The Beautiful Ones

AN: Passed yet another math paper. I just gotta keep on truckin’, I guess.

“Leigh!” Cassandra scrambled to an upright position, still holding her stuffed bunny. The make up artist looked past her to the mess of her car.

“What the hell happened? Are you okay? Did somebody hurt you?” Leigh demanded. Cassandra shook her head slowly.

“Nobody hurt me. I guess someone broke into my car. I’ve got all my dirty and laundry stuff in here.” She holds Stanley a little bit tighter.

“Jeeze, I sure hope you have insurance. Do you need a ride home? Why didn’t you just park in the Luxor lot like the rest of us do, Cassandra? You were practically asking for it, leaving the car all alone in the lot all day.” Leigh chided.

“If that’s where your car is, how come you walked here?”

“I wanted to take the bus tonight, but if you ride with me to my house, then I’ll get the car and drop you off wherever you’re staying. Then again,” she sounded thoughtful. “I don’t suppose you’d want to leave all your things in your car open for the taking. There are some people around here who would see that as free pickings.”

“I don’t live that far. I can walk alone. Don’t worry about me. I’m just a little shaken up.” She tried to smile. Leigh frowned.

“Well, all right, if you’re sure.” She hurried on to the bus stop. Cassandra sat back down on the pavement, staring at the shell of her car. What the hell was she supposed to do? It wasn’t like she could find a hotel to stay at or anything.

“Okay, Cassandra, this is not the end of the world. You are going to move your car, and then you are going to find some duct tape, patch up the windows, and get some sleep. You have work in the morning.”

Wordlessly, ignoring the way that she felt violated and climbed into her car, wrapping a t-shirt around her hand to sweep away the glass with. Tears stung her eyes as she quietly drove around the block. As luck would have it, she did find a parking lot considerably closer to the Luxor than the one she had been sleeping at.

“Home sweet home,” she murmured to Stanley as she got out once again to find her duct tape. He watched her with sympathetic marble eyes as she patched everything up as best she could.

Finally, exhausted, she laid back down in the backseat of her car. For all that the place was boiling during the day, then nights were still cold, and the clothes didn’t do much to block out the air.

Cassandra curled up tightly in a call on the backseat, trying to huddle under her blanket. It did very little. She buried her face in Stanley’s fur and hoped that this night would end sooner rather than later.

Of course, she had no idea what she would do tomorrow. But if she could just make it through tonight, she thought that tomorrow might be a little bit easier.

“Tomorrow, everything will be okay.” Cassandra whispered as exhaustion finally took her off and she drifted off to sleep.

(AN: AND YOU THOUGHT IT WAS CRISS!)