disclamer:I own nothing.

Chapter 9: Back to Normal?

Breakfast was an awkward event for Reggie that morning as she sat with her father and Otto. Her mind continuously drifted back to the events of last night which caused her to silently curse her stupidity. She glanced over at Otto who seemed to be trying to make a point by refusing to talk to her or even look at her. Reggie heaved a frustrated sigh and broke the silence.

"I talked to Sam last night." Both Otto and Ray jerked their heads up in surprise.

"About time! So is he back on the hockey team?" Otto asked excitedly

"Otto!" Ray said in a disiplining voice. Otto muttered an apology and Ray turned his attention back to Reggie. "So, how'd it go?"

"We're cool now." Reggie said simply, not wanting to get into details.

"Did you talk to him in person or on the phone?"

"I went over to his house and talked to him." she said quietly. Ray opened his mouth to ask another question but was cut off by Otto.

"Awesome! Now that your friends again, we can hang out today. Let's go surfing, I'll call Twist and Sam!" Before Reggie could object, Otto was on the phone dialing Twister's number. Reggie decided it wasn't worth arguing. 'I'll just try to stay with other people. Sam won't want to talk about last night in front of everyone.' she thought to herself and went up to her room to get ready.

Five minutes later she heard pounding fists on her bedroom door. "Hurry up Reg! Sam and Twist are already here." Otto yelled at the door. Reggie follwed him downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs, Sam and Twister were talking to eachother in low voices. When they noticed Reggie, they stopped talking.

"Hey Reg!" Twister greeted enthusiastically. Sam merely smiled awkardly and gave her a small nod. Reggie muttered a barely audible 'hi'. Without wanting to waste another second, Otto raced out the door with surfboard in tow. "Last one to the beach is Shoobie!" he yelled. The others chuckled at his immaturity and followed.

Surprisingy, the awkward silences between Sam and Reggie stopped as soon as they entered the water. If anyone were to look at the four friends, it would seem that all the drama that occured in the past week hadn't happened at all. -
"So Sam, what happened between you and Reggie last night?" Twister asked as he fiddled with his camera. The boys were in Twister's bedroom editing his latest video. They had parted with Reggie and Otto an hour ago because Ray needed them to work at the Shack. Sam looked up from the TV monitor.

"We talked about what happened and made up." He replied, hoping he wouldn't ask for more details.

"Really? 'Cause you two seemed kind of wierd today. Like, you were avoiding talking or even looking at eachother. Did something else happen?" Twist pressed on. Sam cursed his curiosity and observations.'Damn, this guy has grown brains since we were kids!' he thought to himself. Not wanting to make up any more lies Sam decided to just tell him.

"She kissed me." he said simply. Twister looked up at him with an amused expression on his face.

"Oh. That explains a lot. Why'd she do it?"

"I don't know. We were joking around then she became all serious and asked me about my lip ring and just-kissed me." Sam said, embarrased.

"Did you kiss her back?" Twister asked with increasing curiousity

"Yeah." Sam replied trying to avoid his gaze.

"Well..?"

"Well what?"

"Did you...enjoy it?" Twister asked. Sam felt heat rising in his cheeks and gave a shrug. "Sam, it's okay. You can tell me how you feel about it, I won't tell anybody." He said reassuringly.

"It's wierd really, a couple minutes before she kissed me I suddenly saw her in a whole new light, like I had a crush on her or something." Sam admitted. Twister chuckled.

"Twist, I'm being serious here! This isn't something I just made up!" Sam snapped.

"It's not that Sam, its just well...kind of funny." He said, still laughing. Sam gave him a confused/annoyed look. Twister sighed.

"It's like this- Reggie has been crushing on you for a long time now, and you suddenly realize that she could be much more than a friend." He explained.

"Reggie has a crush an me?!" Sam asked, disbelievingly. "How long?"

"A couple years at least. Don't feel bad though, I'm just one of the few people who noticed. Reggie hides it very well actually." Twister explained.

"Who else knows about this?" Sam asked

"I'm pretty sure that Trish and Sherry do." Sam felt a bit overwhelmed.

"What do I do now?" Sam asked

"Well do you 'like' Reggie?" Sam nodded. "Then go talk to her about everything, tell her how you feel, she'll be stoked!" Twister advised. Sam started rushing to the door.

"Thanks for everything Twist! Ya know, you're a lot smarter than you look." Sam yelled

"Good luck Shady!" Twister yelled back.
-
"Hey Rocket girl, Could you take the trash out please?" Ray yelled to Reggie as he served some customers.
Reggie groaned and pulled the heavy trash bag over her shoulder and walked out back to where Ray kept the trashcans. Just as she was about to stuff the bag in the can she heard a voice. "Reggie?"

Reggie spun around and immediatelly blushed when she saw Sam, thankful that the increasing darkness outside would hide it from him. "Hi Sam." Reggie said nervously.

"I thought we should talk about last night." he confessed.

"Oh yeah... well, I owe you an explanation" Sam opened his mouth to say something but Reggie said in a rushed voice-"Sam I'm sorry for kissing you, can we forget it ever happened?" Reggie swore at herself inside her thoughts-the perfect chance to tell Sam how she felt and she blows him off.

"Oh." Sam replied with an unreadible expression on his face.

"I just got caught up in the moment and forgot that we were...just friends" 'Stupid, stupid, stupid!'she scolded herself.

"No, it's okay." Sam said trying not to sound disappointed. "Well, I'll...see ya tommorrow, I guess."

"Yeah, see ya." Reggie said softly to Sam's retreating back. Tears were threatening to pour out of her eyes, again.
-
'Can we forget it ever happened?' Reggie's voice echoed inside Sam's head. The teen walked home in confusion, but it quickly turned into anger. "Twister is so full of shit!" he growled angrily as he stormed into his empty house.

"Didn't it mean anything to her? She was the one who wanted it!" He said to himself as he kicked the living room sofa in fury. "Ouch! Dammit!!" That sofa was a lot harder than it looked. Sam limped into his room and threw himself on his bed.

"I'm such a fuckin' idiot. Why wouldn't Reggie want me after last night? Who am I kidding? She could have anyone she wants. Why would she waste her time on me?" he asked himself as tears flowed out of his eyes. "All I wanna do is fuckin' die."

He trashed his room while looking for his knife. Then he remembered that it had been taken away from him in case he decided to cut again. Sam cursed his stupidity and ran upstairs to the kitchen. He opened a drawyer and took out a small but sharp paring knife and went back downstairs to his room.
-
Reggie sat in the kitchen of the Shack crying her eyes out. 'You had the perfect chance to tell Sam how you felt and you blew it! What the hell is wrong with you? You've liked him for ages and you chicken out!' she thought to herself. Her thoughts were soon interupted by a concerned voice.

"Reggie? What's wrong little cuz?" Tito asked. Reggie quickly wiped her eyes and replied-

"Nothing, Tito. It's just those onions I've been chopping up. They always make me teary." Tito gave her an unconvinced look.

"That has got to be the lamest lie I've ever heard. What's really bothering you"

"Tito, have you ever developed more than freindly feelings for a friend?"

"Yes, I guess have, many years ago." he replied

"Well, I've known this guy for a really long time and we're really close friends. But, a little while ago I started having this crush on him..." Reggie said hesitanly

"Yes, go on." Tito urged

"Long story short, I kissed him."

"Oh." Tito said, surprised. "And how did he react?"

"Okay, I guess-I mean, he didn't pull away. In fact he actually started to kiss me back." Reggie reflected back to the last night, and a dreamy smile formed on her face. "He's a really good kisser..."

"Ugh, no details please!" Tito said, starting to get rather uncomfortable.

"Oh, sorry Tito. Anyway, I made the biggest mistake of my life; I asked him if we could just forget it ever happened." Reggie started to sob again. Tito put a comforting arm around her.

"You know what you have to do don't you?" Tito asked

"What?"

"You have to find this boy and tell him how you truly feel."

"But, what if he doesn't feel the same way? It could ruin our friendship." she questioned

"So what, at least you'll have honest. One shouldn't walk around with such heavy secrets on their backs, Reggie. Besides, I wouldn't worry about your friendship being ruined, Sam's always been an understanding person."

"What? How did you know it was Sam?" Reggie asked, stunned.

"Oh come on Reg! It's obvious that you're crushing on him. In fact, I'm surprised that he hasn't already figured it out." Tito replied.

"Am I really that obvious?" Reggie asked nervously. Tito laughed.

"Get out of here! Go find Sam. I can finish up around here for you."

Reggie shouted a thanks as she rushed out the back door and towards Sam's house.
-
Flashes of bad memories and nightmares danced through Sam's head: Starting the first grade with a black eye...his father's screaming face...the many bandaids that decorated his body...his mother's tears...Otto's taunts...beefing it on his skateboard...Reggie's voice...Reggie's lips. He was so caught up in cursing at his painful memeories that he did not even notice the blood running down his arm, or the tapping at the window.

"Sammy!!" a frantic voice called out. Sam turned around to see the tear-stained face of Reggie Rocket in his window. Sam quickly threw down the knife and raced to the window, trying to hide the open wound. He opened the window and Reggie slid down.

"Sam, we gotta talk." Reggie said a bit breathlessly. Sam crossed his arms over his chest to hide the bleeding, thankful that she had not seen his cut and that he had chosen to wear a black shirt that day.

"We already talked." Sam said in a harsh voice, for some reason he felt really pissed off at her at the moment.

"No Sam, we didn't." Reggie said, not at all taken back by Sam's tone. "I lied to you when I said that kiss meant nothing. That kiss meant everything to me. I have had feelings for you for so long." She admitted. Sam's mouth dropped in shock. "I'm not asking you to return my feelings, I just thought you should know, I can't keep lying to you, I just can't."

"Reg, stop feeding me this bullshit." Sam said softly.

"What?" Reggie asked, confused.

"How do I know that you really like me as more than a friend, huh? One minute I think you want me and the next you're totally avoiding me! Make up your mind already! In fact I'll help you. You don't have romantic feelings for me!" Reggie opened her mouth to say something but Sam kept talking."You only think you do because I almost died! It's sympathy Reg! That's all it is!"

"For your information Sam Dullard, I have felt this way about you since we were kids!" Reggie defended.

"What?" Sam asked, stunned.

"I've have liked you before you became "Shady", before you turned into a great skater, before you joined the cross coutry team, and before you turned goth!" she snapped. Sam looked stunned.

"I'm sorry I've ever judged you, Reggie." Sam apologized. "However, I prefer to be labeled as a "unique-individual-with-a-fondness-for-black-clothes" rather than "goth"." he joked. Reggie let a small chuckle escape her lips. "And I gotta admit, I lied to you to about the kiss too. I really liked it."

"Really?" she asked.

"Reg, you are the most amazing girl I've ever met. And I could kick myself for not realizing that until now." Sam admitted, feeling extremely sappy. "Damn, that sounded really corny." Reggie laughed.

"Yeah, we do kinda sound like a soap opera don't we?" she giggled. Sam uncrossed his arms and immediatly regretted it.

"Sam!" Reggie gasped, staring at his bloody wrist. Instead of bursting into tears like he expected her to, Reggie's face softended as she took hold of his wounded arm and gently placed a tissue on top of the cut. She remained silent as she soaked up the blood with the tissue.

"Ya' know Sam, you can't keep dealing with your problems like this. You need to talk to somebody." Reggie said, breaking the silence.

"You're right." Sam sighed. "I need help, Reg." he admitted.

"I can help." Reggie said softly, bringing her face closer to Sam's. Their lips met for the second time in their lives, more gently than the first.

"I know you can help me Reg, but that might not be enough." Sam said after their lips seperated.

"What?"

"The doctors suggested that I go to a pyschiatric hospital for teens dealing with the same stuff as me. I didn't think it would be necessary but after my little relapse ten minutes ago, I think it would be what's best for me." Sam admitted.

"That's very brave of you. Denial is the hardest obstacle to overcome." Reggie placed a kiss on Sam's cheek.

"Admitting it is the first step." Sam joked.

"What about us, Sam?" Reggie asked. Sam looked around his room until his eyes feel upon his trusty hockey stick. He picked it up and gave it to Reggie. Reggie looked at it with confusion.

"What's this for?" she asked.

"It's for beating off all those guys who are gonna try to ask you out! You tell them you're taken!" Sam explained. Reggie burst out laughing.

"Seriously though, this place lets family and friends visit on the weekends. It's only a half hour away."

"I'm gonna miss you." Reggie said sadly.

"I'm not gone yet" Sam said, brushing his lips against hers.
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A/N: Sorry for not posting for 4 months. I've just been really busy with school. I hope this chapter makes up for the wait, despite it's fluffiness. Thank you to everyone who reviewed this story! And Happy Holidays!
anyesfire: sorry, I have really bad grammar skills.

Otto & Reggie's Mom: What the hell!!?

Next chapter: Sam arrives at his "new home".