Mom, I'll have a chat with her when I'm ready. I'm not about to have a conversation with her when I know I'm not prepared to have it. Please just drop it." I look slightly back to see Jason in deep conversation with Sam. That doesn't seem like a good thing.
"Now. I have places to be. Thank you for coming to the game, you know I love seeing you guys." I give my parents quick hugs and rush over to the troublemakers.
Their hushed whispers come to a stop as I approach them, "Don't stop on my account. What are the two of you talking about?"
Jason throws his arm around Sam's shoulder, "Just about how I'm the better looking Rudderford and that Sam should give me a chance." My jaw clenches. I know that the likelihood of them getting together is slim to none, but the thought of Sam with anyone pisses me off. Fuck.
"Jason time to go," my dad exclaims.
"I guess that's my cue." He turns fully to face Sam. "It was the upmost pleasure meeting you Sam." When he goes to hug her, he whispers something in her ear that I can't make out.
"Good game Maxxy." He claps my shoulder as he passes to follow my parents to their car.
"What was that all about?" I look at Sam whose face is slightly flushed. That's weird.
"I think he just wanted to make me feel comfortable while you and your parents talked. I probably should've just left but I thought that might be rude."
"No, I'm glad you didn't leave," I sigh and brush back the hair in her face. "I'm sorry about my parents. As you can see, they are very opinionated, especially in terms of my love life."
"Right. I'm sure they just want to see you with someone who makes you happy. Maybe if you told them the truth, they wouldn't nag about it. Do you really want to get back together with her Max? After everything she's done?" She suggests.
I let my head drop and look at my shoes before answering, "I just don't want to be alone forever. I know that she's there if I can't find anyone else. It's like a safety net."
"I don't think it's worth it if you can't trust her though. Who's to say she won't do the same exact thing? In the back of your head, you'll always be thinking about all the ways she hurt you. It's not really something I think people get past."
"Yeah, I guess." I know she's right. It just scares me.
"Plus, you'll never really be alone. You have a lot of people who love you. And one day, someone's going to come along, someone good, and make all the hurt worth it. All the bad things that happened won't matter because eventually you'll have the person you're truly meant to be with. And they won't be with you just because of your status. They'll be there because you're a fucking awesome human being."
I look at Sam intently, fully grasping her words. She really found me when I needed her the most. "You've got a way with words Sam Drawings."
She flips her hair behind her shoulder, "I try. I try." She gets serious again. "I'm not kidding though Max. Your person's out there."
Yeah she is. And there's a good chance that I'm staring right at her. Fuck. Fuck. This wasn't supposed to happen. My feelings for Sam were always supposed to be friendly.
"Anyways, I should get going."
"There's no way I can convince you to come with me?" I don't want her to leave.
"Not tonight, I really am behind on work. And we have a meeting with Bahri coming up that I need to be prepared for." She looks so stressed.
"Maybe I can keep you company while you work. I'm not in a super big party mood," I try to convince her.
"That's very sweet of you, but you'll just end up distracting me." She smiles and it's almost enough to make me sweep her up and take her away with me.
"You're sure you're alright?" I question. Something tells me that it's not just the wind and her work that's making her overwhelmed. But I don't want to push if she's not ready to talk about it.
"Max, I'm fine. Now go enjoy your win." I open her car door and watch her get in.
"Text me when you get home please so that I know you got there safely." I close the door with her nod and start walking to my car when I see her drive off.
~
I decided to leave the party early last night due to the exhaustion I felt from the game.
Getting up this morning, I heard clacking in the kitchen so decided to investigate. And as soon as I stepped in, I was met with the smiling face of none other than Rydell Rivens. "Happy National Redhead Day Max! How many pancakes do you want?" She exclaims as soon as she sees me.
I slightly frown. "Del, good to see you again. But I'm not a redhead, my hair is brown with a tint of red."
I refuse to believe that I am a ginger. "Whatever you say ginger." Webbs walks in. Asshole. "Deli, I missed you!" He crosses the kitchen to pull her in a hug that lifts her feet off the ground.
I immediately direct my attention to Scott and chuckle when I see him shooting daggers at the back of Webb's head.
Walking to the fridge, I pass Scott and whisper, "Watch out Scotty, your jealousy is showing."
"I'm giving you all the burnt ones," he replies with the roll of his eyes.
I laugh and move to grab the orange juice.
Taking a seat at the bar, I watch Scott grab Rydell by the belt loop and pull her into his side to help him with the pancakes.
The love that those two so clearly have for each other is something that I've always wanted. They are so entranced with each other that they barely recognize anyone else in the room.
Getting lost in my thoughts I jump slightly when Rydell sets a plate of pancakes down in front of me. "What's got you thinking so hard Max?" She asks.
"Just still waking up I guess." I play it off like it's nothing.
She nods her head and gives me a weary look like she knows I'm not telling the truth. But she doesn't go any further in pushing it out of me. Instead, she takes the seat next to me at the bar and starts drinks from her cup of coffee.
Scott sits next to her, shoving his fork with food in her face, "One bite Books," he nags.
"I'm not hungry Scott," she whines, pushing the fork out of the way.
He just puts the fork right back up to her mouth, "I'm not moving it until you at least taste it," he says.
"I don't even like pancakes," she complains.
"You like funnel cake. It's practically the same thing."
"You're so stubborn." She takes the smallest bit from the pancake, satisfying Scott. "I don't like it."
"I don't think I can be friends with someone who doesn't like pancakes," he jokes.
"Fine then." She moves to stand. I smile as Scott scrambles to keep her in place.
"But, I'll make an exception for you." He holds her hip down to the chair, only moving it when he's sure she won't leave.
Getting slightly irritated with their lovey dovey flirtation I cut in, "How's the video game going Rydell? Sam said something about a meeting with one of the professors."
"Oh yeah, one of our professors sent out a demo to some distributors to see if anyone would be interested. Our next meeting will tell if anyone wants to move forward with us."
"That's very excited stuff. I think Sam is a little nervous for it. Is everything ok with her?" I don't want to be too obvious, but I'd be lying to say that I wasn't concerned about her. There was something definitely off yesterday. And I've been racking me brain trying to figure out what it is that is causing her stress.
"As far as I know. Nothing really makes Sam nervous though. Especially not something like a meeting. That girls got enough confidence to not worry about it." I wonder if she knows about the wind.
Sam is the type to hide away anything that's bothering her for the benefit of others. I'll get it out of her sooner or later.