a hard knock on the door. jess looks up from the project she's sketching for finals, deems her pajama shorts and baby tee covered enough, and crosses the tiny living room to open the door.
brady's standing there, shark-teeth grin, sammy scruffed in her oversized stanford hoodie, looking like absolute hell on earth.
"hey jess," brady says, all sharp smile. "gotta thing to go to tonight. take care of her?" she nudges sam toward jess, and sam nearly stumbles.
jess sighs but takes sam's hand. she's a little cool to the touch. jess holds sam's chin toward the light and inspects the aftermath of whatever brady's done to her. goddamn, she can go hard, and jess knows that well. sam's eyes are glassy, fucked out, seeing stars.
"i got you, baby," jess murmurs as she pulls sam in close. sam's soft brown hair brushes against jess' front.
jess shoots brady a reprimanding look. brady shrugs. that smile again.
jess gets sam settled into her bed, jess' old heirloom quilt around her shoulders. she makes herbal tea and turns the record player on low, soft music. the lighting stays at lamps at most.
sam's still and quiet but not shaking, which is somewhat of a relief. "let's get this off ya," jess says, whispering almost, and pulls the big, stained, patchy sweatshirt off sam's thin frame. fresh bruises are scattered across sam's arms and torso. hickies and bite marks all over her neck. goddamn, jess thinks, small surge of jealousy that these aren't her marks, but brady's always the one sam goes to when she needs it rough.
jess tugs at the old sweatpants, some ugly joggers of brady's, and sam's not wearing any underwear underneath it either.
jess cleans between sam's legs with wet wipes. she's still wet and messy, cum and blood and lube, still somewhat loose and gaping. "rode hard, weren't you?" jess says, soft and soothing, and puts sam in some of jess' clean panties and comfortable shorts. sam is pliant, moveable, agreeable. she's not really here right now.
jess pulls the quilt over the both of them and presses sam to her middle, wrapping her arms tight around her. she kisses sam's forehead, and for the first time tonight, sam gives her the briefest moment of eye contact and a mere ghost of a smile. jess lets sam nestle her face into the crook of jess' neck.
jess strokes sam's hair, her back. "i got you, baby. you can sleep now."
