Genevieve scrunched her nose as Pansy exhaled a long curtain of tar fumes, cigarette smoldering between her fingers as the shorter girl watched from the sink."When?" Pansy's question was simple enough, voice curling through the silence of the bathroom before the space settled back into an absence of sound.

"I think something happened to my girlfriend," Jasper's voice was almost nervous as he spoke, though his paces were confident and his tone forcefully sure. "Investigate her mother to start—do whatever you have to to find out what happened," Jasper paused in his paces as he threw the blonde before him a glance. The man stood silently, blue eyes careful and accent stilled as he settled into the silence of Jasper's words. "I've seen her hit her daughter before,""We can start with a timeline, when did you first get suspicious something happe

Genevieve smiled at the notion, contemplating that perhaps she was not taking the previous gesture to heart—but stopped herself short as the remembrance of Jasper concluded her thoughts, and she was left with a warmth and a lingering smile.The smile soon after fell as she sharply remembered glancing through the sheer glass of her living room window—seasoned with curiosity she wished had never fallen over her as her eyes fell on the image of Jasper, seated cosily beside no one but mother dear

She snatched her hand back to her chest, lips parting as a misplaced tear she could not even feel fell from the shadows of her eyes and thick, dark lashes. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I did that,"The girl felt bluntly bewildered in the moment, dark eyes wide and lips parted as a second tear met the skin of her cheek, stained by a deeper pink. Her freckles fell invisible to the tone, hidden by the very shade that warmed beneath her skin and defined the thud of her heartbeat in her ears.

It was the same thing on his mind as they shed various garments, the already running shower forgotten beneath the touch of each other against one another, Genevieve's hands clutching for a better grip on the flexing tones of Jasper's shoulders as the pair stumbled through the bathroom door.