𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐲 | robin buckley

(7) sam is good at advice?

SAM COULDN'T STAY AWAY, THAT MUCH WAS OBVIOUS. She really wanted to, Sam wanted to disappear and never return back to Starcourt mall ever again. She wanted to forget that Robin Buckley existed and go back to her sad life working in a pizza shop and wishing she could be anyone or anywhere else.

Of course, she couldn't do that. Robin had taken up a section of her brain that she couldn't ignore no matter how much she wanted to. It hurt to see her, to talk to her because Sam felt it would never be enough.

For a moment she had hoped that the girl may feel the same. When Sam lay in bed at night she thought of the pink tinged cheeks, the flush that had very definitely crept over her skin because of Sam's actions. She thought of what else this could possibly mean other than the obvious but somehow her brain wouldn't let her believe that a girl like Robin Buckley could ever feel the same way and therefore she was back to the first step.

Over the next week, she visited the ice cream parlour every other day. Sam didn't know what she was trying to achieve. Maybe by going so often she believed it would be impossible for Robin to forget her. Sam wanted her face to remain in the girls mind when she closed her eyes, she wanted her eyes to trace over her tattoos and ask questions that only Sam could answer.

Robin always gave her free ice cream no matter how much Sam insisted that she had the money to pay. As she sat sketching in her notebook, Robin would bring her slushes and milkshakes under the pretence that they would be going to waste if Sam didn't drink them. However Sam knew this was a lie, she'd seen Robin making them fresh from the machines. Sam found her favourite was the vanilla milkshakes, Robin always filled them to the top of the paper cup.

When Steve was behind the counter he'd always open the shutters behind him and call Robin's name whenever Sam showed up. He'd take this as an excuse to have a break even though he barely put any effort into his occupation. Sam still didn't like Steve but she would often sarcastically humour his ego or talk without insulting him which Robin believed was improvement.

Robin's relationship with Steve was certainly something that worried Sam, probably why she still didn't have a favour towards Harrington. She couldn't figure out what was going on behind closed shutters. Robin was always quick to defend Steve, saying he'd changed and Steve often brought Robin up in conversation when he and Sam happened to talk for longer than thirty seconds (this didn't happen often).

Sam wasn't the kind of person who didn't believe boys and girls could be friends, that was a weird acclimation that often ruined perfectly good friendships yet it didn't stop her from reading into the way Steve watched Robin or how Robin would laugh at his jokes. They pretend to dislike each other sometimes, forged insults such as 'dingus' and 'you suck' but Sam knew that in reality, this was not their truth.

However Robin would always come talk to Sam whenever she got a free second. Sam would show her what tattoos she was working on and Robin would sometimes give her ideas simply by existing. Robin's favourite activity was saying where she would get certain tattoos if she could ever brave a needle. Her opinions differed from Sam's about placement but Sam usually ended up agreeing with her.

Robin worked more than Steve did which annoyed Sam only because it meant she was often waylaid with giving out samples or cleaning the counters, scooping ice cream and giving out coupons. Sam wished she could spend her time making vanilla milkshakes and talking about tattoos. Unfortunately Robin did have to work.

A week after Robin and Sam had danced to Bowie while cleaning up the store, Sam returned back to Scoops Ahoy yet again. Neither Sam nor Robin had really discussed what had happened when closing which meant Sam was unaware whether Robin had felt the electrifying tension that had sparked between them, Sam presumed not.