Mixtapes & Polaroids | Sam x Deena

14

Deena has to fight everyone in the car to let her go to the station on her own.

It got so disastrously bad that Kate had to pull over, take off her seatbelt just so she could turn around and yell at Deena about how stupid she was being. Sam and Simon, of course, agreed but Deena had her reasons. She needed to know everyone was home and safe and not with her because truthfully, Deena felt like a giant magnet for catastrophe and she'll be damned if anyone gets hurt because of her.

Sam was almost just as frustrated as Kate when Deena doesn't budge, frowning and huffing like a chastised kid in the backseat next to her but she just didn't understand, she didn't see the way Deena was looking at her, or feel the way Deena's heart sank at the fact that she had successfully pulled Sam into the whirlwind that was her recklessness.

Because it was Sam, It was always Sam, having her around raised the stakes to a point Deena couldn't reach and it terrified her because how can she look at Sam, Sam in her cozy sweater and soft hair and warm smile and be okay with just putting her in danger? Deena didn't even care that she didn't trust Sam completely yet, she just needed Sam to be safe even when she was so painfully stubborn.

"We're doing this together." Kate concludes, slumping back into her seat with a huff.

"It's not up for discussion, Kate! I'll take my dad's car and drive down there myself." Deena stands her ground, arms crossed over her chest as Simon, who was in the middle of snacking on a bag of nuts, turns to look at her.

"Sorry, D. I agree with Kate on this one. You literally just got locked in a closet, we have a better chance at safety together." Simon hums, and Deena almost couldn't believe something so sensible could come out of his mouth. Kate was surprised too, glancing at the boy in the passenger seat.

"See? Even Simon gets it." Sam says, frustration peeking in her tone as Deena looks over each of them, realizing she had been playing a losing game the moment Kate unbuckled her belt.

"We're driving there right now and ending this. Let's see him try to get to you from behind bars." Kate seethes, eyes sharp and glued to the road as she headed to the station.

"I'm trying to keep everyone safe!" Deena exclaims.

"Everyone but yourself, Deena." Sam chastises, entirely unpleased with Deena's willingness to do the most crucial part on her own despite the very obvious risks staring them in the face.

And she's looking at Deena with so much conflict and emotion that Deena just sinks into silence because she also didn't understand. She wasn't there with Sam, who had to go through a day of classes right after Deena told her she quite literally almost died. She wasn't there on the other side of the door when Sam was staring at the fragments of the knob with her heart in her hands and her head in a spin because just as much as she didn't want to hurt Sam, Sam didn't want to lose her.

Not again.

And Sam knew all to well what happens in Shadyside, she saw it more than Deena would think. All the unnecessary deaths, the preventable casualties, all the lives wasted and lost to a curse that nobody was sure was real, even when the aftermath stared them in the face and Sam thinks maybe it's not as much of a myth as people think. She thinks maybe, just maybe, it was real because the worst things always seemed to happen to the best people and Sam just didn't know how to explain that.

"Okay. Okay fine." Deena caves, because the desperation in Sam's eyes was shining and she couldn't let go, even if she begged herself to because the moment she agrees, Sam lets out a breath that she feels like she had been holding for ages and she actually, with as much subtlety as she could, moves a little closer to Deena.