Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter!

I hope everyone likes this chapter. :) It was requested by several people, and I thought it was an interesting idea.

Chapter 9: My First Date

His hand wrapped around my side as he slid me closer to him. He leaned over and gave me a quick kiss before drawing away with a smile.

I returned his smile before turning to look up at the moon.

"I still can't believe it," his voice caught me off guard from the hazy land of my thoughts. "I mean, you just beat her right to the ground," he continued.

His arm flew up in a hook, exaggerating his retelling of this story.

I carefully placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm feeling a little seasick. Would you mind if I took a little walk around?"

He mumbled some words of concern, but his eyes betrayed the fact that he wasn't very worried. He had no reason to be. As I gave a faint smile and pushed myself off of the chair, I knew I was fine. I just needed to get away.

My hands wrapped around the cool bars on the edge of the boat. I gulped in the sea air. I didn't really feel seasick, not at all. In fact, I love being on boats. But I was sick to my stomach. Sick of him.

The date wasn't overly romantic. Sure, we had kissed twice, once on the cheek when he picked me up, and once just now, but that wasn't too much, there was no mushiness, which was good. The problem was that he wouldn't change the conversation. Somehow or other, everything we talked about ended up relating back to my fight with Jocelyn.

When he told me he wanted a girl who could throw punches and kiss well, I was excited. After all, a first date is a very exciting thing, and he accepted me for who I am. But, I didn't realize that we would have to discuss that fight for the entire night.

I love it when others recognize my accomplishments, but this was out of hand. I wasn't here to brag about myself, or to relive the situation 500 times, and the story had gotten old hours ago.

I never went on a real date with Jonah, so I had no idea what to expect with Pete. It was laid back, just as I thought. His uncle was cool, and let us ride while he steered, yelling out to us every now and then to make sure we were doing fine. I just wanted to stop talking about the fight.

I wish I could have yelled back to his uncle saying, "no, I'm not fine, your nephew won't shut up about my fight. May you throw a shoe at him or something so he'll change the subject?" But I wasn't actually going to say that.

So, here I was, stuck on the side of the ship, carefully hidden from anyone's view, faking seasickness.

I heard footsteps approaching and made fake retching noises as I hunched myself over the side of the boat. Of course I didn't actually force myself to throw up, that would be a horrible waste of a nice piece of pork, and I wasn't actually seasick.

"I just came to check up on you," he said, resting a hand on my back. "You don't sound so good."

Turning toward him, I wiped my mouth with my sleeve for effect, trying to grimace. "I don't feel well. The sooner we get to land the sooner I'll feel better." It wasn't a lie, but I know he didn't interpret its true meaning.

"I already told my uncle to take the most direct route back to shore."

"Thanks." I actually meant it. I used to have a crush on Pete, he was cute and funny, and when I got to know him, he was really nice. But our date changed that. He was caring and he made me laugh, both of which are great, but he couldn't let me go more than ten minutes without hearing him recount the story of when I beat up Jocelyn at the Groovy Smoothie, and I couldn't take it anymore.

I slumped onto the floor, resting my back against my bed. Solemnly, I gazed at the paper in my hand.

April 11, 2009: My First Date (Pete Martin)

I had written it this afternoon. I was happy to be going on my date, and added it to my list in anticipation.

I was disappointed, though I wasn't going to remove it from my list. He was a nice kid; he just didn't know when to give something a rest.

Deciding I didn't want to waste time wallowing in self-pity, I got up and set out for the Shay apartment, hoping that Carly would cheer me up. No one was in my house, so I'd probably just spend the night at Carly's.

I sat on the couch. "Carly!" I yelled, my voice echoing throughout the apartment. No one answered. I flopped onto my back and waited. "Hello?" I called out again.

Nothing.

The door opened. I decided not to get up, but just to wait.

"Sam?" Seriously? I don't know if my day could be more unfortunate.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh." I moaned.

"Uhhhhh to you too," he retorted.

"Really Freddie?" I sat up and shot the nerd a look of annoyance.

"Why are you so upset," he asked, more worried for his safety than concerned for me.

"Um let's see," I responded, getting up from the couch and approaching him. I counted on my fingers as I listed the reasons. "Number one: you're here. Number two: you're here. And number three: you're here." Though I was annoyed to see him, I was more annoyed than usual, but he wasn't about to find out why. I was already on edge after my date, and the only person I wanted to see right now was Carly. But nooo, Freddie had to strut right into her apartment and ruin this plan.

He turned away in annoyance, walking over to the computer.

"Don't turn your back on me!"

When he flipped around to face me, his face showed his confusion at my anger. I was never happy to see him, but I wasn't normally this angry about it. "Wha-" he began.

I cut him off by walking really close to him and giving his face a hard smack.

"Sam!"

I slapped him again.

"What's going on in here?" I heard a voice from the doorway. Oh no. Not more people to talk to.

"Nothing," it was the only excuse I could think of.

Freddie just stared at the newest person in the room with eyes that screamed "help me!" and a face that showed he had no clue why I was so mad.

"Okay you two, listen here. I'm going to put these groceries on the counter, put them in the fridge, go find my sombrero, and by then, I want you to have worked out your problems."

He did just as he said he would, but we didn't follow directions. My failed date made me too upset, so I ignored any attempts Freddie made at reconciliation, and just flashed him a sour look.

Spencer came back into the room, sombrero in hand. He placed it on top of the television before returning his attention to us. One quick glimpse and he could tell we hadn't worked anything out yet.

"Sit down."

"What?" Freddie mumbled in confusion.

"Sam, Freddie, sit down."

We did as we were told, confused by this new, authoritative Spencer.

"What's going on?" He looked from Freddie, to me, and back again.

"I don't know," Freddie said hopelessly, shrugging his shoulders in confusion.

"Sam?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Well this isn't therapy, so I can't make you do anything. But since Carly's not here, I don't know what to do when I walk in on you slapping Freddie. Carly's the one with all the answers, I normally just stand passively and make fruit sculptures. You guys aren't helping."

The awkward silence grew.

"Sam, just tell me why you slapped Freddie, and everything will return to normal. "

"I told you. I don't want to talk about it." I came over here to see Carly, and only Carly, and tell her what happened. But, I saw Freddie instead. The fact that he wasn't Carly made me upset, and the fact that it was Freddie of all people, set me off, and I became mad. But, I still didn't want to tell anyone but Carly what happened.

"Sam-"

"You know what? Why don't I just go?" I stood up and made my way to the door, ignoring the helpless expressions of Freddie and Spencer. When I was almost at the door, it flew open.

"I'm home!" Carly's holler was cut short when she saw the scene in her apartment.

Spencer ran over to her, dropped to the floor, and hugged her feet. Then, he started rocking back and forth and crying.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you. I had no idea what to do, I'm not a good parental figure, and only you know how to deal with this. Please let me go, pleaseee!" Spencer was basically weeping out of happiness for Carly's arrival, which let him get out of attempting to be a figure of authority for any longer.

"Sure?" It was a question, but once it escaped Carly's mouth, Spencer flew to his feet and out of the room.

"What was that about?" Carly looked at the two of us. Spotting my attempt to leave, she closed the door behind her. "I come back from volunteering at a preschool to find Spencer in tears at my feet, Sam making a getaway, and Freddie sitting confusedly on the couch. What happened?"

When neither one of us responded, she sharpened her gaze on Freddie.

"Sam hit me."

"Hey!" And I thought my night couldn't be more annoying.

"Sam! Why did you do that?"

"He was bothering me."

"Freddie always bothers you, but you didn't have to hit him." She looked at me and I looked away, hoping our eyes wouldn't meet. "Sam, are you okay?" Great. She caught it. Now I have to explain everything.

"Leave." I commanded Freddie. If I had to share, I didn't want him to be there.

Looking as powerless as ever, Freddie left.

"Sam?" Carly raised her eyebrows to me.

"It's… It's-"

"Sam, tell me what's wrong." She gently guided me to the couch.

"It's Pete." It had to come out sooner or later.

"What about Pete?"

"He wouldn't stop talking about my fight with Jocelyn. That's all he could talk about."

Carly's eyes grew wide with understanding and she pulled me in for a hug.

"Do you need to cry?"

"No, I just needed to tell you and to hit something." A grin took over my face, "looks like I accomplished both."

"Violence is never the answer, Sam." She started a lecture, but she saw my look of dismay and inner sadness, and decided to let it go. "But I'm sorry about Pete. Do you want to sleep over tonight?"

I nodded slowly. It was just what I wanted, but if I acted too eager, she might send me back to my house. And while I wasn't one to mope and whine all night just because the date didn't go well, I didn't want to return to my house either. So, I kept my head down and hugged Carly for a bit longer than usual, as if to show off how much I needed her.

That night, Carly and I had a movie-marathon of comedies. We stayed up laughing into the early hours of the night, pretending to be asleep when Spencer left his room, grabbed his sombrero, and tiptoed out of the door. Once he was gone, we laughed even harder as a result of the strange scene.

Though my date with Pete sent my night into a downward chain of events, it had picked up, and I was grateful for Carly's friendship.

Thank you so much for reading!

When I was writing this I had two alternate plot ideas. I wasn't truly happy with either, but this is the one I prefered because I felt like it was the one that stayed the most in character.

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