Last Time Around

Nick's P.O.V.

Driving home felt like forever. When in reality, it was on fifteen minutes. And yet the few hours I spent with Samantha felt so fast and not long enough. I loved everything about her.

Her small smile and bright green eyes. The way she looks at life. She's so confident about everything, so sure. It's like she thinks in black and white, there's no gray or in between. Plus, Samantha's so independent. I mean, it probably has something to do with being in an orphanage. I can only imagine what kind of crap she has been through. The maturity she had to go through now to practically be an adult and a parent to her sister.

I wonder if she had cut out some of her teenage life. Missed all the fun things that teens are supposed to do while they are still young. That would be one thing that I do feel bad about for her. But she doesn't need sympathy from me.

I was still thinking about her as I was walking through the door and Joe approached me.

"Hey man, where have you been?"
"Out." I smirked.
"Oh! Well that sounds like you had a date with someone. Samantha maybe?"
"No."
"Oh." Joe looked down. "Well you've got to check this out! Frankie taught me this hand trick. It's supposed to be the most comfortable handshake ever!" Joe exclaimed and intertwined our hands into a handshake. I quickly yanked my hand from his.
"Dude! Your hands are all sweaty!" I said wiping my hands on my pants.
"Yeah, sorry. I was pumping some iron and it got intense." Joe said flexing and I rolled my eyes.

I looked down at my hands at the numbed that Samantha wrote was smeared. I could barely make out the last four digits.
"Ah! Look what you did!" I yelled at Joe and quickly ran upstairs, Joe following.
"What happened?"
"Your sweaty hands wiped the number off my hand." I was in my room under my lamp trying to read the numbers.
"What number?" Joe asked. Even though my back was to him I could here a smile in his voice.
"Just a friends number." I said quickly.
"A female friend? Your female friend? Samantha the female friend?" Joe mocked.
"How many times are you going to say female friend!" I yelled turning to face him.
"Until you admit that you were out on a date tonight with Samantha and you were smooth and were able to get her number. But now you don't have it because it's all smeared. Looks like you're out of luck!" Joe said laughing.
"Thanks a lot Joe."
"Dude, chill out. We can figure the number out." He came over to me and looked at my hand. "Okay we got the first six, now the last four, we can just kind of guess them."
"How can we just guess?" I asked getting frustrated.
"Well, that could be one of two things. Either 2683 or 2688." Joe said. "So you call both and whichever answers and is her is your winner." Joe said nonchalantly and strolled out of my room. I sent a text to both numbers.

Samantha? I wrote and then threw my phone on my bed. While I waited for a response, I changed out of my clothes and brushed my teeth. After I washed my mouth out, I looked at the clock. It was nearly ten and said my good nights to my mom, dad, and brothers. Anxious to get back to my phone, I laid in bed and stared at two new text.

The first text was from 2688 saying No, but I have a second cousin named Samantha, do you want her number. Ohp, guess that's not her. Delete.

The second text was from the 2683. Fingers crossed, I opened it. Nick? I sighed.

Yeah, it's me. I was just confirming this was your number.
Sorry, I thought I wrote the number clearly on your hand.
No! It wasn't you. It was Joe. He was all sweaty and stuff.
What!? Would I even want to know? Hah.
You probably wouldn't.Lol. What are you doing?
Um, looking through some old pictures. You?
Of what, you and your younger years?Lol. Not much, sitting in my room with my dog.

I looked in the corner of my room and saw Elvis sleeping in a rug that was just for him. He slept soundly and it made me wonder what he possibly could be dreaming about. It took Samantha a while to reply back so I quickly went and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and came back to my room to see a new text on my phone.

I love dogs!

For some reason that comment made me smile and a whole lot happier. I haven't been this happy in like, two years almost. It was kind of hard trying to think back that far to when the last time I've met a really decent girl. I think her name was Sammy. I don't know.

But now, I'm as happy as I have ever been.