Jamie's POV

"Bye." Riley doesn't meet my eyes.

"Be careful." I mumble as I climb out of his car, but I doubt he heard me as he speeds away to start his hunt for Robin. I watch his red brake lights fade into the pitch darkness of this horrible night. Though, it's not night anymore, it's three am by now. I linger at the edge of the icy curb for another moment, intently watching the corner where Riley's blue car disappeared at.

There's not one car on the road. My breath hovers in smoky clouds in front of my freckled cheeks, while I tightly hug myself for warmth. The absolute silence feels heavy on my ears, making the dark, empty streets too still. Feeling the harsh cold seep through my clothes, I try not to worry about Robin or Riley. The cold getting unbearable, I retreat into the warmth of the apartment building, shivering as I climb the nine stacks of stairs.

At the top step, I nearly fall to a plummeting downfall. Sitting against my apartment door, Robin is supported by the wall and surrounded by cigarette butts littering the floor. A familiar blonde woman is asleep in Robin's lap, restlessly stirring about.

"Took you long enough." Robin sighs, looking exhausted.

"We've been looking for you all night." Pulling my coat off, I drop it around the sleeping lady like a makeshift blanket.

"Shhh, she's finally asleep." Robin gingerly rests her finger against her chapped lips to signal quiet. "She's been frantic since I knocked out her pathetic excuse for a husband at the bar." Up close, I can see bruises peaking from under the woman's clothes. Her young face looks aged and strained with worry lines and anxiety.

"When I went back for her... geez... you should have seen it, Freckles. A complete shit show. Someone called the police. The bartender wasn't cooperating for questioning. There was a crowd, but all the people who witnessed either blotted or just making everything worse by exghaughting to the cops." Robin tells.

"I found her being cornered in an ambulance. The cops kept questioning her while her husband was knocked out on a gurney. He was knocked the fuck off." Robin informs with a tired look in her blue eyes, even her precise smoky eye makeup is smudged, and can't hide the purple bags under her eyes.

"When the cops weren't looking, I chanced it." Robin continues her story, pulling off a triumphant smirk. "Surprisingly freckles, she didn't give me up to the cops, and didn't go to the hospital with her husband. She..." Robin shoots the sleeping woman a proud look. "She took one look at me, didn't turn me in, told that piece of unconscious shit how much she hates him, and ran with me."

"Who is she?" I question, frantically digging through my pockets for my keys.

"Josie." Robin answers. "And Josie... she's a survivor, Freckles. She was too scared to stay at the hospital. She was too scared to go anywhere. She was too scared she might run into someone, so I brought her here. I promised her I'd take her to the safest place I knew, and we ended up here." My hands stop, my breath catches, my heart stills.

Did I hear that right?

This is where Robin feels safest? One night on my couch, in my cramped apartment, and this wild twenty something year old crawled up on the floor says this is her safe place?

"Can she stay the night? Josie just needs one night someplace safe, where her husband, or cop, or any other jackass can't find her. She has no where else to go, Freckles. If the buses hadn't stopped working for the night, I would have made sure she was on the next one out of town already." I never thought I'd see Robin beg. It's a strange sight- and unnerving sight.

"The answer is obviously yes, Robin." I know it's this, or the cold outside, and everything bad in the dark. For someone who works for everything I have, for someone who does double shifts, and pays her own bills, I know too well about having nothing to turn to but a park bench. Riley knows too. He was homeless till he meet me. He lived in his car, crashed on the mattresses of girls' he slept with to get by.

And Robin, though I don't know her, I don't doubt for a second she knows first hand how it feels to have no where to go.

"That means she's getting the couch." I state.

"I'll sleep on the floor." Robin gets to her feet. "God knows, I've slept in worse places. Just add on another night to my tab." We exchange a solid nod, and knowing, unwavering glances. We're both more than willing to do anything Josie needs.

"Help me with her?" As gently as we can, Robin and I double a pathetic looking bridal style carry. With four hands, we made sure Josie's sleeping head is secure, her lower back was supported, and her knees had our hands tucked under. We made sure to be as gentle as possible, she's been through too much, and deserves at least one good night's sleep.

"She'll be on the first bus outta here in the morning. Which is the 5AM bus." Robin sighs as we lower Josie onto the couch in my dark living room.

"Have any idea where that bus is going?" I whisper, carefully untying and removing Josie's old shoes.

"She didn't want to say. All she said that she has family out south. Could be a lie," Robin shrugs. "Could not be. Doesn't matter. What does, is that she gets away from that monster." Robin smoothes down Josie's messy blonde hair.

"And her husband?" I ask.

"Nothing probably. Doesn't matter how many times he's beaten her, or neighbors calling the police. Or if she has been put in the hospital because of him. In domestic abuse, nothing can happen unless the victim presses charges. Josie, like a majority of victims, she never pressed charges. She was too scared of him. Domestic abuse is reported about 25% of the time. So, she saw her chance to bolt. He's unconscious, and strapped down in a hospital bed somewhere. This is her chance to start over." Robin explains, looking down sadly at the sleeping Josie.

"That's horrible." I breathe.

"Well, the world is a horrible place." Robin shrugs. "It's been a horrible day too. You should go to bed, Freckles." Robin kicks off her black combat boots.

"Wait. We should call Riley. He's been out looking for you for hours." I try to ignore all the worry I have about Riley, and where he is.

"Of course he is." A sad, yet emotional smile spreads across Robin's face.

"He'd do anything for you." I say, remembering the look on Riley's face when he told me the story of when he first meet Robin.

"I know he would. I know how much he's in love with me." Robin says, going for pack of cigarettes.

"You know?" I question, straightening up. I'm pretty sure Riley has never actually told Robin. He never went after her, because she's Nate's girlfriend. If never told her or tried, how does she know?

"Of course I know. He's as obvious as the sun in the sky." Robin gives a small shake of her head, that sad, yet fond smile still in place.

"Don't you think he deserves... I dunno, Robin. A proper yes or no, or something?" I ask quietly, hugging myself. Even now, I can clearly see every huge, genuine smile Riley had on his face when he spoke about Robin. Or the bright look in his brown eyes every time he looks at her. I've seen how out of this world happy Robin makes him. Riley, who has been in love with Robin, and her flaws, her smirks, her smudged makeup, her boldness, her courage since high school... who has been homeless, who gets pushed around by her boyfriend Nate, deserves something!

"Guys like Riley, shouldn't be with girls like me, Jamie." Robin actually used my name. "I want more for Riley, than me. I'm not good for him. I have no future. I have no morals. I'm just the pretty girl, whose a good time. But Riley, he deserves more than just a good time." For once, I don't scold Robin for lighting a cigarette. I just stay frozen to the ground, hugging myself to tightly, needing the wall for support, and trying not to imagine Riley's face.

"He's loved you since high school." I state.

"I know." She admits, the smirk nowhere in sight. "Riley has been in love with me since high school. And Riley has been the one good thing in my life since high school. My only real friend. He's held my hair for every drunk vomiting. He's comforted me after every fight with Nate. He's been there for every shot, for every bad decision, for every bail, for everything. And he deserves more than me, and Nate." Robin uncharcistally puts out the cigarette.

"Riley... he's not in with Nate for money, unlike everyone else. He's not a junkie. He's not an alcoholic. He's the only one of us who has a conscious, and feels responsible for the drugs he sells to people." Robin has this astounded look in her blue eyes, as if she's trying to grasp how a magician can pull a rabbit out of a hat.

"Riley means well. He has a good heart. He's a good person, who came from a family who never bothered with him, with bad people in his life, letting him ruin his life. He's not a fuck up like me and Nate. He's an actual good person, and he deserves more... I don't want this life for him anymore, Jamie."

She love him. Not the same way Riley is in love with her. But this entire time Robin has loved Riley like makeshift family. It's clear on her face.

"You know, I really love the way you two meet." Robin shoots me a genuine smile, and from the sight of it, I can understand why Riley loves her so much.

"I peppered spray him." My hands flies up to cover my face.

"Yeah, you did." She chuckles. "You could have had him arrested. You could have peppered sprayed him till his eyes we're damaged. You could have left him there, alone and temporally blinded out in the cold. And no one would have blamed you." Robin nods, as if she's picturing it.

"But while any other person would have saw some thug or hoodlum, you saw a person Jamie. You saw a person in the middle of a bad decision. You saw pass your own fear, your own judgement, and saw a human being and what got him to that point, and all the pain that was eating him alive. Do you know how much good it takes to do that, Jamie? And not everyone is going to understand that, and I feel bad for them."

"I...I... That's one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me." I whisper.

"Then you obviously never heard Riley talk about you. On the drive over, all he did was rave about you. Now that I've actually meet you, I get it. I get everything he said."

"What did he say about me?" I question.

"That he somehow was lucky enough to encounter this capable red head girl. He said that you're  the one good thing in his life right now- in a long time. He said you were not like the other girls he dates. That you're independent, efficient, strong. He raved about how you're nothing like excepted. He said he doesn't understand how somehow can be so levelheaded, or how while everyone is petty and is angry, you're don't let hatred get to you. He's looks up to you like a kid and a superhero. He wants the kind peace you have."

I haven't felt peaceful in ages... since Riley smashed into my life in that alley. But of course... I use to mix up peace with isolation, and called them the same thing.

"And you know Riley, he doesn't say things just to say things. He means what he says." Robin grins. I smile into the palm of my hand like an idiot. I matter to him. I'm important to Riley. We're not people sleeping together or living in the same apartment, but two real people who mean something to each other.

"Do you want to call him?" Robin offers me her cracked iPhone.

"No, he really needs to hear your voice, right now." For the first time in days, I feel... sure. I feel grounded, and sure of things.

That's right, WHILE YOU WERE ALL GIVING ROBIN SHIT, SHE WAS ON #teamJamiley THIS WHOLE TIME.

SHE HAS BEEN SO HAPPY FOR RILEY THE MOMENT HE DROVE HER TO JAMIE'S APARTMENT, AND THE MORE SHE GOT TO KNOW JAMIE THE HAPPIER SHE WAS.

SHE IS THE REAL QUEEN OF THIS SHIP