a/n: Here we go... I'll be interested in everyone's reactions after this chapter. The rating was bumped up to M, but that is just a precaution.

Chapter 7

Sookie's POV

I went to bed that night with Eric on my mind. So it was no surprise my thoughts were focused on the past while I waited for sleep to take over.

Flashback

I sat down at the computer as soon as I got home from school Friday afternoon. I had plans to confirm since I still had no cell phone. My parents insisted that a 15 year old did not need one. The only time I ever wished for one was when I was trying to make plans with Eric.

ENorthsox51: Hey! Meet me at the basketball hoop still?

Sook1e: Yep! See you there, leaving now!

ENorthsox51: Same here, bye!

I yelled goodbye to my mother and to Jason who was on the phone with Jess. He was becoming a much more likeable brother now that she was around. They only started dating a couple months ago but I had my fingers crossed it would last. However knowing my brother I'd most likely be married with kids before he managed to get engaged. I went into the barn and grabbed my bike which was shoved in a corner to keep it out of the rain.

"Later Jupiter!" I buzzed past my old horse and rode my bike out to the road. I turned down the street and headed towards Eric's house. Ten minutes later I could see Eric in the distance, riding down the road on his black BMX bike. There was a big oak tree on the side of the road with an old rusted basketball hoop nailed into it. We always met at that part of the road since it was almost halfway between our houses.

"I think I beat you this time." Eric smirked as I pulled my bike to a stop next to him.

"Whatever! I have a longer driveway to walk down, I think that makes it a tie." It definitely took me way more time to just get to my house after the bus dropped me off. Eric should know that since he came over every Tuesday night for dinner. He was just being a loser.

"Whatever makes you sleep at night Smalls" He grinned and started riding down the road again. If he wasn't so cute I'd probably punch him. I quickly followed after him and we turned down the road that led to the Cork & Bottle.

"So did you hear about Isabelle and Eggs today?" Eric asked.

"Unfortunately I heard from Tara. She's upset about it, even though I keep saying he isn't worth it." Poor Tara had been dumped by Eggs earlier in the school year. She was just starting to get over it when she found out he was sleeping with Isabelle. At least that was the rumor. I was not so quick to believe it since Eggs was immature and would make the rumor up himself just to feel cool.

"That sucks, he told me in class, I don't know if it's true though. He only hung out with Isabelle like one time." Eric and everyone in the damn high school knew Isabelle was easy so there'd be no way of confirming it until she spoke up about it.

I was very lucky to be able to talk about this stuff with Eric and not feel awkward at all. Tara had always felt uncomfortable talking about anything involving sex with Eggs. She felt like the second that subject came up Eggs expected to have a discussion about when they were going to have sex, or when she would finally be ready. He really was an ass. Eric and I had talked about it briefly and both quickly agreed we were nowhere near ready for that. Heck we were in the same health class and they showed this documentary about some 16 year old girl who got pregnant, I think it scared the crap out of both of us.

"I think I'm going to get three ice cream sandwiches today." Eric said as we rode down the last hill towards the store.

"What? How are you going to eat all of that?" I could see the small red store up ahead now. I looked over at Eric who was dead serious, but looked like a cartoon character with the way the wind was blowing his hair around.

"I will. You'll see, it's my master plan to finally start growing. I'll just eat a ton." He smiled.

"you realize eating ice cream will just make you fatter right?" I laughed, his reasoning made no sense.

"That's fine too since my arms look like twigs right now." He had a t-shirt on and lifted his hand off one of the handle bars to show me. As if I didn't know what his arms looked like already.

"I think you look fine Eric." I really saw nothing wrong with how he looked.

"You're my girlfriend you have to say that." He reasoned as we pulled our bikes into the small parking lot.

"Not really, did you ever think you wouldn't have a girlfriend if you weren't cute already?" I carefully locked my bike to the railing just outside the store. Although I doubted anyone would steal it out here.

"This is true..." He pondered "I may have underestimated my own dashing good looks" He grinned.

"You really are an idiot." I tried not to laugh at his stupid joke but failed miserably as we walked into the store.

We both picked out what we wanted and went up to the register. The same older woman was always here running the store. She was the nicest lady, like a friendly little Grandma who baked cookies all the time. "Hi kids, what have we got today?" She looked over at Eric. "someone has eyes bigger than his stomach I think."

"I'll finish them. It's ice cream, can't let it go to waste." He pulled some crumpled bills out of his pocket to pay.

"Okay" she chuckled and handed him his change. "You two be sure to invite me to the wedding." She smiled and I'm sure my face turned bright red. Mrs. Sullivan was always making little comments like that to us. I think she just thought we were cute, like puppies, I doubted she took it seriously. Eric on the other hand...

"Oh I'll make sure you're the first to get an invitation." He was not phased in the least by her words. Then he grabbed my hand and we headed outside to sit on the sidewalk and eat our very unhealthy snacks.

End Flashback

I woke up the following morning with Eric still on my mind. I wanted this to be easy and for things to just work out with Sam. But life was never easy was it? Usually the guys who showed interest in me, I wasn't interested in. Then the guys that I thought were handsome had absolutely no interest in me. Except for Eric and now Sam. The problem was I never thought Eric would really be an option again. Hell I didn't even know if he was right now.

With a sigh I forced myself into the shower then went about my morning routine. By the time I had breakfast I felt much better. I was completely awake and my dreams seemed like a distant memory. Sam was on his way over and I was looking forward to spending the day with him. I also planned on chatting with him about some things we needed to work on. I was going to have a good, accomplished day.

"Hey Sook!" Sam smiled as he walked in the back door. He had a small bouquet of white daisies. The man was always very good at those little romantic gestures.

"Morning" I gave him a hug and took the flowers to put in a vase. "You didn't have to do this, but thank you."

"I don't do it because I have to." He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me.

"I know, still surprises me that you do stuff like that after all this time." I turned in his arms and gave him a quick kiss. Sam definitely seemed interested in turning it much more than a kiss, but that could wait until after we had our talk today.

"So what do you want to do today? I was thinking we could do something outside since it's so nice out." It was a gorgeous day. It was warm but without the gross humidity.

"Sure, we could go walk on one of the hiking trails?"

We ended up at the town forest which had a two mile loop through the woods. It was just a beginner trail with nothing too interesting on it. But it would keep us out in the sunlight and enjoying the fresh air. Times like these I wished Sam was still horseback riding. It was a perfect day for it. We got out of the car and headed down the trail side by side.

"Did Tara tell you about her cookout yet? She told me to let you know she was having a big summer get together in a couple weeks, in case I saw you first. Which she knew would definitely happen." He smiled. Tara and I tried to make time for each other but it wasn't easy when we both worked full-time and she worked a lot of weekends still.

"Of course not, I'll give her a call tonight though and let her know we'll be there." Sam just nodded. We had been together long enough that I didn't have to nervously ask him if he'd go. We were a couple, so we just went to these types of things together.

"So what was the work emergency?" I asked as we turned down a somewhat steeper slope in the trail.

"Oh, the cook just lost his temper again, made one of the waitresses cry until she was threatening to quit." He rolled his eyes and didn't say much more on the subject.

"Oh..." Lately Sam was less and less talkative about work. I tried to not be offended since it seemed directly linked to all of the damn emergencies they had with this cook lately. He was probably just stressed and didn't want to spend his day off reliving the bullshit at work.

"Did Maggie settle down yesterday?" He asked as we turned and started heading back towards the direction we came.

"Yeah, she settled down pretty quick. I don't think she's going to be much trouble." Some horses were just plain high maintenance. You know, like the Nan Flanagans of the animal world, who constantly needed attention. So far Maggie seemed pretty quiet she just wanted your attention when you were standing two inches away from her.

Sam and I enjoyed the rest of the hike then I he drove us back to my house. Just as we pulled into the driveway his cell started ringing. He rolled his eyes and picked up the phone. "Hello?" He listened to a loud voice on the other end of the phone for awhile. By the looks of it someone did something stupid again at work. "Okay I'll get there as soon as I can, alright, bye"

My shoulders slumped as I sat in the passenger seat. So much for having lunch together and the rest of the day. I also did not want to bring up my serious talk if it was going to be rushed. "Let me guess, you have to go? Work emergency?"

"I'm sorry Sook, I'll make it up to you I promise." Sam looked sincere and like he really did not want to go to work.

"I know it just sucks. I feel like I get less and less time with you." I wanted to say more but I also was not going to open a can of worms when he had to rush off. "Just give me a call when you get home? Maybe we can do dinner or something."

"That actually sounds perfect. How about I cook?" He smiled.

"Alright I'll see you tonight then. Don't work too hard." I gave him a quick kiss and hopped out of the car. Sam waved before heading up the road towards his work. I decided I would still be useful today and went about cleaning my house. I had my music blasting and scrubbed every inch of the place and washed every piece of fabric in my laundry bin. By the time I finished I was tired but in a good mood. I had gotten a lot done.

I decided to throw some chocolate chip cookies in the oven and then took a quick shower before heading to Sam's. I wrapped up the cookies on a plate to head over a little early for dinner. I'm sure Sam would devour the cookies before he started cooking anyway. I got in my car and made the drive to Sam's house. He had not called yet but I figured that he wouldn't be too much longer. Plus I knew where the spare key was.

I pulled into the driveway and noticed Sam's car was already there along with an unfamiliar Jeep. That was odd. I tried to think of who might be here, maybe one of his friends? But why wouldn't he have called to say he was home? I tried to not get suspicious as I walked up to the door. I grabbed the spare key from its hidden spot and opened the door without knocking. Apparently part of me was suspicious enough to not let my presence be known yet. I still had the damn plate of cookies in one hand and had to carefully shut the door behind me.

I headed towards the kitchen and that was when I saw Sam and Daphne. They were half clothed and having sex on the fucking table we were supposed to eat dinner at tonight. Not a sound came out of my mouth but I dropped the plate of cookies. The sounds of the glass plate shattering on the floor broke them out of their lust fueled haze.

"Oh shit!" That was all Sam had to say as he looked up.

"Sookie?" Daphne could at least say my name.

I didn't stick around for anything else. I turned on my heel and ran out the door. I hopped into my car and sped home . Tears were running down my face but I wasn't even sad yet, I was pissed. Sam always seemed like such a nice and genuine guy. I might have thought he was a workaholic but I never would have thought he was cheating. I bet he was using his 'work emergencies' as an excuse to go fuck that bimbo waitress all the time. There probably was no drama with the chef. He should have been a politician because he certainly had me fooled into thinking he was all innocent and nice.

I got back to my house and immediately grabbed the few pictures I had of us and tossed them into the trash. I had never been cheated on before, I had no idea how to handle this. At first I wondered what was wrong with me, why was I not enough? But then I got logical and told myself he was the jackass. If he wasn't happy he should have dumped me instead of cheating. Instead of being a sobbing mess I spent most of the evening being angry. Then I realized I had to go feed Maggie. Crap. I didn't want Eric to see me right now. But I could not let my horse go hungry so I trudged out to my car and drove to Eric's house.

a/n: so thoughts? reactions? what do you all think of sam? also this was my last banked chapter so the updates might be a bit slower now. But, remember, when I get reviews I tend to write much faster... =)