Puppet Master

Chapter Thirty

Tori collapsed onto the thick cushions while Shannon busied herself pulling the ice cold Pinot Blush from the cooler, and two frosted wine glasses to drink it with.

“God, that was a session!” Tori groaned, pulling her sweaty hair out of the ponytail at the back of her head, and running a towel over her completely make up free face.

Shannon dropped down next to her, handing the second glass over to her friend, “Tell me about it!” she sighed. Tori popped the glass back on the table after her first sip of wine, as it stirred her stomach into a faint wave of nausea after the intense workout she’d just endured.

Almost a fortnight had passed since Shannon had moved in to the small studio space with Tori. Although it was a little cramped, the girls had grown used to sharing their space with each other over the years, and there were no major adjustments to contend with. The sofa in the lounge area was a sofa bed, but most nights both girls had taken to tumbling into Tori’s King Size bed anyway, despising the nightly ritual of pulling out the metal frame from under the cushions.

Shannon was doing extremely well in coping with the aftermath of her recent sexual assault, after Tori had arranged for her to meet with a counsellor the very next day from her own GP’s surgery. She seemed to have overcome her self-annihilation after her own father’s words had come back to haunt her, and although waves of sadness would pass across her face occasionally, she fought them down much easier than she had at the beginning.

She was moving along slowly, with the aid of both her therapy, and a Krav Maga workout class at the gym, where both girls had been earlier that evening. Although complex and a heavy workout, both girls were gaining valuable skills from the martial art – geared as it was to self-defence principles. Shannon was not so inclined to flinch at any kind of physical contact once she had begun to learn how to defend herself.

The soft, lyrical sound of Adele drifted over both girls as they played out their own introspections.

Tori had heard from Jayden, although at first she’d declined his calls and texts in light of the recent circumstances, both between the two of them and with Shannon’s recovery as well. She just could not cope with him clouding her judgement when she knew she had to be there for her friend. Eventually she’d answered, but she’d refused to discuss any personal matters with him regarding their relationship, concluded as she felt it to be.

If he could not give her what she needed, then she knew she would have to let him go, painful as it was. He’d made his bed, so to speak, so now she would have to lie in the tatters of a broken heart without him.

Her stomach turned once again, and she groaned aloud at the sensation, “I think that wine has hit me funny hun, do you mind if I just jump in the shower a second?”

“Course not babes, you okay?”

“Yeah, I think I just trained a bit too hard in that last session, I feel exhausted!”

Already dragging the pale pink bra top from her sweat soaked body as she got up from the sofa, she made her way into the shower.