We headed down to the nearest Costa Coffee which was situated in the heart of Weston, where nearly everyone would hang out. We drove, but Sam didn't take the van and instead he took his own car; a sweet Audi TT in white, absolutely spotless. It didn't take us long to find a space to park; today was a traditional English day where it was raining and if not that; overcast. We parked right by the door and made our way down to Costa to order drinks. We ran across to the coffee shop in the rain and both of us complained about the weather messing up our hair.

We arrived, ordered our drinks and I sat down by the window looking out onto the sea and with the pier in sight. It was foggy so all you could see were the bright lights that flashed different colours every now and again on the pier.

Sam was still over by the counter paying for the drinks and I glanced over at him. He'd changed into a different pair of skinnies and had a different t-shirt on. He turned to check if I was still there and smiled the warm smile you'd get from a best friend. I didn't have to wait long until he came over with our drinks.

Sam handed me my hot chocolate with marshmallows, cream and sprinkles and sat down with his own frappuccino.

'Okay?' he asked as he watched me take a sip of my drink. It felt good having a hot drink on a cold winter's day. I nodded and smiled when I lowered it. He snorted with laughter and looked away. I looked at him, confused.

'What?' I asked as he recovered from his sudden outburst. He lifted the napkin and wiped my top lip clean. 'Oh.'

'Yeah, you had a bit of cream on your lip. Don't worry, I've wiped it all off.' He smiled.

We sat in silence for a bit, just drinking and staring out of the window but I wanted to start a conversation so badly. I was really bad at making conversation with people, especially people I'd only just met. That was hard when you wanted to go into the music industry.

'I'm really bad at making conversation so I think it's better if you start.' I came clean about my awkwardness instantly and surprised myself. Sam looked at me startled, coming out of whatever daydream he was having. He put down his drink and spoke,

'Well, I'm just as bad as you. I honestly never know where to start when I talk about myself. So I'll just go with the basics: Hi, I'm Sam. I'm 18 and I've moved here to study at college. I'm in a band and I'm the lead singer. I can play guitar and drums and I'm into rock and metal. I'm pretty much a boring person to be honest. Your turn.'

He pretended to shoot from a gun and took a sip from his drink again. I sighed and started my lecture about my boring life,

'Well, I'm Annabelle. I'm 17 and I've started college. I'm doing Law, Music, Photography and Maths. I'm not in a band and I like rock and metal. I can sing and play guitar and I have a crappy life. I'm probably even more boring than you.'

Sam raised his eyebrows at me.

'What?' I asked, looking at him from over my drink.

'You're so negative about yourself. "I have a crappy life?" Jesus, girl... you don't know what you've got.'

I put my drink back on the table. 'I'm negative? "I'm pretty much a boring person?" That's a bit rich.'

Sam smiled at me and laughed. 'Okay, maybe we're as bad as each other. You've gotta learn I'm a pessimist and anything I say or do will probably be pessimistic.'

'Fair enough. Maybe we're very alike then,' I decided to change the subject, 'so, you're in a band? What are you guys called?'

Sam pulled out his phone, checked it and then put it away, shoving it in his jacket's side pocket. 'We're called Architects. We used to be called Inharmonic then Counting the Days but we changed to Architects. We've been doing it for a few months. I'm not sure whether we'll make it in the industry though because we've got a lot of practice to catch up on.'

'What do you guys play? I mean what genre are you?'

'We play metalcore. We cover songs mostly but we write a load of songs ourselves.' He answered.

'That sounds awesome. How many of you are there?'

'Well it's me, Tom, Dan, Tim and Alex who make up the band. Tom plays guitar, Dan plays drums, Tim plays guitar too and Alex plays bass. Anyway, enough about my band and time for me to ask some questions about you.'

'Okay then. Ask me questions and I'll answer truthfully.'

'Well, for a start; tell me about your family.'

I froze.

I never told anyone about my family, especially not anyone like Sam where I barely knew him. But like I said to him earlier, I open up to people a lot. He saw my expression and kind of looked away guiltily.

'Oh, you don't need to say anything you don't want to.' Sam said, drinking. I shook my head.

'No, I'll tell you. I told you earlier, I open up to people.'

'Yes, but that's not always a good thing.'

'But I can trust you, right?'

'Sure you can.'

'Okay then. Well, I had a hard life. My dad left me when I was young leaving mom to look after me and my older brother. For years I've been trying to fulfil my dream of being in a band but my mom stopped me because she thinks it's a "waste of time". I always argue with my mom and brother and he always takes her side. And I've... I've...'

'What?' Sam went to put his hand on mine but pulled himself away.

'I've been diagnosed with depression.' I said it so fast I don't think Sam even heard it. He looked at me like I'd just said to him I'd had pop tarts for breakfast. 'Did you hear what I said?'

'Yes, I heard what you said. I'm so sorry.'

'No, don't worry about it because I don't want sympathy. It's not gonna be "poor old Annabelle's got a mental problem, let's all be nice" anymore.'

Sam looked away awkwardly and drank more of his frappuccino to look busy. I felt bad; I'd only known him for a bit and I'd already been horrible towards him.

'Sorry,' I whispered, 'I didn't mean to talk like that. It's just I'm not used to people giving me sympathy. It's always people giving me a hard time. I just want to live the dream and get away from everything.'

Only then did Sam put his hand on mine. My hands looked tiny compared to his but I grabbed hold of his hand and squeezed... really hard.

'Ow. Hey, let go you're gonna crush my hand.' He laughed but winced in pain at the same time.

'Oh my god, I'm sorry.' I said, abruptly letting go. He rubbed his hand and smiled at me again. I gulped the last of my drink which was now as cold as anything and threw the cup in the bin behind me. Sam finished his and gave me the cup, asking to throw that in the bin too.

'Yes, boss.' I joked, taking it from him.

He stood up and led me out of the door and back to his car. He opened the door for me and I got in. As I put my seatbelt on, he flung himself into the driver's seat and started the engine. He glanced in the mirror and checked his hair, flicking it back into the position it was like before the wind ruined it.

'You're such a girl, checking your hair.' I said, raising an eyebrow at him.

'I like to keep myself looking good. Don't you think I'm good looking?' He said cockily, winking at me.

'No, you're ugly, let's go.' He looked upset but I could see it he was only joking. 'I'm joking, Sam. But can we go? Seriously, the weather is getting me down.'

As we drove home, the weather got worse and the rain fell harder. I started to get worried then; the rain falling so hard even the drains couldn't keep the roads safe. The wind was blowing faster

'Sam, I think we should stop. The water's going to flood the engine anytime soon. Sam, stop!' I shouted.

Sam was suddenly aware of what was going on and pressed the brake pedal. We halted to a stop and my heart was beating so fast I almost couldn't breathe.

'Jesus Christ, Sam.' I said in between breaths.

'Sorry, I was daydreaming and I switched off from everything.' He argued.

The wind blew harder and I could hear the whistling whipping round the car. I started to get scared now. We were driving through the hills and were near the edge of a cliff with trees surrounding us. Sam breathed as heavily as me and ruffled his hair.

'That was close.' I finally said, relieved but then— 'Sam! Look out!'

A tree that had been swaying in the wind had snapped and was starting to topple over right on top of the car. Sam started the car and sped back, luckily missing us by inches. We both sighed and leaned back. Why me?