Chapter Three: Night Walk
Eva walked through the crowd, seeing a very large variety of people. She got slammed into a big hefty man full of tattoos and piercings by a group of drunk teenagers. Mumbling a sorry, she kept her eyes open for a video store. The Frog brothers hadn't been specific so she guessed that there was only one. After a few minutes of looking a neon signt hat read 'Cheap Rentals' and she peered inside to see walls covered in racks of videos. With a sigh, she pushed open the door which rang a bell attached to the top. Not too many people were in the place, she guessed for the same reason as no one was in buying comics from the Frogs.
She saw a guy her age behind the register, ringing up some videos for a woman in her late twenties. Eva slipped into line behind her, grabbing a random movie from a rack. As she waited, she glanced at the movie and saw that it was 'The Joy Luck Club'. Eva frowned. It was a good movie, but not exactly the best to impress Edgar and Alan's friend. Well now she had no time to dwell on it as the lady in front of her grabbed her tapes and headed to the door. Eva walked up to the counter and put her video down, getting a clearer view of who she presumbed was Sam. He had messy brown hair, a multi-colored button up shirt, worn jeans and sneakers.
"Are you Sam?" she asked, not taking her hand off of the video on the counter.
He looked up at her, seemingly just realizing that she was his age. "Yeah," he answered. "How'd you know?"
"The Frog brothers said I should come meet you for some reason," she explained, still not letting him take the video.
"Edgar and Alan?"
"Unless there are other 'Frog brothers' in this town, then yes," she answered tartly.
Sam smiled at her. "Alright. So why'd they send you down here?"
She shrugged. "I dunno. I was talking to them, got a job and then they sent me to you."
"You got a job at the comic book store?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Did you just move here?" he seemed really intent on all her answers and she wondered why.
"No, just for the summer."
He knawed on his bottom lip for a minute, glancing out the window toward the street. "Did they happen to give you any comics?"
"What?" she asked, puzzled.
"Any comic books. Did they give you any?"
She raised an eyebrow. "No. Why?"
He let out what she could only guess was a sigh of relief. "Just checking."
Eva looked at him for a minute before deciding that this town must just be weird. "Okay...so what's so special about you that I would have to meet you?"
Sam looked down at her, slightly leaning on the counter with a stubborn sort of look on her face. He hated to admit it himself, but he wasn't the best around girls. Sure he was better than Edgar and Alan, but he didn't have much experience with them as he spent all of the school year and summertime with the Frog's. "I'm not sure," he answered slowly.
"Sam?" An older lady with short red hair walked behind the counter from somewhere else in the store. "Who's this?"
"Uh, this is, uh," Sam stuttered.
"Eva," Eva answered for him, holding out her hand.
"Right, Eva," Sam mumbled.
The lady smiled and shook Eva's hand. "Well, nice to meet you Eva. I'm Lucy, Sam's mom."
Eva smiled at her. She seemed nice.
"So did you just move here, Eva?" Lucy continued.
Eva shook her head. "No. I'm just here for the summer."
"Oh really? That's nice. Why doesn't Sam show you around?" She turned to her son. "Sam? Why don't you introduce her to the Frog brothers?"
"Oh, I've already met them," Eva annouced.
"Oh," Lucy said. "Then why don't you just show her around?"
Sam looked from his mother to Eva, and finding no option, nodded. "Sure. Come on." He walked out from behind the counter, stuffing his hands in his jean pockets and walking towards the door. Eva followed and was slightly surprised when he stopped to hold open the door for her.
"Thanks," she said with a smile, as he fell in step beside her.
"No problem," he answered. "So where are you from?"
"Just two hours south. I'm pretty sure we don't even have a name for the town. It's got like a thousand people there," she said with a smile. It was true. Her highschool only had three hundred kids in all the grades.
He scuffed his feet on the contrete sidewalk. "Yeah, well our school is pretty small too."
"Do you go to school with Edgar and Alan?" she asked.
"Yeah. My brother used to go too, but he graduated already."
"Oh really? Where is he now?"
"He's living with his girlfriend right off the boardwalk," Sam answered. "Me and my mom still live with my grandpa."
She nodded thoughtfully. "Cool."
"Yeah right. Unless you like waking up every morning to some sort of stuffed dead animal on your nightstand, then you'd hate it."
She laughed. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah," he said with a nod. "My grandpa stuffs whatever dead animal he kills in the 'woods'."
She smiled. This was nice. Just talking calmly to someone was different to her. Usually her and her group of friends ended up talking about all their screwed up families, what girl at school got pregnant by what headstrong jock on the soccer team...that sort of thing. She enjoyed the sort of talk. The sort of talk that she called the-getting-to-know-a-person-talk. They were silent for a little while, just making their way through the crowd.
"There's the stage where all these bands come," Sam said suddenly, pointing. She looked up to see a brightly lit stage not too far from them. It was near the main entrance to the amusement park and at the moment, empty. "There's a pretty good band playing tomorrow night," Sam continued. "You want to go?"
Eva was taken aback by his offer but composed herself. "Uh, sure," she answered. "Will the Frog brothers come?"
He glanced over at her. "Sure, they can come."
She smiled. "Cool."
Very suddenly, Sam's good natured aura was gone and he stiffened beside her, stepping slightly closer to her. She wondered what the strange behavior was about and followed his gaze. Walking through the crowd was a group of guys dressed in dark clothes and seemingly scaring everyone away from them. Eva suddenly felt very small and took a step closer to Sam, causing their hands to touch. The group got closer and stopped right in front of them. There was one in a long dark trench coat, had white-blonde hair and extremely pale skin, and who seemed the leader. He stepped forward with a slight smirk on his face.
"Good evening, Samuel," he said in a very sultry, monotone voice. Eva felt the man's eyes wash over her and shivered. "Who's this?"
"No one," Sam said in a strained voice.
The smirk was back. "Where's Micheal?"
Sam swallowed. "At his apartment."
With another gaze at Eva and even larger smirk, he swished away, his three followers trailing behind. She felt Sam loosen up a little as they left, but she didn't step away from him and nor did he move away from her.
"Who were they?" she asked in a small voice that didn't even sound like it belonged to her.
Sam glanced over at her and saw how freaked out she looked. Better not tell her the truth just yet. "Just some screwed up assholes my brother knows," he answered. "How about I walk you back to where you're staying?"
With a nod, Eva turned and Sam followed, still as close as they had been when those dark men had showed up. What an exciting first night at Santa Carla for Eva Jones!
A/N: YAY! She met the Lost Boys!!! and Sam, and Lucy. Heh, so whatcher say? good? bad? please review and I'll get back to you!!