Life Starts After Dark

Skylar’s POV

I waited for my date, trying not to be nervous. It turned out that this wasn’t an easy feat to achieve. I fussed over my red skirt, and made sure there were no scuffs on my black leather lace-up boots. I put on my denim jacket, only to take it off, then put it back on again a few minutes later.

Why is this bothering me so much? I thought to myself as I made sure my black curls fell just right over my shoulders and down my back. I applied a little more clear gloss to my lips.

The fact was, I didn’t know how I was supposed to act around Sam now that he had become more than just my boss. At least, he possibly had become more than my boss. I didn’t know how long this was going to go on for.

Eventually, there was a knock on the door. When I answered it, Sam was standing there in a plaid flannel rolled up to his elbows. He paired this with a pair of worn Levi’s and work boots. Obviously I had overdressed.

“Hi,” I said shyly, smiling at him as I stepped outside to join him.

“You look amazing,” he said, and I noticed he did not share my shy nature. He was looking forward to this in a way that made me worry.

He walked me out to his truck, were country music was playing. I had to say, I hated country music so much. But I guess it was unavoidable when you moved to a town like Bon Temps. I suppose I would have to develop a taste for it.

“So, what movie do you want to see?” he asked as he pulled out my driveway, narrowly missing one of the potholes in my sketchy gravel lot.

“I know this might sound a little weird to you, but I sort of want to see something with a lot of blood and guts.”

He laughed at that, a good-natured sound. Apparently it wasn’t as weird as I thought it would be.

“Well, they are playing Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the movie theater again this week. They always do a horror movie week right before Halloween.”

I had almost forgotten that Halloween was only a week away. It’s funny how I had completely lost track of time.

“Are you up for it?” I asked, looking at his face that glowed blue in the light of the dashboard.

“I am up for anything you want to do. And you’re right, a good blood and guts movie sounds really good now. That’s funny that it works that way, but hey, whatever works. Maybe there is just something wrong with us.”

“Tell me about it,” I murmured under my breath.

We bought tickets to quench our little horror movie fix, then got popcorn and sodas before we went into the small theater and found our seats. The theater was mostly empty, besides two other couples that I was sure were teenagers due to the fact that they couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. They also sat in the back so they could more privately makeout, which pointed even more so to their young ages.

It was easy to ignore them once the movie started.

Okay, I had never seen this before, but the first five minutes or so of the movie were enough to tell me that this was going to be pretty gory and disgusting. Perfect.

I have to admit, I winced as the chainsaw guy bashed the old man’s head in about twenty minutes through the movie.

My arm was rested innocently on the armrest between us, and I grabbed some more popcorn with my other hand at the same time that Sam went for another handful. Our fingers touched, and I was surprised when I felt the heat rising in my cheeks. He was very warm. Our fingers lingered for a while before he continued to scoop out some popcorn and toss it into his mouth. I smiled as I took some more, and continued watching the masterpiece of gore.

When we had finished our popcorn, Sam put the empty bag in the empty chair on the other side of him, leaving no boundaries between us. Our shoulders were touching now.

His arms was on the armrest now, so when it came to the part where the chainsaw guy was peeling of that one guys face with a knife, it was all too easy for me to grab his hand after letting a small squeal escape my lips.

He looked over at me, smiling, while his thumb moved in intricate patterns on the back of my hand. My cheeks were on fire. I felt like a teenager all over again with the way he was looking at me then.

I turned my attention back to the screen before I could spontaneously combust. I was a little disappointed when, at the end of the film, everyone was dead. Could there not be just one lucky survivor? Oh well, that was a horror movie for you.

When we left the movie theater, we were both laughing nervously about how incredibly disturbing the movie was. We also talked about the many things that could not have possibly happened the way they did in the movie; like the fact that the one guy’s face would not have come off so easily because there was simply too much tissue to bind it to the skull.

“I’m sorry that there are no fancy restaurants here. You must be used to nicer places in California.”

“Excuse me, Sam. Do I look that sophisticated to you? You could take me to In-N-Out, and that would be fine with me. My life has not exactly been full of five star restaurants.”

“Good. I like a girl who’s a little rough around the edges,” he said, smiling at me as he opened the door to the diner we had been making our way to down the road from the theater.

Why was it that every single word that came out of his mouth made me blush with such an intensity that I thought I would about to burst into flames? It was nice being attracted to a living, breathing, warm person. It was normal, and that was comforting to me.

We sat at a small booth in the corner of the diner, and a an elderly waitress walked up to us to take our order.

“A double cheeseburger and fries, please,” I said to the waitress. Sam looked at me with adoring eyes.

“Make that two,” he said, then turned back to me.

When we got our food, the conversation also began.

“So,” he started, “remind me again why you would ever want to move from a place like California, to Bon Temps? Not that I’m not glad you decided to come here. You have no idea how thrilled I was that you asked for a job at my bar.” His blue eyes were doing that twinkling thing, and I had to remind myself to breathe.

“Well, I just got tired of the whole scene. Everything was so busy all of the time. Plus, I don’t think I could have been able to stand staying in my dorm room at UCLA after my roommate died.”

I immediately regretted saying anything about it, because Sam’s eyes widened. “You’re roommate died? How did that happen?” he asked in a tone that expressed the greatest concern for me.

“It wasn’t pretty. She went to a Laundromat in a sketchy part of town. I tried to tell her that it wasn’t a good idea, or that she should at least take me with her. But she went a lone that night. The next morning the police came to my room. She had been found in an alley. The bastard raped her, and then killed her. They never caught the guy.”

“I’m so sorry, Skylar,” he whispered, putting his hand over mine. It was warm and comforting. He was leaning close enough that I could smell him. He had a nice musk about him.

“I hate it when people say sorry about stuff like that. You didn’t have anything to do with it, so there is no need for you to be sorry about it.”

“No. It’s just that I can tell it caused you a lot of pain, and I am sorry about that. I wish I could make it better for you.”

“This alone is fantastic,” I said, gesturing to his hand that was wrapped around mine. “You’re so sweet, Sam.” this time it was his turn to blush. And I was happy when he changed the subject.

“So, UCLA. You must be really smart to have gotten in.”

“I got good grades in high school. I was bouncing from foster home to foster home. My parents died when I was a kid, but I think I got a pretty good life for a kid who never got adopted. But then again, I didn’t really want that. I felt like if I did, I was just replacing my parents. I couldn’t have been happy that way. So I turned eighteen, left the system, and got a full scholarship to UCLA.”

“I was adopted too. But my foster parents abandoned me. So I have never really known what it is like to have parents.”

“I guess we have a lot in common,” I ventured.

“Yeah,” he said.

We had finished our burgers, and then we walked back to his truck. He held my hand the whole way home, and then when we got to my house, he walked around the front of the truck and opened my door for me. He held my hand as we walked to the porch. I laughed loudly as we joked more about the movie.

Once we reached my front door, I was about to go inside when he spoke.

“I had a great time with you tonight, Skylar,” he said. The words were normal enough, but when he said them, his voice went husky. The sound sent shivers down my spine. I turned toward him again. He gave me that look that I knew well enough now, being a grown woman. It was the look that a man gave when he wanted to kiss a woman. I nodded, looking him in his beautiful blue eyes.

He pressed me against my front door, and kissed me roughly. I gasped, winding my fingers in his hair as I felt his tongue brush against the inside of my lips. I felt like I was made out of jello. This felt so right.

He pulled away, kissing me on the cheek, before I turned, fumbling with my shaking hands as I unlocked the door, went inside, locking the door behind me.

Wow. That was amazing.

And then I thought about Eric.