Sleepover ♦ Raj & Emma
It was one of those nights when the rain damped her hair, the cold made her shiver, and yet she couldn't move from her place on the rooftop. She watched the girls as they left the club, their steps less than graceful and voices much louder than they should have been. The men with them herded them like animals, leading them toward a car that Emma had spent years avoiding when she was a runaway on the streets of Nashville. But she didn't warn them, or cry out for the police. She just watched.
Hours passed when she became conscious of the fact that there was no feeling in her fingertips anymore. Taking a deep breath, she climbed down the building. Her walk home blurred in her mind, but as the brown brick building came into view, the thought of returning to her empty apartment sent a chill down her spine. Her eyes instinctively jumped to a window--his window--a sigh of relief escaping her when she saw a couple of lights were on.
With practiced ease, she climbed up the side of the building and opened his window, aware that she was making his rug wet. Taking a deep breath, she plastered on a bright smile and trudged through his apartment. "It's just me! Don't start calling the police again." She made it to his pantry and grabbed a box of cereal that she was sure he bought only because she liked it. "I lost my key again," she lied. "You mind if I stay here until I get enough feeling in my fingers to break into my own place."