I held the phone in my hand and stared at it. I'd slept on the way home, so even though it was after 1 am, I was still wide awake. Marissa had fallen asleep hours earlier to be rested for her early class on Monday, so I should be good to do what I needed to... I was in between my bed and my wall, on the far side from wall that opened up, with pillows and cushions over and around me to muffle the sounds I'd be making. My tablet was propped up against the bed, and I'd figured out how to do video calls, so if she was still up...
I opened my phone, and cringed at the notifications... 4 missed calls, 10 new texts, one new voicemail. I opened the messages first, and read through them in order.
'in her pockrt?! no thats illegal, she isn't allowed to do that, it's not allowed, you need to tell her to stop.'
'Did you LET her do it? Please tell me you didn't...'
'Amber, I need you to get video of her putting you in her pocket, can you do that?'
'I'm coming over, I'll be there in 30 minutes, I'll be recording, we're going to get the evidence we need to get you out of there'
'Amber, I need you to respond, I'm out front and Parker won't let me in'
'I'm going to call'
'is your phone off?'
'Amber, please'
'ok, I take it your really are not at home, I climbed a tree behind the house, and Marissa's room looked empty.'
'please call me when you get the chance, I need to talk to you.'
I sighed and played the voicemail. The compression had made the speaker almost impossible to understand, and after listening to her garbled yells for a few seconds I turned it off. I looked at the tablet. If I was going to talk to her, it needed to be on this, my phone couldn't pick up my voice anymore, and I really did want to talk things out with her and not struggle with texting with bandaged fingers. I pulled my new pajamas up higher to hide the bandages on my neck, and pulled up her contact information. I pressed the video call button, making sure the volume was down as low as it could go. It rang twice, then her blurry face popped up on my screen. I could barely see her, but she seemed to have been crying, or sleeping, or both.
"Amber?..." She mumbled
"Hey Henri. We gotta talk."
She rubbed her face and clicked on a lamp, lighting up the room. With a start, I recognized it as my room, and what's more, she was wearing one of my sweatshirts.
"Ok, yeah, I want to talk about her keeping you in her pocket, you DO know that's-"
"Henri, why are you in my room?" I said, looking around her at all my stuff, half of it pulled out of drawers or on the floor.
"Oh... I'm renting it, your dad said it was ok, I can pay them money and help with food, and I get to stay here..." She said looking around.
"But- all my stuff is still in there, and you're wearing my clothes, that feels... I don't know, it's my space, you can't just take it over..." I said. I couldn't put my finger on why, but the idea of her sliding into my old life, into my room and clothes and space and just... picking up where I left off was unsettling.
"No, I'm- it's ok! I'm just doing this for now, once we get you away from her, we'll share the room and you can have it back again!"
That was still concerning, but I didn't have the words to talk about it right now. "...Ok, moving on... "Henri, I don't think getting me away is the top priority right now."
She gasped "Oh, my little sweet, how could you say that? She put you in her pocket, that should only be done with people you love!"
"Henri, I told her she could put me in her pocket. I was comfortable there."
"But..." Henri shook her head "The bottle, with the cushions, that was comfortable, right?"
I was not about to tell her the reason I needed to be in the pocket was me getting chemical burned and going to the doctor. She'd blame herself for it, or worse, blame Marissa and go after her even harder...
"I wanted to try it, and it worked very well, I had no complaints." I said matter of a factly. "I really don't like the bottle, Henri."
"You shouldn't have given her permission, Amber!" Henri said, angrily "If you'd said no, she would have done it anyway eventually, and then you could be free of her!"
"I don't WANT to be free of her right now, Henri." I said, getting angry back "It just doesn't make sense, if I 'get free' of her, I go live with my parents and you, but do you really think Marissa won't report you too? For the kiss and the soup and stuff? You won't even be allowed to touch me or anything even if you ARE still there when I get back home, and I don't even know if my parents will be able to pass the recert test for much longer, so... I'll be 'escaping' Marissa to just get sold again to some random person in a few years."
She stared at me and frowned. "...Look, once you get here, I can get you out of the country. It won't matter if I'm not allowed to hold you or anything, I'll just do it anyway, and we can be on that plane to my homeland in no time. Your parents will report you missing, we'll blame Marissa, and after it calms down, they come over too. I just need you away from Marissa first."
"No... I..." I rubbed my eyes "I don't want to be smuggled out unless I have to be, I looked into what class B smuggling involves, and that's disgusting, that's worse than anything Marissa would ever do to me."
"It's just until we get onto the plane, we can get pre-cleared to land in a private airfield, it's-"
"No, Henri, you're not doing that to me, ok?" I snapped, shuddering.
"...I need you back, klein fee... I'll do whatever it takes to do that. Smuggling you, kidnapping you, if I need to get rid of the person who could stop me... I'll do it."
"No! That's... just stop being so 'much' all the time and you can at least see me. We were having fun on Friday, until you went nuts, I think Marissa would have invited you over again even."
"It wasn't fun to see you in that position like that, not for me."
I groaned "It wasn't that bad, the only thing that was even slightly harmful is when YOU threw me in Marissa's soup."
"That was an accident" She hissed "And if she hadn't yelled at me, it wouldn't have happened."
"I'm just saying Marissa was having fun until you confessed your love to me as part of a party game."
Her eyes welled up with tears and she leaned away from the camera. "Amber, I couldn't hold it in anymore... I just love you so much..."
"..." I didn't know what to say, I still hadn't decided how I felt about her, or if I was even interested, but I did know I wasn't ready to deal with it right now. The compression, Marissa, my new life, if I even though about any of it for too long, a cold wave of horror rushed over me with a sinking despair. Having to decide if I wanted to risk my best friend by dating her, even if she wasn't scaring me? It was just too much.
"Amber..." She whispered "Talk to me..."
"Henri, I called you tonight to tell you to stop trying to find a way to get me back. At least for now. I don't want you trying to kidnap me, gods know I don't want you 'smuggling' me, and I don't want you hurting Marissa."
"Why the fuck do you care what happens to Marissa?!" She said throwing her hands up.
"I don't know, because she's the one taking care of me? She's the one feeding me and making sure I'm not killed, and if you kill or injure her, then I'm fucked." I snarled. I rarely got angry at Henri, this was unlike me, but THIS was unlike her too. "I can't even imagine what will happen to you if you really do hurt her to get me. You'll be blacklisted from keeping class Bs forever, and if you're living with my parents, THEY could be blacklisted too, do you want that?"
"I just want you to get away from her..." Henri said sadly.
"And get me thrown back into the system?" I said "I've been watching videos from people who have their own class Bs constantly since I was compressed. Marissa bullies me, sure, but do you know what happens to other class Bs?"
"...The test very clearly lays out how you need to treat-"
"We're used as living anime waifu figures by creeps, we're given to children as if we were dolls, we're forced to do physical challenges for social media views, we're used as jewelry, we're kept in people's cleavage, we're kept in clear plastic terrariums with no privacy, we're forced to play with whatever pets the guardian owns... I've seen a class B batted across a room by a cat, and it was posted on the internet as a cute video of the cat 'playing with him'." I take a breath "Do you realize that you could be dooming me to any one of those fates if you hurt her? If you take things too far? She is NOT perfect and she scares the shit out of me, but at least she's not letting a 6 year old cut all my hair off or making me dance to pop music in embarrassing outfits for an audience."
Henri was crying more clearly now, her hands over her face, and her shoulders shaking "B-but if I can g-get you out of t-there, I'd just...leave with you, no c-cats or cleavage..."
"Henri, get the idea out of your head. I'm not going to talk to you again until you promise me you won't try to kidnap me OR hurt Marissa." I said firmly.
"But Amber, no you-"
I hung up the call, and powered off the tablet. I was angry. Her stupid selfish obsession was going to get me hurt or worse, and she couldn't just fucking chill. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been this angry with her, or I'd ever been this angry with her. I turned my phone off too to make sure she couldn't contact me until I was ready to talk again, and shoved it under my mattress, and stood up, pulling the pillow fort apart so I could re-make my bed and get some sleep. I turned to go the the bathroom to brush my teeth, and I froze. In the window was a large green eye, watching me.
"...Hi Marissa..." I whimpered as my knees went out from under me.
~~~
We sat in her kitchen. Her chef was long asleep, and while she could have woken him up, she had opted to make the tea herself, and was sitting in front of me slowly drinking it. I was hugging my knees as I sat on the teapot, too afraid to speak up once since she plucked me out of my room without a word. After a long sip, she set the teacup down and tilted her head at me, her expressionless face not telling me anything about her mood.
"So, a little late night girl's talk?" She said, finally breaking the silence.
I swallowed and took a breath "Yeah, just clearing some things up, just. Girl talk."
She nodded and took another sip of her tea. "...I could hear you, you know. Your house is well made, but it's still a dollhouse, and my room is very quiet."
"I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to wake you up, I had it quiet..." I said, praying that she didn't hear what was said.
She took a deep breath. "That's not the issue here, is it?"
"...I'm not sure what you mean..."
"From what I heard, you had to talk your psycho girlfriend down from literally killing me." She said, still just as calm and emotionless.
"She's not- it was- no, see, she wouldn't-" I stammered
"Oh, but she would." Marissa said cooly. "I have no doubt that if she thought she could get away with it, she'd kill me."
"She's not like that, she'd never-"
"You know she came to the house today? Tried to force her way in, shouted at Parker and attempted to push past him and get in so she could come find you."
"... she did mention that..." I felt ashamed, embarrassed by her behavior
"I think she's dangerous, and I think you're starting to see it too, Amber."
"I think she just needs time to calm down..." I said "She's just worked up, it'll be ok in the long run."
"Mm. Well, she's banned from my house, and I'm planning on telling her I'll get a restraining order if she tries to come near me tomorrow at school."
I looked up alarmed "You can't do that! She'll have to work her whole school schedule around you, she could flunk out of the classes you share!"
"Well, either she flunks the classes, or I have to sit next to someone who actually wants to kill me, it's not a hard choice for me."
"Ok, ok... It shouldn't come to that... Just keep me in your pocket, and she can't attack you without risking me being crushed when you fall."
A smile spread across Marissa's face despite her attempts to keep it neutral. "Oh wow, that's such a good plan, Amber" She said dramatically "I can't believe the only way to keep you safe is for you to hide in my pocket, what a twist. Oh well, I guess I have no choice..."
"...Don't make it weird, it's just an easy way to make sure you're not in danger." I grumbled.
"Uh huh." She said. "Because you care soooo much about my wellbeing."
I lowered my head and rested my chin on my knees. "A bit, you're supposed to take care of me. You can't do that if she stabs you or something."
"Uh huh. Anyway, next topic... From what you told her, you really are stuck with me, huh? There's no way out for you, you're doomed to like, be my toy for as long as I'll have you, is that right?"
I felt a chill go through my whole body "Oh, fucking hell, you heard that?"
"I woke up at the ringtone, I was listening in when you were still arguing about me keeping you in my pocket."
"I..." I tried to think of a way out "I was just saying that to make Henri stop trying to get me. My mother and Appa aren't that bad, I'd be able to stay with them for a long time, and I'm sure they could contact someone back home to take care of me when they can't..."
"Oh, sure, the government's just going to let them transfer ownership to some rando overseas when they're too blind and stupid to keep you safe? No, that's not how it works." She took another sip "I didn't think about the logistics of losing you, of what would happen to you. I just didn't want my toy getting taken away. Now that I have your perspective though..."
"If you just start hurting me, I will straight up report you still." I said coldly "I don't care if I am stuck back on a store shelf, if you're going to be horrible, I'll take my chances."
She laughed and picked me up off the bowl, holding me in front of her face. "I like you, Amber, I won't break you. I like talking to you even, as a... mm, well, not an equal, but someone who can be honest with me, and I don't want to lose that."
She lowered me so my face was just above her steaming cup of tea and I pulled back, the heat making me sweat and the strong chamomile scent making my head swim.
"That said... I now know I can get away with a lot more fun without risking you telling."
"I trusted you, I lied to a doctor for you, Marissa, we're building a relationship, you can't-"
She squeezed me and pulled me back up to her face "We can still build a relationship. Like I said, I like you. That trust stuff though, it's not like you have a choice or anything, you HAVE to trust me, and that feels... very nice."
"No, Marissa, we can just be friends, wouldn't that be nice?" I protested, my arms at my sides. I was getting better at bracing myself so she felt like she was squeezing me, but it wasn't too bad. "Just like, a best friend in your pocket, someone always there for you, someone to play games with and who trusts you, wouldn't that be amazing?"
"I'm still going to have all that, Amber. I'll just be able to have the fun the way I wanted to as well." She smiled at me "I feel good! I feel like we really got somewhere tonight, really truly."
"I don't want to be your friend if you're going to hurt me, I won't trust you if you don't give me a reason to, do you want to throw that away?"
"Mmm, noooo..." She said "Buuut... it's me or no one as far as friends go, and like, trust aside, you'll have to rely on me for food and stuff, so there's going to be trust there, right?"
I shook my head "No, look, can we talk about it in the morning? It's too late to be making these kinds of life-changing decisions, right?"
"Well... this sleepy tea is working pretty well... We can go to bed. But I'm taking your tablet before bed from now on, and don't expect me to change my mind about stuff, we're going right back to you being a toy, ok?"
I felt lost and hopeless, all the trust I'd shown her, the games we played, her promise to be better, as soon as she found out I was powerless, she threw it all away, and for what? Just to bully me more? She'd forgotten about the threat on her life as soon as we brought up me not being able to tattle on her, so even her own LIFE was second to the idea of treating me as less that human.
At least she hadn't seen my phone...
...Not that I had anyone to talk to on it anyway.
~~~
I woke up and rolled out of bed. I popped my back and stepped into the bathroom to get ready. Hopefully Marissa had calmed down since we spoke last night, and she wouldn't be treating me as poorly as she had before... I spat out the toothpaste, rinsed my mouth, and headed downstairs to find breakfast. As I opened the fridge, the wall of my house swung open, and Marissa's giant hand reached out and grabbed me, her finger closing the refrigerator on the way out.
"Wh- hey! I haven't eaten, and I'm still in my pajamas, what the heck?" I yelled as she swung me around to see her.
She was already dressed, and had a pair of skinny jeans and a yellow sleeveless top on, with a grey ball cap on her head. She smiled, and wiggled me in the air as she walked over to her handbag sitting on her desk.
"Oh, you can just eat when we get home from school, and as for clothes... No one will see you today, so it's fiiine." She said proudly.
"Am-am I going in your purse?" I asked "I don't like that, what if-"
"No no no, little Amber, you'll be going in my pocket, just like we discussed! Alllll day long."
I looked at her outfit, confused, before I realized with a start that she was talking about her jeans pockets.
"Wh- no! I'll suffocate! That doesn't count!"
"I'm sure it'll be ok, I'm not worried at least!" She said, slinging the bag over her shoulder. "So, front or back? Your pick."
I gaped at her. This was unrealistic, there was no way I could willingly let her do that to me, I wouldn't be able to move for as long as I was in there.
"No preference, huh?" she said "Oh well, I guess I'll pick for youuuuu..." She slowly moved me around to her backside.
"FRONT!" I yelled "Gods, front, fuck..."
"Aw, ok, maybe next time then." She said, grinning wide.
"This isn't what I signed up for, I'll be-"
"Going in nooow!" She sang, and pulled her pocket open, sliding me into the darkness.
The warmth was the first thing I noticed, my face and front were right up against her, so I was directly absorbing her body heat, but my back part was against the jeans themselves, and I could feel the cool air of the room. The top of the pocket snapped closed, and I struggled to move, my arms and legs spread uncomfortably out to the sides, my face pinned to her thigh. I strained against the fabric, and could move it just enough to turn my head if I needed to, but not enough to move my body. I took a deep breath to test my breathing ability, and found that while the air was hot, stale, and smelled like Marissa's skin, I could breathe in light, short breaths.
"Marissa, let me OUT!" I yelled "I can't fucking move."
I felt her hand touch me through the fabric, cupping me to her thigh and petting me. She laughed and tapped my butt with one of her fingers and I flushed.
"Aww I can't even understand you!" She said, her voice barely audible "I can see your outline so well though, and I can tell you have been working out after all! I'm so proud!"
I boiled inside and clenched my teeth, I was going to spend the day like this? Just an outline on her jeans? This had to be against the rules somehow, 'pocket' couldn't really mean this could it? Suddenly my stomach lurched and I clamped to her leg hard, my head spinning. She was moving, walking out of her room, every step rocking my world back and forth like a carnival ride. I couldn't stop it, I couldn't stop my stomach from knotting, and I couldn't gather my bearings with all this movement.
She took the stairs down to the first floor, she never took the stairs, but every step down felt like I was dropping off a cliff, and then as jarring as a car crash when her foot hit the stair. Her thigh flexed between hard and uncomfortable and soft and relaxed, her feet pounding into the ground as she jogged downwards. The flexing drove air out of my lungs in a pattern, and I panted and gasped as I tried to catch my breath.
Suddenly, I was weightless, and everything around me felt like it was being pulled up. I realized she must have jumped off the last few stairs, and bit hard on the soft material inside her pocket. She hit the ground with a slam, driving my organs back and up with the impact. My mouth popped open and snapped back shut, softened by the mouthful of fabric. My head was throbbing, and I struggled to re-fill my lungs, but she was already moving again, each step still jarring, every movement making me dizzier and dizzier.
I heard the car door and sighed in relief; at least I'd get a break while she was sitting down. I strained to get into a more comfortable position, but I still couldn't move. I felt her climb up, and sit down and I screamed as the jeans bunched and folded over me, pulling and twisting at my skin through the fabric. I was twisted at an angle, and the fabric was rubbing directly onto my already injured skin. I absently realized I hadn't gotten a chance to put more cream on my body this morning, and wondered how that would effect my healing. Not that it'd matter, I couldn't breathe at all now, it felt like I was dying. The new angle pulled my prison too tight and my chest could no longer fight against the pressure.
She pinched the denim next to me and pulled it up, getting the rough folded parts off my back and I gasped for air, breathing in as much as I could. The stretchy fabric popped back down on me, stinging my whole back half and forcing the air out of me again, but at least she'd smoothed out the kinks that were hurting me and making it impossible to breathe. I panted and pushed with my arms to get lift so I could breathe more freely, but my efforts barely got my elbows off her thigh and I soon gave up in the interest of preserving strength.
She traced her fingers over my body from the other side of the pocket and I heard her laugh lightly, poking me and pinching my limbs as she watched me. Could she feel me struggling? Did she have any idea of how painful and horrible this was? I heard the snapping noise of a digital camera and got angrier. Was she posting about me on her fucking socials again? She'd at least let me know the first time, but to take a picture of me like this, it felt like a violation.
I breathed slow and deep, I just needed to focus, she couldn't keep me here all day, right? She had tennis practice Mondays, so she'd have to change for that, and her tennis uniform didn't have pockets, so I'd at least be able to breathe for a while then, right? Monday... I'd compressed Monday night, I remembered because Marissa had been changing in the gym locker rooms that afternoon, and she only was in there Mondays and Thursdays after her practices. I usually tried to work my schedule around avoiding her, but that day she'd stayed late for some reason... It felt like far, far longer than a week, almost like it'd been months. It felt like I was almost used to my new life, or I could be if the situation didn't keep changing so much.
I swallowed and tried to pull my limbs in, if I could roll over, maybe I could breathe better... It wasn't easy to move, but I tried and strained and eventually got my arms a little more together, and kicked with one foot. It was tight, but I managed to roll onto my side, at least partially. My arm was pinned and my legs were twisted, but I could breathe like normal, and I lay there, exhausted and worn out until the car stopped moving, my vision returning and my body regaining feeling.
I felt her get out of the car, and the steps started up again, making me sick and causing my stomach to drop. I clenched my body tightly and tried to curl up, but I still couldn't. I felt her going up the stairs to the front doors, and every lift of her leg squeezed me and shot pains through my body as the jeans constricted and pulled at me. I screamed at her to stop, to let me out. I thrashed as much as I could and yelled at the top of my lungs, but she just slapped me lightly and laughed.
"Hey now, be quiet or I really will move you to my back pocket, 'k? And here, you got turned all sideways, let me fix that!"
I fought agains the fingers that moved in around me, laying me out flat, face down with my arms and legs out, but it was like trying to wrestle trees, and soon I was in the same position I was in before, unable to move. I breathed heavily, my air feeling like it was running out, the small gap of air I had to breathe from in front of my face getting warmer and warmer and more and more stale as I tried to stay calm. I felt her going to class, her strut obvious and exaggerated. I heard the other students chatting, I swear I heard my name- or at least 'rat'- twice, but Marissa never interacted with them. She took a seat at a seat in the classroom, and once again I lost all my breath as the angle of her leg crushed it out of me. As the teacher started the lesson, I felt myself passing out, my head pounding, my lungs burning, and my skin still stinging, black spots overwhelming me.
~~~
I woke to myself being pulled out of the pocket, it was loose and floppy now, and I could breathe a lot more easily, but my vision was blurred, my body was numb, and my head was throbbing. I could vaguely see someone holding me, and hear laughter. A locker banged open, and some large bundle went past me into it, and then I followed. I tried to see where I was going but I was still too far gone to think straight. I felt myself being shoved into something soft, but not tight, and laid on the cold metal floor. It was quiet for a minute until someone, most likely Marissa, said something, and the locker banged shut on me.
I took breaths as deeply as I could and tried to clear my head. I was still alive, but my head hurt so, so bad. I couldn't lift it, I could only suck down air. As my vision cleared, I saw that I was laying in the front half of a locker, with Marissa's pumps towards the back, her top and those cursed jeans folded up on top of them. I looked down at my body, and saw she had put me into a sock like it was a sleeping bag. Did she think I was just sleeping when she pulled me out? Was this supposed to be a kindness or a humiliation? I tried to pull myself out of it, but my chest hurt, like when you spent too long under water and you can feel the ache for hours after if you try to breathe deeply, but this was a constant throb.
I didn't even care enough to try and get out, it was just a sock, anyway, and I was kind of cold. I lifted a shaky hand to my forehead and let my cool fingers take some of the pulsing pain away, laying there for what seemed like hours. I was still bleary and groggy, and I felt slow and stupid, but I was starting to think again. I couldn't go back in the jeans, I just couldn't. She could put me anywhere else, carry me, do whatever she needed to, but the thought of being that trapped again...
I started to cry. This was all my fault, if I hadn't told Henri about my stupid ideas and fears, Marissa wouldn't have gone this far, she wouldn't have hurt me like this because she'd be too scared of losing me. All I had to do was tell Henri 'no'. It didn't matter WHY I said no, she should have respected that. There was nothing I could do now though, this was my life, and I couldn't imagine it, a fear struck me, and I kicked my feet in frustration, my tears dripping down to my ears. I could have had a nice, soft life with her if Henri hadn't... Actually, this WAS Henri's fault. If she wasn't so... clingy, I could just be transferred to HER, but nooo, she had to be obsessive and take things too far. I felt my sadness and and fear being replaced with frustration and anger. Why couldn't she just let things be? Why-
A sharp clanging echoed through the locker and I screamed, the noise killing my head and making my headache worse. A pair of blue eyes peeked through the vent, squinting but not seeing.
"Klein fee? I'm getting you out, I have a fire extinguisher, I'll break this open and we can get out!" Henri's familiar voice sounded out.
I groaned and squeezed my eyes closed, flinching as the next clanging sounded out, then the next. I peeked, and saw the locker was buckled inwards slightly, and I started thinking about it caving in, crushing me or slamming me into the interior wall. Had she even though about that?
"Henri, cut it OUT!" I yelled, my voice hoarse and rough from the lack of air. Either she didn't hear me, or she didn't care, because a second later, another slam sounded out.
"HEY. What do you think you're doing young lady?!" I heard a gruff voice say. It sounded like Miss Eloise, the lacrosse coach.
"O-oh, no, it's a misunderstanding, see, I'm actually trying to free-"
"You are destroying school property and attempting to steal someone's belongings!" roared Miss Eloise
"No! No, ahh, mein liebhaber ist da drin!" Henri said, her voice shaking.
I heard a clanging of the fire extinguisher hitting the ground, and an exclamation from Henri
"No, please, let go, I need to-"
"We're going to the dean's office, we'll see what SHE has to say about this, I wouldn't be surprised if she calls the cops on you, you know."
Henri, protesting, was dragged out of the locker room, and I couldn't feel the slightest bit sorry for her. It was a crime, and she knew what she was getting into. I felt bad for not feeling bad, but... I told her to stop, and she didn't. It felt almost good to feel this upset with her, like it was justified, but almost in a selfish way. I looked at the door again. It was banged in pretty bad, but it should still open... Not that I really wanted it to, I was more than fine to just lay down and rest here for as long as I could. I felt the tears start back up thinking about going back to my prison, and I had to try and hold back the shakes; the pain it gave my chest was just too much.
After a long, long while, I heard footsteps, and a groan. The lock on the door jiggled, and opened up, and the metal screeched as the bent up door was pried open. Marissa stood there, smug as ever, her lidded grin looking just as confident on her sweaty, pink face as it did on her composed one. She fanned her tennis dress and pointed at the door.
"I guess we had a visitor, huh? Looks like I'll have grounds for a restraining order after all." She peered at me, confused at whatever she saw "Wait... were you...? Hm."
She gathered her things from behind me "Well... I'm going to go change back, and then..." She leaned in and smiled wider "Pocket tiiiiime!~"
I couldn't stand it, my chest seized my face crumpled yet again, and I started sobbing, laying limply as I shook my head
"No no no no no... please..." I said, my voice rough and dry "Please, please, please..."
I was begging, but I didn't care, I couldn't do it, I couldn't go back into that hellish place. Marissa's face was frozen in her smile, her eyes wide. She leaned out of the locker and looked around, then back at me. She swallowed hard and looked at her pile of clothes.
"Uhh... I'll- uh, I-" She said, and her voice caught too. I cried harder, was she trying to make excuses for it? "It's just until we get home, it's no big deal, I was thinking we could like, sit on the couch and watch one of your old lady shows or something?"
"No... please, no..." I whispered. Even just going home was too much, not being able to move, to breathe, I couldn't do it.
She reached out for me, and gently picked me up and I cringed away from her touch, my crying wracking my body as I tried to get out of her grasp.
"...Fuck..." She muttered. "Damnit... Come here..."
She pulled me out of the locker and closer to her. The smell of sweat hung around her, and her body was hot, far hotter than before. I thought about being against her skin, the extra heat, the sweat smell and I shuddered, shaking my head and curling up into a ball. If I was curled up, she couldn't splay me, right? She sighed, and I peeked up at her, she looked almost sad, or scared, and her mouth was moving as if she was trying to say something, but she couldn't.
She frowned and set me on her pile of clothes, pulling her phone out from under the pile and dialing. It rang once, and she started talking, not even waiting for a 'hello'
"Hey, meet me by the side, the gym entrance, pull right up to the door."
She hung up without waiting for a response, and tucked her phone into the strap of her sportsbra under her arm and reached out for me. I ducked inside the sock and covered my head with my hands, hoping she'd get the message. I felt her fingers stroke me through the sock and I shivered. Did she think a gentle pat like that could make up for the hours and hours of torture? She carried me outside to her car, and got in, setting me and her pile of stuff on the seat next to her. I felt a wave of relief that she wasn't going to change or put me back in there, but I was still shaking. How long would it be before she tried to do it again?
This was becoming a familiar scene, me, hurt and upset on the car seat next to her, her aloof or uncommunicative next to me. I stayed in the sock until we got home, and when she finally put me, sock and all into my house, I went straight upstairs, legs shaking, vision narrow, and flopped into bed, too depressed, hurt, and exhausted to even do anything else. My stomach was empty, but I still felt too nauseous to even think about eating microwaved 'po'ta'tos and sa'usage' or whatever I had. Marissa closed the walls behind me, despite it only being late afternoon, and I heard her flop onto her own bed outside and moan.
Neither of us moved for a long time.
~~~