Chapter 19
The next day, Bradin woke up to see everyone in his room, including Colby, waiting for him to wake up.
"Whoa, what's goin' on?" He asked, rubbing his eyes, still half asleep.
Jay rushed over to Bradin's side, grinning like a fool. "Ava told us you and Sam exchanged some, 'special' words with each other?" He nudged Bradin with his elbow, still smiling at him.
"So, did you really?" Nikki asked excitedly. "Like, you really told her…" She said, biting her lip in anticipation.
Derrick looked around the room, confused. "What did he say?" He asked.
"We didn't want to spoil it for them," Susannah said. "So we waited for you to tell them." She beamed.
"Tell us what?" Derrick asked, still not sure what they talking about.
Jay and Nikki looked at Bradin, waiting for an answer while Derrick stood there in complete confusion.
Bradin sat up in his bed, starting to smile to himself just at the thought of Sam. "I, um," He began to say, then cleared his throat and looked up. "Last night, I told Sam that I love her." He told them. Jay clapped his hand and gave Bradin a slap of the hand and a big hug. Nikki jumped with excitement, then rushed over to hug Bradin.
"Ooh, I've been waiting for this, I'm so happy Bradin!" Nikki exclaimed.
While Jay, Nikki, Ava and Susannah shared Bradin's happiness, Derrick stood there, shocked. "You told her what?" He said in such a voice as if he'd just committed a crime. Everyone stopped to turn to Derrick.
"You told her you love her?" He said. Bradin looked at Derrick, trying to see what was so wrong. But before Bradin could think anymore on the subject, Derrick jumped on his bed and gave him a hug, making everyone laugh.
"Man, it's about time!" Derrick gasped, laughing as Bradin messed up his hair.
"We're all happy for Bradin." Ava said, standing next to Susannah.
Bradin smiled and looked around the room at all of them. "Thanks guys." He replied.
Later in the day, Bradin called Sam, just to hear her voice. They talked for a while, until Sam had to do some errands with Matt. But they agreed to go out that night to dinner. Some time after Bradin hung up the phone, he heard someone knocking on his door from their patio outside. He saw it was Lucas, and let him in his room.
"Hey man." He said, letting Lucas come in. "Thanks so much for setting up the site last night Lucas." Bradin thanked him. "It was awesome." He said, slapping Lucas's hand.
"No problem man." He replied. "So?" He asked. "What happened last night?" He asked, wanting a full report of the events of the night. And sure enough Bradin was happy to tell him, leaving out one major aspect of the night.
"But did you tell her?" Lucas asked curiously.
"Tell her what?" Bradin asked, already knowing what Lucas was talking about.
Lucas rolled his eyes. "Dude, you know what I'm talking about. Did you tell her you…?" He asked, not having to finish the sentence since Bradin was already smiling.
"Yeah, I did." Bradin told him.
Lucas let out a big breath, smiling. "Finally man." He said, slapping Bradin's hand once more. They talked a bit more about it, how Bradin felt about telling Sam he loves her. It was easy for Bradin to talk about Sam to anyone, and he liked doing just that.
Later that night, Bradin drove over to Sam's house to pick her up. Sam heard him pull up, and quickly got her things together and made it down to the door just after Bradin rung their doorbell.
"Hey." She said, smiling, as she opened the door to see Bradin standing there and let him in.
"Hey Sam." He replied. He could see Maka and Matt walking up behind Sam. "Hey Mr. K. Wassup Matt." He said, shaking both of their hands.
Maka smiled at Sam, then turned to Bradin. "We hear that last night was quite a one month anniversary for the both of you." He said to Bradin.
"Dad." Sam said, her cheeks turning pink.
"Well, we just want to say we're very happy for the two of you." Maka said.
Matt nodded. "Yeah man, you've got a lucky girl with you." He smiled, slapping Bradin's hand.
Bradin looked at Sam and smiled. "Yeah, I do." He said, receiving a smile from Sam.
"Well, we better get going." Sam said, and kissed her brother and dad goodbye, and both Sam and Bradin headed out to dinner.
Even though they both had said 'I love you' to one another the previous night, nothing was that different between them. They didn't act any different than they had the night before. Saying 'I love you' seemed to be a big step in a couple's relationship, but to Sam and Bradin, it seemed as if they'd already said 'I love you' before, just non-verbally, through their talks, smiles, holding of hands, and just being together.
After dinner, Bradin and Sam went to a park and walked around it for a while, walking slowly with each other, hand in hand. With only the lamps guiding their way around the park, it was a perfectly romantic moment they shared, just as romantic as the night before.
Bradin and Sam spent the next days together as much as possible, since the following week they'd go back to school, and there wouldn't be much time to spend together. On Saturday, Matt headed back to school, but was returning two weeks later to help his dad out with a big session down at the radio station.
Monday morning was a bright and sunny day. Sam got on the school bus when it arrived at the bus stop, a little excited to get back to school, yet still disappointed her vacation was over. To her surprise, she saw Bradin walk on the bus, heading towards her.
"Hey." He said, sitting down next to Sam, then kissed her.
Sam smiled. "Hey to you too. How come you're catching the bus?" She asked him.
Bradin shrugged. "I don't know." He told her. "I guess I just wanted to start off my morning with you." He told her, making her smile. She propped her knees up on the seat in front of her, and leaned her head on his shoulder, taking his hand in hers.
Nikki watched them from the seat across from them. "Aww, aren't they cute?" She asked Cameron who was sitting next to her. "They said "I love you" to each other." She gushed quietly to Cameron.
Cameron's eyes grew. "Really?" He asked in shock, looking past Nikki at Sam and Bradin. "Hmm, I guess it makes sense. They seem pretty content with each other." He commented.
Even on their first day back to school, Coach Bedolla still called surf practice for that afternoon. He gathered the team up as usual, telling them that even though they just got back to school, he wouldn't be cutting them any slack. There was still that big competition coming up soon.
"But before I let you go, I think Robert and Sam would like to see this." He said, reaching into a box behind him. He pulled out two Surf Style magazines and tossed one to Sam and Robert. They both gasped, seeing a picture of the both of them on the front cover.
"Whoa!" Daniel exclaimed, looking over Robert's shoulder. Other members of the team stared at it in shock.
"I thought you'd like that." Coach Bedolla smirked. "Here guys." He said, handing more to other members of the team.
Sam and Robert looked quickly through the pages to find the ones that had their interviews on it.
"Here, page 22!" Sam said loudly, as Robert quickly turned to page 22. They both read the interviews to themselves, while other members of the team read it out loud.
" '…Never have we seen such persistence and talent from these two young rising stars.' " Sean read from his issue.
" 'I just grabbed a board, went out in the water, and I was hooked.' " said Tracey, reading a part of Robert's interview.
Bradin turned to page to see photos of both Robert and Sam. "This is amazing." He said to Sam.
Sam looked up at him. "Thanks. I can't believe we're actually in this." She looked to Robert and slapped his hand.
"We do look pretty good, don't we." Robert grinned, looking at pictures of himself.
With all this excitement from the magazine, the team barely remembered that they still had practice. Slowly, they took their copies of the magazine and put it with their things, getting ready to head out into the water. Bradin was about to walk off when Coach Bedolla called to him.
"How are you gonna practice without a wetsuit Westerly?" He asked him, half grinning.
Bradin, completely confused just stared at his coach. "But Coach, I'm suspended, remember?"
"Well, not anymore." He said calmly. "I've decided it's time you get back in the water." He half smiled.
Bradin and Lucas exchanged surprised looks. "Are you serious?" He asked.
"Let's just say I had a very merry Christmas." Coach Bedolla smirked. Tracey and Sean cracked up laughing, as Bradin slapped his coach's hand.
"Thanks Coach." He replied, and hurried off to get changed.
Sam paddled out into the water, and sat up on her board. She was waiting for the right wave to start off her practice when she saw Bradin paddling out.
"What, what are you doin' out here?" She asked him, surprised and confused.
He smiled. "Coach is letting me back on the team." He beamed. Sam, excited to hear the news gave Bradin a kiss, tasting the salt on his lips.
"Ugh, can't you save that for later?" They heard a voice say, and sure enough it was Sean, pretending to throw up. Sam and Bradin laughed it off, and together, they started catching some waves.
The first week back to school was amazing, better than anything Bradin could've thought of. He and Sam were having the time of their lives, Bradin was back on the surf team, and he doing better with his school work. As far as he could tell, things were really shaping up. After all his hard work of trying to turn over a new leaf, things were turning out for the best.