Chapter 5: Double Date
The night was crisp and clear, the sky bright with stars, and the mood remarkably festive as they came out of the restaurant. Myles automatically took the lead and led them across Constitution Avenue, heading for a familiar park. There were benches there that he knew of, where they could sit and talk for a while. Part of him knew that with Sam there, it was wishful thinking, but he was going to try for it nonetheless.
"Oh," breathed Elizabeth as they neared a long, narrow pool. The Washington Monument was brightly reflected in the water.
She was about to comment further when Sam dashed forward, dragging Tara along behind him. Her friend was laughing as Sam shouted, "C'mon! Let's pitch pennies!"
"Sam!" Myles stopped as Elizabeth put a hand on his arm.
"Remember...sometimes it's okay to be seventeen again." She smiled mischievously. "Bet I can pitch one further up the reflection than you can."
She watched as he considered that; then she could almost see his mind shift into the past. His face softened; he raised an eyebrow at her, and retorted, "Want to bet? Hey, Sam! Can I have a penny?"
Sam stopped short, and patted his pockets; "Uh...do you have any? I wonder if that vendor has change for a twenty..."
It took two vendors and a nearby shop to come up with twenty dollars worth of pennies, but soon they were all armed. Myles had offered to carry Elizabeth's pennies for her, risking getting a "Hold these, too," request from Sam, but was surprised to find Sam awkwardly following his lead and offering to carry Tara's. For a few moments, he was silent as they walked, attempting to balance ten rolls of pennies in each hand. Then with a frustrated sigh, took off in the other direction.
The two ladies paused alongside Myles, watching Sam's hasty retreat. He disappeared around the bend; Myles and Elizabeth exchanged confused glances.
Tara kept her eyes on the corner a moment longer and then spoke with a forced lightness. "I'm not sure what I should be more upset about; the fact that I was just dumped without a word, or the fact that he still has my pennies."
They stood a moment longer, waiting for something to happen or someone to say something. Myles was ready to turn and go when Sam came tearing back around the corner, a paper bag clutched firmly in one hand. He swung it in the air to signal them needlessly, and the weighted bottom of the bag moved in a pendulum motion to knock him in the head. He looked shocked for a moment, lowered the bag to stare at it, blinked once or twice, and then continued towards them.
"We thought we'd lost you." Elizabeth informed him, with overdone graveness, as he rejoined the group.
"I would have found a map." Sam answered her easily, his calm and suddenly serious face making it very hard to tell whether or not he was joking.
"Next time, say something before you run off." Myles chastened his erratic twin, nodding meaningfully in Tara's direction.
Sam followed Myles' motion, and his eyes widened. "Oh...sure. Sorry 'bout that." A smile suddenly blossomed on his face, and he bowed gallantly to Tara. "I just couldn't think of any other way to hold both the pennies and the lovely 'Lady MarioKart's' hand."
Tara smiled back, and dropped into a curtsey. "That is the nicest compliment I have ever been paid. You, kind sir, are forgiven."
Elizabeth laughed as Myles rolled his eyes. "You see," she said sweetly to Tara, "the Leland men are silver-tongued all around."
"Some of them," Tara replied playfully, with a clipped look at Myles, "just haven't kept theirs as well-polished." As if to further prove her point, she extended a hand and Sam took it, leading her down the path towards the pond.
"That," Myles replied, a little less stiffly than he normally would, "Was unnecessary."
"Oh, come on, you," Elizabeth laughed, grabbing his hand. "We've got pennies to pitch."
-!-
-!-
It took a couple of hours to determine that about two-thirds of the way up the reflection of the Washington Monument was as far as a penny could be pitched, but they gave it their all. After the first hour, Tara and Elizabeth gave up and stood on the sidelines, keeping track of where each shot landed, and cheering on their respective dates like high school cheerleaders. It was a marvelously silly evening, and even Myles was fully into it.
They weren't ready to end the evening after that, so some discussion ensued, and it was decided (with much cheering from Sam) to rent a movie. The difficulty of movie choice itself, however, presented itself in full assault as they entered the rental store.
Myles, usually much more reserved and thoughtful, had been loosened up by the session with the pennies, and was ready to back Sam up on the choice of a cult-classic. Tara was not hard to sway in the least, and Elizabeth not far behind.
It took a good fifteen minutes to decide, even after the genre had been selected; in the end, they walked out with Sam proudly clutching a copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Tara was giggling. "Well, they won't need pennies for awhile."
Back at the house, a large quantity of microwave popcorn was prepared, and they settled in — Myles and Elizabeth, predictably, on the sofa, and Sam and Tara lying on the floor. The opening lines came from Myles' state-of-the-art speaker system — accompanied by Sam. Word for word, syllable for syllable.
"Sam! Shh!" Myles snatched a piece of popcorn, the nearest throwable object, and flung it at Sam's head. Sam threw the popcorn back, hitting Elizabeth squarely in the forehead.
"Excuse me," she said with a grin, picking up the popcorn and popping it in her mouth. "But thank you for returning it."
Sam shrugged, and turned back around to face the screen. He was mostly quiet for awhile, occasionally leaning over to Tara and whispering the dialogue to make her laugh. It wasn't until they had reached the famous Black Knight scene that Sam forgot himself, and began quoting out loud again. The deep and foreboding "None shall pass," mixed with Sam's higher warning of the same words, earned him another piece of popcorn in the back of the head.
"I said to be quiet!"
"None shall pass!"
"Sam..."
"None shall pass!"
"Oh, that's it." Myles growled, throwing a generous handful of popcorn at Sam.
Sam sat up, and scooped up popcorn to throw back at him, catching Elizabeth in the barrage.
"Hey!" She laughed, getting to her feet. Then she turned to Myles, her hands on her hips. "Isn't there something in the Knight's Code about defending his lady's honor?"
He grinned. "You're absolutely right. But I could use your help."
"Oh, you've got it." She grabbed a double handful of popcorn and flung it back at Sam.
Sam jumped back, yelping. "Tara, help!"
Tara stood up, shaking popcorn out of her curls. "Already there, Sir Sam."
Another flurry of white flew toward Myles, who jumped up on the sofa yelling, "It's just a flesh wound! I'm invincible!"
Sam looked at him for a moment, utterly shocked. Then a monstrous grin spread across his face, and he wielded an imaginary sword. "You're a loony. Come, Patsy." He and Tara proceeded to shower the other couple with popcorn, then ducked behind a nearby chair.
"Oh, oh, I see, running away then." Myles had a "sword" now as well. "Come back here...I'll bite your legs off!"
Elizabeth was on the floor, desperately trying to both catch her breath from laughing and defend their stronghold with repeated barrages.
The movie was forgotten amidst a blizzard of popcorn and laughter.
-!-
-!-
"You never do anything halfway, do you?" Elizabeth snuggled against Myles as they said goodnight in the entry. Sam had walked Tara out to her car, and they had a few minutes before the ladies would drive home, Tara dropping Elizabeth off.
He let his breath out in a laugh. "I suppose not. I haven't had an evening like this since college."
She looked up at him, eyes twinkling. "And you enjoyed every second of it."
Myles took her face in his hands and kissed her. "Every second. Thank you for suggesting it."
"You're quite welcome. Call me tomorrow?"
"I will. Good night, sweetheart."
"Good night, Myles." She stepped out the door, and Myles watched her bid Sam good night and get into the car.
His twin stood in the walkway for a minute, watching the car drive away; then he sauntered back into the house, grinning. "You get a kiss?" He smirked.
Myles gave it right back to him. "Yes. You?"
Sam shrugged. "First date – I got a hug. S'ok, though. She said she'd like to go out again sometime." He wandered over to the kitchen area and perched himself on a barstool, surveying his brother with a strange smile.
"What?" Myles asked.
Sam's face was thoughtful. "That was fun...tonight, I mean. I wish you were like that more often."
Myles sat down on the other barstool, and sighed. "It was fun. But I can't be like that all the time, Sam. I had to grow up, eventually."
The smile faded from his twin's face. "All children grow up, except one..." Sam muttered under his breath, and spun on the stool.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing..." Sam's voice fluctuated oddly as he continued to spin, but the words were clear. "I just...well, I wish you could be like that when we're together, at least. I don't like it when you're all stuffy and grown-up. You weren't always like that, you know. I remember when you were...nicer. Not as cold."
Myles had to double take at that, and was grateful that Sam was too busy twirling to see his shocked expression. Strange…as sure as he was that cold was a word many people would use in reference to him, from Sam it hurt— a lot. Mentally recapping the past years as fast as he could, he tried to see where exactly his twin had started seeing the adult in Myles as cruel.
"Well..." Myles was grasping for excuses, and finding none. His frustration came out before he could stop it. "Maybe if you weren't so childish and annoying all the time..." Immediately after saying it, he felt like slapping himself. Maybe he's right.
Sam's spinning stopped. "Me? Annoying?" The hurt look in his eyes was too much drama for Myles to take. A pent-up anger found its way loose.
"Surely you knew how utterly infuriating you became!"
"Became?" Sam stood, and his voice changed to a lower, angry pitch. "I haven't changed, Myles. You changed. You left."
"Sam...we're not kids anymore, for crying out loud! We're not!" Myles spread his hands for emphasis.
His twin's voice rose in pitch. "You've been different ever since...ever since...you left. Over and over again, you keep leaving, and I end up getting stuck behind."
"I left?" Myles was on his feet now, too. "I didn't leave! What are you talking about? Hartford? D.C.? You knew I was leaving the Cape; you could have said something."
"It started way before that, Myles."
Head-to-head, the two brothers glared at each other, both thinking separate yet identical thoughts about how the evening had been ruined, and questioning what had gone wrong.
"What are you talking about?" Myles demanded, a bit incredulously.
"I think you know." Sam shot back.
Myles had a flash of understanding, and backed down, his eyes widening in something long past. "You don't mean...then, do you? Sam, I…"
Sam seemed to catch himself mid-fall, and his face softened, and cleared. A grin crept up on the corners of his mouth, and he laughed as if the idea was ridiculous. "Are you serious? No way, bro." He clapped Myles on the back, and whistled for Glorfindel. "I'm off to play some Nintendo. G'night."
He sauntered out of the kitchen, the called-for kitten scrambling after him and clinging to his pant-leg.
Myles blinked at the disappearing form of his brother, and shook his head to clear it. So close. We were so close to finally…
He sighed; he was tired, it was late, and he did have work tomorrow...he'd finish figuring out what was going on in Sam's head some other time. He put the walls back up around the past, and headed for bed.
