"Nothing interesting happened," Sam huffed the week after that, as he sat by my side and watched me reel in some seaweed.
"Dang, really?" I sympathized.
"I managed to get them alone, and even playing a game of pool together," said Sam. "But they were almost dead silent the whole time! Abigail spoke up from time to time, but Sebastian just gave her one or two-worded answers."
I laughed and said "Wow, what a ladies' man."
"Seriously," Sam agreed. "…She kicked his ass at pool, by the way."
"Wow," I said. I then cast my line. "…I know how Sebastian is, but… have you ever talked to him about this? Had an honest bro talk about feelings for a girl?"
"I'm afraid to try at this rate," said Sam. "I feel like he'd just deny it."
"No pressure, but it may be a good thing to try," I shrugged. "He trusts you, right? Maybe if you're upfront and understanding, he may decide to confide it in you."
"Maybe…" said Sam. "I'll think about it."
"Alright," I nodded, feeling a tug on my line.
The next few minutes were silent. I reeled in an anchovy and cast my line again in that time.
As my line fell to the water, though, I thought I noticed a weird flash of yellow out of the corner of my eye. I passed it off as being Sam's hair (how did he get it that color, anyway?), but… his hair wasn't long enough for me to have seen that yellow in that exact spot…
As to avoid rousing suspicion, I turned my head to the right just enough so that I could quickly dart my eyes over to where I thought I'd seen it, which ended up being Sam's shoulder. Now that I knew what I'd seen, I felt comfortable shifting my entire gaze over to it.
It was a small butterfly, like a monarch, but yellow where a monarch would be orange. I was no entomologist, but I wondered how young the little thing was. It gave off this air of naivete and curiosity, as if it'd just now gotten its wings and was off to explore the world. I actually wanted to find its eyes, to see if it was giving off any sort of identifiable expression.
At that moment, though, Sam noticed I was staring.
"W-What's up?" he asked.
"Don't move too much," I insisted. "There's a butterfly on your shoulder."
"Oh," he said.
He tried to crane his head over as slowly as he could, until he finally got it to a point where he could see the butterfly. The butterfly, almost seeming to be glad it could make some friends, sat calmly even as Sam moved.
"Would you look at that?" he marveled.
"Isn't it cute?" I smiled, finding its eyes.
To my surprise… I'm not sure if it was the way the light reflected off of them or what, but the butterfly's eyes did have a friendly, curious expression about them.
Almost as if it remembered it had an appointment or something, though, it flew off at that moment. Sam and I both turned around to watch it go; it flew toward town. I silently wished it the best of luck in enjoying all the flowers the town had to offer.
As soon as I turned my head back out to the sea, I noticed Sam was looking at his phone.
"I gotta go," he sighed.
"Dang," I said without thinking. "Well, have a good rest of your day."
"You too," he said, standing up. "I'll see you around."
"Yup," I nodded.
Author's note: Sorry if this one seemed a bit empty; my next idea will be better as its own chapter.