Dornie

Red

 Connie was beginning to get worried. Normally, whenever Dorothy was out late, she would text Connie with a warning and advise her to not stay up too late. Dorothy knew Connie tended to worry. She had seen first hand the kind of trouble Dorothy could dig herself into... and that was on an average day when she wasn't already angry.

Dorothy had been yelling when Connie got home from her six o'clock afternoon psychology class. Connie had gotten used to Dorothy's yelling early on in their friendship. Eventually, she had even learned to decipher the different kinds.

Excited yelling was for her video games, sports, and surprises.

Rant yelling was for use after something had left Dorothy in a tizzy.

Friendly yelling came out when the whole group was over, she got excited and Dorothy felt as though she needed to be heard.

Dorothy was easily excitable, and when excited, Dorothy tended to yell. However, this instance was completely different.

Dorothy hadn't been excited, frustrated or any of the other tones  Connie knew how to easily recognize. Even through her facade, as Connie poked her head around the corner and into her girlfriend's bedroom, she could see Dorothy was feeling small as she weakly held the phone to her ear. Dorothy was trying to protect herself from whoever was on the other end of the phone.

Dorothy was never meant to be small. As soon as she came through the door, Dorothy filled the room. She was enigmatic, dependable, but mostly just always there. It was one of the things that Connie loved the most about her, her there-ness.

"If you aren't going to listen to me, don't fucking call." Dorothy's voice was barely above a whisper, choked and hoarse. Connie could see the internal debate of whether or not to throw the phone across the room. She breathed a sigh of relief when Dorothy didn't.

When Dorothy looked up, she seemed shocked to see Connie there. Her eyes were filled with tears and Connie recognized her facial expression as little as she had her tone of voice. It was disconcerting. After three months of a relationship and living together for six, Connie had thought she knew Dorothy inside and out, upside and down. She didn't like being wrong.

Dorothy shoved the phone into her pocket roughly and pushed past Connie as though she weren't actually there.

"Who was on the phone?" Connie asked, watching the muscle in Dorothy's jaw jump as she ground her teeth.

"Mother. I'm going to go let off some steam. I'll see you later." Dorothy grabbed her wallet and jacket before leaving, slamming the door behind her.

Connie tried not to let it get to her. She knew her girlfriend was really, seriously pissed and obviously not in the mood for talking. She just really wished Dorothy would open up and talk to her. Dorothy would talk about just about anything for ages unless the conversation turned personal and in her general direction. As soon as Connie would bring up Dorothy's parents or even her own parents, Dorothy would shut down... all of the way down. Connie hated it but never pressed. She wished now that she had pressed.

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"Thanks, Ariana, I would hate to be a bother to you, but I feel like I wouldn't be the best person to go after her right now. It means a lot to me... just bring her home safely. Thank you again, bye-bye." Connie hanged up the phone and sat down at Dorothy's computer system.

"The password is AllForOne, why am I not surprised? All right Inseps. I need your help." Connie said to the live stream, watching the icons for each of Dorothy's friends come alive.