Waterfalls slam back down.

m'fine

- okay given context probably he should just - drop that. 

He kicks his door apart instead.

A couple minutes later it's over. He sighs and flops on the bed next to Karen.

She's just gonna lie here frozen and silently crying and maybe not breathing quite right and - OK, additional searing pain gone, that's good, now she's just gotta deal with the fact that her insides feel all bruised up and that she thinks she might still be having something in the neighborhood of a panic attack.

"Hey. Are you okay? Do you need anything?"

She - tries to make words and she can't. This is so concerning. He's going to be so concerned. She should not be having this problem. Really can't find her words anywhere, though.

He's - kinda concerned but that's a thing, that's totally a thing he has heard of, he knew a guy whose girlfriend liked to be hit and then she'd be out of it for a while, afterwards -

Glass of water?

She - can maybe prop herself up and hold a glass of water without spilling it. Maybe. She's not even going to try to actually drink it, because she feels like she should probably not be trying too hard at anything else until the terrible aching stops occupying quite so many of her thoughts.

...okay.

He'll just - wait, then.

She breathes. Breathing is good. Air is good. Time is good. Time heals all wounds. Probably.

" - so was it OK?"

" - sex is always good for guys, it's, like, pizza. Um, I mean - I think that's the saying because pizza under highly bizarre and suboptimal circumstances is still good, not like, I don't know, sushi - sorry, I'm being an idiot - you were really brave. Everything's great."

" - OK," she says, and sounds maybe too relieved, because everything hurts inside but at least she made it through and didn't mess everything up terribly. She drinks some water and sets the glass down on the floor and snuggles up next to Ryan, because she's scared and tired and possibly injured and - Ryan is really nice.

"Forgot it was gonna hurt," she says, quietly.

Snuggle. "I'm sorry."

"S'OK. You were really good about stuff.

" - it'll hurt less, if we do it again? Right?"

- hug - "yeah, I've never heard of, I don't think it should hurt the next time, and we can do more to make sure you're ready, just in case. It's not supposed to hurt."

" - oh."

Seems weird to cry again but her tear ducts have weird opinions about things.

"'M'sorry. You should've - you can always say something."

"OK," she says, quietly, because maybe she should have said something, she doesn't even know. "Felt like - wanted it to actually happen. By the time it started hurting."

"That makes sense. It's okay. It's really okay, everything was fine and it's only going to get easier from here. 

Except for the murder part, I guess. That'll be pretty bad."

Nodnod. She - feels like something is weird and off here but she's really really tired right now.

"Thanks for being - thank you."

"Mmhmm." He's sleepy too.

"Can I sleep here tonight?"

He looks startled, though it's mostly too dark to tell. "Course. Want to hold you."

"OK," she says, and they keep snuggling. Her insides are still aching, but it probably won't be that bad next time. Super weird that people do this for fun. Imagine liking boys enough to - 

- there's literally no way that Azalea likes boys enough to do this. No way.

She thinks about asking something else, but it's warm here, and it's safe now, and it's OK, and she made it through, and if it was way worse than it's supposed to be then that'll make Ryan sad, and she doesn't want to make Ryan sad. Actually.

She sleeps.

He paces.