all of a sudden » l.h. au

Chapter Three - Part 1

Songs for this chapter: All Apologies by Nirvana

"Do you mind if I ask you something more personal?" 

I stared over at Samantha with a curious glance. We both walked side by side in the middle of school's main corridor as she led me toward my new locker which I had gladly agreed to share with her. 

"Sure, ask away!" I replied, smiling at her. 

"Why did you move here?"

Oh. I was not expecting that question. As a matter of fact, I expected anything but that question.

Samantha Morgan was the type of girl who would spend a morning eternity standing in front of a mirror carefully moulding her hair into a perfect shape and painting her pale face with several beauty products I hardly knew how to use properly. Nonetheless, underneath that slim layer of makeup, she was gorgeous; to be quite frankly, she seemed similar to those high school popular girls you see on those classic American films who are mean and always try to shoot down everyone who's not like them. Yet, she was not. She was totally the opposite.  

In spite of knowing her for only three mere days, right from the very first conversation, Sam candidly appeared to be an honest and inspiring person. She looked like the sort of girl who would be the first one to pick your call at 3am when you were sad and sneak out of her own house to check on you in the middle of the night; she seemed to be so overprotective over her friends and everything and everyone she loved. She seemed to be a marvellous person - and, as much as you search away, you don't find people with such generous spirit very often. 

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."  

Only now I was realising how long I had been drowned into my own thoughts about Samantha, without any perception or clue of what was happening in the rest of the world. I usually did that a lot, escape from the wide and many-sided reality and close myself up inside a sphere of my own and keep my mind distant of everything around. That was one of the things my mother was always advising me to fight back. 

"No, it's just..." I heaved a sigh as both of us approached the locker, resting my temple against the metal of the other aside. "It's complicated." 

"I can handle complicated." Sam threw me a quick gaze and half-grinned, while unlocking the padlock. "There's a lot of it in this town. Too much, actually..." 

She trailed off, the smile on her face fading away as she evenly tucked the books she wouldn't need for the rest of the morning within the locker, one by one. I stared at the ground, sliding my foot against the cool tile from one side to the other over and over again, my subconscious constantly forcing me to tell her about my past. I wanted to explain everything to her, I really did, but I had collected too much trust issues in the past few years; I didn't possess the knowledge of what she was capable of, I didn't know every single detail of her personality. That fact constituted a disadvantage.  

"Promise not to tell anyone?" I whispered lifting my head to look at her, insecurity glued to my eyes. 

"Of course I won't, Sky!" She closed the locker and the padlock as well, looking back at me, a wide smile formed on her hot-pink lips. "Pinkie promise!" Samantha raised her little finger, which caused me to chuckle. 

I took a deep breath before speaking. 

"Well..." I started, wrapping my arms around myself and holding the books even closer to my chest. "Basically my parents split up three years ago and my mother married another man that has a son, Christian, my stepbrother. We moved here because he travels a lot."