TW: This episode contains mentions of sexual abuse, as well as one brief occurrence of drunken sexual assault and harassment. This will be the only episode in which these instances are present for the rest of the series. Please feel free to skip, as this episode is only to further introduce Jamie’s character and his relationship with Elise.

“Hey, Jamie?” Elise calls from the bathroom. He sighs, trying to force his feet to carry him to her, but not finding the strength.

“What’s up?” His voice echoes through the kitchen when he shouts back. He crosses his fingers in hopes that he wouldn’t have to go to the bathroom, but he knew better. As if following a queue from his crossed fingers, she asks him to come to the restroom. He groans in response, then stands and slowly makes his way to her.

“What do you need, E?” He asks as he approaches the closed door. Her nickname had always been easier to say than her full name, though Jamie could never figure out why. Steam escapes the room and covers his ankles in a blanket of sweat, much like the fog from a few nights beforehand. The doorknob shakes a little as Elise unlocks the door, and as she opens it, Jamie feels every muscle in his body tense up. His eyes trail down her body, her skin bare and a bit jarring. Jamie smiles all the same. He escorts her to her room, almost carrying her so she doesn’t slip on the linoleum. She tries her hardest to drag him to her, but Jamie resists. He tells her she should sleep, and that she needs the rest, but she remains defiant.

“I don’t need rest, I need you.” She says, pulling him by the front of his shirt to kiss him. Jamie continues to repeat the word no, the word please, but they get lost in the pleas. She repeats the notion of desire enough that Jamie forgets its meaning. He stares at her messy floor and tries his best to keep his eyes from her. It felt like an invasion of her privacy; he wasn’t supposed to see her like this any more than a stranger was. After a few more moments of grabbing and pleading, he snaps.

“Elise!” Her eyes widen and she silences herself. Jamie’s breathing wavers as he forces himself to keep the power in his voice. However, he ends up standing in silence for too long and Elise begins fumbling for him again, her begging slowly becoming more insistent. Jamie grabs her wrists and he holds them in front of his chest, finding his voice again.

“Elise, I really can’t do this tonight. Please go to bed.” He ends the conversation there, and Elise frowns at him. Jamie grabs a robe from her floor, tosses it to her, then says goodnight and leaves.

Jamie tries to catch his breath as the door closes behind him. His stomach flips and his hands shake hard enough that the doorknob rattles when he enters his room. Jamie had somehow convinced Elise that he wasn’t fit to share a room with her. He wasn’t sure what part of the argument had convinced her- the fact that he was, as she put it, a “neat freak”, and he’d put her stuff away before she was done with it, or the fact that he’d end up coming home late from a job he ended up not getting. Jamie crumples onto his bed, squinting past the stars dotting his vision. Almost every time Elise did this, Jamie found a way out. However, she was rarely sober enough to remember. Elise always stressed to him that consent was the most important thing. However, when she drank, she often forgot that this rule applied to everyone, not just her.

He begins mumbling as his heart rate steadies itself. Jamie frowns and shudders- he felt dirty, as he usually did when this happened. A towel waits for him by the door, so he grabs his pajamas and makes his way to the bathroom. As the hot water runs over him, he talks to himself, reminding himself that he was okay and that she didn’t mean it. After a while he decides he’d wait to tell Elise about Theo. He nods to himself, shuts the water off, then dresses himself and slowly wanders through the apartment. Still a bit shaken, he goes through his nightly routine and makes his way to bed. Jamie grabs a book from his nightstand, sighing and forcing his mind to focus on anything other than Elise’s antics. He stays up until sunrise.