Knight

21

"I know," I agreed with a nod. "It doesn't matter, alright?"

"So can we stop being weird around each other?" Sam asked seriously.

It took me a moment to form a response. Sam knew barely anything about me, yet he knew the most secret part of me and I didn't know if I could trust him with it. I didn't know if I could trust him at all.

"Sam..." I trailed, looking up at the ceiling. "I still think we should just stay away from each other."

I looked back down at him to see that he was glaring at me. I could practically see the fire bursting in his forest green eyes.

"Whatever, fine," he spat, looking away from me. "We can just go back to the only thing being between us is work."

"Sam–"

"And I can be with Mercedes without worrying about how you feel about it," Sam continued. "And we can just barely talk to each other like before, sound good?"

Sam turned around completely so he was no longer facing me, leaving me stunned with my heart aching.

***

Sam Knight

"You don't have work today?" Jonah asked as he walked into the kitchen while I rummaged through the cabinets for something to eat.

I shook my head. "Day off."

Jonah stood behind me, leaning against the island in the middle of the kitchen with an unreadable expression on his face. I turned to face him as I grabbed a box of crackers from the cabinet, giving him a confused look with my eyebrows pinned together.

"I brought your laundry to your room," he started with his eyebrows raised.

Shit.

"And I found a naked girl in your bed," Jonah continued.

"I told her to get dressed," I said casually with a shrug, though I felt highly uncomfortable at the situation.

He gave me a doubtful, disbelieving look of annoyance with his face set in a serious expression.

"Why are you having sex in the middle of the day?" he asked incredulously as if he couldn't believe he had to be asking his younger brother this question.

I shrugged, popping a cracker into my mouth. Although, I knew why I was doing it. Part of me was trying to help Jake out with Taylor by keeping Mercedes happy and the other part of me was looking for a distraction.

"Just..." Jonah started with a sigh. "Just please be careful. I know I'm not the best example of abstinence in high school, but trust me when I say that you do not want to have to deal with the consequences of not being cautious at your age."

Considering Jonah got Mae pregnant with their son, Miles, at seventeen, I could understand why he was trying to look out for me.

I rolled my eyes. "You can stop acting like my dad, Jonah. I use protection."

He let out a small, breathy laugh and shook his head, still looking incredibly uncomfortable with our conversation.

"I just don't want you to make the same mistakes I did," Jonah admitted. "I love Miles so much, but it was really hard taking care of him while we were still in high school."

"I know," I responded with a nod. "I remember the nights he stayed over, waking the whole house up."

Jonah chuckled and nodded in agreement. "He was a loud baby, so different than he is now."