It was Sam Campbell's eighteenth birthday. Which, for him, was pretty damn sweet.Sam was an only child, and his family wasn't exactly short on cash, so when that time of year rolled around, he was guaranteed basically whatever he'd been checking out for the past few months. Not that it was ever much, really. Sam wasn't a dick about the fact that he had money. In fact, no one would've ever known if... well... they didn't know. But they did. Because everyone knew the Campbells. Sam was a sweetheart, though. He tried his hardest to treat everyone equally, and he stayed out of trouble as long as nobody started any with him. That was the way he'd been raised. With the manners of a gentleman. Which was why, once he'd slid into a booth inside a restaurant whose name was currently unknown to him, still blindfolded because this was a birthday tradition, he answered his waitress with as many 'ma'am's and 'please's as he could cram into one sentence when she asked what he wanted to drink.

When the waitress left, Sam felt his mother, Mary, reach across the table and take his hand. "I think you're gonna like this one, Sammy."

Sam rolled his eyes behind the blindfold at the nickname. "Okay, first, I'm not twelve anymore. My name is Sam, Mom. And second, you should give me a hint. I can't eat with this thing on, or order food, for that matter."

"You know the rules," Mary sing-songed, squeezing Sam's hand. "The blindfold stays on until you guess where we are. No hints."

Sam sighed. "Okay, okay. Um... have I been here before?"

"Nope."

"Have I..." Sam thought for a moment, chewing on the inside of his lip. "Have I asked you to bring me here?"

Mary let out a light, musical laugh. "You may have mentioned it once or twice. Or a thousand times. In the past month."

Sam's jaw dropped. "Coba? Mom, you said there was no way in hell we could get in yet. It's so new."

Mary grinned. "I made reservations three weeks ago. Happy birthday."

Sam pulled the blindfold off and stood to hug his mother over the table. "Thank you so much."

Mary hugged Sam back, ruffling his hair as she pulled away. "You're welcome, sweetheart."

They sat back down right on cue for the waitress to return and take their orders, and began discussing Sam's plans for college as they waited for their food.

Sam tapped his lower lip, a thoughtful expression on his face. "I've actually been pretty seriously leaning toward Stanford."

Mary nodded approvingly. "Nice choice. Great school for pre-law. And you'll have no problem getting accepted with your test scores and GPA."

Sam rolled his eyes modestly, but it was the truth. He'd always made sure to maintain a 4.0 GPA, and his test scores were incredible. "Well, I was just thinking so I wouldn't have to leave California," he clarified. "You know?"

Mary's eyes twinkled and she nodded, understanding exactly what her son meant. He didn't want to leave her. Not yet. Not that she would be left with no one if he was gone, but he was the only one that she had around immediately. Plus, he liked to take care of her. And she thought it was sweet. "It's your choice. Whatever you want to do, I'm behind you a hundred and ten percent. You know that. But I definitely wouldn't mind you staying in state for a few more years."

Sam smiled his brilliant, white smile and responded by sarcastically questioning what Mary would do without him.

They talked for a while more before the waitress brought in their food, and then talked through dinner about what Sam actually wanted to do for his birthday, to which, to Mary's surprise, Sam said that he just wanted to stay in town and have a party at home. Generally, it was a trip. Some type of mini-birthday vacation. But Sam assured her that he was content with a get-together with some of his friends one night during the weekend for his birthday this year. "Even if I'm not leaving the state, I'm still moving out soon. I wanna spend time with the people here," was his reasoning. And it made perfect sense to Mary.

After they were finished eating and had been given the bill, Mary pulled out her wallet and dropped some money onto the table, sliding out of her side of the booth.

Sam stood, too, and they exited the restaurant. They were about halfway to the car when Sam stopped dead in his tracks.

Across the street, to Sam's right, there was a diner. Walking inside was a man; relatively tall, black hair, beard that was turning salt-and-pepper-colored, tired expression. But Sam wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to him. The only person Sam saw was the one holding the door open. He was younger than the other man, much younger, twenty, maybe, but his face didn't look any less exhausted. He was shorter, but he made up for it in muscle mass. It was obvious, even through two shirts and a leather jacket that he was extremely strong. There was a black cord around his neck with some type of charm hanging from the end, but he was too far away for Sam to make out what it was. All Sam could tell from where he stood was that this man was extremely good looking, to put it lightly. Light brown hair, obviously – but not overly – gelled, not-too-dark but not-too-light skin, and... Sam couldn't be sure considering the distance, but it looked like there was a gentle sprinkling of freckles over his nose and cheeks.

"...don't you think so, Sam? Sam?"

Sam shook his head, breaking his gaze from the young man and looking back in front of him at his mother. "What?"

"The food. It was excellent."

"Oh, yeah," Sam absently agreed, nodding. "It was great."

Mary took a step back and placed her hand on the back of Sam's head. "You alright, there, champ?"

Sam cleared his throat. "I'm good."

"Was there a pretty girl somewhere that I missed?" Mary teased, mussing Sam's hair.

Sam blushed and glanced down, continuing to walk.

"Oh, so there was a girl?"

Sam sighed, worrying his lip between his teeth. "No, mom. Not a girl."

"A guy, then?" Mary questioned honestly. Sam had come out to her as bisexual when he was fifteen, but he seemed to generally have a stronger attraction toward women. Still, on occasion, a male would catch Sam's eye if he happened to be particularly handsome.

Sam just blushed a deeper shade of red and got in the car.