The Old Lady at Groovie Smoothie and the Revealing of Feelings

I brushed my unruly and untamed, blonde hair nonchalantly as I got ready to go out with Freddie to Groovie Smoothie. No, not go out, go out, go out as friends go out. Although as much as I would have liked for it to be a date, it wasn't. I slipped a red shirt over my head and pushed my legs through the holes of my favorite, faded blue jeans. I slid my feet into my tan Rainbows, grabbed my striped, purple jacket, and out the door into a beautiful day, the sun above me welcoming me with comforting sunshine.

I sat down at the bottom of my steps, waiting for Freddie to pick me up. I started thinking about what had happened in the past year. This year was my last year of high school, thank God. But somehow I had gotten through it with Carly and Freddie helping me pull up my grades, Freddie tutoring me more than Carly due to the fact that she fell asleep during most tutoring sessions. I couldn't blame Carly because I had felt like doing the same thing. I remember one very particular tutoring session where I was getting very restless.

I squirmed in the red bean bag chair, getting annoyed. We had been at Worldwide History for hours.

"Come on, Freddie, can't we just take a break? Maybe go skating with Carly and Jake? This is so boring!"

"No, Sam, I want to make sure you get this. I want you to start getting better grades," he replied, bags forming under his eyes. He was tired as well.

"Since when do you care about my grades, Fredward?" I asked, my eye brows forming into a question mark.

He looked caught off guard for a second but then said, "I just don't want to see you failing high school. I mean, you're smarter than that, Sam."

My heart jumped into my throat. Freddie Benson, of all people, thought I, Samantha Puckett, was smart?

"Yeah, well, whatever, next question," I said, not quite sure what else to say. Maybe tutoring wasn't so bad after all.

I heard a car pull up, opening my eyes from the flashback, to see Freddie's red Chevorlet truck in my driveway. I hopped off the steps and into his car, not bothering to put on my seatbelt, but you guessed it, caught me.

"Seatbelt please."

"Ugh, you're such a pain," I said, my voice dripping with annoyance, but also a hint of teasing sprinkled in there.

He just grinned that cute smile that made me melt, but I tried to hide it with the rolling of my eyes and an exasperated sigh. We pulled into the parking lot of Groovie Smoothie, my taste buds already jumping for joy at the thought of strawberry banana smoothie touching my tongue. We got out of the car and headed into the smoothie palace, all different fruits filling my nose. We approached the cashier, a short, stout, old lady greeting us with a smile.

"Hello and welcome to the Groovie Smoothie. What would you like to order?"

"The Strawberry Explosion," I said, ordering my usual.

"You always order that. Why don't you order something else and be spontaneous for once?" Freddie stated.

"Maybe because I don't want to that's why," I said, sticking out my tongue at me in the most childish way possible.

"You're like a toddler," he said, grinning as he said it though.

"Yeah, what ya gonna do about it?" I asked, mildly threatening him.

"This!" He tickled me until I was laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face.

I then pushed Freddie away from me, realizing we were still in the presence of the cashier lady, and not to mention, in public.

Freddie cleared his throat, becoming serious again, saying, "One Peach Mango Extravaganza."

The lady behind the register chuckled as she punched in our orders. "Ah, to be young and in love," she said, smiling a warm smile, happiness shining in her eyes.

I felt my face become hot, turning a very girly color that I hated, best defined as, pink. I looked at Freddie out of the corner of my eye, his face flushing too.

"Um, we're, ugh, not together," Freddie said politely to the lady. But as polite as he said it I still felt a little offended. It's not like it was meant to be hurtful it just was.

The woman looked absolutely embarrassed now. "Oh, silly me! I am so very sorry it's just you two seemed so much like my husband and I at your age," she said, attempting at apologizing.

"Oh, it's o-ok," I stammered.

She handed us our smoothies and I made a bee line for a booth in the back of the restaurant. I sipped my smoothie, fast and vigorously, worrying that somehow maybe Freddie knew I liked him now. But he sat down at the table in regular manner, sipping his smoothie, admiringly.

"That was weird," I said, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Yeah. I can't believe she thought that," Freddie replied.

I just nodded, my mind trailing off into thought. Well, we did kind of act like an old married couple, always bickering, but trying to make the other one laugh at every waking moment. I shook off thoughts of Freddie and I, focusing more on my smoothie. We talked about regular things like school and friends, but I still couldn't get my mind of what that lady had said.

"Ah, to be young and in love."

We walked out the doors just as it started to pour down rain. Freddie put his jacket over my head, shielding me from the rain. We got into his truck about to go, his keys in the ignition, but all we heard was rumbling and gurgling, the truck refusing to start. Freddie tried again, but it was no use.

"We got to walk to the nearest gas station and call a tow truck. Wait here," he said, pulling his keys out of the slot.

"But I don't want to. I want to come."

"You'll get all wet," he replied

"Do you really think I care?" I asked him, giving him a look.

"No, not the Sam I know," he said with a sincere smile.

The Sam he knows. Well, he doesn't know one thing which is that I'm in love with him. We got out of the car and ran through the pouring rain, turning my head to look at him. His entire body was drenched with water, droplets of rain running down his face. He looked back at me with that Benson grin that I adored. I couldn't comprehend what I felt though when he looked at me with those chocolate brown eyes, studying my features as well. And then I just stopped running. Stopped right there.

Freddie Benson made me happy there was no doubt about it. And I loved him. But the way that old woman back at Groovie Smoothie had noticed it and said it I couldn't help but want to say the same thing to Freddie. To tell him how I really felt about him. He noticed that I had stopped running when he was only a few paces ahead of me.

He ran up to me saying, "We're going to drown if we don't get to that gas station, Sam! Come on!"

My eyes had been planted on the ground, staring at the water hitting the pavement. I then looked up into his eyes, our eyes locking. I didn't know if he felt what I felt at that moment, but I did what my gut told me to do. I pressed my lips against his, warmth crashing down on me as our lips connected. At first, he didn't respond, probably too shocked, but then he pulled me closer, deepening our kiss. My hands traveled up to his soaked hair, my fingers entangling with it. We pulled apart after what seemed like an eternity.

I gasped for breath and said what I had been wanting to say.

"I love you."

Freddie's eyes studied me with wonder and amazement filling them.

"I love you too, Sam. I always have."

I smiled as we kissed again. Nothing could get better than this.