Chapter 8
Freddie could feel small streams of warm morning sunlight on his face as they spilled through the cracks in the blinds. When he felt the figure next to him stir, he adjusted his arm, which was wrapped around the figure's tiny waist, and pulled her closer. Almost instinctively, the figure burrowed deeper into him, closing the space between them even more. He felt the rise and fall of the figures soft breathing against his chest. A few loose strands of blonde hair tickled his face. Breathing out a contented sigh, he was certain he could stay like this forever given the chance.
His moment of content was short lived however. Only moments later the loud buzzing of a cell phone pierced the silence of the room. Too tired to move, Freddie hoped he could ignore it until it stopped ringing.
He wasn't so lucky.
"Ugh turn it off," Sam groaned.
Freddie sighed, opening his eyes slowly. In a disoriented state, he began taking in his surroundings.
"Are you going to turn that off or am I going to have to break it?" Sam whined once more, now pulling the covers over her head.
Sleep beginning to wear off, the reality of where Freddie was begun to set in.
Sam. Last night. I still love you. Kissing…lots and lots of kissing and…
Immediately, Freddie disentangled himself from Sam, who let out a disappointed sigh, and sat upright. Frantically, he looked around the room, attempting to find his phone. Leaning over the edge of the bed he noticed his jacket, his phone vibrating visibly in the pocket. Picking it up, he looked at the words on the screen:
Call from: Viv
He felt his heart stop as he began to panic.
Vivian, his girlfriend, was calling him. She was calling him while he was in bed with his best friend…his best friend whom, only the night before, he'd confessed to still being in love…his best friend whom he'd just slept with.
Not sure of what else to do, Freddie pressed the ignore button on his phone.
As soon as he did that, another phone began to ring. This time it was Sam's.
"I thought I told you to turn that off," Sam whined.
"Sam, that's not mine. I think it's yours."
Sam groaned as she reached for the nightstand where her phone lay.
"Shit," she said as she realized who was calling.
"Shit, shit, shit. It's Shawn," Sam replied once she looked at the screen of her phone.
Sam sat up, her eyes still bleary with sleep as she held the blanket to her chest with one hand and a persistently ringing phone in the other.
In a similar rush of panic to Freddie's, Sam pressed the ignore button before dropping the phone onto her bed.
Taking in his bare-chested figure she rested her head in the palm of her hands.
"What are we going to do?" she groaned, the reality of the situation beginning to set in.
"I-I don't know," Freddie sighed heavily.
After a few moments of agonizing silence, Sam spoke up again, her voice heavy.
"Maybe we could just…forget it?" she suggested unconvincingly.
"What?" Freddie asked shocked.
"Yeah, just for now…until we can, I don't know, sort stuff out."
"Seriously? No. Sam, we can't just 'forget it'. This isn't some stupid 7-second kiss between two 14 year olds. I told you I'm still in love with you and you said it back to me and we slept together. This isn't something we can just forget," Freddie said, irritation present in his voice.
"Well, I don't know what else to do, Freddie," Sam replied dejectedly.
"Maybe, we should just, I don't know, tell the truth," Freddie finally said, unintentional bite in his tone.
"Ugh, leave it to you to want to do the right thing. You're like a 24 year old boy scout," Sam sighed. She'd meant it as a joke, but it did nothing to lighten the moment. If anything, it seemed to irritate Freddie further.
"I'm serious, Sam."
"I know, Freddie. I just…what do I say? 'Oh, hey Shawn. Just wanted to let you know I slept with my ex-boyfriend who I'm still in love with. Thanks for being so understanding.' Yeah. That'd go over real well," Sam replied sarcastically.
Hearing Sam say it out loud made Freddie realize just how difficult this situation actually was. It was easy enough to say that they needed to do the right thing and that they needed to tell the truth, but actually doing it was a whole different story.
"I don't know. I don't know, but we have to do the right thing."
Sam groaned noncommittally from the other side of the bed and then they sat in silence, both contemplating what they had done and said the night before.
Once again, Sam's phone began to buzz. Looking down at the phone in her lap, she saw that it was Shawn…again. This time however, he'd sent a text message.
Hey. Haven't heard from you in a while. Hope you're all right. Mind if I swing by your place? (You should say yes cause I'm already on my way over.) I've got something for you.
Sam sighed. Just when she thought the morning couldn't get any worse…it did.
Reading the frazzled expression on Sam's face, Freddie spoke up.
"Is it Shawn?"
"Yeah and…he's on his way over here. You—you've got to go, Freddie."
Freddie stared back at Sam, incredulity upon his face again.
"Sam, I can't just leave. Not like this. We haven't even-"
Sam cut Freddie off.
"Look, Freddie…Shawn is on his way over. Somehow I don't think it'd go over too well if he walked in and saw you-" Sam paused as her eyes quickly glanced down at his bare chest "like this…here…with me."
"I know, but just…just at least tell me what we're doing. We can't ignore this, Sam. We can act like this didn't happen. What are we now? What about Shawn? Are you going to tell him what happened?"
Sam was quiet a moment, her gaze downcast.
"What about Vivian? Are you going to tell her what happened?"
"Well, yeah. Of course, I mean…" Freddie fell silent. He'd been so quick to think of what Sam would do. How Sam would handle it. How Sam would tell Shawn, but he'd neglected to think about Vivian and what he would do.
Suddenly, the weight of the situation hit him. He pictured her heartbroken face as he imagined himself telling her what happened.
As if reading Freddie's mind, Sam spoke up again.
"It's not so easy, is it?"
"I just…I don't want to…I don't know how to do this without hurting her."
A seemingly derisive laugh escaped Sam's lips, catching Freddie by surprise.
"You already have."
It was three simple words that struck him with unexpected force.
He'd always fashioned himself as a "good guy", nice to a fault.
He'd certainly never imagined himself as the type to cheat…as the type to so carelessly break someone's heart.
But here he was, sitting in bed with his best friend/ex-girlfriend/sole source of chaos in his life since he was barely a teenager, after just having slept with her…while they were both with other people: other people who cared about them both greatly. Freddie had never cared for Shawn, but he had to admit Shawn's devotion and adoration of Sam was admirable. And Vivian…Freddie couldn't even bear to think about her. The image of her smiling face made his heart weigh heavy in his chest.
He didn't want to hurt her, but Sam was right.
He already had.
"We effed up, Freddie," Sam spoke up solemnly. "We've been effing this whole…thing between us up since we were kids and now, now we're screwing other people over by dragging them into our mess that neither of us has had the balls to try and fix."
She sighed heavily as she turned her gaze away from Freddie and towards the direction of the window.
"I'm tired of it. I'm tired and there's only one way to fix this. As much as I hate to admit it, you're right. We've got to do the right thing. We've got to stop screwing this up."
"Anyways, you should go," she said as she glanced back down at the discarded phone in her lap.
Freddie nodded, accepting that Sam was right. Him staying wouldn't do any good, no matter how much he wanted to. He then leaned over, kissing Sam lightly on the forehead.
"I meant what I said last night," he said quietly.
With that, Freddie turned from her and quickly threw on his discarded clothing. As he made his way towards the door of her bedroom, he heard her speak up, her voice tiny and far away sounding.
"Me too."
He glanced back at her one more time. She had her arms wrapped around her knees, hugging them closely to her chest. Her long blonde hair fell messily atop her head and there was sadness in her eyes that made Freddie's heart ache. He wanted nothing more than to walk back over, wrap his arms around her and just stay like that. He wanted nothing more than to forget the complicated reality of their situation, but he knew he couldn't.
Staying would only make things worse.
Freddie gave an almost apologetic smile, or at least what he could muster of one, before turning his back to her once more and making his way out of the room.
A/N: The time between the end of the last chapter and the beginning of this one could have been very interesting if this story was rated M, alas it is not. ;P
