Baby, I'm Back!

16 - Good For Now

He pulled me into a tight hug. "You fucking scared me." He mumbles into my hair.

"I scared you!?" I lean away. "You almost hit me with your car!"

"Sorry about that." He scratches the back of his neck. "You can't just run off!"

"Well I went to go find you, but you seem pre-occupied."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "I didn't mean for you to see. It was nothing."

"You were kissing!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah?" He crosses his arms. "And why do you care?"

"I don't." I mumble.

He cups his ear with his hand. "What was that?"

"I said I didn't care, okay? Stop thinking I'm jealous."

"I didn't say you were jealous, I asked why you cared." He raises his eyebrows.

"Shut. Up." I grit my teeth.

"Aw. Does Care Bear have a lil' crush on me?" He smiles and winks.

"You are the last person I would have a crush on!"

"I'm just teasing." He smiled. "Unless... You really do like me?"

There was a moment of silence as we looked into each others eyes.

I awkwardly laughed, scratching the back of my neck, my eyes drifting towards the floor. "No..." I replied unsurely.

"No?" He took a step closer, his expression now unreadable. What did he want me to say? 

"No." I replied firmly. "I don't." 

He stopped walking closer. "Get in the car." He said. "It's late. We're going home."

"Fine by me." I shook my head and buckled myself up into the passengers seat. 

I lay my head against the headrest and close my eyes. I'm not sleeping. I hear the car door open on Sammy's side and then I hear mine open. He unbuckles my seatbelt and is about to carry me in. "I'm not sleeping," I tell him. "I can walk, just give me a second." 

I try to take another minute to just breath and relax a little, but I hear him sigh and he lift me off my seat. "I'm impatient."

"Then leave." I said.

"Leave? So you can go cry and run off again?" He carries me up the stairs.

"Ouch. Too soon." 

"You're not the one who almost had a panic attack looking for his best friend, Cara." 

"Sorry." I respond quietly. He doesn't say anything.

He lifts his leg to push down the door handle then he kicks my door open gently. He places me down on the bed and then grabs a spare blanket and one of my pillows and sets up his bed on the floor. He lays down on his side, his back facing me. 

I lean over the edge of the bed to look at him. "Wow. Really?"

"Yes, really. I'm mad at you."

"You're mad at me?" I point to myself. "Me? I'm mad at you!"

He rolls over to face me. "I try so hard to defend you! Because obviously you're not so great at it yourself! And then you go ahead and tell me you can fight your own battles! And then I go to blow off steam and I simply meet a random girl and get some action! And then I go back inside to look for you to find that nobody knows where you are! Then I call you and you hang up on me! And then I almost killed you with my car. Not a great night so thanks a lot." He stuffs his face in his pillow.

"Oh, like that's my fault? Mandy started all of this!"

"Can't you just apologize?" He mumbles into his pillow.

I shake my head in disbelief. "I already did, Samuel. But fine. I'll say it again 'cuz I'm the bigger person. Sorry." I lay down, my arm tired of propping my body up. "Happy now? Geez. You're like five." I mumble.

I try to get some shut eye. I hear shuffling and feel the other side of the bed dip. The corners of my lips twitch up but I try to act like I've fallen asleep already.

"You're cute when you pretend to sleep." Sammy says. I open my eyes and he's smiling six inches from my face. 

God. He's so annoying. He has the mentality of a toddler. Can't he leave me alone for the rest of the night. I'm trying to sleep!

I crinkle my nose. "Your breath smells."

"You too. But I didn't wanna say anything because I was being polite. Cough. Cough. Unlike some people..." he trails off, tracing patterns on the blanket with his index finger. 

"Yeah... we should go brush. But we're good now, right?" 

"Right." He replies and pulls off my blanket. We go to brush our teeth and change into actual pajamas. That feels much better.

I'm so tired and I lay like a corpse on my bed, unmoving. I feel my mind drifting and I know I'm a goner.

"Cara?" Sammy asks from beside me. 

I groan in response.

"Were you actually jealous?" He whispers.

I didn't answer. Instead, I fell asleep.