Picture Perfect

18.

~Sam~

We get home and go straight up into the room.

I take my clothes off and shower. I wash every speckle of hospital off my body. But I think about Ky's hands doing it. I won't see him for a while.

He spoke to me in the hospital, but it wasn't long enough.

He stares into my eyes as a tear rolls down his cheek. He starts to kiss all over my face.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there to stop this from happening to you baby."

"You can't save me all the time Kyler. Sometimes I have to save myself. I need time, and space to do that. I need you to trust me. And trust that we still have more to discuss at a later date. I have to do some things if I'm going to get all that I'm owed. I have to go back home."

"I'm happy to have you back baby." Garrison interrupts my thoughts.

"I'm happy to be back." I turn to face him and smile with my lie.

He kisses my neck and then my shoulder.

"I'm so sorry I had to do this to you. I just get scared, when I think about you leaving me. I can't have you too far. You know I can't live without you. I love you." He kisses my neck and pulls me close to him.

"I know. I love you too. I'm tired though. Can I just rest though?"

"Of course baby. Come on, let's go lay down."

His hands take to my waist as we lay our bodies parallel to one another. I remember this. I remember when shit like this actually mattered.

Now I must pretend that it does. Because if I plan to get him to trust me, I need to not have another man on my mind.

But how could I not think about this other man? The way he holds me, the way he kisses me, the way fucks me, the way he looks at me, the way he wants me.

"Gare since I'm back, you're not going to use the pictures against me right? So I can own my dance studio, I still want to do that you know? I'll be better, I'm not going to leave, I promise."

"Let's just lay down for right now. You have nothing to worry about my love."

~Kyler~

I step into practice and Garrison's made his way back in after being absent the past few weeks to "support his wife" after the attack. As if he's not in the hot seat about the shit that happened.

Multiple sports outlets have a problem with the story. Everyone is finding it to be some sort of "miracle" that she took a beating that bad and was able to drive herself home, after promising the perpetrators money and jewelry which they told her she'd never be safe to come out of the house if she didn't provide.

How did they know they'd get it? How did they know she'd not go to the police, if that was the case?

She suffered a bloodshot eye, a concussion, two rib fractures, and decreased oxygen intake according to information leaked from the hospital by internal sources working on her case at the time.

And and it is also strange how that day, it just so happens that the cameras in the parking garage at CVS weren't working. There most definitely was a payoff there, but the ones in the store do show that she was actually present in the store at the time she claimed, getting some Pamprin as she said she was.

This was the story that was spun, and a sloppy one. I'm pretty sure Elijah left it that way on purpose. She didn't really want to cover Garrison but as Samantha's friend, she wanted to simply show up in some capacity.