Yeah. (It'd get caught in the rewind anyway, but it makes sense that she'd think it and he's sorry and he hopes he can get her in his car again soon.)

He nods, and gets up and leads her to the front of the car, and folds away the extra space and takes a deep breath and rewinds.

It's not hard to remember that sense of desperate pressure, to let himself feel an echo of it as he turns toward the rewound Karen and says,

"—Everything's really messed up and I don't know what to do and—I can't even really talk about it—I mean I can but—" Breathe. Breathing is important "—I found a girl who was in a tough spot and I helped her out and I'm letting her stay in my apartment because she doesn't have anywhere else to go and—she doesn't really trust me, she doesn't even really like me, and I don't—I don't know how I can help her like this—but I have to, I can't pick up something like that and then just abandon her in the middle of it because she wasn't grateful enough or whatever, that's just not something I can do—and—" He is kind of getting worse at breathing, on account of he is teetering on the edge of bursting into tears. "—I fucked up and hurt someone—different person, somebody else I met at school—and she's mad at me about it and she's right to be and hurting people I care about hurts and—and I don't—" and now he is full-on sobbing into his hands.

He's not making a ton of sense -- he's making some sense, and she can see that both of the things he's describing are hurting him, a lot -- putting a strain on him, in one direction or another but there really isn't a lot of context here. She's a little confused about what to do, exactly, though she can see what he meant by crying on her shoulder. Still, most of what she feels, besides confusion and worry is, well, comfort. He's clearly stressed and doesn't have anyone else he can talk to about all of this, since she assumes he can't talk to his parents (seriously, argh) or any friends from back home. There must be so much that's new to him here, and he's clearly... well, got in over his head might be the wrong way of looking at it, but he's clearly overwhelmed.

She feels really weird doing it but he clearly needs the comfort. She can feel it and see it and it would be awkward to do otherwise and it will be fine if she does it. It will. She reaches on her hand and puts it on his shoulder, pressing her hand into him in a comforting fashion as best she can manage. "That sounds like a lot," she says, doing her best not to be awkward about it. The internet has had plenty of things that told her how to talk to people who needed help, but she never really had a chance to practice much. "Why don't you take a breath, and relax, and slow down. I'm here." She presses her hand into him a little more, moving so he can in fact collapse on her shoulder if he wants to.

He leans into the touch, and even though it's awkward to be leaning on her across the middle of the car like this, he clearly derives immense comfort from the contact.

"Thanks," he manages. "I—sorry—I know I'm not making much sense—I didn't think it was gonna mess with me this much—"

"That's okay," she tells him, holding him and giving him what comfort she can. "I told you I was going to be here to listen, and I am." And she is. "You can take whatever time you need to catch your breath and tell me whatever more you can." She still feels a little awkward about this, not being sure what to do, but she's doing her very best not to show it. She wants to make sure he's ok, and he doesn't seem okay at all. Hasn't seemed ok all night, really.

"Yeah. Okay. Yeah."

He... is not super successful at this, on account of he keeps crying too hard to talk. The picture he eventually manages to get across isn't all that much more detailed than his initial confused summary, just laid out in a more sensible order: one girl who was in a bad place (about which he is not getting any more specific than that) and has no resources left in the world except him, who he feels a strong sense of responsibility for but is uncomfortable around because she doesn't like him, and one girl with whom he made an unexplained mistake (details implied to be redacted for privacy reasons) that upset her very badly and which he very deeply regrets because he cares a lot about her. It's also implied that he is kind of new to the whole concept of being close enough to someone to be deeply affected by their pain, and not dealing super well with being introduced to it so harshly.

Karen really wants to pry for more information, about both circumstances -- she understands the need for privacy but she really wants to get at what is happening, it's hard for her to offer advice and tell him the right things to do when she doesn't have all the information. It's hard for her to tell him that he doesn't need to help this other girl out, especially if it's hurting him so much to do so when she doesn't know everything about the situation. She stutters through an explanation anyways, while hugging him and telling them that he is doing a really good thing, but he doesn't have to take responsibility for her if it hurts him -- it's important for him to take care of himself, as well.

In the case of the girl, well -- she can see that he really hasn't had much in the way of friends before, certainly not as close as this girl (or herself, for that matter). Without details, it's hard to tell him that she might be getting upset over nothing, and might not be so good of a friend to keep, if that's the case -- or that it's something he should feel bad about, but she'll get over. (She supposes it's also possible that it's something so bad that she would never get over, but honestly she's not sure what Sean could have done that would be that bad. He likely just acted in an embarrassing or overly effusive way, the way he tends to do with her.) She does her best, not sure what's going on, to explain that it's likely that she'll get over it, or that maybe if she's too petty and doesn't understand that he can make mistakes, and regret them, that she might not be a good friend for him to have.

Throughout the whole thing, Karen does her best to be soft and comforting, worried about him and how much stress this all seems to be causing him, but doing her best to help. She hadn't really signed on to help him with more than studies, per-se, but helping him out emotionally as well when he's been stunted this whole time is certainly something she can help with some too. It isn't fair what happened to him. And it's important that he manages to do well, now that he has a chance to grow and do more.

And eventually he cries himself out and hugs her and thanks her very sincerely for everything. Again.

"Sorry for falling apart all over you. You're a good friend and I'm really glad I met you."

Karen hugs him back, worried and a little mentally exhausted, but glad she could help. It was a bit more than she expected, for sure. And she really wishes she could have given him more and better advice, or found some way to really help out in his situation. Or situations, plural. Still, she's glad she could help. She's also glad she's going to be seeing him again on Wednesday, most likely, though they should probably set that up in advance, to make sure things have gotten better. She hopes they do. 

Also, the compliment is really sweet. "Thanks," she tells him, slowly releasing the hug, not wanting to release too much but enough that he could pull out if he wanted. "Honestly, I'm glad I met you too." She really is, to be honest -- he helped her out a lot when she was struggling at orientation, and things are a lot better at school now, partially because of that. And plus, she's glad to have the opportunity to help him flourish, weird as that sounds. It feels good to do something positive like this for someone like him. 

He smiles and lets go.

"Aww, thanks. Anywhere you want me to drop you off since we're in my car anyway?"

"Yeah, sure, why not!" She is just a little bit excited to see how the car drives. It is a really cool car. Much cooler than she expected. 

He grins. It's the happiest he's looked since she first saw him today.

The car is, indeed, very cool, and he really enjoys driving it. He's a surprisingly safe driver, too, for a nineteen-year-old boy with a Lamborghini.

Safe hadn't been an original worry, though she perhaps realizes it should have been when he starts driving. Cars still very much aren't her thing. But it's pretty nice to drive around in one like this, that's for sure. And he looks so much happier, and so much happier driving. 

It doesn't take very long for them to reach her apartment. It's not as nice looking as Sean's, for sure, but it's still pretty respectable, in not quite as nice a part of town. "Well, this is me," Karen says, a little awkwardly, when they arrive. 

"Cool. See you later?"

And he undoes his seatbelt and leans over to give her a quick hug.

Karen smiles gently, happy to see him in a better, mood, and unbuckles her own seatbelt to give him a hug back. Then she opens the door, gets out of of the car, gives him a little wave, and turns to head back into the apartment, her brain a little bit in turmoil still. She's already thinking about the math problem again, trying to figure out just how to prove this thing. She has only a couple of hours before she should really get some sleep, but maybe she can bang something out quickly before class tomorrow. Right now, though, maybe this could work like this...

Okay. Cool. Okay.

He feels... better. Not great, but not nearly as about-to-explode-at-any-moment as he did before Karen.

He checks his phone.

He doesn't have any new texts. He does have a number of university emails, including some from the other dance clubs he signed up for, welcoming him to their clubs and inviting him to their first dances early next week.

Man, it feels like practically another lifetime since he signed up for those. Still, might be a good idea to go. Dancing makes him happy and he kind of needs some of that in his life. Granted the idea of adding any more social commitments to his schedule right now feels a little like he's on a boat in the deep ocean in a brief reprieve between storms and contemplating jumping overboard, but he's pretty sure that dancing will actually help, and dancing where he doesn't have to encounter Jenna might in fact help more; as wonderful as Jenna is, thinking about her right now is... bittersweet at best. Anyway he'll probably feel better once he has had some time to recover from the hellweekend.

Okay, time to head home to Valerie. He reads her mind along the way.

Valerie is out having a night on the town, drinking with her new friends (well, hangers on, really), looking hot and sexy (as always) and pulling on some heartstrings of the silly foolish men who will never be as good as Sean. She leads them in with a smile and her eyes and looks so into them and then they buy her and her friends drinks and then she enjoys the sensation of watching their weak little faces fall when she snubs them, rubbing her legs together under the table where no one will see. It's so easy, dragging these weak fools along like this. She loves it. Even if she's found someone even better than her, she's still so much better than these peons. And it feels good to remind herself of that. 

She's drinking a lot more than she usually does here; normally she prefers to be a little sharper than this but it feels nice to feel a little dull at the moment. And her friends are happy, drinking in a bar like this, getting drunk off their asses and not getting carded. (All that took was a wink at that stuffy-looking bartender, and to keep smiling at him when he looks her way, the insipid fool.) They're so very happy with her for being able to share in her graces like this. She can see how grateful they are and how much they wanted something like this, a bit of time to decompress before they go back to school tomorrow. It's not like she wanted this too, it just feels good to give her friends things. Or something. And the power of having a bunch of pretty minions like this all grateful to her feels good. She's the one with the power. She's the one people want, or want to be, or sometimes, both. (She eyes one of the cuter girls, and gives her a little smile, watching with delight as the girl takes a deep, passionate breath.) Being in power, in his power, is fun, is hot, is right (so right, so fucking hot), but it feels even better, sometimes, to just play with others like the toys that they are. Having power, like this, having control, making people want her and need her and do anything for her makes her so hot and wet.

(If Sean doesn't text her soon, going off to do whatever else he does, or whoever else he does (grrr), well, maybe she'll take this pretty little thing home with her. She's reasonably sure the other girl, Sally, that was her name, she probably won't mind much if Sean shows up unexpectedly while she's eating Valerie out. Or at least, wouldn't mind for long. And it would be fun to watch him use someone else, too, to touch herself while he broke that cute little toy, just like he broke Valerie.)

...he sighs.

Yeah, he's been neglecting her. Badly. And he can't talk to her about any of his problems, because she'll just be Valerie about them, and she's still kind of annoying, and he's been sliding deeper into a pit of misery all weekend, and if he'd stayed with her this morning he'd have been ditching his commitment to do well in school, and none of that is actually an excuse, is it? No. No it is not. He doesn't feel the same inevitability about his responsibility to her as he does with Dani, because he didn't give her his protection for her sake, he took her fealty by force; but he does, actually, owe her better than this.

At least he's not far from her place. He drives a little faster, and texts her: come home

Valerie hears her phone make the pretty notes that she assigned to Sean and grins, and then frowns just a little, and grins again. She reads the text, ignoring the little bit of warring emotions in her head, and gets up to go. Sean wants her. And he can just order her to come home like that, and it feels so very good when he does. Mostly. She's devoted to him, his power and his control, and the order doesn't feel hollow at all.

She briefly entertains the thought of taking Sally (or was it Sarah?) home with her, her earlier fun fantasies still fresh in her mind, but that would probably take more work then she probably has time for. He wants her home now. He controls her and she's going to do what he tells her to do. She bids her friends adieu with her usual air of mystery (snubbing the bartender on the way out and watching his face fall in the reflection of her phone, which feels so good, leading him on just to crush him like that), before getting into her car, texting him oh, yes, sir. Should be there in 15 minutes <3 and driving back. She doesn't have far to go, but she idly touches herself as she drives, trying to imagine what kinds of fun things Sean might do to her, using her how he wants, and making her watch and see his control and power, and pushing away any bad ideas and thoughts, not that she has any of those. She's too good, too perfect, too special for him to want to get rid of her and he'd do it over text probably anyways, that's what Valerie would do. He wants her, and is going to hold her down and fuck her or do all kinds of things to her with his strength. That's what's going to happen.

Yep, he fucked up. And he's not even sure how he's going to fix it.

He reaches her apartment a couple of minutes before she does, and parks and heads up to wait for her, and just as she's getting out of her car he's leaning against the wall just inside her front door and texting: mine ♥

Valerie hears her phone chime and pulls it out to look, excited and a little turned on and certainly not anxious or worried all, all at once.

And then she bites her lip a little and presses her legs together and lets out a soft little breath of air, almost a moan. It feels good when he reminds her of his power over her. She's his. He's so strong and powerful and better and deserves so much, and he wants her. Of course he does, she's the best, and he deserves the best, there was never any doubt. But it still feels so hot to be reminded of his control and how he can make her all weak and horny and breathless like this. She wants to take a moment to touch herself, right here and now, but Valerie is reasonably sure he wants her as soon as possible and she shouldn't indulge herself. As much as she wants to. She hurries to the elevator to go up to see him.

The moment she steps into the apartment, he picks her up, presses her against the wall, and kisses her.

Fuck he's strong. So strong. And he just takes what he wants from her. Just like he deserves. Valerie moans and presses her body into him, letting him feel just how much she enjoys watching him do this to her. Making her feel this way. Seeing his control, his dominance. She melts into the kiss, enjoying the electric sensation running through her body at being taken.

He lingers over it, giving her time to really melt. He's paying close attention, as close as he did with Jenna, reading her mind to find out exactly what feels good and then giving her that. He could cheat with magic but he doesn't want to, at least not yet. First he wants to find out how far he can get just kissing her, with all her clothes still on, holding her up against the wall and pressing himself against her.