Sam cursed at the car in front of her. The man was clearly blind and half asleep. It was slowpokes like this that had made her run nearly an hour late for meeting her old group of friends at Kings. And, sure, after an entire year away from each other at college what was an extra hour or so among friends? To answer her own question, A lot, Sam thought angrily as the light turned green and she honked loudly at the geezer in her way. He gestured into his rear-view mirror, but she simply flipped him the bird and sped ahead past him.
It wasn't that Sam was in particularly bad spirits that day or anything. She was always a bit of a victim to road rage. And she was really desperate to see her friends again. It was three days after the start of Summer break for Penn State students, and Harvard and NYU had gotten out a week previous. Today was the first day her brother was back in town, and Sam had arranged to get the whole group - Alice, Mary Elizabeth, Bob, herself and Patrick - back together for a late lunch and hopefully a night to remember. The one person she couldn't manage to get a hold of was Charlie. And she felt guilty about that, but it wasn't as though she hadn't tried her damndest. He was simply unreachable. No phone call or letter seemed to reach him. It had been strange. For a while that school year Sam and Charlie had sent each other letters regularly. But then his came later and later and he'd always forget to return her phone calls. She'd at first been very worried that he was slipping back into some darkness she'd seen him fall into the previous summer. But one time she'd gotten a hold of his mother and managed to pry from the woman's quiet lips that Charlie was doing alright and had simply made some new friends.
And Sam was very happy for Charlie, because she had worried he would have trouble finding people after the whole group of seniors she'd brought him into were gone. She liked the idea that he was too busy having a good time to remember her. Or, at least, that was what she told herself. Sometimes the idea stung a little, but she'd always assured herself that she was being silly and that she'd easily reconnect with him this break. And now here it was, and she was finally pulling up to the Kings diner.
When she walked through the old, sticky doors, she was met with the thunderous sound of her excited and socially-uncaring friends all the way from the back booth standing and cheering as if she were John Lennon back from the dead. Blushing, she lowered her head to stifle her laughter and made her way to the back of the restaurant as high school kids turned to watch her, wondering who she could be to start such a fuss. She sat down after enduring numerous bone crushing hugs and many "Where have you been?" and "We thought you died!" type questions.
"Sorry, sorry. I got caught behind every idiot on the road today," she commented, "It was some kind of conspiracy."
"Hey," Bob pointed a fry at her, "Watch what you say about conspiracies."
Sam rolled her eyes, feeling herself melt back into who she was with them, and without a second thought leaned forward and took Bob's fry between her teeth and taking a good sized bite out of it. He made an astonished and horrified face as the rest of the gang laughed.
They talked and laughed and reminisced and caught up until their stomachs were full of deep fried disasters, their tongues tired, their cheeks sore from smiling, and their guts sore from laughter. Finally, with some hesitation, as if they worried the spell would break, they agreed to give their booth up as the restaurant grew crowded and meet back up at Bob's apartment, which he'd gotten that year after moving out of his parents' house. He warned of the utter mess it was in, but no one seemed to mind.
As Sam made her way to the exit, her friends in tow and her brother by her side, a group of riled up high schoolers were making their way through the doors. And despite her best efforts to avoid one rather tall boy, he managed to slam right into her so hard it knocked her back and into Patrick.
"Hey, watch it, Sasquach!" Mary Elizabeth said in defence of her friend.
The boy turned around and looked down, a cigarette hanging lazily from his mouth. The entire group simultaneously took in a breath as the realization struck.
It was Charlie. But it also wasn't. The boy had clearly had a growth spurt. On top of that, his hair was gelled and combed back and he wore a leather jacket. He looked like some kind of John Travolta from Grease wannabe. It was enough to make Sam feel sick.
"Hey! Sam!" he said, reaching an apish hand out and thumping her hard between the shoulder blades. "How are you?" But his voice was too loud, and his eyes only stayed on her a second before turning back to chuckle at some comment one of the other guys from the group had made. It was clear he had no true interest in how her day was going. And it had been going pretty well. Up until now.
"Charlie," she said, almost too softly to be heard, "What... What happened to you?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, smiling as if she'd said something funny. He nodded to his friends and they headed to find a booth without him, a few patting him on the shoulder or punching him lightly in the arm as they did so.
"I mean..." she motioned to his outfit at a loss for words.
"You like it? Christmas present!" Charlie said, popping the collar and spinning on his heels to give the gang a nice 360-degree view. Mary Elizabeth nearly choked on her own disgusted laughter and Patrick's jaw dropped open. Sam felt her gut drop into her toes.
"Well, it was nice seeing you," he said, patting Sam's shoulder and giving Patrick a slight slap on the side, "Hit me up sometime, we can catch up." And he walked off to find the few guys he'd walked in with.
Outside of Kings, everyone stood out in the parking lot. Despite the summer night air, they all felt unusually cold. Patrick was the first person to voice what they'd all been thinking:
"Who the fuck was that?"
AN: So there you have it! Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review and let me know what your thoughts were on the introduction and the set up for the story!