-Loneliness-

"Yo, Sam, what's up?" The greeting worked its way through the loitering teenagers and the blonde responded absentmindedly, her gaze on her best friends in the whole world. Could they still be considered that?

Her heart throbbed painfully—as though a giant, clawed hand was gripping the muscle, squeezing until it threatened to burst out of her chest.

What was she doing here? It was becoming more and more difficult to convince herself to go to school… And that had been a chore even before her stupid mistake.

"Aren't they just adorable together?"

Without thinking, she whirled and shoved the speaker—a pretty redhead whose green eyes were huge behind wide-rimmed glasses—to the ground, her hands curling into fists as she stood over the unfortunate teen.

"What did I do?!"

But the blonde barely heard that incredulous question over the angry rush of blood in her ears. Carly was laughing, happiness that Sam hadn't seen in what felt like forever shining in her dark gaze. Happiness meant for Freddie. She leaned in and pressed a kiss to Freddie's cheek before heading into the building.

"S-Sam?"

Half a dozen gazes were locked on her, as though she was some dangerous, fanged beast, and it was then that the blonde realized that she was trembling.

"I'm out of here," Sam said at last, averting her gaze from the little gathering.

She took extra care to smash into Freddie—

"What the—Sam?"

—with her shoulder as she stormed past.

Sam shoved the door to the girls' bathroom open, fury boiling in her veins as she stomped across the damp floor and slammed her fist into a mirror, shattering the lower portion of it. Pain blossomed in her knuckles, but the sting was overwhelmed by the heat that coiled around her body, stirring and twisting like a snake trapped beneath her skin.

"Sam…?" It was that girl from before—the one she had shoved. What was her name again? Didn't matter. "Oh, my gosh, you're bleeding!"

Yeah, she was. Didn't matter.

"I'll go get the nurse—"

"Don't."

Human Beings, no matter how determined or how driven have needs. Who she got what she needed from didn't matter… right?

Before the girl—Juliet, right—could ask any more dumb questions, the blonde grabbed her by the front of her shirt and pulled her in close, sealing their lips together and earning a startled gasp; she took advantage of the opening it created and dipped her tongue into the other girl's oral cavern, dominating her easily.

That little moan of pleasure was music to her ears.

Their kiss escalated and Sam sank her fingers into long red locks, jerking the other girl's head back and biting down on the pale curve of her neck. She soothed the sting with a swirl of her tongue before retreating to eyeball her handy work: panting, dazed, likely-dripping red-head.

Nice.

It took her a full minute to gather herself. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No."

"Okay."

Juliet reached out, taking Sam's hand into hers and kissing each individual knuckle—the affectionate gesture completely unexpected given how the morning had gone.

And still she felt lonely.