Chapter Two | Like Cherries and Barbwire

I couldn't help but laugh as I sat down at the bottom of the staircase, her expression was just priceless. Carly raised an eyebrow at me as she sat down next to me, a smile wide on her lips.

"That's not funny. How is that funny?" She ran a hand through her pitch black hair, trying not to laugh herself.

"I just think that, you know, you could've hit it a little more that you were just about to jump him." I faked a smile back at her, trying to hide how disappointed I was in her for her new personality she picked up over the summer. I hadn't known what happened, but she really didn't talk to me during the whole break. She changed so much…

"Carls." We both looked up at instinct to see the most popular boy in school hovering over us with an idiotic grin. I wanted to stand up and beat his sorry ass so hard that it disappeared. I glanced at her in time to see her gulp, her eyes still locked with his.

"Hey you, ready to go?" She returned his grin, and took his hand happily.

"Yeah, but I thought you said you weren't going to hang out with Puckett anymore?" I could see the scowl on his lips and immediately scowled back, getting ready to stand and not caring anymore about how Carly didn't like violence.

"What? No, of course not Michael. She was just giving me back my number and getting out of my life." I heard pride in her tone, and forced myself to keep from looking shocked. She stared at me now, almost threateningly but I could see the pleading look in her brown eyes.

I gritted my teeth, feeling a sharp pain in my chest that hadn't really felt like it came from my heart; it was more like one of my ribs had snapped in half. I actually stood this time and held back all conflicting emotions, a lot of things had happened to me over the summer and I almost depended on seeing her when I came back to school. She was the only reason I looked forward to it.

She was the only reason I was here.

"Whatever, Shay. I'll be seeing you." I just put on a blank expression and watched as her face filled with amusement.

"Sure Puckett, you keep thinking that. Have a nice life alone, loser, we all know you'll never make any friends. And me? I'm just glad this little thing we had is over. I should've never felt sorry for you." She turned her body in a complete 180, taking him by the arm and laughing as they walked down the hall.

I continued to stare in just enough time to see her turn her head, and mouth:

"I'm sorry, Sam."

She opened her eyes, the sun brushing down on her through her shaded window next to her mattress. She recognized the dark color of her walls, and large closet at the end of her room where she held her TV.

Sighing, Sam leaned against her pillow and steadied her breathing.

Her mother didn't come up to get her to go school anymore; she stopped trying a while ago. She didn't really understand why her daughter didn't want to go, and frankly she didn't care.

Samantha was beginning to be a lost cause, anyway.