Leah had come in literally sobbing. She said that she'd wait for him to figure himself out and he told her to give up. How heartbreaking was that? I sighed as I tried to hum things to make her fall asleep.
This continued on for 3 days. I was going to kick his ass if I ever saw him again, in fact he better hope I never fucking see him again. I was very much the angry munchkin right now. Nothing was okay with Leah and I was here by myself.
The Clearwater family members were my closest friends and I didn't know who else to visit or talk too. I wasn't friends with many people. Kinda pathetic actually. I should get on that, be friendly to people, get a job for the community. Maybe the community center was open or hiring, mental note made to visit there soon.
I had finally gotten out of their house for the first time in those days to go to my own and shower. I felt like I smelled like the dead and may have looked it too. Leah's tearing up randomly was draining as hell and I needed time away. I thought I'd get it in my own house but lo and behold. The whole fucking cause of this mess was sitting on my porch.
"What the hell are you doing here, Sam?" I bit out and glared at him. He looked down at the ground, scolded thoroughly.
"I came to talk to you." He responded quietly, looking back up to me hopefully. He wanted a head shake that said I was up for the chitchat. I narrowed my eyes but slowly shook my head yes. He smiled kindly at me and I turned around to unlock my door, walking inside and ignoring his smile. I wasn't about to accept that as the olive branch of peace.
"So? Talk." I said this seriously as I slammed the door close behind me. He had heavy feet and my floorboards creaked from lack of use over the past 12 years. I was 19 now, and this place hadn't been cleaned since then either. Goodie for me, more work.
"Can I sit down?" He asked just as quietly as he had outside. I walked over to our couch and looked at it. It was a black leather over stuffed couch. But it had a layer of dust on it, mom didn't even wait to throw down some sheets.
"I don't know if you really want to." I remarked, wiping off a bit of the layer and showing it to him on my finger. I looked up from the finger to meet eyes with him again. It was giving me the good kind of shivers and it needed to stop. THIS WAS NOT OKAY. OKAY? OKAY. He had the dark, almost black eyes thing going on with the tanned skin, six pac, and dark hair. Wait...
"Where is your shirt?" I asked him exasperated as I stared at the six pack in awe. Props to this guy for working so hard on them, goddamn.
"Shirts don't work out well with me." He shrugged looking around the room now. Now that he'd mentioned it, he was burning up. I could feel the heat radiating when I was standing close to him. I dismissed it as just being close to him and being hyper sensitive about everything. A minute passed as I looked around the room awkwardly.
"I wanted to tell you why I broke up with Leah." He said this suddenly and I looked back at him quickly. Automatically the thought of a romance fizzled out or another woman popped into my head and my eyes widened. Maybe I didn't want to know this.
"You know, I think I'm okay with not knowing this. Thanks though!" I said this quickly and gave him a tight smile. He frowned at it.
"It's you, Kai. I broke up with her for you." Sam said quickly and I nodded understandingly until it processed.
"Excuse you? Are you trying to blame me for your break up?" I replied, tilting my head in confusion and slight offense was coming up. He took in a deep breath and said it again.
"No. I'm saying I broke up with her for you. To be with you." He grounded this out sounding desperate, like he was choking on these words as they came out. I opened my mouth to tell him off, then closed it. I opened it again to say that it was never going to happen but nothing was coming out so I closed it again.
"Can you run that last bit by me again?" I held up a finger, asking softly. He took in a deep breath and nodded, he was nervous. I was choking on word, I couldn't process anything.
"I want to be with you. I want to date you." He finished off seriously, like this made total sense. I made the face 'what the fuck' by narrowing my eyes, crinkling my nose and raising my eyebrows at him. He merely just watched, looking a little amused even.
"So let me get this straight. You broke up with the love of your life for the past 3 years. To be with a girl you haven't seen in 12 years because you want to date me and 'stuff'." I snapped at him and he glared at me when I did the air quotes, nodding none the less. He cringed at the times and never actually gave me an explanation for this shit so I got mad.
"Yeah, thats great. Get the hell out, douchebag." I said this and stomped over to the door, ripping it open and pointing outside. He looked downtrodden but went out the door anyways.
"I'll be right outside if you want to talk." He said this casually and I rolled my eyes at it.
"Knock yourself out." I said angrily and slammed the door shut, locking it quickly. My hair was flying everywhere and my heart was pounding from the adrenaline. I could never tell Leah that. He seemed so serious when he said it. Holy crap what am I going to do?
The next day, I woke up and the guilt began to eat at me. What if he had actually left her for me? Doesn't that make me the one at fault here? But he did it of his own accord, that wasn't me. I never asked for that. I decided cleaning the house was the perfect thing to do to get my mind off of it. I showered and started in the living room.
I'd been cleaning for a good few hours before I heard some banging. It made me freeze. I looked outside through the window and couldn't see anything so I opened the back door in the kitchen. Sam was on a ladder, another guy holding him still and handing up nails that Sam was hammering into my siding.
"What the hell are you two doing?" I asked crossly and stepped outside, holding my cleaning rag still. Sam looked down at me and motioned for the guy to move back. I looked him over and decided that was a much bigger version of the Jared Cameron I'd seen years ago.
"Why are you hammering nails into my house, Sam? And why are you helping?" I was accusatory as I pointed a dish towel first at Sam then at Jared who raised his hands up in mock-surrender. I was still raging from the break up and for once was really thankful that no one could see us through the trees around my house. Leah would have been hurt.
"Your siding was coming loose. I was trying to help." He said this looking at me, imploring me to understand. I raised a brow and crossed my arms over each other.
"Who said I ever wanted your help?" I bit out and glared at him.
"Jesus, Kai. The man has been working his ass off for yo-" Jared jumped in to go to Sam's rescue and I glared even harder at the two of them.
"Jared." Sam's voice reeked of command and power. It was a little dizzying and he cut Jared off mid sentence, Jards said nothing but sighed and looked down. I was totally flabbergasted at the fact he just accepted that and said nothing after. I'd have continued on, even louder.
"I just wanted to help save money and time was all, Kai. Sorry." He responded respectfully to me and nodded his head. I narrowed my eyes but turned and looked at the house.
He was right, it'd take a crapton of time and money for this house to get fixed back up. I was surprised the rain hadn't come in yet. I sighed, letting out some steam. He had actually done me a favour. I looked back at him and Jared, trying to think of something to pay them back with.
"Alright. Thank you for it. Have you guys eaten yet?" I asked them softly, looking between the two. They shook their heads. I nodded and went back in my door, leaning over to look inside the fridge. I heard an intake of breath and quickly stood back up when I remembered that there were two guys standing there, watching me.
"Well. I have no food right now and need to go shopping, so if you guys want to wait here..." I said this trailing off, leaving it up to them. Jared turned and looked at Sam for direction almost immediately. Again, I was struck by how odd that was.
"We'll go with you." He responded and Jared nodded. I slowly took a step back nodding and thinking, I'd have to see if the car still ran.
"Alright well, I have to go get dressed and see if the car works." I said awkwardly, I wasn't expecting them to come with me. Shit.
"It does. I put gas in it today."Sam responded quickly and I paled. He'd been really fucking busy. I nodded and swallowed heavily staring into his eyes.
"Thanks." I said just awkwardly as before and ran up the stairs, leaving the door wide open. I could hear manly laughter as I went up and considered whether or not I was blushing.
When I came back the two guys were squished into the part of the couch that had been cleaned of dust so far. I giggled at the sight, Jared was almost in Sam's lap and neither looked very happy with the arrangement. Jared turned and glared while Sam just gave me a lovesick smile. I cringed at both looks and started towards the door.
The car we had was old, it used to be a blue toyota pick up from '89 but in all honesty I had no idea how it was still working. Sam was a frickin miracle worker apparently.
"Uh, there's only going to be space for one in the front seat with me." I mentioned this awkwardly as the two came through the front door, Sam locked it behind himself. Jared started for the bed and I shrugged not really sure of what else to say. It was their choice, I just figured they'd flip a coin for it instead of him just accepting the back end.
I hopped up front and realized just how big Sam was when he came in and our thighs were touching. I was definitely hyper aware of everything and over reacting, there were no shocks between us. Just fabric from my jeans and his leg. I needed to figure myself out.
The reservation wasn't huge but it had a good sized market, and that was the one we went to. I got a bunch of weird looks when I hopped out of the car and Sam Uley hopped out of the passenger side. The looks turned into hushed whispers when Jared got out of the back. I locked the car and walked quickly, trying to avoid anyone's eyes and hoping no one knew me. Sam and Jared were sauntered a little bit behind me, chatting. I was glad for the distance as we walked across the parking lot.
As I got closer to the entrance, there were a few younger teenage guys I hadn't seen before loitering around. One stood up and walked closer to me, eyeing me and making me a bit nervous. I was only 5 feet tall and this asshole was towering over me with his stupid little smirk.
"Hey, baby." He called out and his friends whistled at me. I tried to ignore them but he got closer and I was about to either turn or walk farther away when an arm was slung around my shoulders and I was stopped.
"I didn't catch that, Josiah. You wanna repeat that?" Sam sounded angry and I looked up to see him glaring over at the teens. He had faced them and they were cowering back, lowering their heads.
"No sir." Josiah responded sounding a little ashamed as he glanced between Sam and I. Sam nodded and pulled me along into the, I looked back to see a smirking Jared.
"How'd you know his name?" I whispered to Sam and he looked back down at me fondly.
"I spend a lot of time in the center. He goes there after school." He responded easily to me and I nodded, looking back into the store. The AC blew warm air into my face and hair and I was loving it. I had been cold for ages and between Sam's arm and the warm air, I was in heaven.
We were halfway through the store, with the cart almost full, I was getting a little worried. Sam insisted on paying at least half of the cost after I said no to him paying all of it. He'd worked on everything outside of my house, it was getting to be too much. This meant money wasn't an issue, it was literally just the idea of pulled two friggin carts. He said they'd be able to eat this much and I was betting on them not being able to finish it all. The parameters were that he'd finish the rest of the house and help me on the inside, if I won. If he won, he'd decide in the moment.
"You're not going to be able to eat it all. I swear to god, guys." I said for the third time as Jared dumped more food in there. Jared just laughed and Sam shook his head. We were pushing the cart, I was leaning on the handle and his arms were around me. He was technically the one pushing since I was just standing on the lower half.
"We'll eat it all. I promise." He said this earnestly and stopped to look at breads. I jumped off my spot on the buggy and walked over.
"Thats like white, soft, nutritionless cardboard, Sam. Here. Try this instead." I took the bag of Wonder Bread from his hands and handed him the 9-grain wheat bread. He smiled at my concern and I rolled my eyes. So maybe he was getting under my skin. We resumed the position and continued on down until the cereals and pancake mixes.
It was all fine and good, things were easy with Sam. It didn't feel weird to be close to him or talk to him, I wondered why we hadn't hit it off before. It was now that I realized all the people around us were talking. They were talking about the new girl, and that she'd stolen Leah Clearwater's fiance right out from under her. She'd done it because he was so successful and respected among the elders. They were talking about me.
My heart stopped up in my throat and I felt sick. I hopped down from the buggy and went to walk far away from Sam when he stopped me, looking a mixture of annoyed and concerned.
"Where are you going?" He asked me quietly enough that others wouldn't hear it.
"I was going to walk farther ahead of you. Keep some distance between us."I shrugged in response. He narrowed his eyes at the idea.
"This is because the old ladies were gossiping about us over there, isn't it?" He jerked his thumb back in their direction and I watched as they scuttled off to do whatever old women do in grocery stores. I shrugged again and he glared at me.
"Okay, so what if it is? Not gonna be so quick to jump into something with me, now are you?" I snapped at him and I could see the internal reel backwards. He sighed.
"It doesn't matter what they think or say. I'll always want to 'jump into something with you'." He said this unhappily and I watched the misty look go over his eyes.
"Why?" I asked, sounding incredibly exasperated and confused. He looked down at me for a few seconds and then moved back to the buggy, only gripping the handle with one hand.
"I'll explain when we get back to the house. For now, you want to ride co-captain again?" He asked trying to get a smile out of me. I debated it for a few seconds and nodded. I stepped back on the stand and we were off to the frozen section.
