The Heartbeat Of a City

Sam wakes up to a door swinging open. Heavy footsteps follow the noise.
“Ugh, my head hurts. Gee where are- Wtf? Gerard, why is there a girl on the sofa? And why is she in your t-shirt?”
“I dunno. You headbutted this guy and she started crying. She was like, in shock or something.” Sam figures the Gerard guy is the one who drove her home, he has the rough voice and heavy accent.
“From a headbutt?”
The other guy has a higher, almost whiny voice. But it’s kind of pleasant. She hears Gerard sigh.
“No dude, the guy was probably trying to do something to her. She was like, stark naked.”
“Fucking wow. I’m smart when I’m drunk.”
“Uh, yeah right. How was that smart?”
“You ever save a naked girl and not gotten laid?”
“I’ve never had the opportunity to test that theory.”
“Oh shut up, loser.”
“Dickhead.”
Sam guesses the other guy makes a face at Gerard and got kicked for his troubles, judging by the “Bitch that hurt!”.

She wonders how to show she’s awake, without it being awkward. After a bit Sam gives up, feeling far too sleepy to think. So she just sits up, looking at them. The fauxhawk kid is noogying the Gerard vamp guy. It’s a little confusing so she just blinks at them for a second. They blink back. Then gerard offers coffee and she nods. The fauxhawk guy is all awkward, probably cuz he doesn’t know if she heard. Gerard is better at hiding it, but he’s awkward too. They seem like pretty decent guys. Once she gets her coffee she blinks owlishly a bit more, then is all like, so how many times have you saved a naked girl before? The tension breaks and Gerard bursts out laughing. fauxhawk gets all embarrassed and shit and can’t think of anything to say. So instead of words he just sort of screws up his face and is like almost saying things. It looks really ridiculous and she starts snorting with laughter. He rolls his eyes and huffs like whatever, I’m done with life. Gerard finally stops cracking up and stares at her musingly while she drinks her coffee. His gaze seems far away so she is surprised when he speaks.
“So, I wonder why she was naked?”
The fauxhawk kid (Whose name she learned was Frank) laughs, embarrassed for his friend.
“Gee, you just spoke out loud.” Sam thinks it’s a cute nickname. Maybe the two of them are together? But anyway, “Gee” goes like bright red and hangs his head, his hair covering his face. She doesn’t really mind the question though.
“I was drunk at this party and … Accidentally slept with a fucktard. Him and his shitty friends decided it would be funny to make me walk home naked at 3am. I was afraid I was gonna freeze so I was trying to walk home but this guy was stopped me, then Frank headbutted him.” She speaks with venom but also with self-doubt and insecurity.
There’s a silence and two of them look at her like o_o you okay? When Gerard voices the thought she shrugs.
“Yeah.”
Frank seems a little uneasy. Probably cuz of the naked-get-laid comment. Suddenly Gerard gasps.
“Oh god, look at your feet!”
“Wha?”
“Seriously, look!” He points and when she looks down Sam sees bloody footprints. Her feet are bleeding and damn, they don’t look good.
“How far did you walk?”
“Um, I’m not really sure, about a mile?” She hung her head letting her hair fall forward.
Frank goes “fuuuuuck…“ and stares while Gerard makes her sit with her feet up.
Once Gee jerks Frank out of his daze, hydroperoxide, tweezers, water and a towel are quickly gathered. They look at her feet and Sam becomes nervous because there’s a moment of “Shit, we need a doctor.”
“How bad is it?” She asks anxiously. Frank glances up at her, biting his lip.
“Uhm, on a scale of one to ten how much does it hurt when I do this?” He pokes her foot and she swears she sees red. It takes a lot of effort to reply.
“Ten, that fuck, fuckin’ hurt.”
“Okay yeah, your feet are pretty bad.”
Gee, who had been silent during the exchange, told Frank give her painkillers. Half an hour later when they start taking effect he asks Frank distract her and begins to remove some of the worst of the nastiness. For some reason he keeps a running commentary.
“You stepped on a lot of broken glass. It’s pretty gross.”
“Thanks, I didn’t really need that picture in my head.”
After a while Gerard shuts up. Probably due to the sharp elbow that dug into his side. Frank, unsure of what to do suggests putting on a movie (like uhm, wanna watch a movie? Sam thinks his hesitancy is really sweet).
“Um oka…OW.”
Apparently there’s a really jagged bit of glass and Gerard can’t remove it easily. So he asks Frank to hold Sam down as he cuts it out. She grabs one of his hands really hard and bites her lip, but she doesn’t scream. After Gee’s done cleaning off the foot she finally lets go of Franks hand, her face white and upper lip trembling.
“If having a baby is anything like that I’m gonna adopt.”
Frank laughs and they actually put on the movie. A little over halfway through she drifts off on Franks shoulder (she was sleeping on Gee but he had to get up and go run errands). He was pretty comfortable but smelled kind of musty, and she dreamed of old houses and warm ghosts.

Notes

THANKS for reading my long-winded ramblings disguised as fanfiction :3
comment maybe? anyway, hopefully this is likeable. Have a nice day. Idk what to say.