If you lean your head against the window while the car is moving, it tickles your nose. Sam decided, after a few minutes of this, that she'd better sit up because her nose really tickled. And it's hard to fall asleep in the car if your nose tickles. Besides, the neon lights of downtown Seattle just wouldn't allow for any shut-eye on the way to her house. Neither would the constant static from the car radio. The mattress commercial ended and the first notes of a Twin Atlantic song filled the car. Freddie turned the volume up and sat back in the drivers seat as they came to a full halt behind a line of brake lights.
"So that's where he lives?" Freddie asked. They had just dropped Tony off at the homeless shelter with Maritza, one of the staff there who Tony had latched on to. Bernie wasn't expected back there for an hour or two more. He had been out looking for work and had called to tell Sam to just drop Tony off instead of waiting for him to come pick him up. Now they were on their way back to Sam's house for a bite to eat before they would both head over to the Bushwell for iCarly rehearsal.
"Correction: that's where he sleeps and occasionally showers. If he actually lived there, they wouldn't be homeless." Sam pointed out. Freddie could hear the vulnerability that was thinly masked by the edge in her voice.
"Right. That's got to be tough on you, to see them both going through something like this." Freddie hesitated. "Are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" she challenged.
"That's a horrible question, Sam."
"Thank you. Moving on. Can you change the station?" Sam asked with a hint of irritation in her tone. The song had ended, filling the car with nothing but staticky interference. Freddie laughed but obliged, turning the dial and searching the waves of static for something that wasn't a mattress or insurance commercial.
He finally settled on some alternative independent station that refused to ever air a commercial and somehow was able to pay for their air time.
Freddie looked over at Sam's face and saw that her eyes were closed and she was leaning her head against the cold glass window once again. She looked like she was asleep, but he knew better.
"Sam. Are you okay? Please just answer me. Truthfully." A heavy silence filled the car and the question hung in the air like electricity before a storm. She pulled her feet up underneath her and took her head off the window, smoothing out any curls that were misplaced by her fake nap. Sam sighed and Freddie waited for a reply.
"No." was all she said.
"No, you're not okay or no you won't answer me?" he asked, knowing that that simple word was all he was going to get out of her, at least for now.
"That's up to you."
The rest of the drive was made in silence.
They arrived back at Sam's house to find her mother awake and making dinner. Not anything extravagant. All it involved was putting a frozen lasagna in the oven, but it was a step in the right direction. The two said a quick hello, poking their heads into the kitchen to acknowledge the baking miracle taking place, and then retreated to her bedroom.
Freddie messed around on her guitar for a while, willingly subjecting himself to her criticism for every mistake he made. She just sat on her bed, throwing down the occasional insult, and texting back and forth with Bernie to check on when he would be back at the shelter.
Heartbreak was clouding the thoughts of the woman in the kitchen, and uncertain emotions were stirring in the hearts and minds of the two teenagers.
A foreboding calm settled over the evening.
What did you think of the ending? It sounded a little bit too...oh, I don't know...bizarre for my style. But lo and behold, it came off of my fingertips so whatever...
Feel like sending me a review? The next chapter will not only rock your socks, but it will blow them halfway to the moon :D