𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐲 | robin buckley

(5) saint harrington

SAM PRESSED THE SLIGHTLY BROKEN phone between her shoulder and her ear as she painted over the chips of her black nail polish until the consistency started to turn too thick and gloopy. It rang a few times before the line clicked.

"Hello?"

"Hi Maisie" Sam grabbed the phone, "I know we agreed Saturday but I was wondering if Peony was free today? I just... don't have a lot to do today"

"She's not, I'm sorry" Maisie stated in a bored tone that suggested she'd been preoccupied.

"Oh that's alright" Sam silently cursed, the girl was her golden ticket into the doors of that mall, "I'll just see her on Saturday, thanks anyway"

"No problem and Sam?"

"Yep"

"On Saturday could you maybe take her somewhere other than Starcourt?" Maisie asked rather lazily, "the weathers just so lovely at the moment, I don't like thinking she's spending all her time shut inside... plus ice cream isn't very good for her"

"Right, of course" Sam flipped off the phone with an angered expression on her face, "yeah we'll go somewhere else, no problem" Sam went back to her cheery tone as her mind whirled with curse words.

"Great, see you Saturday!" The phone line clicked and Sam was left standing half dressed with a sour expression on her face. She slammed the phone back down onto the receiver and walked into her bathroom.

Sam's bathroom was a chaotic mess, stuff everywhere. She closed the toilet seat and sat on top of it, lighting herself a cigarette as she leant back and watched the smoke twirl in unique shapes above her. The weirdly fluorescent lights seemed to capture the smoke as it disappeared from view.

"Take her somewhere else" Sam muttered under her breath, "you take her somewhere else fucking... stuck up... Jesus Christ"

She took another drag of her cigarette, running her fingers over lines of her tattoos as she stared at the smoke. Her mind was racing with ideas. Could she get Peony to lie? Probably not, the girl was about as sweet as they came. Yet the idea of waltzing into Scoops Ahoy without her was rather terrifying. What excuse did she have to go and get ice cream, she didn't even like ice cream that much.

Sam stubbed the very end of her cigarette out on her ashtray, turning and staring at herself in the mirror. There were bags under her eyes made purely of old makeup, her roots needed doing and her skin looked paler than usual, odd considering it was summer. She rubbed her hands over her face with a loud groan, turning on the tap and pressing cold water into the crevasses of her eyes.

She flicked the water off and paced back through her apartment, stepping over the piles of mess on the floor. Sam opened the fridge and took out a cold pepperoni pizza, taking a slice as she turned her tiny television on. It was so small that it fit under her cupboards rested on the counter. The fuzzed up screen showed some people playing football in horrible glitched patterns. She hit the top of it roughly and the sound went off.

"Fucking piece of shit" Sam turned it off again, boding for her speakers instead. A Talking Heads album started playing and Sam sighed to herself, eyes closed as she ate the cold and slightly stale pizza.

Peony had been her excuse for going into Scoops Ahoy. Taking a little sister to get ice cream was a perfectly reasonable excuse to go there frequently. Over the last week she'd only been twice but she was yearning to go a third and a fourth and a fifth and a sixth. The idea of staying away was painful but she couldn't think of another option. What did her lonely, nineteen year old self have to do in Scoops Ahoy evidently not enjoying her time there?

What could she possibly say to Robin when words turned to mush in her mind? Last two times she'd been there, Steve had been serving her anyway. She desperately wanted to take the small tub from Robin, an excuse to brush her fingers against hers. Sam groaned again in frustration, mouth full of pizza.