Now that I had decided not to be creeped out by this whole situation.
I was scared for Mike. I had never been to a jail or even associated with anyone who had ever been to jail. All I can think of is what I've seen on TV, how they rape each other and beat the shit out of each other, gangs and all that crazy shit! Mike is a big dude but like I said, very nice.

They are going to destroy him!

Read part one here I went from writing as a "secret writer", to being truthful and confident in who i am, so i decided to post the rest on my own :)

I had decided to see him on his first visiting day with his mom and dad. I had to drive 45 minutes to get to his parents' house. Girl with severe anxiety over here, I'm in a panic over what this is going to be like. I haven't had too much interaction with his parents either. The whole thing started out very uncomfortable, but I put on a damn good front and looked confident.
We walked to the front desk of the visiting area. They asked me for my ID and asked me to have a seat and they would call my group to the next waiting room in about 30 minutes. I sat there so freaking nervous I wanted to pee. At least his mom is a very talkative person, that made it a little easier to keep calm. 30 minutes passed, and they called our group up to get keys to put our stuff in lockers.

Then they had me walk through a metal detector, then scanned me with one of those wand metal detectors. I had a seat in the next room where I sat with numerous other people there to visit. Another 20 minutes passed, and the intercom calls out "5 o'clock visitors may go" I stood up and followed Mikes mom down all these hallways.

The floors were white, and so were the walls and ceiling. I felt as if they were closing in on me.

I started breathing harder and started panicking even more! We finally go to the right door, and a buzzer went off, the door opened. I walked behind his parents down a very tiny hallway with a door at the end with just a small Plexiglas window with Mikes face behind it. At first, he didn't see me, but when he did his eyes lit up, and he had a huge smile on his face. I smiled and waved. We turned the corner where there is a few small stations to sit at with metal stools welded into the ground and a metal counter with a Plexiglas window with little speaker holes in the sides to hear each other. He says to me, "I wasn't expecting you to come!" Then wiped his eyes and tried not to show how emotional he felt. "I am so glad you came!" He said with a smile. I said, "How could I not? I've missed ya." I started to feel a little better at his point but was so sad to see him wearing all Orange scrubs and not able to give him a hug or anything. The end of the visit is where it hit home.

The intercom came on and said, "5 o'clock visits are now over, please return to the lobby." Might I add the visits are only a half hour long? We all got up and walked down the small hallway. I looked back and saw Mike looking through that small window watching me leave, I blew him a kiss and waved goodbye. The door shut behind me, and I wanted to start bawling! I kept my composure, though. The whole way back to his parents' house too. I did really well keeping my shit together. The second we parked in the driveway I got out of the car, his mom asked if I wanted to stay for dinner and I told her, "I better be heading home." I got into my car as fast as I could. The second I put my car in reverse, I lost it! I hysterically cried the whole way home. That was all so much to take in at once!
I had decided to write Mike a letter after our first visit. If I was going to put myself into this, I needed to see it in writing for myself. I knew in my heart there was no way it was true. I just needed t have him say it. I know this was all very embarrassing for him but I had to hear about his story.

I asked him if any of it was true.

He told me No, He would never do that and that if I were to put all the pieces together, it would never make sense. He was in a public place where the parents could watch their kids. If anything would've happened, someone would've seen, and the girl reaction would bring attention to herself. He also explained to me that he had taken a polygraph and a penile plethysmograph. They both came back negative. Since they had already found him guilty, they wouldn't use those results in court. His lawyer also told him, "Now that they have you saying you're guilty, you can't say you're innocent, or you will get prison time."
From that moment on I knew I had to trust what he was saying and go with my gut feeling telling me that Mike was not a threat, and he was a kind man who had been put in a hard place.

Mike had court a few weeks after being arrested, which he was very nervous about. The max time he could've gotten was five years in prison. Mike was sentenced six months in jail. We were very excited to hear that news.

That meant we had a chance!

I never became comfortable with the visits to the jail, but it became routine. I would see Mike once a week. I was very devoted, almost obsessed with this whole thing. I would always have my phone with me in case he called. I even set up a separate place to receive mail from him so my parents wouldn't see I was writing someone in jail. I would drive two cities away to check my friends' mailbox for letters every day. Most days I would have letters, but sometimes I wouldn't get any for days. We got a lot of time to get to know each other over letters, visits, and phone calls. He had such a great personality, and we both had the same goals in life. That was incredible! I was falling in love with him! Two months into his sentence we had decided to make our relationship official.

I grew a lot of hate towards the people who put Mike in this situation, I turned that hate around and put it towards love for Mike. He stopped giving up because now he had something to fight for. Mike got a trustee job at the jail which gave him 1 1/2 months good time (which means time taken off an inmate's sentence for good behavior). He spent a lot of time reading and the few hours a day he got out of his cell he spent making phone calls, playing cards and walking laps. He didn't get to go outside, but they did have a cement room with a metal grated ceiling so he could get a bit of sun and see the sky.

Finally after four and a half months of counting down on my calendar, worrying about the safety of Mike and the freedom he'd ever have. It was time! Time to start a future with the love of my life. Try to make a life together and move on from this insanity. Little did I know, the madness never actually ended.
Part 3 coming soon!!