place to sleep so as to keep him out of trouble, only to cast him out and have him arrested for a crime he didn't commit on account of his own junkie son. 

Charley's formerly smooth baby face had been under the cover of a rather rough-looking thin beard and his unruly brown locks had grown out pretty well in the time he'd been locked away. His face had been handsome as he'd finally grown into his facial features but his eyes he'd a kind of doglike knowing and sadness that was only intensified by the deep blue iris of his eyes as he sat staring out into the wide blue yonder. 

It was clear from the moment he saw him, the clueless boy Carter had known before he'd been carted off to prison was long gone, replaced with a socially awkward young man who had seen his fair share of trauma and betrayal. Word had gotten to Carter about Charely's first year in prison, he'd been beaten within an inch of his young life in a shower and shared a cell with a fetish-driven criminal before endearing himself to everyone with his drawing talents. He knew the lad wouldn't speak about the horrors he'd witnessed past or present as he continued to stare out the window in relative silence, trying to get over the fact that his attire had been much too small to fit his new body since his arrest five years prior. 

Charley continued to stare out the window his mind refusing to give in to his rage at the silent older man that had driven him far from the prison he'd spent the better part of five years calling home and toward the place that had been like a home of sorts for him before it. 

The handsome young lad had lost more than his freedom when Julian had set out to frame him for a crime he had not committed, Charley was seeing a girl by the name of Tiffany Daniels at the time he'd been living in the city and working for Mr. Bateman. The beautiful good-natured blonde bombshell that had been Tiffany had been fifteen at the time when Charley himself had only been sixteen and they hit it off quite well. She had come from a hard-working family and was a well-mannered and highly educated girl with aspirations beyond their city and her parents' achievements in the past. 

Charley and Tiffany had been an item ever since he showed up and began working for Mr. Bateman and as a result, they grew closer and closer to the point of dating. It was rumored that Julian had something of a crush on her while they grew up in the same neighborhood only for Charley Bayler to move in and catch her attention. 

Tiffany had always insisted that she never liked Julian in that way whenever Charley had brought it up and told him to never mention anything remotely close to how gross that would have been for her again. He had gotten a kick out of teasing her about it during their time together. She'd been the first girlfriend he'd ever had and as a result his first love in general before his arrest. He had always admired her strength both mentally and emotionally and her keen wit as she navigated the world on her own terms. Her kind heart and thought exterior won him over before he had even known what it meant for it to be so.

Sadly their future plans to save up and leave D.C. together had gone up in flames when Julian pinned the theft on him. Tiffany had reprimanded Charley something fierce and even threw her promise ring at him during the arrest vowing to never have anything to do with him after he so "blatantly violated" the trust of the kind-hearted people that took him in.

Charley attempted numerous times to explain that he had not taken the money and had no interest in it prior to it showing up in his bag and ruining his life. She had heard none of it, the last he saw of her for those five years, she'd come to the prison after he'd been severely beaten and told him that it would be best if he would stop writing to her and trying to contact her altogether.  Charley nursed a broken heart as well as a battered body for three years before pushing his anguish down in a bid to survive. The last he had heard, Tiffany had gone off to college and then married a former classmate after getting her dream job. 

She'd been happy in her life with her new husband and their five-year-old son let everyone tell it that knew them. Charley kept to himself for the most part how much it hurt him to lose her and the fact that she married another guy. Her father made sure to rub in this fact when he came on an unannounced visit knowing full well that Charley, who had not been much for visitors would have declined. 

Tiffany's father was quite the smug bastard that day as he gave the bad news to the now-registered felon, His daughter found someone better just as he wished she would when he first found out about her taking an interest in the likes of Charley Bayler. 

The currently silent young man pushed all thoughts of his former girlfriend out of his mind as he sat still staring out the window knowing all too well that what remained of his life before prison had been well and truly over. He had only wished to obtain his final paycheck and move on as it appeared everyone else aside from Carter Bateman had.