It was so typical for stuff to blow up right when Sam had other things to do. Like, for example, that evening, he had a function to go to.
To celebrate one hundred years since its opening, his former high school had organized a ball and invited a few of its finest students from over the generations to make speeches and play chaperons for the resulting dance.
Sam had been invited and he'd even taken time out of his extremely busy death defying schedule to write down a heartwarming speech about following your dreams, because if he wasn't living proof that nightmares came true, he had no idea what was.
In normal circumstances, he'd be back home with Christine right now, getting ready for the dance and spending a night together with her and his friends from high school. It would be a great opportunity to see both Harry and Lisa. He hadn't seen Harry outside the Agency in months, and he couldn't even remember the last time he'd talked to Lisa, but he wanted to take this opportunity to get her back in his life.
Three years had gone by since they'd finished high school. She was a smart, resourceful girl. She surely got over him by now and they could be friends again. And he'd been really looking forward to that.
Instead, here he was on the twelfth floor of some random office building, searching for bombs.
"I found it," Jimmy said from behind him.
Sam turned around, breathing in relief. Jimmy had the most bomb squad training, so it was really lucky he actually got to it first this time. He'd already slipped on his gloves, turned the bomb over and was analyzing it.
"Anything complicated?" Sam asked, crouching next to him.
Even if he was already pulling wires out, Jimmy was frowning. "Now. It's a very simple one. Not too powerful either."
"Are you disappointed?"
"No, I'm worried." Jimmy took a small pair of pliers out and cut the red wire. The bomb's timer stopped and the entire thing switched off. "This can't be it. It's too sloppy."
"You know they get sloppy once in a while." And maybe Sam had some luck for once and he could actually get home in time to change and not be very late.
"Doesn't feel like it to me." He put his hand over the microphone on his headset. "Order Jessie out."
"Um, what?" Sam asked, surprised.
"I don't trust this and I want her out of--"
The building shook with the force of an explosion from the floor below them. Sam's heart hitched and his ears rung. His butt hit the floor. Shards of glass filled the hall-like open space they'd been working in as all the windows on their floor shattered.
Jimmy brought the microphone closer to his mouth. "Jessie!"
"I'm okay," she answered at once, her voice strained. "I just think we should get out of--"
Another explosion covered her next words and the floor tilted dangerously. Sam slid back a couple of feet right before the floor cracked between him and Jimmy. Chairs and cubicles came flying at him together with computers and office supplies. He scrambled to his feet. A chair knocked him over and he continued to slide towards the broken windows.
His mid raced at full speed, trying to outrun the falling furniture. His fingers dug into the floor, but there was nothing to hold on to. As he glanced around madly for something to stop his fall, he saw another bomb strapped to a pole on his right. On their floor.
He turned on his side and reach out, but it was impossible to get to it. Damn it! And then there was the matter of not falling out the window with the furniture. He took out his magnet, strapped it to a small gun and shot towards the back of the room. It stuck to the ceiling just as his feet dangled over open space.
The rest of his body fallowed out into the rain and jerked to a halt as the wire stopped his progress. Out of reflex, he looked down. Debris were flying through the air and into the street which was too far down. Blue and red lights flashed at a maddening pace. Bile rose to his mouth and his hands turned clammy instantly. He shut his eyes, trying to drive the nausea and the terror back. This wasn't the time to freeze up.
Something heavy hit him in the head and he almost let go of the wire.
"Roll it up," Jimmy yelled in his headset.
Sam blinked, trying to get his eyes to work properly again. Right. All he had to do was press a button and get himself out of that one.
"There's another bomb to your left, about half way in," he whispered, forcing his numb fingers to press the button. Once the wire started rolling and his body shot forward, he felt a tiny bit better. In a matter of seconds, he was back on solid floor.
"I found another one," Jessie announced, thankfully still alive.
"If it's standard model, cut the red wire," Jimmy instructed and Sam could see him crouched next to the other bomb, dismantling it.
By the time Sam scrambled up to flat ground and pulled himself away from the edge, Jimmy was by his side, a pair of goggles on, probably searching for heat signatures, cursing under his breath.
"I think that's the last of them."
"I think so too," Jessie said. "I'm coming over to you guys."
"Yes, please," Jimmy said, taking his headset and goggles off. "Damn it, we were sloppy."
Sam nodded shakily, still trying to get his heart rate to calm down. His hearing was fuzzy and he couldn't shake off the feeling of falling into the void. Then there was the guilt over what Jimmy had said, because he'd treated the situation too lightly.
"I'm sorry," he stammered.
"Not your fault. It fell into the pattern," Jimmy said, grasping his shoulder. "Let's just hope no one was hurt."
Sam nodded, though the sound of blaring sirens from the street had him feeling a bit better. At least if anyone was, the ambulances were there.
"Hey." Jessie made her way to them and sat next to Sam. Her lip was bleeding and she was covered in soot.
"You okay?" Jimmy asked, squatting next to her and wiping the blood off her lip with his thumb.
"Yeah. Took a chair to the face. I'm just a little shaken because I didn't expect everything to start blowing up. And my ears are ringing."
Jimmy caught her in a hug and all three of them stayed silent for a few more moments. Sam breathed in and out a until he finally stopped shaking, then checked his watch. Great, he was already running late.
"Believe it or not, I need to go."
"The high school thing?" Jessie asked.
"Yeah. You guys coming?"
"Not with this fat lip," Jessie said with a laugh.
"My head is bleeding. You'll be fine," Sam assured her.
"We actually have other plans for tonight," Jimmy said with a grin that made Sam sure he shouldn't be asking.
"Okay then. Ready to get out of here?"
"Of course." Jimmy grabbed Sam's arm and yanked him up, and Sam was grateful since his knees were still shaky. "Don't want to get swamped by reporters. Have fun at school."
"I'll try," he mumbled and winced once he touched his forehead. He could already hear people running downstairs and was sure his job there was done, however poorly.
He had somewhere else to be. And as he got into his car and pulled out of the underground parking lot, he couldn't believe what his life had become. Going to a party after almost dying. Except, at this point, almost dying was nothing new. It was the norm.
♠️
What Sam didn't expect was to find Christine home, not dressed, and definitely not ready to go. Her hair was caught up in a messy bun on top of her head and she actually wore a track suit she only did on her laziest days. She had headphones on and was staring into her phone, perched in front of her vanity.
"You're not ready?" he asked, shocked.
She raised her nose from her phone and her eyes widened. Then she let out a long breath. "Oh, thank God you're alright. I was just looking at the footage from downtown." She showed him her phone which ran a recording of the explosions filmed from somewhere in the street.
"I am, thanks. But Christine, we have to be in school in like fifteen minutes."
She scoffed and threw her phone on the bed. "Sam, you were in a building that blew up. I'm sorry that I was more concerned whether you were actually alive than about this stupid dance."
She had a point, but it still annoyed him. And his annoynace seemed to act like a shield around him that kept her away. She made no move to come over and hug him or kiss him and he wasn't going to make the first step this time. Not with that attitude.
"I'm going to this thing."
"Fine." She rolled her eyes. "I'll get ready too, then."
"In how long?"
She seemed to consider this. "About an hour and a half if not two."
He didn't have that sort of time. "I'll miss my own speech."
"Then you go ahead and I'll come in later, when I'm ready." Her tone showed there was no point arguing.
"You'll miss my speech."
Christine smiled. "I'm sure someone will record it and I'll be able to see it later." And she started pulling out all sort of makeup kits from the drawers of her vanity.
Sam felt crappy enough without a fight about his needs versus hers, so he just groaned and headed for the shower. As he examined himself in the mirror afterwards, he had to admit he was lucky he only had a cut on his forehead. At least he didn't look like he'd just come out of a bar fight.
When he returned to the bedroom, Christine was on her phone again, but a long, black dress lay on the bed with a pair of silver stilettos on top of it, so he guessed she'd made all the progress she could without taking a shower.
He bit his tongue not to tell her to get to the bathroom and instead opened the closet and took his fancy suit out.
She was still on her phone while he put on his pants and his socks and it became increasingly harder not to snap at her.
"Anything interesting?" he asked instead.
"Your bombing incident is trending on Instagram," she answered.
Grumbling to himself, Sam shrugged his shirt on. The sleeves were a little short and tight. He raised the cuffs and stared at the buttons. His shirt was not supposed to have buttons there. It was for cufflinks.
"Christine, this isn't my shirt." He glanced over his shoulder.
Her thumb hovered over the screen for a second before she put the phone down and looked at him. She let out an exhausted sigh.
"What are you talking about? I got you that shirt last Christmas."
Did she? He couldn't remember what she got him last month for his birthday, yet alone last Christmas. It was the type of information he no longer stored.
"Are you sure? Because it's pretty tight." That was putting it mildly. It didn't fit.
"You should've mentioned that after you tried it on the first time. Now it's too late to exchange it." She grabbed her makeup kit and finally headed for the bathroom. "Just grab another one." She stopped next to him and put a finger under his chin, the air of annoyance gone from her. "You look great whatever you put on, anyway."
And with a light kiss on the lips, she entered the bathroom and locked the door after her. Sam groaned and shrugged the shirt off. His chest ached the same way it had two weeks ago when he'd come home a day too soon and found her suspiciously naked and harassed.
Every since, as much as it hurt, he couldn't shake the feeling that she was hiding something. Or someone. He didn't outright focus on it, but deep inside he was almost convinced she was cheating.
He shut his eyes, trying to drive the stupid thought back. This was them. There was no way she would be cheating and then acting so normal around him. There had to be more signals than this.
But the thought wouldn't let him be even as he left home and reached high school. It clogged his mind so much, he couldn't even be nervous about his speech. He delivered it out of pure reflex, without even dwelling on it or gauging the audience for reactions.
Even if it was maybe a minor thing, the whole shirt incident completely screwed his evening.
"Hey, that was a great speech."
Lisa's voice finally managed to snap him out of his attempts at more potent denial. She smiled at him in a natural way, looking gorgeous in a midnight blue dress, her blond hair caught in an elaborate bun.
"Hi, it's so good to see you." And without even stopping to consider if it was appropriate, he caught her in a tight hug.
Lisa laughed and hugged him back. "It's good to see you, too. What happened to your face?"
"Eh, minor explosion. Nothing too interesting. How have you been?"
"Great. My internship at The Herlad is going great, college is easy and I'm excited for the future." She looked at him with a sheepish smile. "I'd ask how you've been, but I'd be a hypocrite not to admit I've been following your press appearances religiously. As part of my job, of course."
Sam laughed, because if there was one person in this world he didn't mind stalking him, it was Lisa. "Okay, then. I honestly was most excited about tonight because I knew I'd get to see you again."
Her smile only widened and Sam couldn't help but notice how fresh and happy she looked. Such a contrast from the moment their friendship had ended. The moment he'd kissed her just to prove a point to Christine. The memory now made him cringe because he'd been such an idiot and could've handled that situation so much better. The miracle of hindsight.
"It's also fascinating talking to people about you," she continued. "Anyone who's known you before the whole press thing blew up swears they could tell you were special and made for greatness from the get-go."
"That's stupid. They all thought I was a geek."
"I still do," Lisa pointed out.
Sam grinned at her. It was so rare to have a normal conversation with someone who wasn't in their inner circle and who he actually liked. And Lisa was great, just like she'd always been, except he was too dumb to see it. He opened his mouth to ask if she was seeing anyone, but she beat him to it.
"Where's Christine?" she asked.
Sam's mood instantly plummeted as his previous thoughts returned to the forefront. "Still getting ready."
"Yeah, that's fair. She usually needs a day and a half for that," Lisa said with an all-knowing nod.
Sam stifled a laugh. "We had an incident earlier and she wasn't sure I'd come out alive so she didn't bother."
"Sounds like her. Wouldn't want to waste good makeup now."
"Hey, Lisa." Harry joined the party, two glasses of amber liquid in his hands. "Lovely to see you."
"Oh, hey Harry. How's life treating you?" she asked, though Sam noticed she didn't look half as happy to see Harry as she was to see him.
"Good, good. I heard it's going great for you. At least career wise."
"That's right. You dated one of my coworkers a few months back. She still curses me for introducing her to you, by the way."
Harry laughed and gave one of the glasses to Sam. "Nice to see some things never change."
Sam downed his drink, trying not to feel jealous that Harry and Lisa had kept in touch without him, but Harry hadn't stupidly kissed Lisa and played with her feelings, so Sam deserved this. The whiskey was decent enough not to make him gag and splutter and he certainly didn't want to look at it any longer than he had to. The color reminded him too much if Christine's eyes.
"I'm done fixing you up, Harry," Lisa said with an eyeroll. "I always did it because I wanted to be the one to introduce you to the woman who would whoop your ass, but it's just not worth all the hate anymore."
Harry laughed, but Sam knew him well enough to sense the bitterness in it. And even if it happened what seemed to be a million years ago, he still remembered how Lisa had set him up with one girl he had fallen for in their senior year. Except she'd dumped him and Harry still seemed to feel the sting.
"This is fun," Lisa said, looking from one to the other. "I missed you guys. I can't stay much longer now and I have some other people I need to chat with, but I'd love it for the three of us to get together later this week or the next. Just hang out like in the good ole days."
"I'd love that," Sam said immediately and was rewarded with another honest smile.
"It's a date then." Lisa hugged Sam again and kissed him on the cheek, nudged her fist against Harry's shoulder and was off.
♠️♠️♠️
Happy New Year everyone! Hope you're not too hung over to read 😅
Didn't have a better place to break up this chapter. I kinda like how if came out so far. You get a good look into Sam's life and his relationship with Chrsitine.
You also get to see Lisa and Harry again. I hope you enjoyed that because I love writing them, especially Lisa.
Of course, all the drama is in the next half of the chapter which I may post a little later, depending on the editing time I will have.
Meanwhile, please give me your thoughts and prepare yourself for drama 😅
Hit the star!