T-Shirts and Short Shorts

Mom wasn’t home when we got there; I was glad to have Carter with me otherwise I would have been scared sh!tless. We both didn’t feel like working right away so we ended up flipping through the channels landing on gossip girl.

As if on queue mom walked through the door just as the episode was ending “Samantha can you help bring in the groceries, oh hey Carter, how are your parents doing?” My mom and Carters parents have been friends ever since they moved here. They always joked around that Carter and I are destined to be together and jokingly would say that we had an arranged marriage.

“There doing well. There actually planning a party and I’m sure they could use your help.”

“Oh I’ll give them a call then. Samantha bags please. I’m guessing you’re staying for dinner” Carter nodded as I pulled him out to the car to help carry some bags; since he was staying for dinner and all. I have to say with someone helping me it goes a lot faster and it’s less tiring. While mom put the food away and started to make dinner I had to watch Ian. There wasn’t really much to do with Ian since he was only 6 months and still really liked sleeping or sucking his fist. So within a couple minutes of bring him into the living room with us he fell asleep on lap.

After dinner we actually had to do some school work; I didn’t want Carter not to graduate with me as well as everyone else. I tried my best to help him with math but turns out he was better at math than me; he ended up teaching me a thing or two. In English though I excelled, I had to slow down so he could grasp it all. I’m such an English nerd. It was really late and I felt myself getting tired as I read Hamlet out loud to Carter, only to look up from the book to find that he was already fast asleep. He looked so peaceful and it was late so I removed the textbooks and pulled the covers over both of us and went to sleep.

I woke in the middle of the night from a nightmare; Chris ended up coming into my room and he was drunk, I spent the whole time trying to get out of my room but the door was locked from the outside and the windows were nailed shut. I scooted closer to Carter and the nightmare disappeared. It felt like just a couple seconds ago my head hit the pillow and now my alarm clock was going off. I stretched my arms out and my hand smacked someone’s face “Well good morning to you too Sam.” Carter said holding his face, “I’m so sorry.” I said but ended up laughing anyway.

“Bye Carter.” My mom called from the kitchen “Bye ma” Carter said before heading out the door. Our parents have always been cool with us spending the night at each others houses, if it was any other guy my mom would have freaked out. But they know that nothing would happen between us. For some reason though my mom held a funny look this morning “Sam I know that I don’t need to inform you, I trust that you can make the right decisions, but I believe we need to have the talk.”

“Mom are you serious?!”

“Yes. Now I’m not going to tell you that sex is a bad thing, you know sex out side of marriage is wrong, but I’m not going to stop you. I just want you to know that it should be with someone you truly love and want to spend the rest of your life with that person.” I already knew all this; she didn’t have to tell me which lead me to the question “what brought this talk on?”

“Well both you and Carter are getting older and your going to have those teenage urges. I would know, I was a teenager once before.” She put her mug in the sink and left me sitting there confused. Really Carter and me we are just friends.

I meant to ask mom before she left for work if she could give me a ride to school, but that ship sailed. I debated weather or not to phone Carter but he just left my house not that long ago it would be stupid of me to ask him to come back, and it was out of Claire’s route. And it was too far to walk, so I found one of the newest additions to my phone and pressed talk.

“Hello?” He answered in a dazed voice

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Its fine, but who is this?”

“It’s Samantha.”

“Oh, is everything okay?” He suddenly sounded more alert.

“Yeah, everything is fine. I was just wondering if I could get a ride to school with you today.” I asked a little unsure.

“Of course, see you in 20.” And he hung up the phone. Today I was feeling refreshed and even did my make up and made sure to wear nice smelling perfume.

Once I got in the car I returned the smile and buckled in “I’m really sorry about waking up this morning.”

“Don’t worry about, if you hadn’t called I would most likely still be sleeping.” He said with a smile. “Do you need a ride home too?”

“Yes. if that’s not too much to ask.” I said now facing him

“It’s no problem, as long as you don’t mind waiting until practice is over?”

“That’s fine.” This time when we got to school, there wasn’t an awkward goodbye as we went our ways.

Again I got sceptic looks from Claire as she wondered why I still insisted on getting rides with him, when her and Carter were both capable of doing the same. I explained to her the situation, which she didn’t seem to like and stormed off. Today was a good day, until now.

~ ~ ~

I felt out of place walking towards the bleachers, it was mostly the preppy girls who sat and watched the practices, I usually choose to watch from my car; that way I didn’t have to confront anyone. But now I sat on the top bleachers away from anyone, plus at the top they had backboards so you could rest against it. Near the middle of bleachers not that far down from me a couple girls sat down, by the way they were talking they must have been the few of the girlfriends that weren’t cheerleaders. Across the field the cheerleaders were starting to come out and begin there stretches, usually by now the guys were out on the field, wonder what’s taking so long. Ten minutes later they still weren’t out on the field and I was getting bored so I pulled out my lasted book ‘dear john.’

I was in the state where I was really into the book that I blocked out the noise around me until I heard someone shout “hey” I looked up from the book, The girls not that far down were all facing me “Why don’t you come join us down here?” What the heck might as well try something new, I grabbed my bag and moved down to them. “Hi I’m Jessica, this is Shania and Jennifer.” The one with blonde hair which was the one, who called me down, said pointing to the two girls to her right. I nodded my head “I’m Samantha, it’s nice to meet you.” I said extending my hand which they all shook.

“So who are dating?” Shania said. She reminded me a lot like Claire with how blunt and upfront she was, she also in a way looked like her as well. I looked out to the field they were already practicing the plays; how long was I reading for that I didn’t even notice them come onto the field. “I’m actually not dating any of them; I’m just waiting for a ride home.” I said a little embarrassed.

They seemed to sense that I was out of place here and so they filled me in on what they did and who they were dating. Jessica was dating Mike; they had been dating the longest of 3 years. Shania was dating Andrew; they’ve been dating for almost two years. Next was Jennifer she was dating Taylor; and they just recently started to date. The three of them all met in the fifth grade and have been best-friends ever since, they were all thankful that they were able to find such nice boyfriends who were all friends as well. I also took this time to fill them in about me and my relationships with Carter and Claire.

“We’ll be back” Shania said pointing towards Skyler walking towards me, while she and the other girls went to talk with there boyfriends while they got a break.

“So what do you think so far?” He said, taking a seat beside me.

“Too be honest, I haven’t really been watching.” He smiled “Well I can’t get mad about that, at least your not reading your book anymore.” He nudged me jokingly while I stuck my tongue out at him “I happen to like my book thank-you.” There was a high pitched squeal so we both turned towards the direction it came from, it came from Ashley and she looked P!ssed off as she made her way across the field towards us. “You better go.” I said not meeting his eyes. And to my surprise he got up and started walking away, but not towards Ashley.

“What was that?” Jessica said taking a seat beside me. “I really don’t know.” I answered.

“Oh, well whatever it is, it doesn’t look like his relationship with Ashley is going to last much longer. You two on the other hand look like you’ve got something.” I felt my cheeks get hot.

~ ~ ~

Two hours later I felt like I was part of the group. They pretty much knew everything about me, and I’m sure that I knew almost everything about them. It ended with us making plans to hang out again sometime and that they’d save me a seat for the next game though technically I wasn’t a girlfriend of one of the players.

I thanked Skyler when he pulled into the drive way and was about to get out when he spoke “Sam will you come to my next game?”

“Hmm… Well that depends, will you do something for me?”

“Depends on what” he suddenly got a mischievous smirk.

“Will you be there when the guy comes to take a look at my car tomorrow? I really don’t want to be there alone.”

“Yeah I’ll be there, listen do you need a ride for the rest of the week?”

I nodded slightly “I mean I can find someone else…”

“No, no I can do it. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” We both smiled and I got out of the car.

When I got up to my room I had a couple missed calls and a few new texts. They were from Claire and Carter wondering where I was, and one from him reading “Why do you hang out with him? He’s just using you” I wasn’t about to let him get to me again. So I went downstairs to distract myself with some house work.

Just as I was getting ready for bed my phone went off; it was starting to get annoying all these late night texts trying to psyche me out. “I seen your mother today… Now I know where you get your good looks.” The phone dropped to the floor, he’s been coming around my family now. This was starting to get personal.