That night, after an extremely humiliating unofficial Q&A session with Mona, Amanda went home. With all the chaos of her fainting, and her eating disorder, she never did actually get to look at pictures of Hector's so-called legendary party. Amanda surfed Facebook until finding someone's album of the party. Amanda smiled when she found pictures of herself before she had passed out, and frowned or rolled her eyes when she found pictures of Chugs, Adriana, or any of the sorority sisters. Amanda sped through the pics, until one caught her eye. It was Sam looking picture perfect as ever, standing with a guy who wasn't Colt. It wasn't an incriminating picture, they weren't holding hands or anything, but something about the guy was off putting. He had black, shaggy hair and green eyes, and a lazy half smile that was kind of knowing. Oh shit, wait .That can't be, that's not-
"Jason?" Amanda said his name out loud. There he was. At Hector's party. With Sam. Oh shit, Amanda was going to be sick. No she wasn't. She was. No she wasn't. She swallowed and contemplated what this could mean. Was Jason, at Hector's party? Obviously. What was he doing there? How did he find out about it? Had he been watching Amanda? Why was he talking to Sam? Amanda thought about calling Sam to get to the bottom of it. She decided against it after looking at the clock. 11:28. If she wasn't mistaken, it was Sam and Colt's 6 month anniversary, and she guessed that their date most likely wasn't over yet.
Right Amanda was. Colt woke up still at night and looked over at Sam, who was sleeping, her breathing even. Colt smiled a little. Sam was so perfect. Despite his bad boy attitude that everyone at school except his close friends thought he had, he actually did care about her. More than anyone else. During their mattress dance, or more like blanket, Colt had been so concerned with making sure everything was perfect. When Sam had started crying right in the middle, Colt had been so sure everything was fucked up. Until she had shaken her head as an indication that everything was fine. Afterwards, he had thrown the condom into the ocean and wrapped his arms around Sam, who was still shaking from crying a little. Colt pleaded for her to tell him what was wrong, until she finally said,
"I want to get married."
What?
"No I mean I- but I—" She burst into tears.
"Shh, Sam." Colt rubbed her back. Sam shook her head as if to say she was fine, but the tears kept flowing. She sniffed and wiped at her eyes. "I'm just really emotional, okay? It's an emotional time for me."
Colt nodded.
"And I- I just wish my dad was here. I really miss him, and this just makes me think of all the things he's not going to be here for. My graduation, my wedding, my kids being born, and I just want him to come back."
"Sam, I know you miss your dad. I can't even imagine what it's like to have someone that close to you die. I know my dad's not there for me, but at least he's still here physically. I know how hard it's been for you, and I'm here for you. No matter how long it takes, I'll always be here for you. I love you."
"I love you too. So, so much. And I'm sorry, it's just my hormones are making me a wreck." Sam wiped at her eyes again and rested her head against Colt's shoulder. He pushed her hair off her face and looked down at her upside down. He stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes, making Sam laugh. She abruptly stopped laughing. "How did we start going out?" Colt, startled by the question, let his jaw drop slightly. "I um, okay so I was dating that girl Tabitha last summer—"
"Oh god, Tabitha. That girl is crazy."
"Yeah tell me about it. So I was dating her and when school started we were best friends of course,"
"Of course!"
"And she was being really clingy and annoying and shit, so we started hanging out more, and I realized you were way cooler than her and hotter too, so I broke up with her, and asked you out. And you said no."
"I'm sorry! I didn't want to ruin our friendship!" Sam laughed. "Good thing you were persistent."
Colt smiled. "Yeah, good thing. So I kept pestering you until one day, a Tuesday I think it was, on September 4th, I asked you again and you FINALLY gave in and said you would go on a date with me. So I turned on the charm and you loved me from date 1. The being to the best relationship, ever."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Well you're not modest."
Colt grinned. "All part of the charm, baby. You know you love me."
"Yeah, I do. A lot." Sam leaned down so they were forehead-to-forehead. "I'm happy it was you and not some other guy."
"Me too, Sammy. Me too." They kissed.