AN: It's been a while since I've written fanfiction, and I'm very sorry about that! Most of my activity is on tumblr- I have my main blog and one just for Sammy Keyes (both links and usernames can be found on my profile). Thank you SilverSneakers for editing my story and your support with the writing process! I hope you all enjoy my Cammy Christmas story! Happy Holidays!
A Change of a Heart, a Twist of Fate
"Casey, it doesn't snow in Santa Martina."
"That doesn't mean it doesn't get cold," Casey replied as he wound the dark blue scarf around his girlfriend's neck. "And what kind of boyfriend would I be if I let my date freeze to death?"
"You're such a gentleman." Sammy rolled her eyes playfully, but she let his fingers flutter around her neck as he adjusted the knit material. She pretended not to notice the warmth that spread over her shoulders when Casey's fingers brushed the skin of her neck.
"Always for you, milady," Casey winked and fixed her hair. "There! You are now not only beautiful, but warm." Sammy's face burned at the causal compliment, and instead of responding she ducked her head and grabbed his hand.
"So what's the plan?"
"The plan? Besides walking the night streets with my girlfriend, admiring the Christmas decorations lined along the entire city?" He swung their hands as they made their way down the sidewalk, passing families and other couples strolling under the twinkling lights from the store fronts. "Does everything have to have a plan?"
Sammy laughed, taking a side glance at Casey. He'd decided to dress up for tonight, a forest green jacket was buttoned up over a tee shirt, making his chocolate brown eyes more vibrant than usual. He looked cute, she thought. Grounded.
"I suppose not," she smiled, and allowed the quiet hum of his voice and the Christmas music playing along the plaza to relax her as they made their way to the park.
"Dot said I could invite you to her family's Christmas celebration," Sammy said as she sat down on the park bench, dragging Casey down by the hand. The cold from the stone soaked through the fabric of her jeans, and after an hour of walking the streets she was starting to feel the cold in her bones. "That is, if you can to go. Or if you can."
The obvious jab at his mother made Casey raise an eyebrow at her, but he still smiled and sat down beside her, taking both her hands in his. "If I can escape Heather and my mom, you can definitely count me in. I don't want to intrude, though. I know you, Marissa, Dot, and Holly have been planning this for a while, and I don't want to be the tag along boyfriend that your friends feel obligated to invite."
"No, it's fine, really," Sammy assured playfully, bumping his shoulder with her own. "It was actually Dot's idea, and Marissa and Holly totally agreed. It'll be fun. Maybe we'll even invite Billy."
Casey hummed, studying a small family across the park. The little blonde five-year-old girl was giggling at something her father had said, and the girl snuggled into his side for warmth.
"They like you, ya know," Sammy whispered shyly, looking up at her boyfriend's face. A flush of pink covered his freckled nose, and his long, dark eyelashes contrasted with his moonlit complexion. She remembered the times when she would get flustered at even looking at Casey Acosta, let alone holding his hand. God forbid she even remember the moment she nearly died when she first realized his eyes were (a beautiful) brown. Not to say she still didn't get embarrassed or blush anymore, but everything was out in the open now.
Casey turned his head back to Sammy, eyebrows scrunching in confusion.
"My friends. They like you," Sammy clarified, her voice surer. "They don't invite you to come along because they feel like they have to just because we're dating. For some reason, they think you're funny." Sammy scrunched her nose at him.
"Oh?" Casey quipped, grabbing Sammy's legs and swinging them onto his own. "I can't say I disagree with them. My humor is of the utmost quality."
Sammy smirked, leaning against his shoulder as he wound an arm around her waist. "You seem pretty confident about that."
"Sammy, I'm an actor. And us actors know things."
"Oh really? Like what?" Sammy chuckled. "How to do quick changes? Oh, wait! Let me guess! How to sit still for costume fittings?"
Casey slouched against the bench, head rolling back. "That was a onetime problem. I had three costume changes for one play, and the fittings were not the most exciting moments of my life." He sat up, grabbing her tightly to look her in the eyes. "Do you know how many times I got jabbed? When you really think about it, I'm nothing if not a hero."
Sammy didn't even try to hide her laughter, and her breath mixed with the cold winter air. Her cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling so much, but she didn't care. Casey's brown eyes and white teeth smiled at her, and for a second she was completely mesmerized by the boy in front of her.
"See?" Casey whispered, his voice soft as he looked at her. "I made you laugh, didn't I?" The moment went from carefree and light to soft and intimate, and it gave Sammy whiplash in the best possible way.
"You did." She answered back just as softly, and looking into his eyes all she could process was brown, brown, brown, brown.
His eyes flashed to her lips, and her stomach fluttered. He looked back up to her tenderly.
Pushing a strand of hair behind her ear and cupping her pink cheek, Casey leaned down and brushed his lips against Sammy's. No matter how many times it happens, she thought, I will never get tired to kissing Casey Acosta.
Sammy raised her hand off his chest to tangle with his soft auburn locks as she pulled him in for a deeper kiss. Her lips opened slightly to wrap around his, and she pressed their foreheads together, inching to close the space between them. Casey's thumb absentmindedly stroked her cheek, his other arm wrapping tightly against her waist to pull her closer. For just ten seconds, Sammy was complete warmth in the middle of a winter night.
Casey leaned back slightly, but not enough to where their noses weren't touching. When Sammy opened her eyes, she saw that his were still closed, and a soft, peaceful smile graced his face. Sammy's heart clenched.
"Case?" Sammy softly prodded as she rubbed her nose with his.
"Hmm?" His eyes fluttered open, and he took in the sight of his girlfriend. "Sorry, I was just enjoying the moment," he said teasingly, bumping his forehead against hers.
Leaning back, her arms still a tangled mess behind his neck, she smiled. "I have about an hour before I have to be home. Grams doesn't want me out too late, and there's no way I'm breaking curfew…again."
"Can't have you getting into trouble, even though we all know you'll always be a troublemaker." Casey smirked mischievously at her, but Sammy only rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. We know you like troublemakers. That joke's getting a little old." Sammy shoved him lightly in the shoulder, shifting her legs off his lap.
"The principle still stands true. I have a thing for troublemakers." Giving her a coy smile, Casey stood up, offering a hand to his girlfriend. The flush in Sammy's cheeks was definitely from the cold, and had nothing to do with the infuriatingly cute boy in front of her. Not at all.
"An hour should be enough time," Casey continued as he pulled up the sleeve of his coat to check his watch.
"Enough time for what?" As far as Sammy knew, they were just hanging out and walking along the shops. Heather and Candi were away for the weekend, so this was the first time in a while that the couple had spent together outside of the graveyard.
"Oh nothing. Just a surprise," Casey said offhandedly as they walked down the paved sidewalk of the park. The glow from the white Christmas lights lit the path, and Sammy tightened her grip on Casey's hand.
"Surprise? I thought we didn't have any plans." Sammy raised an eyebrow. "I recall something being said about not needing a plan aside from strolling along the romantic Christmas lit sidewalks with your wonderful girlfriend?"
Casey scoffed lolling his head toward her, "Come on, Sammy. I'm an actor, and as an actor it's my job to twist the ending in a way to make for a good surprise."
"So, what is this ending?" Sammy asked as he led her out of the park. Casey hesitated before responding, and when he did he leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Curious as always, I see."
When Sammy walked passed the stone archway, all she could think was Wow. A jade green fountain burst to life as water sprung from the top, falling into the three levels beneath, collecting in the main circular base at the bottom. Surrounding the courtyard where the fountain stood at the center were trees with Christmas lights tangled up in their bare branches. Although the plants didn't provide much privacy from the outside of the little enclosure as they would have if the trees were in bloom, they created an intimate, quiet place separate from the rest of Santa Martina.
"Casey…how did you find this place?" Sammy wondered as she turned to look around the empty little plaza. The only noise was the tinkling of water from the fountain. The only light from the glow of the trees, fountain, and moonlight.
"Well," Casey started as he led Sammy to the edge of the fountain, just wide enough to sit comfortably. He pulled Sammy down with him, arms winding around her as he set his chin on the top of her head. "I stumbled upon it a few weeks ago, and I've been waiting until I could take you here. It's not every day I get to take you on a proper date, one that you deserve."
"Our dates in the graveyard are just fine," Sammy assured him with a bump, but even she didn't completely believe what she said. Even though neither of them would admit it, they still felt a bit of a loss for not being able to be publicly open about their relationship.
"Sammy, you're amazing," Casey shook his head in wonder. "You've always been so awesome about the whole situation—me, my mom, and Heather. You deal with all the craziness, and you don't let it scare you off."
She quirked an eyebrow at him and took his hand to play with his fingers. "I think you're giving me too much credit. I've run plenty of times, especially when it came to you."
"Even though you've run, Sammy, you've always come back. I mean, look where we are," he chuckled as he grinned at her. "When you first ran out of my house on New Year's Day, when you first found out I was Heather's brother, would you have believed it if someone had told you where we'd be now?"
"No," Sammy said softly, and she looked passed the trees surrounding the courtyard. The trickle of the water behind her calmed her. "Everyone told me that it didn't matter, that you weren't your sister, but I couldn't accept the fact that we could ever be together. It seemed like a cruel twist of fate."
Casey smiled, "But you came back."
"Technically, you wouldn't leave me alone," Sammy smirked, recalling the times when he had tried to talk to her at school or wouldn't return her skateboard.
"Well, you decided to talk to me and become friends," he countered.
"I talked to you to thank you."
"You still talked to me when you didn't have to," Casey pointed out, and by Sammy's huff, he knew he had won. "You're also the one who called me to straighten out the whole Renaissance Faire drama. You didn't have to do that, either."
"I couldn't let you think I was some love-sick fool who was on cloud nine just because you kissed my hand," Sammy argued, and rolled her eyes at his incessant behavior.
"But aren't you?" he asked innocently, which earned a not-so-innocent punch in the arm from his girlfriend. He just laughed gleefully, pulled the hand he was holding to his lips, and whispered sweetly, "A lad should doff his cap for a lady, nay?"
Sammy blushed, her brain shutting down as she remembered that moment so long ago. "You're not wearing a hat."
Casey smiled against her hand, but eventually pulled back. "Doesn't mean you shouldn't be treated like anything but a lady."
Sammy laughed and stuck out her foot, waving her shoe in the air. She played on the words she spoke to him all those months ago. "Don't let me fool you."
He smiled at her, a kind, warm smile that shot through her veins. He looked in her eyes for just a moment before a gentleness swept over them. "Perhaps you already have." Eyebrows scrunched together, Sammy tilted her head in silent question until he clarified, "Perhaps you've already made me a fool in love."
Sammy wasn't sure if he was messing around anymore. His voice and eyes were sincere, but they had never spoken that word before. Love. Sammy's stomach clenched.
He must have seen the hesitation in her face, because he swept her bangs to the side and gently laid a hand on her cheek. "Sammy, I love you. I know that people may think we're too young to know what love is, but every time I look at you, I just know. I love you, Sammy Keyes."
Eyes wide, Sammy stared as he started rambling in nervousness. "I know that you may not be ready to say it back, or if you even feel it yet, but that's okay. I don't expect you to say it just because you feel like you have to. I just wanted you to know that I love you. I can't hide that fact anymore, and I'm completely happy with where our relationship is and—"
Sammy cut him off with a kiss. Her arms tied around his neck like a lifeline, and she pressed their bodies together as if, somehow, they could get closer than they already were. Casey let out a surprised grunt as he was cut off, but quickly melted in Sammy's arms. The kiss was tender, filled with the sparks of first love and sweet innocence. As Casey's hands slid through her hair and his lips danced across hers, Sammy allowed herself to feel the wave of affection she had for the boy in her arms.
Sammy was the first to break apart, but she kept her boyfriend wrapped around her, nuzzling her nose against his. "I love you too, Casey Acosta."
The smile she was met with sent her limbs on fire. If I could make him smile like that everyday...
They sat like that for a long time, lost in the moment, drinking in each other. The twinkling lights, the fountain, this handsome boy in front of her…Sammy didn't know when her unlucky life had turned so incredibly lucky. When she spoke next, her voice was airy and warm.
"Merry Christmas, Casey."
"Merry Christmas, Sammy."
-End-