"Ian, come snuggle. You've started at my turtle long enough," Sam patted the spot on the couch beside her and curled the blanket tighter around her frail body.
"Alright, alright," Ian chuckled at his girlfriend, stepped away from the small tank that the little reptile resided in.
He enveloped his arms around her snugly and gently kissed her forehead. She sighed and cuddled into his torso.
They both then heard a loud noise coming from the hallway of Samantha's apartment building. She cocked her head to the side in confusion. It was usually fairly quiet in the building so she found this unusual. Ian had spent enough time here to know this was out of the ordinary as well. He slowly rose up from the couch and crept toward the door. The man observed the happenings occurring outside from the peep hole in the door. Ian was not quite sure what he was watching unfold at this point. He stood there a bit dumbfounded.
"What is it?" Sam whispered from the confines of her blanket, which was now wrapped over her head so only her face was showing.
"I-I don't really know. I think Josh is out there."
Sam got up and walked over to where Ian was standing, face pressed against the door. She nudged him gently with her elbow. He moved out of her way, draping his arm around her waist. Sam gazed out into the hallway and became even more confused than Ian had been.
"Oh Sammy!" the couple heard their friend's voice from outside.
"I don't wanna open the door, do I?" Sam looked up at her beloved Ian.
"Probably not, no."
"Please open the door, sweetheart!" Josh said as he repeatedly struck the door. "I know you're in there with Ian!" the man shouted louder.
"What do you want, Ramsay?"
"I have a delivery for you. It's a special gift from the rest of us for stealing away our drummer."
Matt's voice was heard beyond the door, laughing.
The young woman sighed and reluctantly opened the door to her apartment, allowing her boyfriend's band mates to enter.
"Alright! Thanks darling!" Mike ran into her home and plopped himself down on her couch.
"Okay, what's going on?" Ian asked his friends as he watched out into the hallway and took note of the large box that he had watched the guys drag down the hall.
"Help me, would ya?" the tall, silver and black haired man requested from his colleague.
Ian groaned and went to assist Josh in hauling the package further into Sam's place. At this point, Mike was too captivated by Samantha's pet to pay any attention to what the others were doing.
Matt and Josh opened the box, cutting the sides off so the object inside could be easily removed. It was an elaborate stereo system with large speakers and an extravagant sub-woofer. Ian's jaw dropped at the gift that the boys had gotten for Sam. He looked to his sweetheart and noticed that she looked even more astounded than he did. The boys laughed as they set up the system for the girl.
"We know how much you love your music and we figured that since you had done so much for Ian here, we owed you big time," Matt said.
Ian walked over to Josh and spoke quietly. "What do you mean by 'stealing away our drummer' and 'done so much for Ian'?"
"We know how depressed you were about your parents and everything and you just seemed really bummed and in a hole. We didn't know what to do, but when you met her things started to get better. You're so happy with her. We felt like we needed to show her how much we appreciate her and how much she's done for you, bro," Josh smiled.
"Thank you," Ian hugged his friend.
Once the boys had set everything up they decided to test it out. Josh pulled a random CD from Sam's growing collection and popped it into the system.
"If we get noise complaints I'm not taking any of the blame," Sam braced herself for the loud boom.
She had seen which CD Josh chose and knew what was coming. Mike hit play as Ian cranked the volume up. There was an earth wrenching explosion as the Prism song Armageddon started playing on the mix CD that Sam's brother had given her for her one birthday. The sound of the jet engine was unbearably loud. Sam acted quickly and turned the volume down to a much quieter tone.
"Holy crap, what was that?" Matt shouted.
There was a knocking on the door again. This time it was Sam's neighbor from across the hall. Sam opened the door and an orange was thrown in her direction. She ducked just in time, but unfortunately it ended up hitting Mike in the groin.
"Excuse me! That was uncalled for!" the aggravated woman yelled at her elderly neighbor.
"You make noise, I throw an orange. We've been over this," he said stoutly.
"What is wrong with you, you crazy old bat?"
"Let's just calm down and leave the crazy old bat alone, okay?" Ian pulled Sam back into the apartment and closed the door.
"Mike! Mike? Michal, speak to me!" Matt dramatized a movie he had seen on television the night before by cradling the bassist's head in his lap and shouting to the heavens.
Mike laughed. "Shut up, you dumb ass. I'm fine. Didn't hit me that hard."
It was only an hour or so later and the boys all left, with the exception of Ian of course. The pair continued to cuddle on the couch, but this time their cuddling was accompanied by soft music playing from Sam's new sound system.
"I love you, Sammy," Ian tightened his grasp on the girl.
"I love you too."
A few minutes later, they had fallen fast asleep in each other's arms and at that moment in time, everything was perfect.
