Note: In this story, Astrid doesn't exist- that's why Sam and Brianna can be happily shipped :)
Brianna's voice was small and strangled when she tried to speak, 'I... I... I'm sorry.' she squeaked before zooming off into the distance.
Sam's brain was having trouble registering this information. How could Brianna, of all people, cut herself? What was so bad that she had to resort to hurting herself? Happy, cheery Brianna, who could find humour in the most dreadful situations, who he thought of as more than a sister. It was all a façade to mask the darkness inside. How could this be true? She was the last person he would have expected to do this. It couldn't be true. But it was. He should leave her to calm down, but he knew he had to talk to her before consulting anyone else- she evidently and understandably wanted this kept private.
Dusting off his old jacket, he stood up and began to jog back to the lake. It was a good 30 minutes away for him, but Brianna could've arrived by now if she'd gone that way (though Sam doubted that she had).
As it turned out, Brianna did go straight back to the lake; but no one noticed her because she blurred past too quickly and quietly for their unsuspecting selves to notice. When she sat down on the edge of her bed, she could feel the blood pumping through her arm. And out of it, for that matter. Carefully, she wiped away the blood with a damp cloth and got out a bandage, which (heedless of their short supply) Brianna had found and kept when she was checking out houses for food. She felt sick to her stomach.
Sam. Knew.
Oh God. Sam knew. He would surely hate her. And he would tell Dekka! And then Dekka would hate her. Great. She groaned. Why couldn't she have just been more discreet? Why did she have to let her guard down? Why was she such a pathetic mess? Why couldn't she just die already? She needed an escape more desperately than ever, and the damage was already done. It's not like this could make it worse. She thrust her left wrist forward in front of her so she could see it with her red, puffy eyes. Then she removed the blade from her pocket and slashed madly at the pale skin. The red relief poured in waterfalls from the many engravings. It looked beautiful. She sighed in happiness at the temporary relinquishing of the mental agony. But it was short lived. Within an hour both of her arms were more cuts than skin and her thighs looked like someone had tried to give her tiger stripes. She bandaged both arms, however she figured that she could easily keep her thighs covered.
At dinner, Brianna sat with Jack and Dekka, taking extra care to keep as much distance between her and one Sam Temple as possible. Luckily, they did not question it. She tried to engage in the polite chit chat, but her brain was buzzing with terror. Several times, she caught Sam staring intently at her, a hurt expression clouding his blue eyes. Once, she dared to hold his gaze and the unspoken words between them told her that he wasn't going to leave this. She made a mental note to prepare answers in her head for the questions he was likely to bombard her with.