Chapter Fourteen

How long we had hugged, I didn't know.

But when we finally broke apart, I saw brightness in David's eyes that had not been there a minute ago. He hugged me again, and this time topped it off with a short, but strong kiss.

All of a sudden I heard applause. Not the ovation of everyone in the golf park (how deadly embarrassing it would have been…), but the scattered, small applaud of one or two people.

I turned around to see Lucy walking towards me and David… with that blonde beauty David had hugged close at her side.

Oh my goodness, I had completely forgotten about David's new girlfriend. Had he just kissed me in front of her? Had I gotten him into trouble? Scared, I looked up to see what shocked expression David had on his face… to find that he merely looked confused.

Lucy beamed at us and nudged the blonde knockout, saying happily, "See Av? I knew this would work! Nothing can keep Sam and David apart for long. They were made for each other."

"I totally agree, Luce. And you were right, they do look adorable together!" the girl replied.

By now, my shock and fright was completely replaced by pure confusion. Did David's girlfriend just agree with Lucy that David and I belong together?

My bewilderment deepened as she held out her hand and said, "Hi Samantha! It's so nice to meet you after hearing so much from Lucy and David. You look so much prettier in person, did you know that? The TV cameras do not do you justice."

And then something clicked. I got it. She and David were playing some mean joke on me to rub it in my face that David was no longer in my life. They had even gotten Lucy to take part in it! The tower of hope and love that had skyrocketed within me now tumbled down. Somehow, I was able to stay calm as I held up my hands and backed up, away from her, away from David, and away from Lucy.

"Okay look, I'm sorry I hugged and kissed your guy. You've made your point, he's yours," I told her. Then I turned to all three of them and voiced angrily, "You know, you could have broken the news to me that David had a new girlfriend in some form other than a mean prank. I'm out of here."

I marched towards the door when David suddenly held my right wrist, refusing to let go. My wrist was now burning at the contact with David and I could feel it pulsing quicker and quicker, but I wrenched it out of his grip.

"Going to give me another fake "Sam loves David" trivia card"?" I asked heatedly.

Then I noticed that David was trying to suppress a grin. He thought this was funny!

I was about to punch him like I did Bryant when he blurted out, "Sam, she is not my girlfriend."

"Oh yeah right," I retorted. "I saw the two of you that day embracing at Burger Palace."

David frowned as he asked, "You were there?" in a surprised tone.

"Long enough to see that you two were pretty cozy!" I snapped back.

The blonde girl, whom I loathed and wanted to slap really hard at the moment, hurried over to where David and I were standing.

She held out her hand to me again as she said, "Sam, I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Avia… I'm David's cousin."

…

…

Cousin… did she really just say that? Cousin! The angry words I had just been about to say stuck in my throat and degenerated as I felt my face redden considerably. But at the same time, hope and love just shot up right back.

"At the Burger Palace," she explained, "David was telling me about how things had sort of ended with you. He was really hurt. I listened and tried to comfort him."

Lucy came into the conversation. "When Av told me David still wanted you back, and I knew you wanted David back, I thought today was a good time for you two to settle things out. I told Av to bring David over to the pile of presents so that you guys could meet. Luckily for David, he had that clever trivia card at hand to convince you back." She turned to David and inquired, "How did you happen to have the card? You didn't know Sam was coming!"

David scratched his head and said sheepishly, "I, uh, carried that card around with me since Sam and I last saw each other. I don't know why, I just couldn't forget her." He glanced at me and smiled warmly while my already florid face blushed some more.

"I'm… um… terribly sorry," I managed to squeak as I took the hand Avia was still holding out. "I... thought…"

"That's alright," she said with a warm smile. I noticed that way she smiled was similar to the way David smiled. I guessed it was a family resemblance.

Looking down at my shoes, I muttered, "I'm so sorry David. Gosh, I'm so stupid, always jumping to the wrong conclusions. I don't even know why you'd want to be with someone like me…"

My rambling was cut short by David lifting my chin to meet his green eyes. "I don't think I have enough time to tell you why I want to be with you. It'd take too long. Why not just sum it up zero words?" And then he kissed me so sweetly that I didn't care about Lucy and Avia watching.

"You're a very good summarizer," I joked when he let me go.

I glanced at Lucy and Avia to find them giggling and chatting quietly.

"Say, how do you two know each other?" I asked them suspiciously.

Lucy grinned at her friend and said, "Modeling. We met at the agency. Av actually lives in Chicago but was visiting her uncle for the summer, and boom! She was called to the agency by the same woman who got me into it. And then I found out she was David's older cousin, and things just flowed together from then on."

How would I ever repay them? How would I ever repay Lucy? She had helped me out with my problems concerning David so many times, I wished she would fall out of love with Jack so that I could help her for a change!

I grabbed each of Lucy and Avia's hands. "Thank you so much. I don't know what I would have done without you guys."

"Aww, Sam it was nothing!" they both said at once.

"I just pushed my little sister in the right direction," Lucy said, giving me a one of her choking embraces.

"And I'd do anything for my little cousin," said Avia fondly as she, too, gave David a hug.

"Thanks, cuz," David said, squeezing her back.

Lucy looked at the clock on her cell phone. "Wow, look at the time. Well, Av and I are going to the mall before it closes. David, happy birthday! I'll see you around later."

"Happy birthday, David," Avia said, "I'll see you later at dinner. Another white house burger night, yum! And Sam, it was so nice meeting you."

Then the two gorgeous femme fatales I was so lucky to be acquainted with walked off together, laughing and gossiping.

David snaked his arm around my waist and pulled me close. "So, plan on going anywhere soon?"

I pretended to seriously think about this question. "Well, I guess I have a bit of time to kill. Oh, why not, I'll stay."

"Excellent." He then got us two new scorecards and we began to play mini golf like the two geeks we were. I even gave David a smooch for every hole in one he scored.

During the course of our round, he introduced me to his friends as we came across them. At the end of the party, he revealed the answer to his trivia cards (to everyone's utter shock and laughter), and everyone ended up getting goodies, whether they had gotten the answer right or not.

With all the people gone, David and I plopped down onto a colorful bench. As I rested my head on his chest, he asked, "So, care to tell me anytime soon what kind of strange funk you were in? Did you really not care for me anymore?"

Feeling his heartbeat against my cheeks, I took a while before taking a deep breath and beginning to talk. "Once upon a time," I narrated, "there was a girl. She loved the boy she was with, and everything was perfect. One day, she drew a pineapple on her heart when there actually wasn't one. Confused, she wasn't able to see her actual heart and… she acted rashly. After finally realizing her mistake and erasing the pineapple, she didn't think the guy would ever forgive her for what she'd done. But it turned out that the boy loved her nevertheless despite her strange, drawing-nonexistent-pineapples-and-jumping-to-conclusions personality. She became happy once again with the boy and now plans never to risk losing him again."

After I had finished, I looked up to see if David was ogling at me in a "What kind of psycho are you, babbling about pineapples?" way.

Instead, his face was thoughtful as he replied, "Next time the girl mistakenly draws a pineapple, the boy would like the girl to let him know so that he can help her set things right."

I grinned. "The girl promises to do so."

"Well, boy is happy."

"Girl is happy."

And as the mini golf park staff began to clean up the after-party mess, David and I shared a kiss on the colorful bench to the sound of vacuuming, like the geeks we were.

XOXO

A/N

Last chapter, chapter 15, to be up soon.