Sam and Jamar

Sam and Jamar- A Short Story

Jamar woke up early, like he always did, put on his grey workout clothes and his high visibility belt and thought about the day ahead of him. Workout with Sam, shower, walk to school with Sam, Calculus, Literature, Spanish and Biology. Then weightlifting and MROTC with Sam. Walk home with Sam, homework, Call of Duty with Sam, dinner, and then bed. A normal day.

Man, he thought, tying his shoes, I spend a lot of time with Sam.

Sometimes when he thought about Sam, his stomach filled with butterflies and he found himself blushing. He would quickly fend off such thoughts: she was his friend, and nothing more. Right?

Sam woke up a bit slower than normal today, something felt off, but she couldn't quite figure it out. She shook it off as she splashed cold water on her face. She looked in the mirror at her reflection, her eyes had bags under them, just barely hinting at purple. She made a mental note about adding more iron to her diet.

She took several deep breaths as she pulled on her workout suit and tied her shoes. She glanced at the clock and realized how behind she was. She'd have to really push herself today. Hopefully Jamar could keep up.

When she finally made it outside, she saw Jamar casually leaning on the banister waiting for her.

"Finally," he said, feigning exasperation, "I thought you died or something."

He looked up at her and noticed that the bags that had been showing themselves were bigger. But something else was wrong too, he just couldn't put his finger on it.

"Hey, dude," he said searching for words, "You sleep okay?"

"Yeah, I slept fine," she said, bouncing down the steps, "Why?"

"You just look like you lost a fight with your blanket, that's all."

She elbowed him, and that was all the reassurance he needed.

"So, since you're late, I think we should just go on a longer run. If you can hack it, I mean."

In response, Sam took off in the direction that they normally went on their run together. Jamar looked after her, his eyes lingering on her butt for a minute. Wow, that's nice, he thought before catching himself. Then, embarrassed at his own thought, he ran to catch up with her. When he did, he noticed that she was huffing a little bit more than she should be.

"Finally decided to join me, huh?" She teased between breaths. He instantly forgot about her breathing and laughed.

"I was just giving you a head start," he shot back and then picked up his pace.

The run was a good one, even though they had to stop for traffic a couple of times, but by the end of it, Sam's breathing had gotten pretty ragged.

"Dude," Jamar said as they were walking toward the steps of the apartment building, "You need to see a doctor or something about that breathing. You sound like an old man." He tried to play it off as a joke, but he was really concerned.

"Naw, man, I'm fine. Just need some water and broccoli and I'll be good. Still recovering from that cold."

"Okay then," Jamar said, unconvinced, before going inside.

Jamar got back into his apartment and grabbed a towel before hopping in the shower. He found himself thinking about Sam as he was toweling off. I wonder if she's really all right, he thought to himself. She wasn't going to admit to him that she wasn't okay. She never did. He wondered if he should talk to her mom. He looked at his watch. No time for that now, though. I'm probably worrying too much anyway, he thought idly before grabbing his backpack and heading out.