Sam awoke to her text message tone, the three-second string of notes ripping her from unconsciousness. She pulled her phone from its place on her nightstand, the charging cable falling from its port, and rubbed at her eyes as she peered at the too-bright screen.
Ashley.
With a sigh, Sam sat up in bed as she read Ashley's message. She wanted to go to the mall that afternoon. That was fine.
After replying to Ashley's text, Sam checked the rest of her messages. It wasn't a daily occurrence, but Sam had come to find Josh texting her with some regularity, usually late at night while she was asleep. She could imagine he didn't sleep very well anymore. Sometimes he would even still be awake when Sam replied in the morning, and they would text back and forth for hours.
But she hadn't heard from him in a few weeks. His last text wasn't anything particularly alarming. He mentioned he hadn't been able to focus in his classes, but he was hoping to recalibrate for the fall semester. Perhaps that's why she hadn't heard from him. He was busy recalibrating. Whatever that meant.
Scrolling through Facebook as she got ready for a shower, she saw Mike and Em had broken up. Again. Chris had shared some Onion article about the entire state of Texas becoming a sinkhole. Jess had posted a rant about her latest slight at Starbucks that Sam liked but didn't read. Life went on as normal, only eight months later.
But two people were missing from the normal timeline.
Sam put her phone down as she stepped into the shower, but paused. One leg under the warm water, she grabbed her phone again, tapping out a text to Josh: "Hope you're taking care of yourself. Let me know if you need anything." She waited until she saw the message had been sent before putting her phone down and stepping in the shower.
The text tone brought her back out within two minutes. Soaked, Sam haphazardly dried her hands enough to touch the phone's screen to check the message.
She sighed. Ashley again.
Sam sipped on her iced tea as listened to Ashley, hardly registering a word she said or the watery taste of the tea. They strolled through the mall together at a leisurely pace, catching up with each other and discussing their plans for college.
Sam had been planning to go to UC San Francisco right out of high school, but with the deaths of Hannah and Beth, she decided she would wait a year before leaving for college. She hadn't regretted that decision.
Suddenly Ashley put a hand on Sam's arm, snapping her out of her wandering thoughts. "Hey, let's go somewhere else," Ashley said, pulling Sam back the way they had come.
"Why?" Sam asked just as she saw the reason for Ashley's sudden apprehension.
Joshua Washington. He was standing by the clear windows of the hunting and outdoor sporting store, looking at the display before he disappeared inside.
Sam looked to Ashley again, who avoided her gaze. "I just—you wanna get some pretzels?" Ashley asked.
"We shouldn't avoid him, Ashley," Sam said.
"And what are we going to say to him?" she snapped back with a weak glare.
"Maybe a hello?" Sam shot back.
"What, like nothing ever happened?" Ashley sighed and turned away.
Sam bit her lip. "Go on and get us some pretzels," she said. "I'll catch up with you in a minute."
"Sam," Ashley started, looking back at Sam with her eyes wide, but she stopped herself. She nodded. "Fine."
Sam watched Ashley walk away, then headed into the hunting store, tossing her weak iced tea in a trash can she passed by. Inside, it smelled rather sterile for a store all about roughing it in the outdoors. She spotted Josh almost immediately upon entering and headed over to him.
She stopped when she realized he was standing at the gun counter and speaking to the store associate there. She pretended to be interested in a tent display until Josh was finished.
She caught his gaze as he walked away from the counter, and it seemed to take a moment for him to register she was there. He definitely seemed distracted. "Hey, stranger," Sam said with a smile.
His lips turned up in a grin. "Planning a camping trip?" he asked, nodding to the tent display.
"Ah, not today," Sam said. "And you? Hunting trip?"
He laughed lightly. "Not today. I was just checking on something. For my dad."
She nodded. "I admit, I followed you in here," she said. "I wanted to see how you're doing." And up close, Sam saw he looked much better. Last time she had seen him, in April, he was a complete shell of himself. Now, he had color in his face and meat on his bones and he looked like the same old Joshua Washington Sam had known forever.
"Like I said," Josh replied, tapping his temple with one finger. "Recalibrating."
"Right," Sam said awkwardly, glancing around for something else to comment on. He caught her gaze, and she saw a terrible sadness in his dark eyes that made her chest tighten.
"Hey," he said, looking away for a moment. "I have this crazy idea. Maybe not so crazy." He shook his head. "You tell me if it's crazy."
"Okay," Sam said with a smile. "Shoot."
He chuckled. "Okay. I was thinking we do it once more. We keep the tradition going."
Sam's smile vanished. "Josh, you mean—"
"I mean, let's meet up again this winter."
"That's what I thought." Sam bit her lip, the image of Beth disappearing into the snowy night fresh in her mind.
"It is crazy, isn't it?" Josh said. He sighed, a long and tired escape of breath. "That's what I thought."
"No, it's not crazy," Sam said quickly. "I just—I don't know how the others will take to it. But, well, I don't think it's crazy." Sam recalled Ashley's reaction to just seeing Josh. There was no way she'd go for a winter reunion. And she was one of the more reasonable of their little group.
"I was just thinking, you know, it might be nice," Josh said.
"Normal."
Josh nodded solemnly. "Normal. Yeah."
She reached out and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Hey. It can't hurt to try, right?"
He smiled, and he covered her hand with his, warm and strong. "Hey. Thanks."
Sam felt her cheeks grow warm. "W-what are friends for, right?" she said with an easy laugh despite the butterflies in her belly. "Hey, I'm meeting Ashley for pretzels. Want to come?"
His smile faded at the mention of their friend. He let go of Sam's hand, and she let her arm drop in response. "Uh, not right now," he said. "I've got to, uh, go. Another time."
"Sure thing," Sam said, kicking herself for her blunder. Of course he wouldn't be ready to face her just yet. It'd taken some time for Josh to trust Sam enough to build...whatever it was that they had. "I'll see you," She told him, and he nodded with one last half-hearted smile and left the store. Sam watched him until he disappeared into the mall crowd. He still had a rough road ahead of him. They all did.