"Dammit." Sam muttered as he lifted his head to do something other than kiss me for the first time in longer than either of us wanted to admit. His hair was made even messier by the way my fingertips occasionally played with it.
There came the doorbell's chime yet again, echoing into the house as though the clock struck midnight. It seemed that our Cinderella illusion of peace was quickly falling away, replaced with a sudden pressing dread.
Sam frowned over the couch, as though his scowl would be enough for the entire world to disappear. No matter how hard he tried, it wasn't going to happen. We were still stuck in the same awful situation.
As the doorbell was pressed for the third time, he finally got up and straightened his shirt. I sat up, pulling out my phone to try to appear nonchalant and like I wasn't just laying with Sam for the past few hours. Talking, kissing, and sometimes just sitting in serene silence. Regardless of how crazy it was, I was already missing it.
My whole world was changing way too quick for me to keep up with it.
I could hear the door open and a few very familiar voices exchange some light conversation. Meanwhile I opened up Instagram to scroll through my recent feed. The first thing I saw was that someone tagged me in a photo. By someone, I meant my one and only friend.
Once I pressed the notification, it took me to a post Millie made. It was a photo of the both of us on Friday, only minutes before everything changed. She was posing for the camera, while I was glancing up just in time to look startled by the sudden picture. I didn't take pictures of myself. But I didn't need to, since Millie had an infinite supply of pictures of us together. Even a few of just me.
It was weird that she even bothered tagging me in it, since I never posted anything on my account before. What was there in my life to even post? I was definitely way too boring to even try.
"Hey, Sawyer!" The sudden disembodied voice leaning over the couch caused me to jump out of my skin. I turned to find that it was Caden smiling at me innocently.
"Um, hi." I replied, clearing my throat to try to hide the fact that he scared the shit out of me.
"That's you and Millie at Jack of Clubs." He pointed to my phone. "You guys look very happy."
I sighed, because it only made me feel worse about not being with my best friend. One week wasn't a long time, but it sure felt like it when we usually spent almost everyday together. Watching movies, getting food, talking about the things that bothered us, or just basking in each other's company. I was pretty sure that I was starting to go through withdrawals from my normal life.
"Yeah." I mumbled, turning my phone off so that I didn't have to look at the post any longer.
At the same time, I caught Dennis and Sam's conversation. "Why do you look so upset?"
"I'm not." Sam countered, but his scowl did not wither.
"You clearly are."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
As amusing as it was that he was obviously upset that our romantic session was forced to come to an end, I was more focused on the fact that we had to leave soon. Which meant that our brief window of safety was about to be smashed in. Uncertainty was our biggest enemy.
"I guess we need to get going if we want to get there first." Sam's frown remained, but the cause shifted to the true nightmare in all of our lives.
I shuddered. "Do I really have to go? Can't I just stay here?"
"They've broken in before." He shook his head, and I could tell there was more he wanted to say. "I'd rather just keep everyone involved within my line of sight."
"Sawyer makes a great point." Caden tried. "Him and I can stay and watch movies and eat popcorn."
"Cade, we don't want to risk it." To my shock, that addition came from Brian, as stoic as ever.
He cast his eyes to the side. "Yeah, I know... they're all just like..."
"I know." Brian nodded.
Having no idea what code they seemed to be speaking in, I finally stood to join everyone. We all exchanged looks that said hopefully-no-one-dies, and then turned to leave. My heart was beating so fast with anticipation, that I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through the night due to that alone. My hands shook softly, so I shoved them into my sweatpants pockets.
Sam and I went towards his car, and when Dennis came to join us, Sam stopped to talk to him alone for a moment. I watched them carefully, wondering what Sam was going to say. It was that moment that I realized we never discussed how private, or open, we were going to be about our relationship. Did Sam's friends know that he liked me all these years?
I sat down in the passenger seat. The sun was already set, which was usually the case in mid-October. It was a little chilly outside, but nothing jarring. Fall was my favorite season, since it wasn't too cold nor too hot, and the leaves were bright and warm. It reminded me of playing outside with Millie as a kid, raking leaves into piles and jumping in.
Back then we weren't scared of hitting the ground too hard. The leaves were beautiful, so we simply trusted them to protect us.
My eyes flitted out the window back to where Sam and Dennis were talking. Sam was beautiful. His golden hair was bright like the leaves. Would he be able to keep us all safe?
Suddenly, he turned his head and caught my gaze. I quickly pretended that I wasn't looking at him, and began to play with the sleeves of my sweatshirt instead.
When Sam said that I only ever wore oversized sweatshirts, it wasn't far from the truth. My sense of fashion was basically nonexistent, and all I cared about was being comfortable. Occasionally Millie begged me to go to the mall with her, and she would basically force me to buy new clothes. But even then, I limited it to whatever was soft, oversized, and warm. Crewnecks, sweatshirts, and the occasional sweater.
That was what I distracted my thoughts with while I waited semi-patiently for Sam to finally join me. The door suddenly opened, and Sam climbed inside.
"What was that about?" I asked. Dennis was walking over to Brian's car.
"I told him that I needed to talk to you about some stuff alone." Sam told me as he started the engine and buckled his seatbelt.
"What stuff?"
Sam smiled. "Nothing, really. I just wanted to be alone with you for a little while longer."
"God, you make me want to throw up." My head turned to the window. I hoped he couldn't see the subtle blush on my cheeks.
"It's my specialty."
We fell into a bout of silence. I thought about turning some music on, but it didn't feel right to listen to music while driving towards our likely death. Instead I broke the silence once more with my voice. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure." Sam nodded as he drove.
"Do your friends know that you have a crush on me?" If I didn't ask him about it, I was going to die from curiosity.
He glanced at me. "No. They might know, but I've never said it."
"Do you think they'd care?" I kept thinking about what everyone was going to say once they found out. Would it bother Millie? My parents? I didn't want to tell anyone because it was only a trial period. It probably wasn't going to work out.
"No, definitely not."
"How do you know for sure?"
"Well, I mean, Brian's bisexual so it'd be pretty weird if it bothers them when it's me."
"Wait really?" I tilted my head. Brian was a peculiar person to me. He was silent, usually emotionless, and unapproachable in every way. Dennis and Sam were the ones who messed with Millie and I the most, with Caden joining in every once in a while. But Brian never said anything. He just stayed at Caden's side.
"Yeah," Sam nodded. "I don't think he'd care if you knew. He doesn't talk about it much, but he's pretty open if he's asked."
"He doesn't talk about anything much." I pointed out.
Sam laughed. "He doesn't really need to. He says what he needs to when he's ready. We could both take a page from his book."
I huffed. "You saying I talk too much?"
"We both talk too much."
"But I'm sure you like that about me."
"It makes it more thrilling when I shut you up."
The lighthearted turn to our conversation was pleasant while it lasted, but just like everything else in the world, it was only temporary. Jack of Clubs quickly approached, and Sam parked his car. We stepped into the chilly air, the rest of Sam & Co. not far behind.
Either the temperature really dropped, or I was just feeling the full effects of our shitty decisions. Which was more likely. All five of us were just standing beside our cars, silently praying that the night was going to be over without a fight. That it would be easy.
Who knew how long we were standing there like mourners at a funeral, but eventually that black van pulled into the lot. They must not have thought things would be out of their favor, because there weren't any cars trailing closely behind. Before doing anything else, Sam opened the back of his car and took out a brown paper bag. Inside was the money he owed, I guessed. I was tempted to ask about it again, but I knew he wasn't going to answer.
Sam stood at the front of our laughable excuse for a group, and Dennis soon went to follow and stay by his side. Caden looked at me and signaled for me to trail him. I tried to still the shaking of my hands as I complied.
"Do you have it?" The man didn't even hesitate, his low and rough voice loud against the quiet of the night. He was as threatening as ever, taller and bigger than the few men he brought along. After all, they were dealing with a group of scared teenagers. He definitely didn't find us to be any semblance of a threat.
"Everything you asked for." Sam raised the bag up and nodded. I knew that he was just trying to get it over with as quickly as possible.
"Hand it over." He commanded, and Sam obeyed.
The brief moment of tension as he began to sift through the contacts of the bag, regarding them without any indication of how good or bad it was. I glanced at Caden to see how everyone else was feeling in that moment, but it was hard to tell. For the first time since I met him, he was entirely unreadable. As if everything else wasn't freaky enough, that definitely added to it.
When I looked back at the man, he was in the process of studying all of us. My blood ran cold and I tried to ignore the way his eyes lingered on mine. Then finally, he turned to the people he brought and called, "Frogface!"
Almost immediately, that man with the Who you looking at? tattoo replied, "yeah?"
After hearing him say that, he did kind of look like a frog.
"What do we do when we owe someone money?"
"We mark it up." Frogface replied. I had a guess that they shared the same conversation more than just a few times. We were probably not the first group of people they decided to toy with.
"We mark it up." The man nodded approvingly.
He was talking as if it was a bank. He wanted more than what Sam gave him, even though Sam gave him exactly how much he was instructed. Putting interest on a payment for lost drugs was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. Especially when the context of Sam being just some random rich kid was added.
"I gave you what you asked for." Sam's words were strained. He was seething. I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. I tried to tell him that nothing was going to be that easy, but he couldn't allow that to be true. But it was. That was the harsh reality of the shit Sam got involved in.
"And it wasn't enough." The man just shrugged. It was a game to him.
"It's exactly enough." He was trying not to yell, but he was barely restraining himself.
"Boohoo, rich boy. Cry me a river and use your wealth to get across it."
"This is bullshit." Sam wasn't perfectly in front of me, so from the angle that I was at, I could tell that he was channeling his anger into the way he bit his lip. It was bleeding.
Once more, the man did not waver. "Welcome to life. Now what do you do with your money once a deadline is met?"
Beneath the pale glow of the sign above us, Sam stood a bit straighter. He grit his teeth as he spoke. "You mark it up."
His thin lips spread into a disturbing smile. "Exactly."
They didn't say anything else. They just turned and went back to the black van. In a minute, the engine started and they were speeding down the street. It was absolutely silent in their wake. None of us even moved. We just stood there in shock and depressing realization of the deepness of the shit we were in.
The first thing to break that trance was Sam kicking a loose piece of asphalt across the lot and screaming, "Fuck!"
No one else said a word.
Fuck indeed.
•O•O•