Thanks for all the reviews. Keep on reviewing if you love me :) And one of you mentioned that the last chapter was a bit fluffy. I completely agree, to be honest, but I secretly like a little bit of fluff. Shh ;)
Freddie's POV
I watched Sam disappear through the door and into the bedroom, then sat back in my chair and pondered what the hell had just happened. Nobody had ever heard me play – or sing – other than my guitar teacher. That was why I had waited until Sam went in the shower, cause I didn't want her to viciously rip on my playing. I'd only been learning for a year or so, but my teacher said I was a natural, and I was constantly finding tabs on the internet for songs I liked and teaching them to myself. I missed playing. I played every day since I started lessons, and it had become a huge part of who I was, and during the past couple of days I had really missed it. When I had picked up my guitar I actually breathed an audible sigh of relief. Putting my hand on the neck felt like I had been holding my breath and I finally breathed in. I went out onto the balcony, which I figured was my best chance of Sam not hearing me. Unfortunately I forgot to close the door, so that plan didn't work too well, but whatever. I had been just strumming, getting the feel of playing again and doing a couple chord changes to warm up, when I had an idea. I had been learning this song for about a week, and I figured I would practice. I began to play, singing along softly so Sam wouldn't hear. Then, as I reached the chorus, I heard someone singing the female part. Someone with an unbearably sweet voice. Something inside me made me keep playing and singing, but I whipped my head around and saw Sam standing in the doorway, singing along. She squeezed past me and sat on the other chair, our knees brushing, and we sang the song together, increasing in intensity until we were both singing at the top of our lungs and I was playing my guitar harder than I ever had in my life. We finished the song, panting from the intensity of our singing, and looked at each other. Sam was looking at me almost shyly, the overhead balcony light illuminating her smooth skin and shining on her blond curls. We sat there in silence, but it was a different kind of silence than anything I had ever experienced. It was charged, and I suddenly understood the expression 'sparks flew', because that's what it felt like. Like there were sparks in the air between us. We looked into each other's eyes and I wanted nothing more than to kiss her, right here on this tiny balcony.
"Wow, Fredward" Sam said, breaking the magical silence. "You're not bad"
I looked down into my lap, trying to hide my disappointment that Sam wasn't feeling what I was feeling.
"Thanks" I said. "I didn't know you could sing like that" I told her, looking into her eyes again. "You're amazing, Sam" I blurted before I could stop myself.
"I know" she said, smirking at me, her trademark smirk. "Mama's got pipes, eh?"
She turned and walked through the door into the bedroom.
"I didn't just mean the singing" I said to myself, looking down at my guitar again. I got up and followed Sam inside, closing the door behind me. Sam was lying on one of the beds listening to my PearPod and staring up at the ceiling. I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth, thinking about Sam the whole time. I returned to the bedroom distractedly and flopped down on the empty bed, looking up at the ceiling, hoping to find some kind of advice in the peeling white paint. At that point I guess Sam turned off the light, because the room was plunged into darkness.
"Night Freddie"
"Huh?" I asked, still distracted. "Oh. Night Sam"
I tossed and turned fitfully that night, unable to get to sleep with my mind churning. I eventually drifted off, and it felt like I had been sleeping for ten minutes when the alarm on my phone went off. I turned it off with a groan, exhausted but confident in the knowledge that I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep so there was no point hitting the snooze button. I dragged myself to the shower like a zombie, performing my morning rituals on autopilot. Like every morning before, I woke Sam up when I came out of the shower, and packed up while she was in the bathroom. When she appeared, I wordlessly handed her bag over and gestured for her to lead the way out of the room. We found breakfast in a tiny café, and I drank about eight cups of coffee, hoping that the caffeine would keep me awake. If I fell asleep at the wheel I would never live it down (if I lived at all).
"What up with all the coffee, Fredward?" Sam asked, eyeing me suspiciously.
"I didn't sleep well last night, and I am so tired" I explained, yawning. "Hopefully the caffeine will keep me awake so I don't fall asleep driving and crash my car. That would suck"
"That would suck" she agreed. Suddenly her eyes lit up. "Hey, why don't I drive?"
"You?" I said, raising an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, that'll happen"
"Why not, nub?" she said, reaching across the table to shove me. "I'm a great driver"
"Four driving instructors, two dented cars, endless scratches and your lack of a drivers licence would disagree"
She rolled her eyes at me.
"Whatever. Besides, I think I would do a better job not crashing than you would when you're asleep"
"No chance you are getting behind the wheel of my car. Sorry"
"Fine" she pouted. We paid for our breakfast and went out to the truck. I reached into my pocket for the keys as we walked, but they weren't there. I grabbed Sam's arm to stop her.
"Sam, give me my keys"
"What are you talking about?" she asked, feigning innocence.
"Give. Them. To. Me"
She gave a little roar of frustration and threw the keys at me. We walked the rest of the distance to the truck. We got in and I started the car, dreading the day ahead. I drove on autopilot, not really thinking about what I was doing. Fortunately I had been driving long enough that I did it automatically, and I didn't have to think indicate, turn, brake. Sam listened to my PearPod all morning, knowing that I was too tired to have an actual conversation. She tried a few times, but my grunts and one word answers frustrated her, so she sat there moodily listening to music. Eventually the caffeine kicked in and I began to feel almost human again. Once I was marginally more awake (God bless coffee) I began to think about the night before. There was something between us, I just knew it. It couldn't have been my imagination, there had to be something. But Sam had acted totally normal, like she felt nothing. Either she was pretending or it was all in my head. It can't have been in my head I told myself. The chemistry was almost tangible, and you can't make something like that up I tried to reason. Maybe there was chemistry for you, but that doesn't mean there was chemistry for her a voice inside my head pointed out. She acted totally normal, like nothing was wrong. Yeah, but she's a great actress, you know that I told myself. I argued back and forth with myself in this fashion until Sam announced that she was hungry. I turned into the nearest burger joint and we ate lunch. Rather, I picked at my fries and Sam ate both our burgers and her fries. When we were finished we got back in the truck and I kept driving while Sam took a nap. I had been driving for five minutes when the caffeine began to wear off and I got more and more tired. Eventually I got too tired to drive, so I pulled into a mall parking lot and parked the truck in the shade. I then put my seat back and was about to lie back, but then I thought about it, grabbed the keys and put them in my pants so that Sam wouldn't hijack my truck if she woke up before me. I lay down and fell asleep straight away. I slept soundly and when I woke up I felt refreshed and ready to keep driving. Sam was still sleeping, and I extracted the keys from my pants and started the car, continuing on my journey. About ten minutes later Sam woke up, yawning and stretching in her seat. She looked over at me, rubbing her eyes.
"Are you still miserable and cranky?"
"Nope, all better" I said, laughing.
We chatted for ages, laughing at stupid things and generally having a good time until Sam decided that she was hungry.
"Why haven't you reached the next hick town yet?" she asked, looking out the window. "It's almost dark"
"Yeah, I kinda had a nap on the way" I said sheepishly. "Sorry"
"Well, how much longer?" she asked. I looked at a sign outside that gave the distance to the town we were staying in, and quickly did the mental math.
"Half an hour?" I said. "Forty minutes tops"
"But I'm hungry" she whined. Without taking my eyes off the road I reached back with one hand and found the stash of Fat Cakes I had hidden to placate Sam if she got violent. I threw a few packages at her and she ripped one open, eating the Fat Cakes with indecent enthusiasm. About thirty five minutes later I turned into the tiny town of St George Heights. I turned into the nearest motel and we headed into the lobby.
"We only have one room left" the lady behind the desk told us.
"Cool, we'll take it" I said. She gave me the key card and we made our way to the elevator. We reached our room and I opened the door, freezing as it swung open. There, in the middle of the room, was a bed. A bed. As in, one. I stood in the doorway, frozen. Sam pushed me inside.
"What is your deal, nub?" she said, shoving past me and dropping her bags on the floor. I pointed at the bed.
"One bed"
She looked at the bed and I saw her eyes widen slightly.
"I'll sleep on the floor" I offered.
"Grow up, nub" she said contemptuously, rolling her eyes. "It'll be fine, just don't spoon me in the middle of the night"
"I'll try my hardest" I said sarcastically.
"Now let's go get food" Sam said. "I've been craving shrimp all day"
We went back to the truck and Sam made me drive a good twenty five minutes until we found a seafood restaurant. Sam satisfied her shrimp craving in a big way and I had some sort of crab something. We got back into the truck and began to drive back to the hotel. On the way back it began to rain, a proper downpour that thundered against the roof of the truck. I pulled into the parking lot of the motel and we sat there for a moment, debating whether to wait the rain out or make a run for it. Suddenly, Sam opened the door of the truck and hopped out, slamming it behind her. I thought she was going to dash through the rain to the motel, but instead she stood in the middle of the parking lot with her arms outspread and her face up to the sky. She began to twirl, her wet hair flying around her as she spun, laughing. I sat there in the truck, watching Sam dance in the rain, completely mesmerized. She stopped spinning and looked at me before skipping over to my window and rapping on it with her knuckles. She mimed for me to roll it down, and I shook my head. She rolled her eyes at me, and then beckoned for me to join her. I once again shook my head and she shrugged as if to say your loss and skipped away. I sat there for a moment, watching Sam as she played in the rain. She was laughing and even through the sheet of rain I could see the pure, unadulterated joy on her face. People tended to think that Sam was childish and immature, and they were mostly right. But you know what? Maybe Sam had it right. Once people grew up, they got so caught up in their own petty troubles that they forgot about the simple joys of life. Sam, however, still knew how to find happiness in the small things, and I thought that maybe we could learn from her. With that I grabbed my camera (fortunately waterproof) and went out into the rain. It was colder than I expected, making me shiver as the first drops hit me. Sam still didn't know I was out of the truck, and I hid behind it, watching her. I began to take photos of Sam playing in the rain, her arms outstretched, twirling and dancing and jumping. Suddenly she caught sight of a huge puddle underneath a streetlight, and I could see the mischievous look on her face as she ran towards it. She was running right at me, and I could see her eyes sparkling as she brought her knees up and splashed into the puddle, sending water flying everywhere. I snapped a shot right as she landed in the puddle, and I was about to look at it when Sam saw me. I quickly put the camera in the truck as she skipped towards me.
"Come on, nub" she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me into the middle of the mostly empty parking lot. She let go of my hand and continued dancing in the rain, spinning and leaping like she was on drugs. When she saw that I was just standing there watching her, she grabbed my hand again and pulled me into a reluctant jig, leaping and twirling and jumping. We must have looked insane, two teenagers in a motel parking lot in a torrential downpour, dancing what must have appeared to be some kind of tribal rain dance, but I didn't care. I was having more fun than I had had in a long time. Sam and I were laughing uncontrollably as we jumped around together, and I don't know what made me do it, but I grabbed her by the waist and we began to spin. She spread her arms out and leaned back, letting the rain fall on her face and throat, and we spun and spun and spun until we collapsed in a fit of dizziness. We lay in the parking lot laughing, and I revelled in the feel of the raindrops hitting my face. When the dizziness had passed I got up and offered a hand to Sam, hoisting her onto her feet. Suddenly a bolt of lightning illuminated the sky, followed almost immediately by a deafening clap of thunder. I reflexively dropped to the floor, covering my head with my hands. Even over the rain I could hear Sam laughing at me. I leapt to my feet and grabbed her wrist, dragging her inside. As we reached the awning that covered the door, we passed a girl who looked about nine. She was standing under the awning with her parents, who were obviously debating how best to get to their car. They decided to run for it, and as the girl ran past us she suddenly stopped, turned back and thrust something into my hand with a smile before running into the darkness with her parents. I looked and saw that it was a disposable camera. Weird I thought, but I continued into the reception area. As we traipsed through the lobby, dripping wet, I could almost feel the disapproval emanating from the other occupants of the motel. We made it up to our room and Sam called the shower, grabbing her stuff and disappearing. I looked again at the disposable camera that the girl had given me. It was just an average, waterproof disposable camera that you can get at a drugstore. I wondered why she gave it to me, then shrugged and threw it onto the bedside table. Sam came out of the shower with wet hair, but in dry clothes. I headed in to take a shower, and when I came out of the bathroom, Sam was nowhere to be seen. I soon saw her sitting on the teeny balcony that was attached to our room. She was sitting on a chair pushed back against the wall, hugging her knees. As I got closer, I saw that she was wearing one of my sweatshirts. I went to tell her to come out of the rain when I noticed that the rain was falling diagonally at such an angle that Sam was perfectly dry. She sat curled up on her chair, watching the lightning that forked across the sky. I walked onto the balcony and sat next to her, and we watched the lightning in silence.
"I've always loved thunderstorms" she finally said, not taking her eyes off the horizon. Another bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating her face in pure, white light. I waited for the accompanying clap of thunder to pass before I answered.
"I've never been a fan of thunderstorms. I mean, I love them, but whenever there's a thunderstorm my mom makes me sit in my room wearing far too much rubber so I won't get electrocuted. So, you know, I've learned to dread them. I love the actual thunderstorms, but I'm not big on the whole trapped-in-my-room-wearing-a-rubber-suit thing"
Sam laughed under her breath. We watched in silence for a while longer before I realized that I hadn't called my mom, and she was probably freaking out. I disappeared inside to call her, and I spent the whole conversation sitting on the bed looking at Sam. When I finally managed to get my mom off the phone forty five minutes later ("Yes, mom, we're fine. No, we aren't going to get electrocuted. Yes, I wish I had packed my rubber suit as well") I was tired and ready for bed. I walked over to the balcony and stuck my head outside.
"Sam, I'm going to bed"
"Yeah, I'm coming" she said, getting up and following me inside, shutting the balcony door behind her.
"Nice sweatshirt, by the way"
"Thanks. It's really comfy, I don't think you're getting it back"
I got into bed, snuggling under the covers. That's another reason I loved thunderstorms. Perfect sleeping weather. Sam got into bed next to me and I turned off the light, trying my hardest not to think of Sam mere inches away, in the dark, in the same bed.
"Night, Sam"
"Night"
