Disclaimer: Idon't own The Hangover (insert snarky remark here)

AN: Thank you for the reviews! Alright, since its summer my plan is to update a lot more than I have been.

Chapter 13

Doug, Stu, and I were leaving just as Phil's mom walked through the garage door.

"I thought that was your car out front, Sammie."

"Yeah, we were studying for a government test."

"Where's Phil? I brought him In N' Out."

None of us knew how to explain the events of the evening, so Doug just said, "he went for a drive."

"Why? What happened?" Just then Lindsey emerged into the kitchen.

Michelle Wenneck was so elated to see her daughter she completely forgot her youngest child even existed.

"Hey where's Phil?" Stu asked.

"He's not here yet?" I asked Stu who just shook his head.

"He better get here quick because the bell's going to ring any-" Doug was interrupted by the ringing of a bell.

Doug and Stu went to their home room class while I walked over to Hunter who was walking out of the cafeteria.

"Hey, have you seen Phil?"

"No, why?"

"He and Lindsey got in a huge fight last night and I wanted to know if they ever worked it out."

"Yikes. What was their big fight about?"

I hesitated, "me, I guess. Well, sort of."

"You? What do you mean?"

"You remember last night when Lindsey got home and she kind of lashed out at Phil?" Hunter nodded, "well, she's not usually like that. She was pissed off because she had just broken up with her boyfriend who had...cheated on her. Lindsey took out her anger on Phil because he-"

"Cheated on you. With Amber. Yeah, I kind of figured that."

"Yeah, well, he was at a party without me and got drunk and-"

"Sam, Sam, don't defend him. He cheated on you, I will never do that."

"I wasn't defending him and I know you would never do that. God, I thought it was going to be so much harder to tell you that. You made it painless. Thank you."

"No problem," he kissed me on the forehead, "I have to get to class. I'll see you at lunch?" he asked while walking backwards toward the Foreign Language building.

"Yeah, our usual table?" He gave me a thumbs up before turning down the hall.

After school, Hunter came up to me, "hey, do you want to have a movie night at my place, tonight?"

"Sure, I just want to check on Phil." Hunter's face fell. "I just have to make sure he's alright."

"Sam, you aren't dating him anymore, you don't have to make sure he's alright." I don't know what he saw on my features, but whatever it was had him backtracking, "I'm just saying he's a big boy. You don't have to look after him anymore."

"You're right, yeah, but I'm still going to check on Lindsey."

"Sam,-"

"Hunter, I'll call you when I get home, OK?"

He wasn't pleased but he still agreed.

I walked into the Wenneck household to Michelle cackling and talking back to the TV, "I knew it, I knew it. 'You are the father!' Now you actually have to get off your lazy butt and support that poor woman."

"Watching Maury?"

"Oh, Sam, honey. I didn't hear you come in. Yes, you seem to have caught me, Maury is my guilty pleasure."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Don't worry; your secret is safe with me. Is" I paused wondering whether to ask if Lindsey or Phil is home, "Lindsey here?"

"No, she went to meet a few friends at Mike's, but Phil is up in his room if you want to talk to him."

"Thanks, I'll talk to him."

"Alright, talk to you later, Sammie."

I walked up the stairs to Phil's room. I knocked on his door.

"What?"

He sounded tired, "Phil, it's me. Can I come in?"

There was no answer, but I could hear movement and then Phil opened his bedroom door.

"Did I miss anything today?" Phil asked after he laid back down on his bed.

"You mean besides the gov test? No, not really. I think Mr. Cole is fed up with Donovan Stittwell. Today when we were talking about Charles Dickens' use of doubling in A Tale of Two Cities Donovan raised his hand and you know the usual people groaned and made comments, but Mr. Cole said, 'Donovan, you may talk if you can get your point across in 50 words or less.' It was great, you should've seen it."

"Sounds like it was great. Was the government test hard?"

"It was OK; harder than usual, but not bad."

"I guess we didn't do much studying last night, did we?"

"Guess not. Speaking of last night, have you said anything to Lindsey?" Phil got up off his bed and grabbed the little stress ball off his nightstand.

"I haven't talked to her and you know what? I don't plan on it. She was a super-bitch to me last night, why should I have to start the conversation? She had no right to say that shit to me. I realize how bad what I did is. I still feel terrible for it too. If I could take back anything in my life it would be that night. I would have never gone to the party, I would have-"

At that moment it was like he remembered I was sitting at his desk listening to him talk about his biggest regret in life.

He put the stress ball back on his nightstand and sat on the edge of the bed, his back to me.

I should say something to make him feel better, but what? He should feel bad, that's one of the worst things you can do in a relationship. But, he shouldn't still be beating himself up over it. It's been almost seven months and I've moved on. How long has it been? I should say something. It's OK? I forgive you? Let's just-

"I really am sorry, Sammie."

"I know."

"Do you think we can ever get back to the way things used to be? Like before we started dating?"

"Honestly? Probably not."

"Jesus, I fucked up, Sam."

"I guess we could try though. What's preventing us from our love-hate relationship we had up until a year ago?"

"Yeah, we can try. What's preventing us? I guess I have some unspoken words. What about you?"

"I kind of forgive you but...I forgive you, but I can't forget what happened. You know what made it worse? The fact that I had had a crush on you for so long and then finally you asked me out and I was so apprehensive about starting a relationship with you. I didn't want it to fuck up our friendship or cause any issues with Doug or Stu. I said yes anyway because I figured nothing that terrible could happen."

"Guess you were right to be hesitant."

"I got over my anxieties and was really happy. I was happy that was the worst part. I was happy and I thought, I thought what we had was real. That you could be, like, the one. And then you told me you kissed Amber. You did seem to genuinely regret the kiss so I decided it could just be an obstacle that made our relationship stronger. Then Amber told me the rest of the story in math. I was so mad at you. I wanted to hate you, I truly did. But, I couldn't, especially after hearing the phone ring everyday and listen to my mom make up some excuse so I didn't have to talk to you." I stopped talking to gauge Phil's reaction, when he just put his face in his hands I continued, "I really do want us to still be friends, Phil."

Phil got up off his bed and walked around to sit in front of me, "we are friends, Sammie, and I'm not going to do anything to fuck up our friendship." He stood up and pulled me into a hug, "You're my best friend and I love you." He kissed the top of my head. "You haven't even commented on my maturity towards Hunter, you know?"

I laughed, "you have been really mature, I didn't expect it. Thank you." We broke up the hug and I remembered, "oh shit, what time is it?"

"It's ten to five."

"I was supposed to call Hunter a half hour ago and he already wasn't too happy with me coming to see you."

"He's threatened by me? Good."

"There's no competition, Phil. Alright I have to go. You're OK, right?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Bye, Sammie Lynn." I rolled my eyes, "Bye, Philly."

"Hey!"

I ran down the stairs and out the front door shouting a goodbye at Michelle just before the door closed behind me.

From my Jeep I called Hunter, "Hey it's me, sorry I didn't call earlier."

"I figured you were just talking to Lindsey and didn't realize what time it was."

"Yeah, exactly. So is the movie night still on?"

"Yep, but I don't have any good movies so you might have to go to Blockbuster on your way over."

"I'll just come over and we can go to Blockbuster together."

"That works, too. Are you on your way?"

"I'll be there in about ten minutes."

"OK, I'll be here."

"Bye."

"See you in a bit."

I pulled up to the curb outside Hunter's house and walked up to the front door. I rang the door bell since I didn't know his parents as well as Phil's and Stu's.

Hunter answered the door, "Hey, you can just walk right in, you know?" He moved aside to let me in, took my coat and hung it in the hall closet.

"Now, I know. So what's on the agenda?"

"I was thinking we could find something to eat here and then go to Blockbuster and pick out a movie or two and come back here. Basically, just a nice night in."

"Sounds nice. Isn't it supposed to rain later?" Hunter shrugged. "I hope it does; I love staying home and watching movies during a storm."

Hunter and I walked into a little den off the kitchen where he said I could "make myself at home," so naturally I took my shoes off.

We walked into the kitchen and Hunter immediately went to the pantry.

"What would you like to have for dinner?" he asked me while looking at the different shelves for ideas.

"Well, what do you have?" I glanced at the shelves and finally found all the little packets of seasoning.

"How about tacos?" I said pulling out a packet of taco seasoning.

"Sounds good to me, but I better see if we have any meat," Hunter walked over to the fridge, "yeah, we do. Tacos it is."

I pulled a pan out from under the stove and dumped the meat into it.

"Hey, hey, Sam you're the guest, you don't have to cook," Hunter said taking a wooden spoon out of a drawer.

After Hunter got the meat cooking and put chips and salsa out to snack on he asked, "so how was Lindsey?"

"She wasn't there, she went out with friends, but Phil was home so I talked to him."

"What happened?"

"After we broke up we never really talked about what happened so we both had unsaid feelings we had to work through. We talked a little about the government test, too."

Hunter nodded and asked, "what were Phil's unsaid feelings?"

"I talked a lot more than he did, but he apologized again."

"How many times has he apologized?"

"I don't know, probably at least once a month since May. He is sorry, you know?"

"I'm sure he is."

Hunter's mom came home just as we were sitting down to eat. We offered her a plate of food, but she respectfully declined and took Daisy for a walk instead.

After dinner, we washed the dishes and picked up a movie from Blockbuster.

I had one of the most relaxing nights in a long time. It was nice just lounging on the couch next to Hunter not worrying about my grades, my future, or my complicated relationship with Phil.