"So this girl had, like, really incredible tits." Warren says with graphic animation. "I'm talking like, gravity defying knockers."
"Why're we talking about this?" you interrupt and Warren looks up at you like you're the one that's been sitting here talking about boobs for the last half an hour. "I just asked what time it was."
Warren looks confused for a moment, tilting his head thoughtfully. "Yeah, I dunno how I got to boobs." He shrugs and you roll your eyes.
"Everything goes back to boobs with you, Dub-dub." You yawn, stretching out on your stomach on his bed while you watch him pull a grey sweater over his head.
"Very true." He admits, modeling his outfit for you and you give him a thumbs down. "And speaking of which, you have some very nice ones my friend." He grins, whipping off his shirt in that weird way that boys have.
"I'm gonna take that as a compliment." You decide, tucking a pillow under your chest and watching him pull on a blue button up shirt.
"Please do." He smirks, tucking his shirt into his black slacks. "So what're you gonna do tonight while I'm partying like its 1999?" he questions and you shrug. "What is up with you? Ever since the...uh...incident with You Know Who, you've been kinda..."
You raise an eyebrow at him, "Reserved?"
Warren matches your lifted eyebrow. "No, lame. Very lame." He says apologetically, buttoning up his shirt. "Which is why I think you should come out tonight. We'll have fun and dance and you'll feel a lot better."
You smile at him as he drops down beside you on his bed, automatically running a hand through your hair.
"No, I don't really feel up to it." You admit and Warren just nods.
"Alright Sam but whenever you're ready to get back in the game. I'm here for you."
You press your nose against the smooth material of his slacks and smile. "I know, Handsome."
"Do you wanna come over after school today?" You ask leaning into the lockers and watching Warren shove some books into his backpack meanwhile you can't even remember where you left your backpack. "We can hang out and eat whipped cream or something."
Warren gives you a funny look before shutting his locker. "As appealing as that sounds, I've got some stuff to do today." He says a little apologetically.
And you know that Warren's been up to something lately, hiding and sneaking, because you know him and he's being all conspiratorial and ninja like which is highly unusual.
"What kind of stuff?" You ask with a frown. "Because you're stuff is usually my stuff."
"Just stuff." He breathes, eyes darting around suspiciously and you glare at him.
"You're up to something." You decide and Warren doesn't look so much offended as just plain guilty.
"No I'm not." He blurts and you size him up, eyeing the bead of sweat trickling down his forehead.
"Yeah you are and when I figure it out I'm probably gonna kick your ass."
"I'm not afraid of you, Puckett." He hisses and you shove him into the lockers.
"You should be." You whisper, poking him in the chest. "And I'm watching you."
"Sam, can you get table two for me? I'm swamped." Warren calls, shoving a laminated menu into your chest and you shake your head.
"No, I was off ten minutes ago." You say pushing the menu back into his chest. "Sorry but I can't help you." You say hardly apologetic because your feet hurt and you just spent the last two hours helping people who didn't speak any English.
"Sam! Please!" Warren wails, dropping to his knees in the middle of the resturaunt in full beg mode. "I need your help! He cries dramatically, wrapping his arms around both of your legs and burying his face in your stomach.
You don't have to look around to know that patrons are staring at you and you roll your eyes and flick the back of Warrens head.
"Fine!" you hiss pushing him away and he stands quickly.
"Thanks." He smirks, shoving the menu at you again before grabbing your shoulders to twist you towards the far booth and giving you a push. "You're awesome."
You're still in the middle of cursing Warren's name when you stop at the booth.
"What can I get...for you." The last of the sentence sort of dribbles out of your mouth because Carly is the person in the booth and that idiot Warren set you up.
"Hey." Carly whispers awkwardly, eyes darting away from you for just a moment. "So, you're probably wondering why I'm here."
You nod a little wordlessly because things are filling your head and your heart so fast that you've gone effectively mute.
"Warren and I talked." She starts and you feel your eyes widen in disbelief and you're gonna kick his ass. "We talked and he told me I was stupid. Stupid and selfish and lucky, so lucky that I ever had the chance to be with someone like you." She whispers and you shake you're head.
"Warren's just..." you start, clutching the laminated menu to your chest like a shield and you remember when you didn't have to protect yourself from her. "He's right." Carly says cutting you off easily. "He's right and I hurt you and I'm so sorry but I..." she trails off for a minute, looking down at her hands and when you follow her gaze you see that her hands are shaking but she pulls her fingers into a fist and takes a deep breath. "But I love you a lot and I know you said you wanted space and I-I just want you to know that I'm ready and whenever you are, if you're ever ready for me, I'll be here." She blurts in that run on sentence-y way she has and you lick your lips carefully and try not to choke on your heart.
"Carly." You try and it doesn't matter if you didn't know what was gonna come after that because Carly pushes out of the booth to stand in front of you and her dark eyes are pleading and her smile is sad and everything is telling you to kiss her, for gods sake just kiss her but she's snagging your fingers in her and stepping real close.
"Whatever you decide. I'll wait to hear your answer." She exhales, fingers curling around the tie of your uniform and then her lips are on yours and she's not kissing you like you need her to, instead she's brushing her lips over yours lightly. "I'll see you around." she murmurs and before you can even tell her not to go she's walking away.
It takes you a few breaths to be able to compose yourself and when you do, turning around and ignoring the looks people are giving you, you spot Warren grinning like an idiot.
"Ow!" you ignore Warren's yelp of pain and tighten your arm under his chin, securing him tighter into the headlock you have him in. "Air, Sam! Air is important!" he squeezes out and you shake you're head.
"You can have air when you tell me what the hell you were thinking!" you grunt even as he tries to push you off of him and succeeds in only knocking you both into the shelves of supplies and causing artificial sweetener to rain down on the two of you.
"I wasn't thinking that you'd attack me in the storage room." he grumbles and you tighten your grip a little more.
"Dub-dub." You hiss warningly and his arms flail a little bit.
"I did it for you, Sam." He finally. "I don't like seeing you so sad and pathetic. It's annoying." He says with a grunt as you release him because you can't choke the life out of a dude who loves you enough to piss you off this much.
"Pathetic?" You breathe incredulously and Warren nods, rubbing his throat.
"Yeah, pathetic." You elbow him in the stomach and he folds over breathlessly. "What is wrong with you!?" he screeches and you roll your eyes. "I dunno, could it be my best friend lying and sneaking around behind my back and then completely setting me up...." you trail off, realization dawning on you. "You told Ashley!" you hiss and Warren looks at you sheepishly.
"It was apart of the plan." He offers and you can feel your eyebrows meeting your hairline.
"She punched me in the face, Warren!" you cry and he straightens, holding his ribs.
"Yeah, that wasn't apart of the plan really but it was funny." He chuckles and he only laughs harder when you flip him off. "But you know what was apart of my great master plan that I like to call 'Operation Get Sam's Heart Out of the Gutter.'?" he asks with that damned smile and you can feel your mouth curling upwards in response to his cheeky grin.
"What?" you breathe tilting your head at him. "The way you looked out there while she was talking to you. All soft and swoony." He whispers around a smile and your beaming at him uncontrollably. "That was definitely apart of the plan."
You roll your eyes a little, walking over and he flinches a little before you pull him into a hug.
"Thanks, Warren." You sigh as he hugs you back. "And I'm sorry I kicked your ass."
He laughs into your hair, "me too."
You give yourself three days to think it over but you don't really need them because you know the answer is yes, you want her. Always and forever but you give yourself three days before going to find her so you don't seem as desperate as you actually are.
It's the middle of the night when you go to talk to her and breaking and entering seems like a perfectly logical idea at the time.
"Whoa!" you yelp while your hands fly up to protect your face while you drop to the ground and what may or may not be a hockey stick whistles past your head. "Carly!" you hiss and Carly stops mid backswing.
"Sam?" she whispers incredulously and when you manage to climb back to your feet in the pitch black of her bedroom. "What're you doing here?" she asks, hockey stick still raised over her head and you put your hands up in surrender.
"Being bludgeoned to death apparently." You whisper, reaching back to flip on her bedroom light so you can see Carly better, but the hockey stick she's still holding like a weapon is a little unnerving.
"It's three o'clock in the morning and how did you get in here anyway?" she asks, dropping the hockey stick and rubbing her eyes tiredly. "Nevermind, you picked the lock." She finishes quietly, running her hand through her hair and you shrug guiltily. "You do know that's a felony, right." She questions and you wave the words away.
"I figure this is sort of an exception." You admit, swallowing and gathering courage and Carly gives you a look that's a little bit hopeful, standing there in her frog pajama pants and a white tank top.
"What kind of exception?" she asks softly like she can't get air out of her lungs and on the way here you had this whole speech that you were going to make but you can't remember any of it now.
"Well, I've been, uhm, thinking..." you start weakly and Carly frowns at you, taking a tentative step closer.
"Sam?" she whispers with a tilt of her head and man, you're in love with this girl. "I made a decision." You practically blurt and Carly looks nervous but so, so pretty.
"Yeah?" she exhales and you nod once before stepping forward and kissing her.