Oh my gosh, I never meant to take such a long break from this story! I apologize profusely you guys. I got a visit from that pesky ole' writer's block and you know how it is when he visits. It's like a relative that won't leave. Lol. Anyways, I apologize and hope that you all will forgive me.

Chapter Five

Fresh out of the shower and dressed in a pair of comfortable jeans and a long sleeved pink T-shirt, I was feeling considerably better. It felt good to be out of those very formfitting clothes and have a little coverage, not to mention breathing room.

As I ran a brush through my hair to get out all of the tangles from the previous night, there was a knock on my door. Quickly, I pulled my hair up into a ponytail and went to answer the door.

"Hey," I greeted Troy with a smile.

"You look better." He smirked, looking me up and down. I felt my face grow hot under his gaze.

"I feel better." I replied. He smiled and nodded.

"I bet."

We stood in silence for awhile, me leaning against the open door, him standing in the doorway with his hands jammed in the pockets of his khakis.

"So…" I said, trying to break the slightly uncomfortable silence.

"Yeah um…" he rubbed the back of his head, "I was wondering if you would like a tour of New York. You know, get the official tour of all the places us natives hang at."

"That sounds great." I smiled, "Just let me get a few things and I'll meet you in the lobby."

"Okay."


The sun was warm, the city was alive, and I was one of the happiest girls on earth, being shown New York by a true Manhattanite.

Already we had visited China Town, where we ate a lunch of pan-fried noodles and something that I couldn't quite identify, but it was good. Imagine my surprise when Troy wouldn't let me so much as pay for the drinks we had. I mean, what a gentleman. He even opened the door to the restaurant for me! And we had seen just about every other weird little place that only those native to the city knew about.

The day was winding down and I still hadn't asked Troy the question that had been on my mind since I woke up that morning.

We were sitting in Washington Square Park, watching the people that were gathered around the chess tables, and munching on a soft pretzel we had gotten from a street vender.

"You're awfully quiet." Troy said, his hand brushing against mine as he took a piece off the pretzel I held. A surge of warmth flooded my body at his touch and I smiled at him coyly.

"I'm not really a very talkative person." I responded. He shot me a look that told me he knew I was lying.

"I have known you not even twenty-four hours and I know already that you are not a quiet person." He teased. "So, what's on your mind?" I sighed, I guess I had to ask him.

"I was just thinking," I said, leaning back against the bench and crossing my feet in front of me. "Why are you friends with those guys?" He looked at me with a kinda blank expression. "You know, the skater guys that were in Central Park yesterday, the ones that were chasing me."

"Oh, you mean Kyle and all them." He looked at the chess tables for a second, biting his lip. It was kinda cute the way he did that.

"I don't know," he said after a moment of silence, "I guess because we were friends way back in elementary school and always been interested in the same things and stuff. I don't really agree with everything they do, but we've all been through a lot together." He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "If it helps any, I don't really hang out with them as much as I used to. We just get together every once in awhile to skate and hang out."

"It helps," I said smiling at him. He smiled back.


Laughing so hard that we could barely breathe, Troy and I stumbled into the empty lobby of the hotel.

"Did you see the hat she was wearing?" I gasped between laughs.

"I know, it's like she was a giant ostrich." Troy laughed. I shook my head and tried to stop laughing. I really needed to breathe. Pulling in a large gulp of air, I slowly calmed down and wiped the tears from my eyes.

"Oh my god," I said, my laughing finally under control, "I haven't laughed that hard in like…a long time."

"Well I'm glad I could be of service." Troy grinned. I rolled my eyes at him and he crossed his eyes in response, causing the two of us to break out in giggles again.

"What's so funny out here?" A tall, slim woman in her late twenties walked into the lobby. She had golden blonde hair, long slim legs, deep blue eyes, and a body that would make a model jealous. Her lips were upturned in a pleasant smile and I felt at ease in her presence.

"Sam and I were just discussing some of the um…sites we saw today." Troy said to the woman.

"Oh, so this is Sam." The way she said my name was kinda funny, not to mention how she looked me over. She'd obviously heard something about me, and I wanted to know what.

"Um Sam, this is my sister Lisa." Troy's face had reddened slightly and he was rubbing a hand across the back of his neck and shifting from one foot to the other.

"It's nice to meet you." I said to Lisa, holding out my hand. She took it in one of her slim, manicured ones and we shook.

"Nice to meet you too Sam, Troy has told me quite a bit about you." She smiled. I looked at Troy, his face was quickly turning into a tomato. So, he'd told his sister about me, did that mean that he liked me? Now I'm not conceited or arrogant or anything like that, but when a guy talks about you to his sister doesn't that mean he usually likes you?

My heart kinda did a little back flip right then and I felt my own face redden.

"Oh, he has?" I said, finding my shoes suddenly very fascinating. Lisa gave a light laugh.

"I can see I'm embarrassing you both." She said, "So I'll just go back into my office and let you two alone." The sound of her stilettos was muffled by the thick carpeting that covered the floor as she made her way back into her office.

Troy and I stood in silence, neither of us looking at the other.

"So," I said, my voice echoing in then silence, "what'd you tell your sister about me?"

"Nothing." Troy said quickly. I gave him a look.

Mom always said that I was one of those rare people that whenever they looked you straight in the eye you just had to tell them the truth. She said she hated whenever she lied to me, because I would just fix her with one of those stares and she would have to tell me the truth.

"Alright," he said, looking down at his feet and watching them trace patterns in the rug. "Alright, so maybe I told her that I thought you were…you know, pretty, and funny, and that you weren't too bad at kissing." I blushed. Wouldn't you if a guy, a drop dead gorgeous guy, said that you were a good kisser and that he thought you were pretty? Hell yeah.

"You're not that bad of a kisser either," I said with a teasing smile, "And you're not too hard on the eyes." I couldn't believe it, I was flirting! I mean, I like never flirted. I've always been one of those girls that hung out more with the guys than the girls, so what use did I have for flirting? But here I was, my head cocked to the side, eyeing the guy I liked with one of those vixenish (he he, I made up a new word) kinda stares, and telling him that I thought he was cute. I must have lost my mind!

"Oh really?" He looked at me and winked. I shook my head and laughed.

"Yeah really," I said, "just don't get a big head over it."

"I make no guarantees." he smirked. I slapped his arm playfully.

"Hey!" he cried.

"Oh come on that didn't hurt."

"Maybe it did." he pouted, sticking his bottom lip out far. I can't tell you how kissable he looked right then with that pitiful puppy dog look on his face.

"You're such a baby." I rolled my eyes.

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are…wait a sec, this is so stupid." I shook my head. I hadn't gotten into an "Am Not, Are Too" fight since fifth grade.

"I'll stop if you admit that I'm not a baby." Troy said.

"What? That's retarded. I am not going to agree with you just to stop this stupid little 'fight'" I argued.

"Oh you won't huh?" He got an evil glint in his eye. I knew that look. I had seen it all too many times on my friends back home. That was the I'm-gonna-pick-you-up-and-throw-you-in-the-pool look. Except there was no pool around here and, unlike in those cases, I did want him to pick me up.

"Oh no you don't," I took a few steps away from him as he slowly advanced, "you're not gonna get me."

"I beg to differ on that point." he said.

"You do, do you?"

"Yes I do." And with that he launched himself at me, tackling me to the ground, and tickling, yes tickling, me. I screamed with laughter as his fingers caught my most ticklish spot on my stomach. Troy had straddled my waist then, keeping me pinned to the floor as his hands snaked up under my shirt to better reach the ticklish skin. And then it caught me. Here was a damn gorgeous guy straddling me, with his hands up my shirt. I immediately stopped laughing. The same thing seemed to have occurred to Troy as he stopped laughing as soon as I did. We just stayed there, me laying on the floor, him bending over me, our eyes locked in an intense stare. I didn't know what was gonna happen. I mean I kinda knew, like since this is one of the big kiss scenes that happens in movies and stuff, but I didn't know if that was gonna happen to me or not.

I guess it was, because before I knew it, his lips were inches from my own, then they were directly on top of mine. His lips were just as soft as I remembered and I moaned lightly beneath the pressure they placed on my mouth. There was no denying his experience. This guy must have been a kissing god. I was melting under his touch, completely paralyzed. His hands moved across my stomach as our lips moved against each other, and my own hands had somehow found their way to Troy's sculpted back. I was becoming dizzy as his hands slid further up my stomach, stopping just below my bra. I knew he wouldn't push unless I wanted him to. I'm not into premarital sex, but for him, I would have gladly compromised my morals.

That thought brought me crashing back to earth. The euphoria that I had been experiencing came to a crashing halt, and I pushed Troy away gently. His eyes flew open and he stared at me guiltily.

"Sam I didn'…I mean I didn't mean for this…I didn't know this was gonna…I'm sorry." He stuttered as he stood up quickly.

"Sorry for what?" I looked at him quizzically. "I wanted you to kiss me." His body relaxed and sighed in relief.

"Thank god," he muttered, "I want you to know that I would never push you to do something that you didn't want to do." I smiled at him sweetly and he offered his hand to help me up off the floor.

"I know." I said. He smiled and gave me another charmingly teasing smile.

"So does this mean you might wanna go out to dinner with me sometime?"

I placed my index finger on my chin and pretended to think.

"I don't know," I said, "I might need a little more incentive." He grinned and leaned down to capture my lips once more.


So I realize that the relationship between Sam and Troy is happening kinda fast, but the first few chapters are gonna be kind of a quicker pace so that I can move more swiftly into the main part of the story. Also, I've noticed that I'm turning this into a soap opera kinda story. I apologize for that. It will be fixed as the story gets more involved.I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter and will review and, once again, I apologize for how long it took me to review.

shaterika: You gave me so many reviews, all of them indepth about this story, and for that I thank you. I like it when people can give me real criticism as it helps me to improve upon my work I am very happy to see that Madison will be returning for a short while as I am very curious to see what has happened with her and Ephram's child. I must admit that it was the trailers for next week's episode that prompted me to update this story. I agree that the skater dudes cheering Troy on was a bit over the top, I apologize for that. Things in later chapters won't be so melodramatic, you have my word. The rest of Everwood'scast will be making appereances later on in this story. Samantha will soon make a trip out to Everwood and you will see how life has changed there. It's funny that you should mention the fact that when you imagine Troy you picture Jesse McCartney. He, or rather his character Bradin on Summerland, was the person who prompted Troy's character. I also want to thank you for sticking up for me against Borg (the person who keeps flaming this story), it was very nice of you. So, once again, thank you for sending me many long and critical reviews and thank you for sticking around to continue reading this story.

auggy1984: Madison just might be making another appereance in this story. I still have to decide whether or not I want her to return and how I want her to return. Thank you for reviewing and I hope that you will continue to read this story.

colorado2 and sportygal71188: Thank you both very much for reviewing this story. It means a lot that people would take the time to read and review this.