The Next Forever by Lisa Burstein Page A

doesn’t talk,” Nez said, chewing on her pencil. “Do you?”
    “Usually,” I said, sizing up Nez. If she was worse than me, I wanted to know it.
    “Thank cheese and crackers,” she said, her legs scissoring behind her. “I was going crazy. Not that we’re allowed to talk, but it’s nice to know you’re not mute.”
    “She’s mute?” I said, looking back at Troyer, still motionless on her cot. The way we were talking about her, I wondered if she was deaf, too.
    “Hasn’t said a word in the last six hours, not even to Rawe,” Nez said.
    “Diary and lights out in thirty,” Rawe bellowed from behind her closed door.
    Nez stuck out her tongue and went back to writing. I guess she wasn’t worse than me, because that definitely wasn’t what I would have done.
    This is going to be a very fucking long twenty-nine days.