"Are you alright?" Chris asked, looking extremely concerned.

Sam blinked, clinging with one hand to her chest and the other digging through the jacket. She wanted to run, but her body wouldn't move.

"I'm fine." She managed to say as she shrugged off Chris's hold. Everywhere she touched seemed to burn. "I just need to go home."

"Can you walk?" Chris tried her best to hold on to Sam.

"Yeah." Sam straightened up with her hand still tightly clung to her sleeve.

"Wait, let me accompany you. Or I can take you home-"

"Leave me alone!" Sam didn't mean to raise her voice, but she did anyway. She sighed heavily. "Sorry, just... go." The noise from the street came crashing through her ears, it repulsed her, and Chris talking over it didn't make her feel better.

Sam slowly walked towards the bus stop despite the blur in her vision and stood for a while. She closed her eyes as she felt stuffy evening wind blow past. 

Life as a Braun was never perfect, but she appreciated it, at least in the best way an 8-year-old could have. Ever since her mom died, her world broke, especially when her father blamed her for being bad luck.

Her mother originally came from a wealthy family but was disowned when they found out she was pregnant for a mere teacher. Her dad wanted to get rid of the baby, but her mom stood her ground, which led to the make-believe of a family she grew up in.

Her mom was abused regularly by her father until she died, but that only shifted the abuse to Sam. She hated the rich for having such fickle bonds. She hated her dad, and she hated her life. Everything repulsed her.

Her thoughts came to a halt when she heard the blaring of a car horn. The noise of the street came back flooding and enclosing her in a weird relief when she realized she had been holding her breath.

She turned to the sound of the horn, which immediately drove off any form of relief she just felt. 

"What the fuck! Didn't I tell you to leave me alone?" She was screaming now, unable to hear herself over the noise.

"Sorry, it's just... You missed the bus and..." Chris came out of her car and stood awkwardly in front of Sam.

'Missed the bus? How long have I been standing here?' She checked the time on her phone, which showed 5:30 pm. She had been standing for about 20 minutes.

"Please, I can take you home. You don't look well." Chris said, trying her best to convince Sam, and she wasn't sure if it was working. 

"Alright then." Sam sighed and looked around. It wasn't too dark yet, and she still had some time before her night shift. She couldn't figure out how lost she was, which made her miss the bus but taking a ride with Chris wasn't a bad idea.

"Great! Hop in." 

****

"How did it get this bad?" Chris spoke to no one in particular as she paced around Sam's tiny apartment, looking for a napkin.

By the time they got to Sam's apartment building, she was already weak and in a pale state. Unable to consume anything solid, Sam had survived for the past few days only on sleeping pills and coffee. Having a panic attack triggered the issue.

Sam stared at the spot before her, trying to organize what had happened a few minutes ago. She came out of the car quite alright, even though she was slightly hyperventilating after the panic attack, but everything turned dark a few seconds after she walked into her house. 'Had she even locked her door?'

"You're burning." Chris placed the wet napkin that she found on Sam's forehead. She opened the windows for a while, but it didn't do much to air the room. 

Sam's vision drifted across the room, watching Chris until her eyes became too heavy to keep open.

****

When Sam opened her eyes, the place was already dark. She felt a lot better, but panic started to set in again when she realized she was at home instead of being at the bar. She searched the side of her bed for where she usually kept or rather threw her phone, but it wasn't there.

"Ah, shit. Where did I drop it," Sam said as she moved to get off the bed but was interrupted when she saw a person by her bedside.

Sam was shocked for a while and tried to remember if she had brought someone home with her. That sounded impossible. She sighed, relieved when she noticed it was just Chris. Everything was a blur in her head. She couldn't remember what happened after she walked into her apartment. She slowly got off the bed, but she wasn't as discreet as she thought she was.

"Oh, you're awake! Thank goodness." Chris sat up and reached to Sam's forehead, but she pulled away. "S-sorry, it's just, you were having a really bad fever."

"What happened? Wait, what about work?" Sam scrambled out of the bed, trying to search for her phone.

"Uhmm, Sky called, and I told him about your condition. He said he would take care of it." Chris was waving Sam's phone but withdrew it when Sam was about to take it. "You have to eat something first. I didn't know the exact one, so I only bought meds for the fever."

Sam stared at the takeouts that lay all over that she hadn't noticed. 'she really went all out.' Sam thought, still staring at the food and medicine. 'Why?' was all that came to her mind.

"I didn't know what you liked," Chris laughed nervously.

"Why?" Sam looked up at Chris. She couldn't understand why Chris wanted to be close to her and why she cared. It was the most someone had done for her in a long time.