Mixtapes & Polaroids | Sam x Deena

3

The moment Deena steps out her bedroom door, the smell hits her nose like a punch to the face. It was harrowing, gut turning and just utterly disgusting that Deena had to actively try not to gag. It's happened before, too many times than she'd be comfortable to admit and Deena knew almost instantly what she had to do.

So she jogs to the bathroom and grabs the supplies from underneath the sink, then she makes a stop down in the basement where Josh was already situated under a blanket, the sound of his keys tapping away muffling under the fabric as Deena hastily yanks it off. He looks at her like she had just spit on him, with the fiery irritation of a prepubescent boy in the middle of a game.

"Take the bus. I can't walk with you today." Deena says flatly, a ghost of a sigh on her lips as Josh furrows his brows.

"I can walk alone." He says, but Deena wasn't having it. With the morning she was about to endure, any and all arguments were just deemed invalid from then on.

"Take the bus. You're not walking alone." She says lowly, and usually, Josh would have gladly argued but he saw the gloves crumpled up in his sister's hands and the tired look swimming in her eyes and he couldn't find it in himself to be the annoying little brother she was stuck with.

So he only nods.

"Go get ready, you're going to be late. I'll ring Simon to bring you lunch." Deena says, and without another word Josh slips out of his seat and makes his way upstairs, deeming his suspicions true when the smell hits his nose as well.

So when Josh is about to head out to catch the bus, Deena is knelt on the carpet trying to scrub out vomit that had most likely been sitting for hours. Her father was nowhere in sight, but the aftermath of his presence remained. Josh lingers by the door, feeling like he should say something but never really knowing the words.

"See you later." Is what he settles on, and Deena only waves him off. She's got that empty look in her eyes again, the same one Josh had seen one too many times.

By the time she's done cleaning, Deena realizes that she was already late. So without a care in the world, she takes her time in the shower, using the opportunity of being alone at home to blast her music as she throws on a sweater and some jeans. When she makes it out to the sidewalk, the sky is dark and the air is cold like the clouds were struggling to hold in the rain. All Deena was really hoping for was that it wouldn't pour, because she had forgotten to grab an umbrella and she was not about to go back home.

With Radiohead blasting in her headphones, Deena turns the corner and from a distance she almost instantly recognizes the scene before her. It's Sam, she's almost sure of it so her pace slows to a torturous step, watching as Sam practically stomps out of her house, wiping at her eyes incessantly with her backpack loosely hanging off her shoulders.

Deena doesn't really know what to make of it, because Sam was very clearly crying and Deena could hear the screams coming from inaide the house and she was just a few feet away, not really knowing what to do. But she takes a breath, puts on a smile and jogs up to Sam anyway, making it a point not to mention what she saw.

"Hey." Deena hums right before she reaches Sam, purposely giving the girl some time to wipe her tears and plaster on a smile that Deena could see through.

"Oh— hey. What are you doing here?" Sam asks, her voice hoarse and rough like she had been screaming all night and it takes everything in Deena to keep her nonchalant smile from faltering because Sam looked so very tired that Deena actually forgets she's just as exhausted.

"Took the shortcut to school. I didn't know you live here." Deena offers the best casual tone she could, pretending like she couldn't hear the way Sam was trying to subtly sniffle away her tears.