SAM

My dress is the color of champagne and my hair is done up in curls. As I stand in the mirror putting on lip gloss (yes, I am putting on lip gloss), I hear the door bell. I grab my shawl and purse and quickly walk down the stairs. I want to run, but I don't want to test my luck with heels on. David is standing by the door with my parents. He's in his tuxedo and he looks amazingly handsome. His skin is a little pale, but his cheeks are the most adorable shade of pink. He's smiling. "Sam, you look amazing." His voice is breathy. I smile. There's no other words I'd rather hear.

"Thanks." I duck my head and push a wisp of hair behind my ear out of shyness. He puts his arm out to me and I grasp it. My mom and dad tell us to have fun and that David should drive safely. David promises and we say goodbye.

Once inside of the car (with a secret service agent in the back), David starts to talk to me as though no one else is in the car. "What are we going to do tonight? How about a game of Parcheesi?" I can tell by the tone in his voice that he is joking.

"David!" I slap him lightly on the arm. He's still chuckling, and he makes a right turn. "I was thinking more alone the lines of strip poker, but I think Parcheesi would be more appropriate."

"I think I can go for a round-" David stopped talking and continued driving straight down the road. He blinked his eyes a few times.

"David, are you okay?"

"Yeah, just got something in my eye. Anyway, I think I can go for a round of strip poker." A smile reappears on his face, though it isn't even half as wide as it was when we'd first gotten into the car. He seems kind of uneasy now, and silence fills the car. David is hiding something, and I'm upset that he won't share what is bothering with me. I know it doesn't have anything to do with his dad being president. Whatever is bothering David is beginning to bother me. I make a mental note to ask about it when we're alone.

"I'll be right back." David said to me as he quickly let go of my hand and walked away for what seemed like the fifth time that night. I sighed and tried to blend myself into the crowd, silently hoping that none of the guests would come up to me and ask me if I was in fact Samantha Madison. That had happened three times already and I didn't like the extra attention.

I was beginning to grow impatient with David, wondering where he was going when he left me and what he was doing. He would disappear almost every half an hour and I knew that something was up. That something wasn't right. I had wanted to ask him about it before, but hadn't because I knew that if David wasn't telling me about what was going on then he wasn't allowed to discuss it with me. I didn't like the whole "secrets" idea, but I knew that it was part of the whole "dating the president's son" deal. Trusting David wasn't hard to do; he always told me everything that he could. I admired his amazing sense of honesty.

After about five minutes of standing against the wall by myself, David finally emerged from the crowd and regained a tight clasp on my hand. His hand was clammy, but I didn't want to let go. Holding his hand made me feel as though everything was fine. That nothing was going on that I didn't know about. It made it easier to ignore. With a smile he apologized for making me wait again and he asked me if I was thirsty.

"You're thirsty again!?!" I looked at him with a sense of concern. David's smile slowly fell into a smaller, more timid smile. David started to blush, a sure sign that he was feeling insecure. He looked away from me as if he wanted to talk about something else. "Are you sure you're feeling all right?"

"Just tired." he said as he grabbed my other hand with his free hand so that he held both of my hands. He looked at his feet to avoid my eyes.

"I'll take you up on that offer for a drink." I pushed David's head up lightly from under his chin and smiled at him. He smiled back and together we walked to get something to drink. As we were walking, the band that was playing invited couples to the dance floor for a special dance. I looked excitedly at David and asked him, "Do you want to dance?"

"I'm not really feeling well enough to dance tonight. I'd rather sit down and relax." My smile must have fallen a little because he immediately put his free arm around my shoulder and tried to make me feel better by kissing me on the cheek. "I'm really sorry Sam, but I'm just not feeling up to it." He poured our drinks and we walked out of the main room. When we reached a vacant hallway, we stopped walking and I put my head down so that it appeared that I was looking down at my shoes. Tonight was definitely not going as I had planned it would. I felt like David was keeping more information from me than he should be. Or as though it wasn't as secret as I had originally thought. This secret of his seemed to involve me. It was almost as if he wanted to tell me but would end up stopping himself from doing so. It hurt that he wasn't being completely honest with me. It was the one thing I had always counted on him being.

I tried to will the tears that were building up to stay where they were. "I know I haven't spent much time with you tonight. I'm so sorry Sam. I promise that I'll dance with you at the next party. All right?." I nodded reluctantly and he led me to the nearest couch so that we could sit down. I thanked God that there was no one else in the hallway we were in.

"I know you're not feeling well. It's really no big deal." I said. It was the truth. His face and hands were pale and he looked extremely exhausted.

"This flu is taking everything from me. I'd love to dance with you Sam, I really would. But I'm just so wiped out right now that I don't even know if I'll make it to the end of this dinner."

"Don't be sorry." I insisted. "It's really all right. I-"

"David! There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" David's mother had interrupted me. We both looked at her as she rushed over towards us, a perky smile permanently stretched across her face. "Your father wants to make a toast. Can you spare a minute? Sam, you're welcome to come as well."

David looked at me as if asking me if it was all right and I nodded, knowing that I really had no choice. How could I say no to the First Lady? We got ourselves up from the couch and followed his mother back into the main room. I slowly felt David's hand slip off of mine as he walked away from me and more towards his parents in the center of the dance floor. I moved myself towards the edge of the crowd and nestled myself close to two Secret Service Agents.

The room grew quiet as the President lifted his wine glass with a smile. David's mother had positioned herself beside her husband and David had taken his usual space to the left of her. The President and his wife were beaming, their smiles so wide that I thought their faces might cramp up. But David was barely smiling. I noticed that he now looked paler than he had before. A small ounce of worry started to build up in me and I successfully shrugged it off as the President began his speech.

"I'd like to thank everyone for joining us this evening. I hope you're all having a wonderful time." The President and his wife were still smiling proudly as everyone began to applaud and laugh. I tried to keep my eyes focused on David though, because he didn't look right. His face was gray and his eyes kept focusing in and out too quickly as though he was trying to snap out of a daydream. He kind of wobbled to the sides a bit as his father said, "I'd like to dedicate this toast-" but the President was cut off by the crowds gasps as I ran towards David who's eyes had closed completely. His body began to fall limply to the ground.

I hadn't been able to break his fall, but I did kneel next to him and attempted to wake him up. A few of the Secret Service instantly surrounded us and his parents. I had already begun checking his breathing and felt for a pulse. He had one, but his breathing was off. "Did someone call an ambulance?" I said, my voice showing just how much I was shaking and panicking. A female Secret Service Agent came beside me and placed her hands on my shoulders as an attempt to pull me over towards a chair to sit down. By then I was crying hysterically and though I tried to keep my sobbing inside, each one escaped as though beyond my control and echoed through the room. She kneeled down beside me and was trying to soothe me, but I couldn't hear a word that she was saying.

Something had been very wrong all night and I had known it. David had known that something was wrong. I thought back to each time he had left me and tried to piece everything that had happened tonight together in my mind. I couldn't do it though because there were so many thoughts stacking up inside of my head.

Within minutes there were paramedics by his side and all of the guests had been evacuated. I was still sitting about ten feet away, watching everything that was going on. The President and his wife were asked to move away from David as well. David's mother was crying and hugging her husband who seemed to be trying to hold his wife as he fought back his own set of tears. All of the sounds of the room suddenly disappeared and in the silence all that I could do was stare at David as he lay motionless on the floor.