Chapter Seventeen

The car in front of Lucas' vehicle couldn't have been going any faster than thirty miles per hour and Sami resisted the urge to roll down her window and yell at the driver. But she couldn't do that because it wasn't the old lady's fault she was miserable. That was Brady's fault. If Brady hadn't overheard Lucas and Sami making plans with Jennifer to take Abby and Will on a zoo trip, then she and Lucas would be alone in this car right now. But Brady had overheard the conversation and had promptly announced that he and Nicole were coming with them.

Sami knew she could have told Brady he couldn't come but then she knew Brady would have read too much into it and thought Sami wanted to be alone with Lucas. She didn't want him getting any more suspicious because then he would start acting like more of a stalker than he already was. He had already been following Lucas and Sami everywhere and hadn't given them a moment of piece.

And now he was singing at the top of his lungs, along to some country song he obviously didn't know the words to.

"Yeah, I've got friends in low places. Where the beer drowns and the whiskey chases my blues away. And it'll be okay." Brady bellowed out, not even noticing the way Sami, Lucas and Nicole were all wincing.

"God, be quiet. You're not even singing it right." Lucas slammed his fist against the steering wheel, accidentally beeping the horn in the process. The old lady in front of them slammed on her brakes, causing Lucas to do the same. Sighing, Lucas picked up his bottle of coke, then realized it was now half-empty.

"Who's been drinking this?" Lucas demanded.

"Not me." Nicole said cheerfully, then turned to Brady, "See, I told you it was possible to get high off of nail polish remover."

"You got him high off of nail polish remover?" Sami asked incredulously, "Well, thanks, now we all have to suffer."

"Lucas, I have to go the bathroom." Nicole whined suddenly, shifting uncomfortably.

"Me too!" Brady added, in a voice that made him sound like a little kid.

"We just left twenty minutes ago. Why didn't you go before?" Lucas asked.

"I wouldn't have to go if I hadn't drank your pop. So, it's your fault." Nicole told him.

"I hope you pee your pants." Brady spoke up.

"She better not." Lucas pulled into a gas station and stopped his car, "Okay, both of you get out and hurry up." Sami could tell he was quickly running out of patience and felt another twinge of regret for letting Nicole and Brady come on the trip. She touched Lucas' arm and looked at him apologetically.

"I shouldn't have said they could come." she said, "Maybe once we get to the zoo, the two of us can go off with Will, Abby and Jennifer while Brady and Nicole will go off in another direction."

Lucas leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, "I hope so. I don't know how much more I can take of Brady when he's high."

A few minutes later, Brady and Nicole emerged, carrying food. Nicole had a package of twinkies and Brady had a package of powdered donuts. They got into Lucas' car and Lucas gave Brady a look that threatened bodily harm, "You better not make a mess of my seats with those or you're cleaning this whole car."

Brady took a big bite of the first donut, getting powder all over his sweatpants (which Nicole had picked out for him to wear after getting him high) and all over his face. He ignored Lucas as he continued eating. Nicole set her twinkies down on the seat next to her and stared out the window.

Brady saw what she was looking at and grinned, "Hey, a hitchhiker. Can we pick her up, Lucas? Please?"

"Are you crazy? She could be an insane murderer that wants to kill us all." Sami contradicted Brady.

"Yeah, but she could also be a hooker that wants to get it on with me." obviously the effects of the nail polish remover had still not worn off. Sami watched Brady grab the twinkies and open the package. Nicole didn't even notice.

"We already have enough hookers in this car, Brady. It's bad enough we have to put up with Nicole." Lucas responded.

"Haha." Nicole said sarcastically.

"Oh, come on, don't pass her." Brady complained, "Man, you're stupid. You just missed the chance to pick up a free hooker."

"Hookers aren't free." Lucas eyed Nicole in the review mirror, "Just ask Nicole."

"Shut up." Nicole noticed that her twinkies were missing and let out an enraged squeal, "Who stole my twinkies? They were the only good thing left in my life, who did this to me?"

This caused Lucas to burst out laughing.

"It isn't funny. Stop laughing, Lucas, I will unleash my anger upon you. Hey, you're the one that ate my food, aren't you? You thought you could get revenge on me for drinking your coke, is that it? Oh, you are so going to pay for this."

Sami watched with a mixture of amusement and indignation as Nicole turned rabid on her lover and the father of her child.

"Nicole, ow! I'm trying to drive, you're going to get us into an accident. Someone get her away from me, she's biting me!" Brady pulled Nicole away from Lucas and Lucas rubbed his neck, giving Nicole a dirty look.

"Oh, you're such a baby." Sami said, "She couldn't have bit you that hard." she pulled his hand away from his neck and spotted the two indentations Nicole had made with her teeth.

"You practically broke the skin, Nicole. What were you trying to do, draw blood?" Sami asked, her fingers lightly brushing along the mark.

"Well, now we all know the truth. She's a vampire. At least that gives her an excuse for being so evil." Lucas said, trying to ignore his body's immediate reaction to Sami's light touch. Laughing a little bit, he looked at Sami, "You want to kiss it better, Sami?"

Sami jerked her fingers away from his neck, "In your dreams." she mumbled. Even though he knew it was just for show, her words still hurt. Lucas quickly brushed the hurt aside and leered at her.

"You are, actually." Lucas shot back, enjoying the way she squirmed uncomfortably. Brady mumbled something under his breath, it sounded like he said something about losing a bed. Sami turned to smile innocently at him.

"What was that, Brady? You ate Nicole's twinkies?" Sami lowered her eyes down to the floor of the car, where Nicole's twinkie wrapper lay next to Brady's feet.

Nicole noticed this too and growled at Brady. Before Brady could stop her, she pounced on him and began screaming at him for eating her twinkies.

Now that both Nicole and Brady were distracted, Sami brought her fingers back up to Lucas' neck. When they stopped at a red light, Lucas pulled her hand away from his neck and brought it up to his lips. After pressing a brief kiss into the middle of her opened palm, he silently mouthed the words, 'I love you'. Sami beamed at him and once the light turned green and Lucas was driving again, she leaned over and planted a series of kisses along his neck, momentarily oblivious to that fact that Nicole was still in the backseat with Brady, trying to hospitalise him.

"Does it feel better now?" she asked in a low, throaty voice. Lucas squeezed her hand in response.

"Why didn't you help me get away from Nicole?" Brady demanded after several more minutes had gone by, "Do you realize I now have Nicole's teeth marks in places Nicole's teeth were never meant to be?"

"Do you realize that no one cares?" Lucas snapped, silencing Brady. Brady glared at the back of Lucas' head. Then he began sprinkling leftover sugar from his powdered donuts into Lucas' hair. Lucas was too busy driving to notice and Sami and Nicole just looked at Brady like he was crazy. But he wasn't crazy, just high.

After covering the top of Lucas' dark hair with sugar, Brady broke the silence, "You should really do something about that, Lucas."

"About what?"

"You've got a serious dandruff problem. One that needs professional assistance." Brady added.

Lucas ran his hands through his hair and frowned when he saw how much white stuff came out of his hair, "What the hell happened? I never had this problem before."

"It's sugar, dumbass." Nicole told him, "Brady put it in your hair. If you had a brain, you would have figured that out right away."

"Bite me." Lucas shot back, brushing white powder out of his hair.

"Don't tempt her, Lucas." Brady warned, "She's deadly."

"And if you ever touch my hair again, I am going to kill you!" Lucas roared, taking his empty coke bottle and flinging it behind him. It hit Brady in the side of the head and bounced off his head uselessly.

Sami looked at Lucas sympathetically. She could understand exactly why he was losing it. Brady and Nicole had seemed to make it their unconscious mission to drive both her and Lucas crazy. The powdered sugar had been the last straw for Lucas.

"It's okay, Lucas." Sami said, brushing sugar out of his hair, "Look, we're pulling into the parking lot right now. You're going to be fine." the sugar felt sticky against her hands but she didn't care. When Brady was pretty much following her everywhere, she would jump at any chance to run her fingers through Lucas' hair. Actually, she'd jump at the chance to be able to have any physical contact with Lucas that wouldn't make Brady suspicious.

Lucas found a parking spot near Jennifer's car. Before getting out of the car, Lucas turned around to look at Brady and Nicole.

"You two," he began in a deadly quiet voice, "Are going to find another ride home because there is no way you're coming back in my car."

He got out of the car and spotted Jennifer, Will and Abby standing near the entrance to the zoo. Sami came around to his side of the car and the two of them started towards Will, Abby and Jennifer, not even waiting for Nicole and Brady to catch up.