DON'T DEAD OPEN INSIDE

“you said it, not me.” luca grinned. he didn’t mind having lennie’s eyes looking him over. in fact, he encouraged it. his thick brows shot up in surprise at her request to have the door locked. he couldn’t stop his head from ending up in the gutter, thinking about having his way with lennie behind the closed doors of the laundry room. her reasoning for wanting them locked wasn’t what he was hoping for, but he still wasn’t disappointed either. it gave luca a chance to be completely alone with the pretty brunette. he locked the door and sauntered back over to lennie, smirking at her lustful gaze. “that’s pretty devious of you. here i thought you were the sweet girl-next-door.”

Chrissy had been working with children for as long as she could remember, and had always intended to do so from when she was a little kid. Securing this job with Anna had been one of the best nannying jobs that she’d been given, the stability being something that she’d enjoyed. She hadn’t intended to start sleeping with her boss, but one thing had led to another and she didn’t regret a second of it. She’d been to the office a number of times, so she wasn’t phased when she knocked on the door. There was no need to be nervous when you’d done nothing wrong.

Her face dropped slightly as she listened to the blonde, a finger tucking her hair behind her ear as she contemplated the words that hung in the air. “Did I do something wrong? Did I upset you in some way?” She asked, wanting answers more than anything. Nobody had made her feel the way Anna had, and she wanted to know what she’d done to ruin it. “I haven’t told anyone, you know. I liked it being our secret.” She paused, biting on her lip nervously. “Are you firing me?”

The moment Chrissy entered her office, Anna knew this was going to be a more complicated conversation than she had expected. It was her fault, really. She should have planned to have such a tense conversation in a more neutral location than her office, the place where they had fooled around one too many times for Anna’s parental sanity to be holding in a great place. “You didn’t... you didn’t do anything,” the older woman began, trying to alleviate her eyes away from the woman before her. It was complicated, sure. Anna was sacrificing her happiness and the way that Chrissy made her feel for nothing more than a paranoid mind about what people would think about her if word got out - which it never would. Anna was starting to struggle her thought process throughout this whole thing. “It’s just not... it’s not right. You’re hired to be an aid for my son, and nothing more or less.”

“Maybe one or two.” She laughed, shaking her head at his question. Not that she could talk, she was being the queen of vague at the moment. It wasn’t that she wanted to particularly lie about who she was, but sometimes she wanted to forget who she was. She tilted her head as he continued to speak, keeping quiet as he explained. She nodded in agreement. She had plenty of fights with her mother, and every time it always ended in the two of them apologising profusely. They were just too similar, according to her father. “That does suck.” She agreed empathically. “Maybe you should get her flowers, there are very few women who wouldn’t enjoy getting them.” She suggested, as she accepted her drink from the  bartender with a dazzling smile. She let out a small laugh, shrugging. “No, this is not my scene at all.” She was enjoying herself, although she was certain that was nothing to do with where she was. “A bad day at work.” She explained, although she was certain she was gaining plenty of mysterious points herself. “I just needed to go somewhere different, and here we are.” She held up her glass, gesturing around them. “It could have been worse, though.” She smiled at him, her eyes focusing on his.

“I’ll take it where I can get it,” Colby said with a wide smile as he tipped the remainder of his drink into his mouth. He needed to slow down on the drinking before he started making even worse decisions with his life - all of which revolved around the things he could do to the pretty blonde seated next to him. “Flowers? I cannot remember the last time... I got someone flowers, let alone Ma. I think you might be right there.” There was a moment of silence from Colby before he nodded in her direction. “If you’re so good with this stuff, wanna share a little about what flowers say the best apology? I feel like that’s somethin’ the world’s worked out that I haven’t caught onto yet.” Once his new drink was delivered, Colby grabbed the attention of the bartender before ordering a shot for both him and Fliss. If they were going to be drinking after a hard day and in a dive bar in town? He was going to make sure there were plenty of stories for the both of them - or maybe even a slight level of blackout drunk behavior to be ashamed about. “Well here’s to hoping that a little bit of time in this horrible place makes up for the bad day,” he said as he raised the shot glass that was placed before him, pushing hers over with his free hand. As he threw back the shot, Colby couldn’t stop his eyes from gluing themselves to Fliss. She was beautiful, and that was even an understatement of the year for what he truly thought about her.

Victoria knew they were both on a sinking ship right now, their scene was going nowhere and by the time the director told them to stop she was mentally exhausted and annoyed. She was a good actor, hearing Florence speak to the director and crew on her behalf made her eyes roll. Biting back her anger as she was ushered into the trailer she turned her gaze on Florence. “Excuse me? Why does it sound like you’re making all of this fall on me?” She was defensive, of course she was. If she could have forgotten about Florence being her ex then she would have, but it was entirely impossible especially now. “I think you need to calm down because your panic levels right now are off the charts.” And it was starting to move to her. Rubbing her palms against her thighs Victoria took a seat and exhaled. She really didn’t want to speak about this. “I’m angry at you, that’s what’s I have to say to you. I’m angry since things ended and I think us being in this movie together is a bad move.” But financially for her it was a smart move, she was sure she could work through whatever issues they had. “But there’s nothing we can do about that now, not unless you just…calm down, okay?” 

She was still mostly new to the job. Having been a paramedic for so long, being in the FBI and apart of this team had been an adjustment for her. She knew she was reckless, that she often acted before she thought and put herself in danger, that day hadn’t been an exception, in fact it had probably been one of her more reckless moments. “I know.” Maya whispered, letting out a shaky sigh as she slipped shaking hands into her pockets, she looked to JJ, hating that she kept doing this to her, kept her worrying for her safety. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to scare you, I just didn’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

Being here with Colby felt easy, more than she would have thought. Strangely, there seemed to be some unspoken agreement for no bullshits, or so the woman felt like, as one real thought had been told by her and he admitted to his dealings. “How high are you to want to do that with me?” she asked, an eyebrow raising at his proposition of staring at a wall together. “Or rather, how hard did he hit you?” Still, there was a small blush covering her cheeks, something that rarely happened with the boys she knew. Boys, because that was what they were to her, all of them seeming childish, spoiled, entitled. But Colby? As she looked at him she couldn’t help but think that he was a man. “Strangely, hanging here with you sounds better than going back in there.” Maybe there was a full moon or mercury was in retrograde. 

A smile formed on her lips at the simple admission that it hurt. It wasn’t that she wanted him to feel pain, but she didn’t know anyone who wouldn’t have pretended it didn’t, just to prove how strong they were. But Colby? He didn’t do that and something in Tessa felt electrified by it. His hand was resting on her hip and, unlike the other guy before, she didn’t want him to pull it off. A finger gently brushed his lip that was starting to swell. “You need some ice. There’s probably something in the freezer, they always keep vodka in here.” Tessa didn’t want to move, to stop being this close to him and that was a problem. Dropping her eyes, she slowly got up opening the freezer and turning around with a triumphant smile on her lips as she held a vodka bottle. “Here, double purpose,” she said, taking a sip directly from the bottle before sitting down next to Colby, probably a little bit too close, and put the freezing bottle on his lip.

“Oh no worries there. I only deal the shit, I don’t do it. I feel like it’d be bad for business,” Colby said with a joking tone though his words were completely real and true. He had tried the route of getting high before and there was something that didn’t vibe well enough for him. Weed was fine, but then again, he never thought that to be the biggest of highs in the world. “We can say he hit me hard though.” His eyes flashed to wash over her face, shaking his head at his own thoughts. It was silly to be thinking so much about what his sister would think about Tessa helping him in a moment like this. It wasn’t like her and Tessa were kids anymore. There wasn’t any amount of creepiness occurring because of Colby’s wandering thoughts... and the desperate want to have wandering hands on her body. Christ, how many drinks had he downed in between sales?

Whenever Tessa didn’t move away, Colby felt a shift in his world. It wasn’t that he figured she found him to be repulsive, but he had already been lining up his apology speech at the simple task of touching her. “Ice yeah,” Colby mumbled, his eyes searching her face for a moment to bask in the glory of the closeness. He should stop - but then again, Tessa stopped for the both of them. He settled back against the couch whenever she walked across the room to hopefully find some relief for his wounds, but all Colby could do was keep his eyes trained on her. “I like the way you think,” he said with a laugh as she pressed the vodka bottle against his lip, ticking his tongue at her for a moment. “Sharing is caring now, c’mon.” As he grabbed the bottle from her hand, he couldn’t help the way his fingers lingered against her skin before taking a large swig of the alcohol himself. It was a cheap cop out, but at least he could use the weak excuse of the alcohol getting to his head if he pulled any kind of funny business with Tessa. “You uh- you want anything?” Colby asked in a soft tone, patting the inside pocket of his jacket to show exactly the kind of product he was talking about. 

To Florence, Sunday brunch with her friends was one of the most crucial and necessary parts of the week, especially after following a wild Friday night. She had spent far too much time and money at the bar, only to go home with another woman. It wasn’t that it was completely out of character for Florence, but she wasn’t the type to end the rendezvous in such a quiet and unknown kind of way. Regardless, it was her time to relax, unwind, and drink far too many mimosas for her future selves liking. “No seriously, like, cut me off after I’m grabbing for my sixth or something, okay? I don’t think we’ll like who comes out,” Flo said to one of her friends with a far too energetic laugh as she looked towards the door to see her very late friend finally showing up for the fun. “It’s about time. What the hell, where have you bee-” As soon as her friend came into full view, she recognized the face following behind her. She knew that her friend had mentioned bringing along someone she knew from work, but Florence wasn’t aware she had to prepare herself to face the woman from Friday night so suddenly. Without much explanation, her energy went from a cute ten to a bummer of a two as she averted her eyes as much as she possibly could from the situation at hand.

Whenever the apocalypse struck, Lexis had been away on a business trip. In the middle of a seminar, one of of the mindless little brain eaters had attacked the presenter in front of almost a hundred willing eyes and ears, thus sparking the biggest clusterfuck of a panic that she had ever endured. She had barely made it out, but her safety was all thanks to them.

“Please, call me Cordelia.” What did it say about herself, that she was going home and the only person who seemed to bother having a real conversation of all evening didn’t even call her by her name. There was something almost urgent in the way Cordelia asked Lennie to use her name, a need to feel less alone. The place they were driving to was one of her favorite, the view being amazing but also, the feeling of being above everything, not in a condescendant way but as if things below didn’t matter that much. “The food was good, like always. A lot of ass kissing too,” she said with half a smile as she tried to catch the woman’s eyes in the miror. “I’m not keeping you from going home to someone waiting I hope?” There was something in her words that was prying. Cordelia didn’t want Lennie to leave someone home alone like her own husband was doing but there was also something more. The two woman spending a lot of time together in this car and there was a liking forming for the driver.

“Cordelia,” Lennie spoke, her voice having a certain speed to it as she locked eyes with the woman in her rearview mirror. She knew that it was wrong, but she couldn’t stop the excited ball of tension that was buzzing through her rib cage. A soft bout of laughter fell from her lips about the events of the party, knowing exactly the kind of things she was talking about. Coming from her family, she had endured her fair share of snazzy galas and fancy parties, and each one of them bored her more than the last. It was exhausting having to be the kind of person that was approachable enough by others at an event like that. “I uh-” Lennie said with a tilt of her head, her eyes suddenly glued to the road at the personally prying question. It wasn’t that Lennie was upset about the question, or even her answer, but more so the events that she wanted to unfold because of her lacking of a partner in life. “Unless you’re going to be particularly worried about the pup I have most likely sleeping at home, we’re all set for a while now.” Lennie’s eyes flashed back towards the mirror as she smiled at Cordelia’s reflection. “Girlfriend and I broke up a couple months ago so I’ve been off the hook from a curfew,” she lied, wanting nothing more to throw out the fact that she was in fact the kind of woman that could make Cordelia happy if she would allow it. “Did the Mr. give you a curfew?” She pried, the smirk on her face telling the tale of her sarcastic banter birthing into their conversation.

The question AJ was asking was simple and yet, so complex. There were so many layers to what happened, the action that got him in there in the first place but also, what happened when he was in jail. Things that Savannah never wanted the male to know. If AJ knew that Michael didn’t stop or walk away from her easily after almost dying, there was a chance Michael would not escape AJ’s fists alive this time. And the blonde woman would never let the man she truly loved pay for her mistakes, never again. “Because I wasn’t here before,” she simply stated. Even now, there was a fear deep within her, a need to look over her shoulder, one that was fought, to make sure he wasn’t there, watching her, and that she would not pay the price of her freedom. AJ was angry with her and he had every right to be. She had let him down when he needed her the most and that was not something she would ever forgive herself. And she would not held it against him if he didn’t either. “I should have been here for you and you’re right to be mad.” She could barely look at him as she said these words, guilt eating away at her. “Can I at least give you a ride? Maybe we could talk…” The words hung in the air between them, Savannah feeling like there was no actual words that could explain why he was alone for five years.

The more he looked at Savannah, the more he came to the conclusion that there were a lot of victims in the game that was his life. Michael, obvious and for great reason. Himself, for having to waste five years of his life in prison. But the most important victim was Savannah. She had been the victim of abuse and suffered for God only knows how long at the hand of Michael, and then was thrust into an unknown world of trying to ‘better’ herself with what she had now. She was the one that should be having the hardest time with her emotions, not AJ. With that in mind, his demeanor and composure became more approachable as he exhaled slowly a handful of times. He needed to buck the fuck up or else he didn’t deserve people like Savannah in his life. “I’m sorry,” he began, approaching her with softer features as he held his hand up and waved it around like a metaphorical white flag. “I would uh- I would like that. The ride. Not so much the talkin’ ‘cause uh- still not the biggest one in the world but I’ll muster something up for ya.” Better, he thought to himself, knowing that while a level of anger in Savannah was acceptable in this situation, he didn’t need to be a big, bad, unapproachable kind of bastard. She had been through her own personal hell and prison too. AJ saddled up next to her during their walk to her car, resting in the comfortable silence that was between them. If there was one thing about prison, it was the absence of silence. At all hours of the day, there was something clanging on their doors or the bars on some of the cells, not to mention the abhorrent sounds of constant screaming and yelling. It was nice.