Sameen rolls out of bed with a scowl on her face, and determination in her step at the sound of the incessant knocking at her front door, ready to throttle her coworker John for waking her up so goddamn early on her day off.
The outburst that she was gearing up to unleash as she yanks open the door is halted.
As soon as the door starts to open, the woman on the other side starts talking rapidly, eyes wide and gesticulating wildly with both hands, "This is totally awkward since before this, the only interactions we've ever had have been casual nods to each other in the hallway, but there's a huge fucking spider in my bathtub and you seem like the friendly neighbor type and I really, need some help. Please, please, help me."
Sameen's eyes, for the first time, travels away from the woman's concerned and troubled face and sees what she's wearing. Her eyebrows raise on their own accord.
Samantha, she believes is her neighbor's name if memory serves correctly, is standing in front of her in a big fluffy bathrobe, clutching onto a yellow bath pouf in one hand, the other now at her side clenching and unclenching in a fist.
Sameen wouldn't normally be this calm this early in the morning, without having any coffee or breakfast in her system; Nor would the person who woke her be allowed to still be standing up right, but there's a first time for everything apparently.
"I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? I thought I heard you say there's a spider-"
Samantha nods quickly, her eyes widening even further, interjecting, "Yes, in my bathtub!"
Sameen stares right at her, figuring there's no way in hell this woman is making this up. She nods her head once with finality, and lifts her finger in a 'one moment' gesture, before turning her back and walking to her bedroom.
Samantha watches as her neighbor leaves her front door open, allowing her to see as she makes her way to another room, and Samantha only hopes that she's gone to get something to help capture and or kill the gargantuan tarantula in her home.
It doesn't take long for Sameen to walk out of her bedroom. She's still in her sleep shorts and tank top, but is now also wearing heavy duty, no-nonsense, combat boots and carrying a well loved wooden baseball bat over her shoulder.
She walks back towards Samantha, and once she stops in front of the other woman, she nods in the general direction of her neighbor's place, "Lead the way."
Samantha can't explain the rush of butterflies that suddenly hit, but she's not opposed to the feeling at all. She didn't realize her little firecracker neighbor was such a totally awesome badass.
Sameen follows Samantha down the hall and to her house; in through the front door that she's left wide open in her haste to ask Sameen for help.
"It was just crawling around the bottom of the tub and I just ran out and slammed the door shut behind me." Samantha explains as they approach the bathroom door.
Nodding her head, Sameen tilts her head side to side, rolling her shoulders before taking a breath. She grips the bat tightly in one hand and uses the other one to open the door.
She sees Samantha out of the corner of her eyes watching her, but Sameen's main focus is locating the spider.
"So, just so I know…how large is this thing?"
Samantha is watching Sameen closely, safely from her place outside of the bathroom, trying not to blink at all as she answers, "Oh pretty big. You can't miss it at all. It's like really big."
Sameen's eyes methodically scan the bathroom, carefully walking deeper into it, raising the bat as she gets closer to the tub.
And there, right in the middle of the bathtub, is a big hairy spider.
The thing is just staring up at her with all of its eyes and all Sameen can do is stare back with a look of complete disgust on her face.
"This fucker…is huge." She says, eyes not once leaving the spider.
Samantha nods, even though she knows Sameen can't see her, "I told you!" she whispers loudly.
"Yeah, I wasn't saying I didn't believe you. Just…it's really fucking huge. It's gonna put a goddamn dent in my bat."
She doesn't understand how she's still having a staring contest with this spider. Nor can she understand how she's having a pseudo whispered conversation with her neighbor while engaging in this staring contest with the eight legged creature.
"Okay. Do you have like a pot or something with a lid and preferably with a long handle that I can use?"
Sameen hears Samantha run to her kitchen and the sound of cupboards opening and closing, pots and pans banging together and then the sound of her coming back, but stopping outside of the bathroom, "I think this will do."
And just as Sameen is thinking of the quickest way to turn away from the spider and grab the pot from the woman so she doesn't lose sight of the spider for longer than a second, Samantha is taking a breath and stepping into the bathroom and standing right behind Sameen, tugging at her empty hand and sliding the handle of the saucepan into it.
Sameen is grateful she didn't have to turn her back on the spider; she's even more grateful that Samantha intuitively knew to walk to her instead of making her come get the pan.
"Thanks." She says as she tightens her grip on the saucepan, before lowering the baseball bat and tilting her head to the side, "You can go ahead and grab the bat and head back outside. I'm gonna try and catch this fucker. You're not particularly attached to this saucepan, are you?"
Samantha shakes her head as she slips the bat out of Sameen's hand, "Not anymore, no."
Chuckling under her breath, Sameen nods to herself before lifting the lid off of the saucepan and stepping closer to the spider.
She narrows her eyes as she approaches the spider; the spider that is still just sitting in the tub like it owns the place, and she can't help but hate it for that pompous air that surrounds it.
She stands still for a couple of beats, arms raised slightly, ready to come flying down on top of the spider in a split second.
And that split second arrives when Sameen sees one of its many legs twitch as if gearing up to scuttle up the side or jump. She wasn't about to find out which.
She lunges into action, saucepan cutting through the air and landing right on top of the spider, trapping it underneath the dome.
She slowly releases her breath, her shoulders still tense as she continues holding onto the saucepan handle with a death grip, heart beating just a little bit faster than normal.
It takes only another second for her to carefully slide the saucepan up the side of the tub and carefully maneuvering the cover to close up the opening as it breaches the side of the tub.
Once she's completely got the saucepan covered, with the spider entrapped inside, she stands up straight, with her arms outstretched in front of her.
For the first time since catching sight of the spider, Sameen takes her eyes off of where she knows it to be and sees Samantha standing by the door with the bat lifted up to her face, hiding behind it with her eyes barely open, "Oh my God you caught it."
Smirking, Sameen raises an eyebrow as she locks eyes with Samantha, "Why the tone of surprise?"
Lowering the bat now that the danger is taken care of, Samantha shakes her head, "I just-that was just so intense! I can't believe it's over. You were fantastic"
Sameen chuckles as she shrugs, "Yeah…that was crazy. Do you have duct tape?"
Nodding her head, Samantha turns away and quickly goes to get some. Sameen doesn't think she'd appreciate it if someone walked around with a spider filled saucepan in her house, so she stays put and waits for the other woman to return.
"Here you go. Where are you going to put it after you're done taping it up?"
Putting the pan down on the floor, and making sure she keeps one hand on top of the lid to make sure it stays closed, she reaches out for the tape.
Samantha has taken the liberty of cutting a strip off for her, and once again Sameen is grateful for this crazy amount of vibing they've got going on; absolutely in sync with each other.
She places the strip down and then gets handed another one; this is repeated a few times until they both are satisfied with the durability of this trap they've constructed.
"Well. I'm gonna put it out in the hall. Maybe put a makeshift sign next to it, to let whoever picks it up know what's on the inside of this metallic spider coffin."
Once Sameen stands back up right, both women just end up staring down at the saucepan, as if daring it to move.
It doesn't.
"Or maybe I'm just gonna take it down a floor and nudge it down the hall towards Rousseau's place."
Samantha bites her lip as she smiles at that. Both of them have had run ins with that woman and neither of them apparently has a liking towards her.
Sameen grins as she looks back at the woman in front of her and that grin widens as she takes in her slightly disheveled hair, "I'm gonna get out of here now; your bathroom has been swept and there aren't any more threats…you can now get back to your obviously interrupted shower."
Samantha's cheeks blush once she looks down and realizes she's been in a bathrobe this entire time, "Well, that isn't embarrassing at all."
"Nah, don't be embarrassed. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's a cute bathrobe." Sameen says, a light flirtatious tone to her voice as she points to the embroidered rubber duck that's on the chest area of Samantha's robe.
She doesn't wait for her to say anything, the blush on her face being enough for her. Sameen gives her a little nod, before picking up the saucepan, "I'll see myself out. "
Just as she's stepping out of the front door, Samantha calls out, "Thank you so much Sameen. I really appreciate it."
Sameen smiles to herself as she closes the front door for her neighbor, rolling her eyes at her own antics.
She then looks down at the saucepan she's holding and once again rolls her shoulders back before taking to the stairs, going down one floor and leaving the pan in front of Rousseau's place.
With a spring in her step, Sameen makes her way up to her place and lets herself into her house.
Once the door is closed, she leans her back against it and asks aloud, "What the hell just happened?"
Pushing off of the door, she shuffles her way back to her room and flops on top of the blankets and sheets, face first into her pillows, not even bothering to take off her boots.
'The things I do.' She thinks to herself as she drifts off to catch a little more sleep.