Bring You Back to Love

Chapter 4

“HANNAH MONTANA HANNAH MONTANA HANNAH MONTANA” Sam and I chanted together as the speakers boomed with bass in his truck.

I stopped mid-lyric to laugh as I let my hand fly out the window into the wind as it came in. My hair was not a wind-blown hot mess as I glanced at it in the side-view mirror. I only ran my hand over it once before Sam turned down the radio, the wind blowing his hair as well as a grin was plastered on his face. Nothing made me happier than to see that boy smile like he was right now.

“I see your taste in music hasn’t changed.” Sam laughed as he glanced between me and the road with one hand draped over the steering wheel and the other stroked his chin.

The bright glare of the sunset made me squint as I looked over at him, still smiling. “Sam, nothing about me has changed. You know I don’t like change.”

He looks at me for a minute, grinning crookedly and I can see in his eyes that he’s thinking something, but is waiting for the right time to say it. I want to question him, but I decide against it when he speaks up again. “Good. I don’t think you should change. I want you to stay the same.”

I nod and look back out at the road. He’s stealing glances at me again until I look at him again. “Well then you have to stay the same too.”

“Always, Mally bean.” He smiles mischievously before pressing harder on the gas.

There’s a comfortable silence between us until I hear my favorite song at the moment come on the radio. I lean forward and crank it up again. “This shit is not a love song, this a doin’ me and only God can judge song!” I rap along with Drake as Sam starts laughing and joins in right after.

At the end of the song, I look up to see that we’re pulling in at Cookout. “Yes, food!” I dart out of the truck and towards the door with Sam following me.

It’s a few minutes later that we get our food and we’re sitting at our old regular booth. I take a bite of my burger and sigh with a goofy grin as I swallow. “Man, I’ve missed North Carolina.”

I look up to see Sam has the same look I do as he practically takes half the burger in his mouth in one bite. “Me too. They have a Cookout near school, but it just tastes better here.”

I laugh slightly and nod in agreement. “Well, not just the food, but everything about here. I love Nashville, but… its just different. Home is where the heart is I guess.”

Sam is staring at me now with the same look he had earlier that says he wants to say something but his lips are zipped. Our eyes are locked for a minute before a voice interrupts us.

“Mallory? Sam? Oh my gosh, I didn’t know you guys were home!” We both turn our heads to see a girl that we went to high school with coming over to us with a huge smile.

“Hey Gabi.” Sam says unenthusiastically. I try to hold back a laugh as I remember how much Gabi had a crush on Sam in high school right after he’d hit his growth spurt.

I smile up at her after Sam smirks at me. “Hey Gabi. Yeah, we got home yesterday actually. How are you?”

“I’m great! I go to UNC now, so it’s all good. And Sam I know you went to FGCU and play soccer there.” She says, smiling with googly eyes to him.

His eyebrow raises and I know he’s about to say something he shouldn’t so I cut in. “That’s great! UNC is a good school.”

“Yeah, I like it. So… are you guys still together? I mean, I looked on facebook and you both haven’t updated your pages, so I didn’t know.” She rambles on, still glancing at Sam.

I try not to look at Sam as I answer. “Um, well…”

“We, uh…” Sam stutters at the same time as I do.

“Oh… I see. Sorry I asked. But I guess I’ll see you guys around, especially you, Sam.” She smiles and tries to wink, but it only comes out awkwardly before she walks off.

Usually Sam and I would laugh about Gabi and her weirdness, but this time it was silent as he sucked the last bit of his drink. “I’m, uh, gonna get a refill. Want me to get your’s too?”

I nod and glance up at him. “Yeah, thanks.”

He takes both of our cups and up to the refilling station as I take our trash and dump it, meeting him at the door. I take my cup from him and we walk to his truck.

As Sam reaches to put his keys in the switch, he pauses and looks over at me. “I’m sorry that was awkward.”

I shrug and look straight up into his chocolate brown eyes. I try to smile but I quickly fail as I reply. “It’s not your fault. Gabi makes everything awkward.”

“That’s not what I meant.” He said, looking down at his keys. Again, he’s holding something back.

I don’t wanna get into that now, so I ignore it again. I didn’t want to ruin our perfect day. He must’ve read my mind because he sticks the keys in the ignition and cranks the engine.

“Where are we going now?” I ask, knowing it’s much too early for Sam to go home.

“Soccer field so I can kick your ass in a game or two.” He smirks and that’s when I know the awkward moment has passed.

Within minutes, we’re pulling up in front of our old high school’s soccer field. There’s only 4 lights that light up the entire soccer field and I look down, remembering all the times that I’d played here. That’s when I remember they have a gate with a lock. “And how exactly are we getting in?”

Sam almost looks offended as he opens the driver’s side door, the lights of the truck lighting up his face. “You think I didn’t think this through? Shame on you, Mally bean.”

I roll my eyes with a grin before getting out and following him up to the gate. He pulls out his keys and puts one in the lock, jiggling it a little before the gate opens. He looks back at me with a proud smile before nodding toward the field. “I know, you’re amazed.”

“How-“ I start to ask as I walk through the gate.

He follows behind with a grin as he tosses his keys on the grass near the gate, chuckling slightly. “Last summer Coach P gave me a key since he said I would need to practice before I went back to school. So this is where I spent basically all of last summer.”

I raise an eyebrow and grin slightly, nodding. “Coach P probably just missed you.” I tease, remembering that the soccer coach in high school always said Sam would play for college since our freshman year.

“Can you blame him?” Sam agreed with a laugh as he stroked his chin proudly.

Rolling my eyes, I shake my head and smile before running to the opposite end of the field, grabbing a ball from the bin near the locker rooms. “Just shut up and step aside.”

Sam laughs and steps to the side of the goal. From the opposite end, I send the ball flying with one swift quick and Sam dives to stop it, but misses as he falls to the ground.

He looks back at the ball in the net before looking back to me with a surprised smile. “Somebody’s been practicing.”

I laugh and shrug nonchalantly as I make my way back to him on the other end of the field. “I played on the intramurals team at school. No big deal.”

“Alright, alright. You had your fun.” He says, standing up and dusting his hands off as he grabs the ball and braces to kick to the other goal with a big smirk. “But this is how actual college ball players do it.”