Summer Nights.

A car horn sounded from outside making Samantha smile gently as she slipped on her open toed cream sandals, sighing softly when she saw her purple painted toe nails appear. She stood up from her bed, where she had sat, and let her cream coloured cotton dress drop to her knees, patting it down straight, so it was free from any creases. She then walked around her bed and opened the glass doors that led out to her balcony, letting the fresh evening breeze rush in, making her dress billow around her knees, the soft cotton feeling gentle against her legs.

She stepped out onto the balcony placing her hands on the black painted railing as she looked out onto her street seeing the black car directly under it, her boyfriend standing rested against the hood, attempting to look cool with a pair of sun glasses and his arms crossed against his chest.

Sam grinned upon seeing this, shaking her head, before retreating back into her room. She picked up her bag and stepped out of the bedroom, flip flopping her way down the hallway and out of the door of her apartment. She locked it with a smile as she skipped down the two flights of stairs and out onto the street.

The sun was casting a light glow around the neighbourhood as it started it’s decent down the sky getting ready to set. She spotted Mikey immediately, his smile stretching across his face as he dropped the cool exterior and stood up straight stepping forward as she started to cross the street, looking both ways before hand.

She stepped up in front of him smiling before placing a small peck on his cheek, noticing that he was practically drenched in cologne, so much so that she wondered if he had bathed in it. She broke away again fighting the urge to cough and continued to smile. He removed his sunglasses, his eyes light brown and smiling at her.

He took her hand and led her around the car to the passenger side, opening the car door for her, the cool bad ass side to him gone in a second, his gentleman nature that she fell for in the first place, playing front and center. She climbed into the car and he shut the door after her as she put on her seat belt.

He got in the drivers seat, tossing the sunglasses in the compartment in the door, disregarding the facade that his brother had tried to get him to take on and started the engine. Sam looked over at him as he put the car into gear and started driving, neither of them having said anything yet.

“Where are we going Mikey?” she asked, leaning against the door and watching as he concentrated on the road, quickly glancing at her with a smile before focusing back on the task in hand.

“It would ruin the fun if I told you, it’s a surprise,” Mikey said with a cheeky smirk. Sam grinned as she looked out the front window of the car, already not recognising where she was, having not been paying attention to where they were going.

“Does the surprise have anything to do with the sunglasses, leather jacket and the amount of cologne you are wearing?” Sam asked with a teasing smirk as she focused her attention back on her boyfriend, already giving up on keeping track of where they were going, half wanting it to be a complete surprise, like he intended.

“Is it really that strong? Gerard practically squirted the whole bottle on me,” Mikey said, sniffing his clothes, already having had a feeling that he was wearing too much of it.

“Why did Gerard drench you in cologne?” Sam asked, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion and slight annoyance at Mikey letting Gerard do something like that.

“He said I needed to keep my look fresh so that you wouldn’t get bored of me,” Mikey said quietly, but thanks to the radio not being on, Sam heard every word. She sighed, shaking her heard. She didn’t see why Gerard should have to get involved in every aspect of Mikey’s life, thinking he’s helping when really he was making it worse.

“Do you realise he’s just practically morphed you into a younger version of him?” she said. Mikey briefly looked at her, questionably before looking back at the road, stopping at a set of traffic lights. He didn’t say anything, only sighed.

“Mikey. Why would you think you needed to change to keep me? I like you the way you are and don’t care if you don’t keep your style fresh or whatever Gerard said it was you had to do. I want to be in a relationship with you Mikey, not Gerard. I picked you.” Sam said, the last sentence barely audible as she placed her hand on Mikey’s jean clad knee. Mikey looked down at the hand then at his girlfriend before shyly smiling as he placed his hand on top of hers, lacing their fingers together.

He smiled at her and looked forward to find the traffic lights green and moved their hands together to change gear, not wanting to let go of her hand just yet. Mikey was glad there was no one behind him at that point and that the streets were practically empty.

They continued to sit in silence for most of the half hour journey. They never felt the need to fill silences while they were together and it was never awkward. Their hands remained link during the journey even when Mikey had to change gear, even though it did make it more difficult than it needed to be.

Sam stared at Mikey the whole journey. He was always so fascinating and beautiful to her. His strong jaw, piercing cheekbones and dark eyes made her weak at the knees. She felt like she could never compare to the beauty he had and always wondered why he was with her in the first place, even if she never did show it, her being the strong and confident one out of the two and even though she knew it made him nervous and self conscious she couldn’t help but just stare at him.

It wasn’t that far away from their destination before Sam finally looked out of the window and realised where they were going. She smiled to herself glad that she had worn sandals instead of the high heels she was going to wear. She looked back at Mikey once again triumphantly; he could tell she had figured it out and just shrugged slightly, hoping she was happy with it.

Within minutes they were pulling into the car park, just off the beach. The sun was just starting to dip behind the horizon, casting an orange glow into the car. Mikey shut off the car before gently letting go of Sam’s hand and stepping out. Before Sam could get her own door open, Mikey was there opening it for her and giving her his hand to help her out.

He locked the car and pulled Sam close to him, putting his arm around her waist and kissing the top of her head. “Was it a surprise?” he whispered close to her ear when she didn’t say anything as they started walking down the steps from the car park and onto the beach, Sam already getting sand into her sandals and between her toes, but not caring.

“Yeah it was,” she said smiling up at him and putting her own arm around him.

“A good surprise?” he asked, pushing to know if she was really happy or not. She laughed at his inquiries as they walked along beside where the sea was crawling up the shore, the sun sinking further into it shining on the water and still bright enough for them to see each other clearly.

“A brilliant one,” Sam said looking out to the sun feeling content and happy like she always did when she was with Mikey, the only time she actually felt properly comfortable with herself, even though she was still full of insecurities around him.

They carried on walking in silence until they got to the end of the beach. They turned back on themselves, reaching half way back to where they came down from the car park, before they stopped and sat down in the sand, watching the sun set. Sam’s head rested against Mikey’s chest as his arms encircled her body, holding them together as close as physically possible, getting each other’s body heat to shield from the temperature drop as night started to fall.

“Mikey?” Sam whispered after only a few minutes. Mikey’s long fingers stopped twirling the piece of her long brown hair that he had and he looked down into her big blue eyes. She smiled at him, reaching her hand up and resting it on his jaw. “I love you,” she said, not for the first time but feeling like it was the right moment to say it.

He grinned and his fingers resumed twirling her hair as he moved his face away from her grasp and rested his chin on top of her head. “I love you too,” he whispered. Sam smiled and squeezed him in the grasp she already had him in.

Mikey kissed the top of her head before leaning back down and capturing her lips next, showing her he really meant what he had said. They broke apart and both lay back in the sand. Mikey put one arm around the back of his head, the other staying securely around Samantha as their legs tangled up together.

“Mikey?” Sam said for the second time. Mikey laughed slightly, wondering what she was going to come out with next. He made a small ‘mhmm’ noise as he closed his eyes, to let her know he was listening. “Promise me never to wear that cologne again.” She said.

Mikey let out a proper laugh, tilting her chin up with his index finger so that she was looking at him again. “I promise,” he said seriously as if it was the most important promise to keep. Sam chuckled and lay her head back down again as the sun took its final steps behind the horizon leaving them in slight darkness.