Chapter 7
"Ah!" Sam jumped almost dropping her towel. She regained her grip on the towel and finished running to her room and shut the door with a loud bang.
Jake was in a mild state of shock. He had just seen Sam, his best friend, in a towel, with her body and hair still dripping water. Jake wasn't in shock because of what he'd seen, or well not exactly. What confused him and shocked him the most was that when Sam's towel almost fell and then she regained her grip on it Jake's impulse thought was Damn! Of course right after that he had turned his gaze away and gave her privacy to finish running to her room but at the same time taking his gaze off was excruciatingly difficult to accomplish.
Instead of contemplating what had just happened he went downstairs as fast as he could and sat down at the dinner table.
"Did you tell Samantha to hurry because dinner's ready?" Brynna said over her shoulder as she was putting Cody up in his high chair.
"Uh. Yea. She'll be down soon." Jake said a little distracted. Just like all the people who were filing in to the Forster kitchen where distracted and didn't notice what was going on in a certain room upstairs.
Sam was focusing all her attention on breathing in and out. Her body seemed to have forgotten how. She sat down leaning on the door still wrapped on her towel. She was leaving a puddle around her floor but Sam didn't care at the moment.
Why was he here so late? Why was he up here? Sam though to herself feeling dizzy with confusion and lack of oxygen.
Once she felt her breathing return somewhat to normal she got up and looked at herself in the mirror. She stared at her reflection deep in thought.
Well at least I don't look THAT ugly. I mean I don't look like a drowned cat or anything; Right? I hope! Sam thought to herself feeling self conscious over what Jake had or had not seen. It's not like if I care. She thought unconvincingly.
She turned to see her alarm clock and saw the time; she had no time to dwell in her thoughts Sam had to get ready fast and go downstairs before they began worrying and coming up here to check on her.
Dinner was awkward. Sam and Jake wouldn't even look at each other making the rest of the Sam's family suspicious. Brynna kept eyeing Sam with a cautiously worried look and Jake a confused one. Gram kept smiling and laughing to herself at random moments and Wyatt was looking at everyone suspiciously.
Thankfully dinner ended and Jake excused himself almost immediately. Sam was grateful and left to do her homework before she could get triple interrogation.
She went upstairs to her room and got out her homework agenda.
"Mmm. What should I start with? Math?" Sam said to herself, "Nah, I already got a headache. English? Mmm. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen?" she continued her train of thought, "Yea, why not? Reading always helps me forget everything and everyone." Sam got the book out of her bag and went to her bed to lie down and read.
She had never heard of this book but eventually she got really into it, though it being a love story made her think more and more of Jake. Sam had just gotten to the part where Mr. Darcy begins noticing things about Elizabeth Bennet, which he had refused to see before, when her phone began vibrating next to her. So into the book Sam extended her arm to get her phone, never breaking concentration on the story in front of her, she pressed talk and put the phone to her ear.
"Hello?" She answered as a question.
"Sam! Hi." An unexpected voice came out of her phone. Such was her surprise that she let both the book and her cell phone escape her hands both landing hard on her floor. Sam cussed and ran to get her phone.
"Jake!?!" she said a little too high pitched, "Hi." She continued, her heart thumping so loud she was afraid he could hear it through the phone.
"Uhm, Are you busy?" Jake said sounding a little nervous.
"No, not anymore. Why? What's up?" Sam said still shaky and nervous.
"Uh, well nothing really, I, uhm, I just wanted to say, uhh, sorry." Jake hesitated finding words.
"Sorry?" Sam, still a little shocked, was confused. Sorry? For what?
"Yea, for uhm what happened, before dinner." Jake said clearly uncomfortable. The events of earlier that day came rushing back to her, she felt the blood rush to her cheeks.
"Oh. Yea." Sam responded brilliantly. An awkward silence extended for a couple of minutes, both lost in thoughts.
"Why haven't…" Sam started at the same time that Jake said, "Well then I…" cutting each other off. They both shut up abruptly and waited for the other to start turning it into another awkward silence.
"Sorry. What were you saying?" Jake began after a minute of silence.
"Oh. Uhm. Nothing. Go ahead." Sam answered feeling awkward.
"No, it's okay. You go first." Jake told her feeling just as awkward.
"No, you go first." Sam said the awkwardness leaving being replaced by a sense of friendly competition.
"Brat, say what you were gonna say." Jake was experiencing a similar shift of emotions.
"No, it wasn't that important, you should go first." Sam countered with a little edge to her voice.
"Ladies first." Jake replied with a mixture of annoyance and enjoyment.
"Well, this lady says you should go first." Sam replied with a smile, she had laid back down on her bed already getting comfortable.
"If I say what I had to say first then from here on out I will remind you of this moment and how as a lady you said I should go first before you so then forever and ever I will go first before you." Jake said clearly amused and a little surprised at how easily he was talking, he had even gone to the barn for more privacy.
Sam stayed quiet for a moment. She was both thinking of what Jake had just said and of the amount of words he had just said.
"Fine then, I take it back and restore my privilege of going first for being a lady." Sam said a smile spreading on her face for no apparent reason.
"Mmm. Nah. Too late. Well what I was gonna say…" Jake began teasing her lightly a smile spreading across his face. He was enjoying himself.
"No! Stop!" Sam said laughing a little, "I'm the lady so I shall go first." She finished speaking like the characters in Pride and Prejudice.
"Shall?" Jake said laughing at her choice of words.
"Yes, shall." Sam said faking annoyance. They stayed quiet a little.
"Well then, lady, what where you going to say?" Jake said in a teasing tone. Sam's heart skipped a beat at hearing him call her lady, instead of Sam or his typical Brat.
"Okay. I was just wondering…" Sam started and stopped. Blood rushed to her cheeks, she was embarrassed at the question she wanted to ask.
"What where you wondering?" Jake asked with true interest.
"Well," Sam hesitated a little, "Why haven't you made fun of me?" she finished.
"Huh?" Jake was caught off guard by the question.
"Yea, why haven't you made fun of me for uhm, the incident this afternoon?" Sam asked the question differently.
"Oh." Was all Jake could say, he didn't want to answer the question truthfully, that would probably make things awkward again. But he couldn't think of a good convincing lie to tell Sam, plus just thinking of lying to Sam made him uncomfortable. "Truthfully?" Jake asked.
"Please." Sam said getting nervous again. For some unknown reason to herself she got self conscious every time she thought about this subject. Jake sensed the shift in Sam's voice.
"Well, but don't go getting awkward on me Brat, okay." Jake told Sam.
"I won't, promise." Sam said her fluttering like a hummingbird.
"Okay, well, honestly, there wasn't much to make fun of, aside from your deer in the headlights face." Jake said trying to tease her at the end so as to divert her attention and not show how nervous and shy he felt.
Sam was in shock, she was not expecting that answer. She didn't know what to say. They were quiet for a while.
"Sam, you promised." Jake reminded Sam, getting a little scared that things between him and Sam were going to go from bad to worse. They had hardly talked or seen each other since he had been back and he didn't want to make things worse.
"I know." Sam answered with attitude, she couldn't help it, and sometimes teenage hormones kick in at random moments. That's when she remembered the 'deer in the headlight' comment and instead of getting mad she decided to get even.
"What did you mean by not having much to make fun of?" Sam asked with pretend innocence. She was young but naïve and she was going to enjoy making Jake squirm uncomfortably.
Jake was stopped short by the question. He cussed mentally. He decided to stay quiet for the moment. Sam had an evil mastermind smile plastered on her face.
"Was it that I was so ugly it wasn't even funny?" Three years of acting classes made her fake sad innocence seem so real Jake didn't suspect a thing.
"No! No." Jake quickly denied the question.
"Then?" Sam pretended to be confused.
Might as well tell her what I think. Jake thought to himself and then took a deep breath.
"Brat, you are far from being ugly." Jake told her smiling, he couldn't help it. Sam's heart skipped a beat, she felt nice warmth envelop her body, and she was smiling from ear to ear. They stayed quiet again but unlike last time it was a nice silence.
"Sam, hold on." Jake said suddenly. She could hear another voice, it was a female voice, but she couldn't distinguish it. For some reason her heart fell, the warmth in her body had been replaced by coldness, and her smile turned upside down. Thoughts about that girl so long ago came rushing back at her.
"Okay, Mom, don't worry, I'll go in right now." Jake said to the voice. "Night." He told the voice again. "Sam?" he redirected his attention to Sam.
It was his mom! Just his mom. Calm down. Sam thought to herself but for some reason she wasn't able to completely let go of the bad feeling.
"Right here." Sam answered Jake.
"Hey. Sorry about that." Jake apologized sincerely.
"Don't worry about it." Sam said trying her best to be cheerful again but just couldn't completely do it and she wasn't in the mood of acting anymore.
"Hey? Is there something wrong?" Jake asked concerned.
"No. Uhm, I'm just tired." Sam told Jake, and it wasn't even a lie. She was tired; she just hadn't put that much thought to it her mind happier elsewhere.
"Well, figures, its past your bedtime." Jake tried teasing her into a good mood. It worked a little, she couldn't help smile at the comment.
"I don't have a bedtime remember." Sam said faking annoyance. Jake chuckled. His laugh helped Sam shake off enough of the bad feeling that it left her feeling okay.
"Sure, you don't Brat. How old are you 12?" Jake teased her further noticing it was helping Sam get over whatever she had gotten all of a sudden.
"If I'm 12, then you are a pedophile." Sam teased back, even managing to smile a little. Jake laughed.
"Why am I pedophile?" Jake asked faking innocence, though not as convincing as Sam's.
"Because you're a twenty year old who saw a twelve year old in nothing but a towel and then commented on how not ugly she is." Sam said in a matter-of-fact tone. Jake laughed again.
"Yeah, okay Brat." Jake said still laughing. "Hey well its getting kind of late and we both have to wake up early tomorrow so we should go to sleep now, don't you think?" Jake said, traces of laughter lingering in his voice.
Sam checked the clock.
"Wow. It's almost two." Sam said shocked, they had been talking for almost three hours. On the phone. At night!
"Exactly." Jake said.
"Yeah, okay then, goodnight Jake." Sam said a little sad, she really didn't want to hang up.
"Goodnight Brat." Jake began, he took a deep breath, and continued "I'm glad I called Sam, I almost convinced myself not to."
"I'm glad you called too." Sam said smiling butterflies in her stomach.
"Well goodnight Sam, Sweet dreams." Jake finished and hung up.
Sam's ear and cheek burned from the heat of her phone, the butterflies in her stomach were flying relentlessly, yet for the first time in a while she fell asleep smiling.