AKA There's No Way

Jessica spots the camera on her desk and remembers that her memory card is almost full. She sits down in her chair and hooks her camera up to her laptop. When it doesn't turn on, she gets frustrated. That is until she remembers that she forgot to turn it off last night when she tried to get her mind off of things and Googled some bad guys currently having their residence in her neighborhood.

She plugs her laptop into the charger and waits until the photos load. As she scrolls through them and deletes the ones she no longer needs, she comes across a video. This is strange as she never records anything. She wasn't even aware this thing could record anything. Clicking once, she sees that the video is 3.16 minutes and taken - "oh, last Monday?!" she says out loud when she realizes that it's Trish that took the video.

Grabbing her licorice out of one of the drawers, she double clicks on the file and plays the video.

At first, she only hears a lot of shuffling and the video is completely out of focus. But then it turns to someone walking down the street; it's that she knows it's her because even if she squints she cannot make out who it is. She hears Trish breathe something out twice but it's way too soft to decipher it.

Finishing her candy, she drags the video into a program that splits the video from the audio. She then opens the audio into a digital audio workstation and messes with the EQ in order to amplify the sound in the range in which humans speak. She uses a high pass filter to filter out the low humming of cars and other outside noises. She never thought this would come in handy again when she half-heartedly paid attention when an asset of hers did something similar for her months ago.

The sound still isn't very good, but it's clear enough to make out what Trish is saying now.

"Fuck, I want to run my hands all over those legs."

Followed by silence and then:

"Why are you so damn hot?!"

Holy fuck.

It's safe to say that Jessica is very confused right now. Last night all she could think of was how Trish did nothing to refute the fact that she wasn't her girlfriend when that guy called her that. Of course, she could've thought that he wasn't worth arguing about it.. But the way Trish held her hand after that and the way she sounded so insecure yet sincere when she asked if they would see each other again soon, made Jessica wonder that maybe, just maybe her feelings aren't that unrequited.

Just as she's contemplating on what to say to Trish when she calls her, her phone rings. She frowns at the device because it's Trish that's calling her. Voodoo. Clearly.

Before she even fully brought the phone to her ear, she hears Trish' distressed voice.

"I think someone is following me. Jess, accept my video call for a sec. I know you hate it, but I'd like you to see my murderer, just in case."

"Ah, what? Trish, you're joking, right?" She knows Trish isn't joking but doesn't want to believe it either.

Trish ends the call midway Jessica's sentence. A Skype call comes in and Jessica immediately accepts it. It takes a few seconds before she sees Trish, but when she does, she sees that someone seems to be actually following her.

"Trish, tell me exactly where you are." She tries to keep her voice level but her heart beats uncontrollably. She puts Trish on speakerphone.

"I'm actually walking towards you. Six blocks away. 7th Avenue going into 21th Street."

As Trish speaks, Jessica quickly puts on her jacket and jumps down her window. Elevators and doors be damned right now.

On her phone, she can see that Trish is still walking but she isn't speaking anymore. The person that is following her is yelling at her now. They're singsonging her name, which means they know exactly who it is that they're following. The weird thing is that this guy isn't making any headway. It's like he is intentionally keeping his distance and doesn't want to ambush her.

This isn't working. It's a Friday night and the streets are too crowded to run through, so she jumps up a roof and starts to run building to building until she's approximately where Trish should be according to the limited information she gets from the sight from Trish' phone.

Jessica looks down and can see both Trish and the guy that's following her. There is something strange going on. When she searches the area in front of them, she sees it. He's cornering her. Trish is going exactly where he wants her to go and that's why he's not making any move on her.

From Jessica's acquired height, she can see half a dozen guys waiting just a block away. If Trish keeps going the direction she's currently in it's going to be hard, even for Jessica, to get out of the situation unscathed.

Although, she's always in for a fight, she'd like Trish to be safe. Her best course of action would be to send Trish into another direction and to confront the lone guy and get him to back off.

"Trish, take the next right."

"But, that's -"

"Trust me, Trish."

And Trish does, without thinking. She finds herself in a cul-de-sac.

"That wasn't a smart move to make, Trish. I thought you were smarter than this," the guy yells after her as he walks into the same alleyway. "What are you going to do now?" He puts his hands together in excitement. "I know what I'm gonna do."

Jessica hears him slightly delayed on her phone as she's now directly above the pair. She gets herself ready to jump on him when Trish speaks up.

"Oh, I'm not the one who's going to be doing something and neither are you." Trish grins up at him, causing him to take an uncertain small step back at her sudden confidence.

Just as he's about to ask her what she's talking about, Jessica jumps down from the building. Trish' mockery gives her the idea it would be more fun to punch him, giving him somewhat of a fair fight, instead of jumping on him out of nowhere.

"I am," Jessica says when her boots meet the ground.

The guy whips his head around to face Jessica and is immediately met by her fist in his face. He grunts out in pain as the blood immediately seeps out from his nose. She hits him in the abdomen next, causing him to fall down to his knees. Jessica then gestures to Trish as to say 'what do we do with him?'

Trish shakes her head in dismissal and gestures for Jessica to come closer to her.

"Don't bother me again, or you'll regret it," Trish says to the guy who's now toppled over in pain.

She gives Jessica a hug and whispers a 'thank you' into her shoulder.

All Jessica can think about is how good Trish smells and how she wants to drown into the embrace. But she swallows up her feelings and backs away a little instead.

"Give me a boost up?" Trish asks.

"Wha? What?" Jessica stutters as they haven't done anything like this since their college days. High school would be more accurate, if not for that day Trish got wasted due to a spiked drink and Jessica had to go and get her. Trish couldn't even walk so Jessica carried her home. She quickly found it it's easier to jump from roof to roof than to go in a mediocre tempo just to keep up appearances.

Jessica decides right after the guy tries to get up again. She grabs Trish' waist from behind and charges both of them into the air. It isn't until she feels Trish flex her abs under her grip that her mind goes in ten different directions, none appropriate for this instant. She let's go too quickly and Trish would've toppled over if not for the fact that Jessica's reflexes kicked in.

Looking into each other's eyes, the world around them disappears. Jessica always thought it was cliché bullshit and would never admit it out loud, but oh how real it is. The weird part, however, is that she doesn't know what to do with her hands. What do people normally do with their hands? Why can't they just retract into your body when they're not in use?

Fuck..

Trish watches Jessica go from something she would describe as 'awestruck' to confused as Jessica furrows her brows deeper and deeper in thought.

"What?" Trish asks confused seeing Jessica all fidgety.

"What? Nothing?!" did I say that out loud? "Just be careful, Trish." Jessica blurts out in a failed attempt to keep her cool.

Trish bursts out into laughter, but Jessica manages to silence her almost immediately with a gloved hand to her mouth.

I should not have done that. I should not have done that.

Jessica points to the guy below them, who is searching all over for them, extremely confused over their sudden disappearance. She feels Trish' warm breaths through the fabric of her glove. It leaves a tingling sensation and warms up more than just her hand.

She feels Trish looking at her instead of the guy and she makes the mistake of looking back at Trish. Once they lock eyes, Jessica is breathless. Her ears only pick up the sound of her own out of control heart and all she can think about is what this woman in front of her said about her in that video.

She vaguely sees Trish step closer to her.

Trish missteps over the loosely scattered pebbles and falls forward. Jessica quickly snaps out of her daydream and catches her just in time. Unfortunately, the weight Trish put on her foot caused it to sprain. She tries to walk on it but her foot hurts too much.

Jessica gestures with her arms for Trish to come to her so that Jessica can carry her. Trish shakes her head and leans on her to walk. When they reach the edge, Trish realizes that this isn't going to work. There's no way she can climb down herself and she can't jump to the next building either.

She sighs, but not because she doesn't want Jessica to hold her but because she imagined it under different circumstances.

When Jessica hears that sound, she thinks she somehow overstepped boundaries, did something wrong or maybe interpreted Trish' words on that video the wrong way. She doesn't want to be in near proximity to me...

"C-can you carry me home?" Trish asks Jessica. It's so soft that Jessica wouldn't hear it if they weren't still standing so close to each other.

Jessica looks up to Trish looking all kinds of vulnerable and it breaks Jessica's heart. "Of course, Trish."

Trish demands to get to her penthouse through conventional means instead of her hopping into the balcony and breaking her locks, and of course, Jessica does as told. But Jessica wouldn't be Jessica if she did it without whining and pouting.

When they reach her floor and the elevator dings, they see someone standing by Trish' door. Jessica furrows her eyebrows because, why would there be a cop standing at her door? Unless something happened with Dorothy or something went down at the station. Or did Trish call the cops before she called her?

Jessica walks forward in quick strides, leaving Trish to hobble along with her sprained ankle.

Before Jessica can ask what's going on, Trish speaks up.

"Simpson," she says like a question.

It's clear to Jessica that 1. Trish didn't expect him and 2. They know each other more than casually.

She can tell by how Trish' demeanor changes. Her stance is more confident yet her eyes are softer while she looks at him. She isn't sure whether it's pity or whether she just missed him. It's difficult for Jessica to analyze the situation when all she wants to do is get rid of him and make sure that Trish is alright.

The cop, not a detective Jessica notes, walks up to the pair. He gives Jessica a quick nod in acknowledgment and goes to ask Trish whether she's alright.

If you ask Jessica, it's more like he's babying her. Kneeling in front of her to look at her ankle, touching it gently while looking up into her eyes. Yes. Jessica knows in that moment that she doesn't like him in the slightest. She clears her throat to hopefully end this annoying situation.

"Right," Tries snaps out of the moment, "Jess, this is Simpson, Simpson this is Jessica."

He gives Jessica a smile and extends his hand. Jessica just stares him down until Trish not so gently nudges her in the abdomen.

"OK," Jessica says, quickly retracting her hand again.

The silence that follows is awkward.

Trish tells Simpson that they have things to do and he understands that he's intruding on something and takes it as his cue to leave. He gives Trish a quick kiss on her mouth.

Jessica almost vomits on the spot and wants to kill him simultaneously. She interjects 'whatever this is' with a notion of her own.

"You can stay. I gotta go anyway," she says quickly. She spits Simpsons name as a goodbye and doesn't spare Trish another glance.

Trish sees her leave without another word and is utterly confused. This isn't how this was supposed to go.