Frown

"Sorry about dragging you here before dinner, but if I don't pick up this book for my mom, she's going to go ballistic," Freddie said as him and Sam walked into the small bookstore.

"Eh, it's fine, I had a stick of beef jerky in the car, so I should be good for a little bit," Sam said. "What book are you getting your mom?"

"Feminine Itches in New Places," Freddie cringed.

"I'd say something, but I think my mom has that book sitting on our kitchen table," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Right, well hopefully I can find it quickly so we can get to the restaurant," Freddie said.

"I'm gonna go look over there," Sam said, nodding to a shelf of books nearby.

"Oh, alright," Freddie replied. "I'll come find you once I'm done then." He gave her a quick peck on the lips before turning and heading off towards the health books (a section he was unfortunately a bit too familiar with, thanks to his mother).

"Okay," he sighed, looking at the many books on the shelves. "Let's see what we got here…Why is My Body Making Those Sounds?...Rashes and Menopause: The Deadly CombinationHow to Adjust to Your Weakening Bladder…Ugh, why does aging have to sound so…disgusting?"

After a few moments of searching through the shelf of rather interesting titles, Freddie finally found the book his mother had requested. He quickly grabbed it and headed back towards Sam.

"Alright, I've got it," he said. "I just need to-What are you doing?"
Sam was sitting against one of the bookshelves, attentively reading one of the novels. But to Freddie's surprise, the book didn't seem to have any pictures in it.

"Huh? Oh, I was just reading," Sam said, looking up.

"Yeah, I can see that," Freddie chuckled. "But, um, why?"

Sam shrugged. "Because I wanted to."

"But…since when do you like to read?" Freddie frowned. "Especially books without Boogie Bear in them."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Well alert the media…Sam Puckett is reading a book."

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to…what book are you reading?" Freddie asked, sitting down next to her.

"Just some dumb mystery novel," Sam replied. "Don't worry, it's not Shakespeare or anything."

"Okay, I'm sorry about the reading comment," Freddie said. "It's just…well, last week you did throw a book into the dumpster at school."
"That was a boring old textbook," Sam pointed out. "I don't care about Biology or French or whatever book that was for."

"It was your trig book," Freddie corrected, earning a glare from his girlfriend. "But that's not important…"

"Anyway, these books are actually interesting," Sam said. "It's like watching a scary movie, but in your head!"

"Huh, I've never really read any mystery books," Freddie said. "I guess I've been stuck in a science fiction rut."

"Now those sound like lame books," Sam grinned.

"What? No way!" Freddie said. "I've been telling you for years, a good sci-fi book is more exciting than just about anything else."

"Aw, baby, no offense, but it's comments like that that probably kept you from having a girlfriend until you were seventeen," Sam smiled, patting his shoulder.

"Well sci-fi books are way better than mystery books," Freddie said.

"How would you know? You just said you've never read any!" Sam laughed.

"Well…Well you've never read any sci-fi books!" Freddie pointed out. "So how can you say mystery books are better?"

"I just do!" Sam snapped.

"Look, the only way for us to actually settle this argument would be for me to read a mystery novel and for you to read a sci-fi one," Freddie said. "But since that's never going to happen, let's just go to the restaurant and-"

"Okay," Sam said, cutting him off. "You're on, Benson."
"Wait, what?" Freddie frowned.

"Let's settle this right now," Sam grinned. "You read this mystery book, and you find me a sci-fi one to read. Then we'll compare and see which is better."

"You-You want to do this right now?" Freddie asked. "What about our dinner reservations?"

"Forget about them, a chance to prove you wrong trumps steak," Sam smirked. "Well, for tonight it does, anyway. So you in, Fredbutt?"

Freddie couldn't help but chuckle. "Fine. I'm in, Puckett. But be prepared to eat your words."

…..

Close to four hours had passed since Sam and Freddie's 'competition' had begun. The couple had settled themselves down in a small corner of the bookstore, both deeply enthralled with the books the other had picked out for them.

"So," Sam said, flipping a page of the book she was reading. "Enjoying yourself over there, baby?"

"Not as much as I would be with a good sci-fi book, but I'm making do," Freddie replied, not looking up from his novel. "What about you?"

"Well I'm struggling to keep my eyes open, but it could be worse," Sam smirked as she continued to read hungrily.

"Well I have only another hundred pages left of this book," Freddie said. "So soon enough I'll be able to say once and for all that sci-fi book are, in fact, the best."

"No way," Sam said. "I'm almost done with this book too, and then I'll be able to say-"

"Um, excuse me?" one of the workers said, coming over to the couple. "You do realize we are about to close, right?"

"Whoa, are you serious?" Freddie frowned, glancing at his watch. "Holy chiz! It's almost eleven o'clock!"

"We spent the entire night reading?" Sam said. "Oh my God…you've turned me into a dork!"

"This was your idea!" Freddie exclaimed. "Anyway…it looks like we have to go; they're gonna throw us out of here."

"Whoa, hold on!" Sam said. "You're just trying to get out of this so you don't have to admit your books are totally lame compared to mine!"

"No!" Freddie retorted. "You're the one who should be thankful this bookstore is about to close."

"Yeah, right!" Sam scoffed.

"Okay, well…look," Freddie sighed. "It looks like neither of us are going to change our minds…Carly's right; we are both insanely stubborn."

"Yeah, no chiz," Sam smirked.

"So how about we just end this little debate?" Freddie suggested. "You can keep on incorrectly believing mystery books are better than sci-fi books-"

"And you can keep tricking yourself into thinking sci-fi books are better than mystery ones," Sam nodded. "Okay…deal."

"Deal," Freddie echoed.

The two were silent for a minute.

"Still, um, I think I'm going to buy this book really quick before they close," Freddie said, picking up the mystery novel. "You know, just to have as a…keepsake."

"Yeah, um, I think I'll do the same," Sam said, carefully marking her page in her sci-fi book. "I-I'll probably never actually finish reading it because it was so boring, but, um…I'll just keep it as…decoration. Or something…"