Through the Looking-glass (Sam POV)

Distance.

All her life she'd felt a world away from everyone else. Stuck behind a glass wall. Always the outsider looking in.

She wasn't the son her father wanted. Not the sister her brother wanted. Wasn't even the daughter her mother wanted.

She was the extra burden bringing their family down. An annoyance to be pushed away. Someone who would only be acceptable if she fit into the mold laid out for her.

There was a gap, a distance, between her and all of them. One that she couldn't breach.

She had only started to try and cross that distance with her father when the man left. She hated him for leaving, for running away, but she couldn't blame him. She made herself understand, even as it hurt.

Her mother stopped any attempts at getting closer. The woman loved her daughter, the idea of a daughter. Which made her all the angrier if she didn't fit that image.

She had tried so hard with her brother. Trying to find something, some common ground they could bond over, but he pushed her away with every attempt.

She tried to get to know his friends and he just dropped them. If he started listening to a band, she did as well. But when she talked to him about them, asked what his favourite song was, he just got mad. Like she had tainted them for him.

When he wanted to play soccer she begged her mom to let her play as well. She forewent all that year's birthday presents to convince her how serious she was, and then half way through the season he gave it up.

How could she get closer to someone that preferred crushing loneliness to spending any time with her? To someone that didn't want to see her for who she was. To someone that wasn't there.

She stopped playing soccer but she kept running. Not because she wanted to run away, that wasn't her. She ran because so long as she was in motion, she could convince herself she might cross that distance one day.

She made more friends, she put herself out there but every connection she made felt off. They all smiled and acted nice when she was around, but she knew behind her back they laughed at her. It was how they treated everyone. All attempts to get closer to her were just to mine for ammunition. Something they could bring up to the others to gain points, make themselves look better.

Then they all got older, and she got invited to parties, and inevitably they all wanted to gossip about boys. She began to realise just how different she was.

It wasn't that she didn't like boys, that might have been simpler to deal with, it was that they didn't set off the same spark for her as they did for the other girls.

Some were nice, most were okay. But when her friends were gushing over some guy in their class or some celebrity in a movie they watched, she felt that distance. She couldn't shake how fake it all felt.

Her sprint became a run, became a jog, became a walk. She was drifting away but inertia kept her going, kept her in the friend group, but she could see the path ahead and that path was getting shorter and shorter.

Then one night she volunteered to leave a party and meet up with their dealer. They acted like it was a chore but she was thankful for the chance to leave. To get a break from it all.

She knocked on the door and in an instant understood why her friends wouldn't stop gushing about boys.

The girl dressed the way she never could. Stood with a confidence she never had. Her tattoos, her piercings, her freedom. It was everything she didn't even know she'd wanted.

And then she spoke.

"You look like a lost puppy."

The words fired up gears in her mind that had never turned. Made her drool, made her drip. Made her feel want, for the first time in a very long time.

But even more sweet than her words was that she noticed. She crossed over into her world and actually saw who she really was. What she needed.

Candi took her, in body and in mind. She made her feel wanted, made her feel seen. Pushes her in ways that opened up doors she wouldn't have ever known.

She was more than just Candi's girlfriend, she was her puppy. Her pet. And nobody tried to make their puppy act like a kitten, or a bird. Nobody would ignore their puppy when it was trying to give them love. People let them get close, let them into their lives.

Everyone loved puppies, and nobody left them behind.

A/N: Part one of two of a little jump into Sam's head. The next one will have more action/plot and less angst, I promise!

Let me know if you like jumping into other perspectives or not. I'm devided on it myself, so I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks!