just a mess in a dress

   “Because you’re feeling like shit?”

"I mean to some degree. The owner’s a dick and I’m just tired of being treated like shit by him.”

   “I’m shit, mostly.” Dee drew her shoulders up.

   “You?”

“I can relate to that one.”

   “Haven’t seen you since…” She didn’t feel like bringing it up. Sissy had arrived with Silas and Corbin and Remi — had been waiting upstairs when they emerged from the basement — but she’d been there for Charlie, not for her. “Or… the wedding, I guess, actually.”

   “What’s up?” She cleared her throat, regarding the brunette with what she hoped was neutrality.

If Sissy was being honest with you, she honestly couldn’t remember most of what happened in the basement that night. It had all been a blur and since then she had just sort of put it behind her. The wedding she remembered. She tried to remember the good things as of recently, because the bad things just made her feel sad and vulnerable and she hated that feeling.

     Ever since the incident with Loralie, Dee had taken to running in the city instead of out in the desert at the edge of the woods. She hated it, really — no terrain, no open spaces, no getting away from people — but she hated not running more. It occupied her mind for a while, and if she ran until exhaustion took over, that helped too, wiping her out and wiping everything else away.

     Halfway down the street she’d turned onto, she spotted a familiar figure walking, felt a sudden flash of dread, and wondered whether she should stop. She didn’t want to. She really didn’t want to… but she did, slowing as Sissy approached before stopping completely.    “Uh. Hey.”

Sissy couldn’t recall the last time she had seen someone from her ‘past’ so to speak, a lot of her time had been her working, staying out of trouble, and being around Kip which even that had been awhile. Being with someone who also worked for the Government wasn’t always an easy feet but they managed. And now that she had walked out on her job and quit, things were going to get a bit more troublesome from here. But she would survive, it's what she knew how to do best.

     Vaughn was coming out of a fabric shop down the street, one long roll bopping the brunette in the waist before V tried to turn, avoiding a harder hit. Instead, she ran it into the wall behind her, cutting herself off, a whoosh of air being forced from her lungs as the tube rammed into her ribs, forcing her to drop it.

     “Fucker,” she muttered under her breath, meeting the other woman’s gaze momentarily, the fabric rolling down the sidewalk between them as she stumbled forward to try and grab it, “Sorry.”

Sissy’s attention went to the roll of fabric that began to roll in her directory. She shifted and moved bending down a bit to let it stop at her hand. As she held it in place her head lifted up to see the person come for it.

“Nah it’s totally fine.”

She said as she lifted it back up and handed it over to Vaughn.

“Like I said, not much. Just taking a walk while things are slow.” 

“Things being slow in Battery City, that can’t be normal can it?” She said with a slight laugh. 

   “Well, I don’t see you doing anything illegal.”

   “… Likewise.”

   “It’s Kolton.”

“Not much. Taking a walk, getting out of the clinic for a moment while things are slow,” he says as he takes a moment to sit down with Sissy. 

“Any reason you’re laying in the grass with all the bugs?” 

"Eh nothing really... just thinking” she pauses “getting things out of my head I suppose.”

   “No; I’m allergic to excitement, actually. If my pulse goes above one-ten I’ll die.”

“You know those things will kill you right?”

“Both either with disease, or the wrong patrol walking by.” 

   “Guess I’m boring, then.”

   “I abide by the law.” Kolton didn’t move. “So should you.”

   “Especially in public parks.”

“I feel like that’s a tad bit boring... I mean you can still abide by the law but live a little.”

   “I don’t have all day to list that for you. Besides the mandatory sentencing, it’s decided on a case-by-case basis. Why don’t you tell your friend to go big? Land themselves a death sentence.”

   “Times are the same as they’ve always been. I got no problem making it ten if that’s your preference.”