Family for the Holidays

Chapter 10

I’d like to say Monday flew by but instead it seemed to drag on and on. Paul brought me home then he Leo and Nick went out leaving the house quiet for a change. There were no messages from Samuel. So I grabbed Nicholas sparks book at random made some tea and fruits then camped out in the tv room for a change.

Tuesday Paul only had Finance with me but once I did my labs and he finished his last class he insisted on walking me to a picnic table near my next class before he would leave me alone. He was behaving extra nice I think because my early morning professor made me feel like an idiot in class and I was still feeling down about it. I still hadn’t heard from Sam but decided to reach out and let him know where I was at in case he got a chance to stop by. To stop myself from staring at my phone or passers by I dug out my book and my peanut butter sandwich.

I sniffled and wiped the tear sneaking down my face as I tried to remind myself that there would be a happy ending but it did nothing to stop the sadness the character was going through. Suddenly my book was ripped from my tight grip and my soul was shoved back into my body, at least that’s what it felt like.

“Bad book.” Samuel scolded my book as he carefully placed it on the table so I wouldn’t lose my page.

“No,” I sniffled “good book, bad day. So how is yours going?"

“You really think I’m just going to ignore that?” he scoffed, taking a seat on the top of the picnic table his feet beside me. I had to prop my chin on my hands to look up at him probably looking silly as I gazed at him. “What happened?”

“What?” I asked distractedly

“What made your day so bad?” he leaned forward, elbows on his thighs bringing him closer to me so I could clearly see the colors in his eyes.

“Come on I’d literally rather talk about anything else. Baseball even! And I find that very boring.”

“Alright we will talk about the favorite American pass time and your negative feelings later.” He became so serious I actually wanted to laugh for the first time today but held back. “ First, here’s the deal, you tell me what happened and then I spend the next thirty-seven minutes making you laugh.”

“what makes you so sure you can make me laugh?” I inquired seriously making my face blank.

“what do you call a cow with no legs?”

“groundbeef. Is this really how you thought-"

“shush! Where do you take someone who gets hurt playing peekaboo?” I almost cracked a smile just because of the ridiculous set up. “The I.C.U.”

“You keep a joke book by your bed don’t you.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“I’m pretty confident you do.”

“Who built the round table?” this one stumped me “Sir. Cumference” it wasn’t the joke but the way he presented it with a fist to his puffed up chest and the other held proudly in the air, that is what had me crack a smile and laugh at the ridiculous boy.

He smiled smugly at me while giving me an expectant brow making me sigh as I felt myself give into him.

“Fine.” I buried my face in my hands shaking my head lightly at myself before taking a deep breath “I’m not the smartest person and I have anxiety too-" I chewed my lip and watched my fingers fiddling. “-so when my professor called me out in class I froze up. He then decided to make an example of me which just worsened my anxiety all I wanted was to run from the room instead I had to sit there for another twenty minutes while he gave me smug glances anytime someone else got an answer right.” I huffed at the end of my long rant neither feeling better nor worse as I waited for him to react.

“What a douche. You know, I like to imagine what karma does to people like that. It always makes me feel better.”

“Yeah like what?”

“Sometimes simple things, losing their keys, spilling coffee on themselves, flat tire in a rainstorm"

I may be a bad person for it but this was actually making me feel better, he was cheering me up. “Thank you." I peeked up at him giving him a small grateful smile

“No problem, and for what it’s worth, I think you are brilliant” he made his voice so soft and hounest it was disarming.

This time I didn’t even mind the blush so I didn’t try to hide it as I grinned widely  back at him. Looking right into those incredible Sunflower eyes.

“So the book was innocent in all of this?”

“Well I wouldn’t say entirely…”

“Well if you need a break from that one then I have a book for you.” he reached into his pack and revealed a novel “a lighthearted mystery with a dash of humor and a love story on the side.” The man on the cover was wearing a top hat something about him attracted me.

“So no tears then?”

“I’m not about to promise that but if you need a shoulder to cry on I’m here for you.” He added a wink that had me rolling my eyes despite the butterflies it caused me.

“Hey you still need to tell me about your day.”

“I started my day with a large slice of pie for breakfast, other than that my day was the same old boring stuff all my fun classes are on Thursday”

“I’ve got classes then too, do you maybe what to hang out again?” I felt shy asking,

“I’m actually meeting some friends would you like to join us?”

My anxiety shot threw the roof, my heart pounding as I chewed my lip and wrung my hands. “N-no it’s alright it want to intrude."

“Please? I think you’d like them, and I wouldn’t want to miss a chance to hang out with you either.”

“Well maybe if our schedules match up.” I gave myself a way out thinking I could always tell him I had something whenever it is that they meet.

“we all have a class at two so we’re meeting up at noon to get something to eat”

“I’ve got a noon class-" he actually looked dejected and it tugged at my heart, I really would like to see him. “so I could meet you after if you’re sure its alright.”

“Yes!” he pumped his fist then wrapped his arm around me pulling me awkwardly into his legs getting me to laugh again. “come on I’ll walk you to your next class” he hoped down and took my bag before taking my hand to pull me up…

But he never let go.

Later when I got out of class and checked my phone for messages from Troy I saw I had one from Samuel. He just wanted to know how my class was but it made me smile so when I practically skipped over to the parking spot Troy was waiting in he gave me a strange look and shook his head but I continued to smile the whole way home singing loudly to every song he changed it to. And he changed it a lot hoping I wouldn’t know one but it didn’t really matter because I tried to sing along anyway.