Scars
She sat cross-legged on a towel on the floor of Sam's bedroom and fiddled with the piece of paper in her hands. The two had been out paintballing with Danny and Tucker so as soon as they got home, Sam jumped straight into the shower. Pam Manson watched her niece read aloud from the letter that arrived earlier, still covered in globs of paint.
[Dear Trinity,
Hope you and Sam are doing alright. How was the flight anyway? I have a bet goin' that you went insane 'cause you couldn't smoke. Ha ha. Nah, just kiddin'. Ya know I luv ya. You enjoyin' it in Amity? For dog's sake behave yourself, you're representing your country; so, by now them Yanks must think we're all sex, drugs, rock n roll. LOL.
How 'bout Sammy's friends, what are they like? Don't be fibbin' and tell me that they're all boys – last time I saw lil Sam she was a total girly girl. Sorry, gettin' slightly nostalgic there for a minute. Hee hee. She's probably a right hormonal cow at this age LOL j/k.
Anyway, gotta go, you have a great time in the US, and I'll be home about a week after you.
Loadsa love, your bro,
Ryan x]
"That brother of yours, he always says the funniest things." Mrs Manson couldn't help but grin. "Though, I do wish he'd mind his language."
"You know Ryan, he's always been one of the lads, and he always writes to me while he's gone, bless 'im!" Trinity smiled happily. "Thanks again for letting me stay, Auntie Pam."
"It's no trouble. We should be thanking you for taking Samantha under your wing,"
"I know how hard it is to stop drinking, and it was nice to have someone about the house – that big ol' building gets dead lonely without my brother." She nodded.
"Well, if you need me, I will be downstairs." And with that, Mrs Manson left Trinity to her own devices.
"OK, Trin, I'm done in the shower," Moments later, Sam walked into her room wrapped in a warm fluffy bathrobe and drying her hair with a towel.
"Ta luv,"
"You know, there are like, a hundred bathrooms in this house, you didn't have to wait for me to finish."
"And you know communal showering makes me feel less homesick."
Sam shook her head as Trinity headed to the bathroom. She was like this in her own house too, always waiting for someone else to use the bathroom first, almost like an obsessive-compulsive trait.
Trinity's place was just as large as Sam's, but she did notice that there were only about 6 bathrooms in the entire building – there were en-suites in Trinity's room, one of guest bedrooms, and Ryan's old room, there was a normal bathroom upstairs and another one downstairs, and she never saw where the last one was. Though she suspected it was in the Master bedroom, which was always locked.
While her cousin was out of the room, Sam let the robe drop to the floor and for a brief moment enjoyed the privacy of being comfortably nude. Maybe the exhibitionist ways of that 21-year-old relative were rubbing off on her.
She rummaged through her drawers of clothing and threw a few items out onto the bed. She pulled on a pair of baggy purple jeans and a loose baby-tee with a small hood attached. Sam walked over to the mirror. Funny how these clothes never suited her when she had shoulder-length hair – everything seemed to look better now that her hair was proper short.
To her left, on the floor, was the t-shirt she had borrowed from Danny. It had a few paint splodges on it and was badly crumpled where she'd tied a knot in it earlier. She scooped it up into her hands and hugged it close to her, trying to take in what little scent of Danny was still in the fabric.
He did seem really freaked out about the whole meat thing.
Maybe she should tell him what happened when she was in England…
That night, Sam couldn't sleep.
Her first day back at Casper High and she'd be bleary eyed.
Great.
She rolled over so she was facing the huge window opposite her bed. The curtains were left slightly open on moonlit nights, it was a tradition she had brought with her from England. Whenever she felt homesick, or missed her friends, she'd just look at the light of the moon and was reminded of the many late nights they'd spent catching ghosts.
She got out of bed, and slowly approached the moonbeams cascading onto the floor.
As she sat in the faint blue glow of midnight, a shadow whipped past. Unsure if she actually saw something or not, she went up close to the window and watched carefully. A few moments of stillness took over. It felt like she was trapped in a screenshot, full of focus and completely immobilised.
"Ahh!"
Sam backed away when the shadow returned. It hovered behind the panes of glass, constantly watching her with thin slitted eyes, and slithered into the room via a thin crack in the windowsill.
"Sam, it's me."
She immediately recognised the voice that spoke to her.
"Danny, where are you?"
The shadow rose up like a raven in mid-flight to form a ghost boy she knew all too well. But he looked different. Last time she saw him, he was still clad in basic black and white spandex and still rather scrawny.
Now, every tiny detail of his sculpted torso could easily be made out against the skin-tight fabric. The specially designed emblem on the front of his chest was now glowing with the same light green as the single stripe that ran down the side hem of his half black half white pants.
Rolled up sleeves of a mostly black, but white collared, jacket bared his rather muscular forearms right up to his wrists, where fingerless ivory-toned fist gloves had replaced the full elbow-length ones he once wore.
He looked very attractive and heroic, although Danny never really came across as the fashionable type. And he certainly didn't have a scar across his right eye the last time.
"Oh, my lord, what happened to your eye?" She gently reached out to touch the thin red line embodied into his face.
He grabbed her wrist before she had a chance to touch it.
"I'm sorry, I'd let you feel it, but it's still kinda sore," Danny grinned. "and if you must know, Johnny 13 happened; I'm just glad it only shows when I go ghost."
After hearing the words 'feel it', Sam turned a healthy shade of magenta. Perhaps her mind was still in perverted mode or reminiscent of her 'naked time' earlier that afternoon. Funny how one minute she couldn't sleep and the next she's given the idea to feel something of Danny's…
Bad Sam! BAD! Get those rude thoughts out of your head!
"It's been… a while since I've seen this side of you, and I have to say…" She closed her eyes and slowly ran her hand down his chest. The sensation sent chills through his spine. "…you've definitely developed. A whole lot."
"Well, six months is a long time, and I can't say you haven't changed." He looked her over.
Even in her oversized white 'O' shirt and loose silk PJ shorts, she still held a sexy allure that he simply couldn't resist. It was tempting, very tempting indeed, to touch her, hold her, remove her sleepwear and make her his once and for all. But that wasn't why he came here.
Unfortunately.
"Sam, I-" He stopped when a figure lying on the floor, semi-covered in a duvet, stirred and shifted to a different position. "Is that your cousin?"
"Yeah, Trinity didn't want to sleep by herself," She explained sheepishly. "she's a nice girl, but she tends to be clingy and kinda, well… needy."
"I'd rather this conversation was a bit more private," Danny nervously said with eyes averted as he remembered Trinity's infamous night-time ritual. "any chance we could sit on the roof?"
Sam looked toward her snoozing cousin. She was out like a light and snuggled under a duvet, much to the great relief of Danny – who at this point was still in ghost mode and had already seen more of Trinity than he wanted to.
"OK, but we'll have to be brief, if Trin wakes up and I'm gone she'll totally freak out."
Danny gently wrapped his arms around Sam's delicate waist and waited for her to secure a grip on him. When he began the intangible ascent to the ceiling, through the old dusty attic and out onto the tiled roof of the Manson household, a sense of well-being flooded into his system. He missed his quality time that the two of them often had, more than she would ever know.
While Sam was away, Danny would sometimes sit on the Manson roof and look up at the stars in the sky, wondering what she was doing across the ocean. Half the reason he changed his outfit was in the hope of impressing her when she finally returned, which had earned him a few weeks of Tucker's routine teasing. A sharp sting clawed at his heart at the possibility that Sam might've had found someone else in England.
He landed softly, placing himself behind her in a seated position. He didn't let go of her once they'd settled, and since she didn't object to it, leaned his head into hers, his mind filling with the heavenly scent of cherry blossom conditioner.
The looming silence was awkward and nerve-racking to say the least.
Eventually, Sam cleared her throat and ultimately shattered the quietness.
"So…" She muttered. "did you want to know what happened when I was with Trinity?"
He glanced down at her hands, and she worriedly clicked her nails.
"I guess so…"
"We didn't go out every night, or hang around in coffee shops, chatting up guys – sure, we cut loose on weekends – but during the week, me and her would focus on my detox and bonding over our experiences," Sam explained. "you know, I haven't touched a single drop of alcohol since I was admitted to hospital; since you saved my life."
Danny said nothing. A glimmer of a smile crossed his lips, but then faded.
"You're upset about something Danny; I can sense it."
She turned to face him. Her lilac eyes overflowed with raw emotion. He was reluctant to say anything, but soon caved in.
"It's just that… She's changed you so much – it's great that your confidence is so strong, but you're doing things now that a few months ago you'd never do, and it feels like she took something away from you!"
"You know what Danny; she did take something from me," Her tone sloped into something slightly more aggressive. "all the doubts and worries and insecurities that I've ever had in my whole life, have been lifted from my shoulders and pushed into the fires of hell. That's all."
He sighed. Somehow, he felt she anticipated that question, and had been waiting for him to ask it ever since she got back. The pressure had obviously been building up inside and after ranting off such an answer; Sam appeared to relax in his embrace.
"I didn't mean for that to sound so nasty, Sam," He hugged her tight. "I've just really missed you,"
It didn't matter that she remained silent. He had made his point and gotten the answer he wanted. At least, one of the answers anyway – there were many more questions floating in his subconscious, but those would have to wait for another time.
Because Sam had fallen asleep.
Her head bobbed once or twice, before resting on his shoulder. The hot wisps of air that escaped her mouth tickled his neck. Again, he shivered, the feel of her subtle breath on his skin was both soothing and enflaming.
Without letting go, Danny phased down slowly until they were in Sam's room once more. One arm supported her back; the other slid beneath her bent knees and tenderly carried her to the bed.
Temptation reared its seductive head as he covered the slender frame of his best friend with the velvet duvet. One day he would sleep beside her, and even though the very notion of them being in the same bed made him blush to the roots of his white ghost hair, he placed a kiss on her soft, warm lips.
His elated grin shone down on her angelically peaceful expression.
"Goodnight Sam." He approached the window and just as he went to fly out, took one more glance over his shoulder. The sight of her lying there so sweetly made his whole body ache with longing.
And at that, he flew off into the night. Unaware that someone had seen him…
