To aid those in need

Sam rang the buzzer for apartment nine. Clover lived on the third and top floor of the building. A little bit of a climb, especially when you were bringing groceries up, but otherwise tame. Clove always faux-bragged about how she was living in the ‘penthouse’ suite, though her place wasn’t any different from the other three that shared the floor. And the building matches the others on the street, only different in its blue paint job and slightly different window placements.

She tapped her foot while she waited for Clover to buzz her in the front door on the first floor. She was surprisingly impatient tonight. Probably just her wanting to be inside already and helping clean her friend’s apartment. Normally she’d just be hanging out with Clover and vegging with some tv and icecream, but tonight she had purpose.

*Buzz*

The ground-floor door unlocked and Sam pushed her way through. She hurried up the stairs and knocked on Clover’s door.

“Hey Cloves, it’s me.”

“Hey Sam,” Clover called out from inside, “be right there.”

Sam waited as patiently as an impatient person could. The seconds trickled by unendingly. Really, what was keeping Clover? She was probably just taking forever to tease her. Which was her prerogative of course, but still.

She tapped her foot against the door frame. Lightly at first, but then with a bit more gusto. She rapped again against the door.

“Clover?”

“Yeah, one sec.”

Sam waited one sec, and then one sec more, and then multiple secs more. Her leg was practically jittering now. She was just about to knock again when the door opened. Clover stood with one hand on the knob and the other holding a bag of chips. She was wearing her casual clothes, just a raggy shirt and some workout pants. Nothing special, but still, it felt meaningful, important. Like there was something more in her mien that Sam could just about see if only she looked closer.

“You okay there, Sam? You look a little flustered.” The note of concern in her friend’s voice did her wonders. She breathed out, calming herself down.

“Yeah. Just feeling a bit out of sorts. But don’t mind that, what’s this about cleaning your apartment?”

“Oh yeah, that. Come on in.” Clover gestured inside and Sam obliged. She looked around for offending dirt. The apartment did look a bit unclean, insofar as there was some hair and specks of crumbs on the ground, some furniture looked a bit dusty, and generally there were things strewn all around, like hairpins and clothes and such. It looked a bit messier than normal, but nothing like an emergency.

An easy task in other words.

“So yeah if you could clean the floor first that’d be great. I want to see those hardwood floors shining.”

“Sure. I’ll get right on that.” Sam walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a garbage bag, into which she placed all the random detritus that was cluttering the ground. While she was doing that, Clover sat back down on her couch and started watching her shows. The sound of some reality tv show (Sam couldn’t tell which one it was, just that it was loud) blared in the background while she performed her task. The time flew by, with Sam lost in a pleasant haze of mindlessness in her almost automated work.

Once the floor was clean of junk, which didn’t take too long, she went back to the kitchen to get some paper towels. Only, there didn’t seem to be any. Nor towels of the regular kind either, now that she was looking.

She dipped her head back out and gave Clover a ping, “Hey Cloves, do you have any paper towels I could use? Can’t seem to find them.”

“Ah, fresh out. Just used the last of them today. And all my towels are in the wash, sry :(.”

Well, that was unfortunate.

“Do you have anything else I could use? I want to wipe down the floors.”

“I’d give you an old shirt but again, laundry.”

“I see.” Sam gave it a ponder. What else was she supposed to do? She had to clean the floors, that was a given. “You have a mop or something?”

“Nope.”

Well that was just irresponsible. But still, the floors required cleaning.

“Why don’t you just use your own shirt?” Clover asked, speaking up a bit over the television. And it was a good question. Sam had specifically dressed in something old in case it got dirty. She hadn’t planned on taking it off to use an ad hoc rag though.

“I don’t really want to get my shirt dirty. Plus, I’d be walking around in my bra.”

“Gurl, like I haven’t seen you half-naked before.”

Which was true, as the three of them had been in numerous missions where they had been reduced to a state of half-dress. Or even just in the locker room during gym at high-school. Still, it felt a bit more intimate here at Clover’s apartment.

But… why should she let herself dither when there was work to be done? Her friend needed her help and she was more than happy to provide it. Anything else was just quibbling.

Sam reached for the hem of her shirt and lifted it over her shoulders. With a heave-ho, she was bared to the world, or the kitchen in Clover’s apartment. It felt a bit cold just standing there in her jade-tinged bra, but she was sure that was just psychosomatic. With crumpled shirt in hand, she doused it in the sink and walked back out to the living room.

Clover looked up from her show, giving her friend an appreciative stare. Sam felt like she was truly naked for a moment before she acclimated to the surrealness.

“Looking good, Sam.” Clover gave her a wink. “‘s a wonder you don’t have a boyfriend yet.”

“Yeah, uh,” how do you respond to that, “me too.”

She bent down on all fours and pressed down on the floor with her shirt. She made sure to wipe in parallel, rectangular patterns. It was actually worse to do circular motions while cleaning, as that just spread dirt around. Her shirt started getting darker with all the dirt, but it wasn’t like she was going to keep it after this; she’d just throw it out when she got home.

One new problem reared up its ugly head a few minutes into her cleaning. She had nothing to dry with. Ugh. No rest for the wicked indeed. She reached down to her pants and started to pull them off.

“Whoa, what’re you doing?” Clover opened her mouth in a wide ‘O’ of surprise. “I know we’re friends and all, but isn’t that a bit much?”

Sam glared at her.

“Wasn’t it you who not five minutes ago said it was fine to be half-naked?”

“Yeah, but that was that and this is this.” Clover pointed to Sam’s green panties. “Prancing around in your bra is one thing, but your panties too? That’s a whole ‘nother step.”

“Oh.” Well, if Clover was saying she didn’t want to see her like that, it was her apartment. She made to put back on her pants, but Clover interjected again.

“Wait. You don’t need to put them back on. I was just surprised was all, sorry.” Clover made a shooing gesture. “You can get back to cleaning if you want.”

She did want to clean, and was a bit irritated at being tossed back and forth as to her state of dress or undress. She re-unpantsed herself and started rubbing them on the wet areas of the floor. Shirt, pants, shirt, pants, she alternated her cleaning method across the entirety of the floor, even under the few small rugs and pieces of furniture that occupied the floor. She caught Clover staring at her once or twice out of the corner of her eye, but other than that was undisturbed in her duty.

After thirty minutes of holistic cleaning, she had a spick and span floor and an utter mess of what remained of her attire. Her clothing situation was a shame, but any loss that she felt from that was more than accounted for by the overwhelming sense of completeness at having helped her friend.

“You done?” Clover was watching her, staring at her from above in her couch at the kneeling Sam. She felt a bit small under such an intense gaze.

“Yeah.”

“Good. You can do the other floors tomorrow. Tomorrow’s a Sunday after all, so there’s plenty of free time.”

“Sure. I’d be happy to.”

“Cool. I’ll let you go for tonight, but before you go, there’s one more thing you can help me with.”

Sam looked up at Clover.

“What’s that?” She couldn’t help but let a note of eagerness infect her words.

“Hmm.” The blonde trailed a finger around her shoulder blade. “You’ve been quite a tease tonight, prancing around in your underwear.”

“Clover?”

“It’s made me a little hot and bothered.” She trailed her other hand down to her hips.

“Clover?” Sam backed up a bit.

“Don’t you feel bad for making me horny? Take some responsibility and help me fix this won’t you?”

Help. She loved helping Clover. Her eyes tracked Clover’s finger, tracing a spiraling pattern against the dark, wine red pants that hugged her crotch so tightly. Was that… was that a wet spot on her pants? Right there in the center. Was Clover not wearing any panties?

“Oooh,” Clover moaned, “I’m so wet right now, Sam.”

Sam stood up abruptly. Her thoughts were grinding against each other. She, uh, had to, help, but, help, love. She couldn’t think. She had to help. She loved helping. She couldn’t help. Clover was her friend. This was something more.

“I… I can’t.”

“What? You love helping me. You really absolutely love helping me more than anything else. Don’t you care what I want?” Each sentence pounded its way into Sam’s skull.

“No… I love helping Clover… I love… I… have to go.” She pushed herself up. Clover reached for her, but Sam was already out the door and rushing down the stairs.

“Sam!” Clover yelled behind her, but Sam couldn’t think about it. She just was acting according to her instinct. She slammed open the door to her car, fumbling and finally getting the key into the ignition switch. She could hear Clover’s footsteps on the stairs. Did she need help getting down? Should she… no, no time. She closed the door and backed out. She had to get back to her apartment. Everything would be fine if she just had time to think in peace and safety.

She was sure of it.