Second Chances

“Hey,” Leanna greeted, sitting down on the couch as Sam made her way through the front door.

“Hey,” She mumbled, ignoring Leanna and going straight in to the kitchen. Leanna noticed her odd behavior and left the couch to go find out what was wrong.

“Sam?” She questioned, finding her staring at the open fridge.

“How does he not have any vodka in here?”

“Because you drank the whole bottle last time,” She said taking the fridge handle out of Sam’s hands and shutting it. Sam gave her an angry look for doing so.

“What happened?”

“Nothing,” Sam grumbled, moving over to the island in the middle of the kitchen.

“Samantha.”

A heavy sigh escaped past Sam’s lips as she turned to face Leanna, pressing her palms flat against the counter top.

“Brian kissed me.”

Leanna’s lips formed a perfect ‘O’ shape as she tried to grasp what Sam had just told her. Sam’s eyes moved from Leanna’s face to the counter rather quickly. “I don’t know what the hell happened,” She sighed. “One minute we were racing each other on the track and the next thing I knew, we were locking lips on the mini golf course.”

“And?”

Sam sighed heavily again. “I don’t know,” She whispered quietly, still staring down at the counter’s surface, hoping that maybe the answer would be spelled out for her.

Silence enveloped them and Leanna wasn’t sure what she should do or say. She knew that if Sam wanted to talk, she could always come to her because the boys weren’t really the best at keeping secrets from each other, especially when it involved one another.

“Why don’t you go to bed?” Leanna suggested. Sam nodded her head lazily. “You and I can go out tomorrow and we can leave them for a bit. I’m sure they won’t mind us taking their credit cards for a bit.”

“I may have to take you up on that,” Sam picking her head up, revealing a soft smile.

“I’ll steal Jimmy’s card while he’s asleep. Tomorrow, we go shopping with it.”

“Night Lee.”
“Night Sam.”

She trudged up the steps to her room, not even bothering to change out of her clothes. She just kicked off her shoes and threw them in her closet, slipped off her belt and threw it over by her shoes, and tossed her plaid shirt somewhere on the floor. She made a note to pick it up in the morning.

Sam crawled in to bed and laid with her eyes wide open, trying to comprehend what happened tonight.

First things first, she kissed Brian. And it felt damn good.
Second, she knew she had something for him. There was no denying that at all.

And third, was she ready to dive in to something like this so soon?

After all, her parents did just both kick the can, but he knew about that. She also just picked up her life and left, but he knew that too. He just got out of a relationship, and a serious one at that, but they both knew that.

Ignoring the rest of her thoughts, Sam closed her eyes and let her body fall asleep.

The next morning, Leanna kept up with her promise and took Jimmy’s credit card without him knowing.

“There’s going to be hell to pay when we get back,” Sam chuckled as she climbed in to the passenger seat of Leanna’s lipstick red Honda.

“He loves you Sam. He won’t care,” She said innocently, starting the car up.

“And he loves you too.”

The two made their way around the mall, not exactly buying anything too expensive, but just the basic necessities like new makeup, perfume, hair products, accessories, and what not. No four hundred dollar dresses were being purchased, even though Leanna had convinced Sam that it had looked great on her.

“Oooh, look at that girl over there,” Leanna pointed out, while sipping her iced coffee.

“Are you turning into a lesbian now?” Sam questioned, raising her brow and looking over at the girl Leanna mentioned.

“No, look at her shirt you bitch.”

As if blatantly stated: ‘Please come get me so I can meet Zacky.’ on her chest, was a girl wearing a Vengeance University shirt. She had a sandy colored shade of blonde hair and blue eyes like Sam’s.

“Leanna! Where the fuck are you going!?” Sam hissed as she got up and walked away from the table, ignoring Sam.

“Hey,” Leanna greeted with a friendly smile.

“Uh, hey,” The blonde replied, looking awkwardly at Leanna, then back down at her phone.

“I like your shirt.”

“Oh thanks,” She smiled. “It’s my best friend’s. She really loves the guy who makes them.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty cool. I’m Leanna by the way,” She said offering her hand.

The blonde took her hand and shook it gently. “Katie.”

Sam’s ears perked up upon hearing this and focused a bit more attention towards the girl who called herself Katie.

“Listen, my friend and I were sitting down over there,” Leanna said gesturing towards Sam. “If you wanna come sit with us, you’re more than welcome.” Katie nodded and grabbed her purse, walking over with Leanna back to their table.

When Katie reached the table, Sam’s questions had been answered. She knew that the voice was familiar and that they face was buried somewhere in her memory.

“Katie, this is Sam. Sam, this is Katie,” Leanna introduced.

Katie gasped in response and immediately dropped her purse on to the chair. Sam prepared herself and stood up from her chair, bracing herself for the hug that was about to happen.

“Gah! I missed you!” Katie squealed, hugging her friend tightly.

“I missed you too,” Sam said, hugging her with just as equal amount of force.

Katie took a step back from Sam and eyed her up and down. “For only being gone a couple weeks, California has already changed you.”

Leanna looked at the two of them confused as all hell.

“Oh my gosh! Lee! I forgot! Sorry.”
“No, no, it’s alright. I’m all for you reuniting with friends.”

“Katie’s my best friend from back in South Carolina,” Sam explained.

“So, did you find your cousin that you were coming out to meet?” Katie asked eagerly.

“Yep,” Sam said popping the ‘p’. “The lovely Leanna is his girlfriend.”

“What are you doing out here in Cali?” Sam asked.

“I actually came to give you something, hoping that I’d run in to you,” Katie said, digging around in her purse for whatever she was looking for. “I sort of internet stalked the band you always talked about and took a chance, thinking you’d be here.”

She pulled out a white envelope with Sam’s full name written in neat handwriting across the front of it.

“My mom found it when she was cleaning out your house. I figured it was important, so I kept it.”

“Thanks Katie.”

“You’re welcome.”

A sheepish smile washed over Leanna’s face as her ringtone began playing from her purse. She dug around for a minute before hitting the green button and pressing the phone against her ear. Sam laughed when she heard Jimmy’s voice shouting on the other end.

“That would be our signal to get back home,” Sam chuckled.

“Yeah, I better get back to the hotel. My mom would kill me if I was gone for another hour,” She said checking the time on her phone.

With that being said the two said their goodbyes and exchanged new contact information. Leanna and Sam hurried back to the car, trying to get home as fast as humanly possible before Jimmy had a heart attack that they had run off with his credit card.