Tell Me You Love Me

After leaving Stephen, I found John waiting for me, leaning against his car.

“Hey, what took so long?” he asked.

“Your brother interrogated me, the same way Adam interrogated you,” I simply replied. He softly chuckled as he opened the door for me. I got inside and buckled up. John closed the door and went to the other side, into the driver’s seat.

“So, where to?” I asked.

“How about some pizza?” he suggested.

“From Tim’s?” I remembered our first date. “You still owe me from last time,”

“I don’t recall anything of that sort,” he joked. I lightly hit his arm.

“Jerk,” I teased.

“Jerk is a rude name,” he laughed. We were at Tim’s Arcade and Go-Kart Derby in about 10 minutes.

John wrapped his arm around my waist when we went inside. At the door, Tim, the owner, was there to greet customers. Tim was my dad’s best friend and he knew me since I was born. So he’s basically my uncle.

“Uncle Tim!” I greeted. I ran to him, leaving John, and gave him a hug.

“Hey, kiddo!” He hugged back. “I haven’t seen you in ages, literally,”

“Well if you came out of your office, then you would’ve seen me last Friday!” I shot at him.

Tim laughed at me. “Sorry, but I had a customer rent out the whole place for the night,” he explained. By that time, John already joined us.

“That would be me, sir,” John said. He extended his hand and Tim shook it.

“Oh yeah, Uncle Tim, this is my boyfriend, John,” I said. “I believe this was your customer,”

“Good to meet you son,” Tim said. He seemed to approve of John. Then again, Tim has always loved his customers.

“Nice to meet you too,” John wrapped his arm around my waist again.

“I don’t want to intrude on anything else during your date,” Tim concluded, “but pizza’s on me okay?” He gave John and me a piece of paper. “Give this to the counter and he’ll know what to do,” he instructed.

“Okay, thanks! I’ll see you later Uncle Tim!” I said. Then John and I entered the arcade.

***

After getting some pizza and drinks, John and I went to the same table where we sat on our first date.

“So, what did my brother talk to you about?” he asked.

“Hey, that’s not fair!” I stated.

“How so?” John raised an eyebrow.

“Well I didn’t ask what Adam said to you,” I pointed out.

“Fine. I’ll tell you what your brother said to me if you tell me what Stephen said to you.” He negotiated.

“Okay, you first,” I said.

“Well your brother asked me what my intentions were for you,” Adam must have planned this since I told him about the date.

“And what’d you say?” I was curious.

“I told him I didn’t know for sure but you’ve been driving me crazy since we met,” he smiled.

“Awhh!” I smiled. “Aren’t you just the sweetest?”

“I know, right?” he smirked.

“Don’t get too cocky, Gomez,” I teased.

“Fine, so what did Stephen ask?” he took a sip out of his drink.

“Well, he asked if I liked you,” I told him.

“And?”

“And I said he was crazy for asking,” I smiled.

John just laughed. “Hey, I warned you we were crazy,” I laughed. I got up to get some refills on our drinks.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar figure with someone else. I felt as if my heart was ripped out, but I got the strength to go back to our table.

“Sam?” John tried to get my attention. “Are you okay?” I must have looked terrified, but I turned my attention back at him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I sighed.

“You sure?” before I could answer, I heard a familiar voice from behind.

“Is that you, Sammy?”

I turned around and saw Danny. My heart dropped as memories began flooding back to me. My first crush, first kiss, and first heartbreak was standing in front of me, hand-in-hand with some girl who looked oddly familiar.

There was a long silence but I finally gulped and spoke up.

“Yeah,” I answered trying my best to sound casual. “Hey Danny, what’s up?”

I turned back to John. His face was filled with surprise.

“Well, I recognized some girl by the soda fountain and had to make sure it was you,” he must not know how much it hurts to see him. I chuckled, still shaken by the moment of surprise.

“I guess it was,” I said. For the first time in months, I looked up into his eyes and I saw a slight slither of guilt in them.

“Come on Danny-boo,” the girl whined. “I want you to win me a giant stuffed bear!” Danny looked at her then back at me.

“It was nice seeing you, Sammy,” I flinched when he called me that. I hate how much I used to love the way he always called me, “Sammy” As he walked away I spoke up.

“It’s Samantha, to you, Daniel.” Danny hated it when someone called him “Daniel”, so I found this moment as a perfect opportunity to make him cringe a little.

He turned back at me and glared. I just gave him a smirk and waved.

“Bye Daniel,” I faced John again and he just looked at me then back at Danny, as he walked away.

“So, that’s Danny?” he just simply asked.

I sighed, “Yeah,” I was on the verge to tears.

“Are you o-”

“Can we just get out of here?” I got up and John walked to me and gave me a hug. He gave me a kiss on my head and led me to the car.

“So where do you want to go?” he cautiously asked.

“Home," I replied. I looked out the window and waited until we arrived at my house.

***

“Can you come inside with me?” I asked John when we arrived. He simply nodded. I led him to my porch and unlocked the front door.

“Adam? I’m home!” I couldn’t find him so I went to the kitchen, while John waited in the living room.

In the kitchen, I found a note on the fridge.

Sammy,

I went out to the studio, and met up with some friends. I won’t be back until tomorrow. Be safe, and if you want, you can have someone stay over.

Love,
Adam

I sighed and went back to the living room and plopped myself on the couch next to John.

“So Adam won’t be home until tomorrow,” I laid my head on his shoulder. “Could you stay with me?”

“Sure, anything you need,” he replied.

“Thanks,” I got up from the couch, “Let’s go to the roof?” I suggested.

John and I went up to my room, grabbed some blankets, and then went through the window that led to my roof. We carefully placed the blankets on the roof and lied on them. My head was on John’s chest as he wrapped his arms around me.

“So, do you want to talk to me about Danny?” he asked suddenly. He had to find out sooner or later and he already met Danny…. sort of.

“Yeah that would be helpful,” I let out a sigh. “It started a year ago…”

“Don’t look now, but that guy is totally checking you out!” Mal said. Being the girl I am, I turned around without thinking. Behind us, a group of guys were sitting at the next table over. One guy in particular, with brown, shaggy hair and brown eyes to match, was staring at me.

“No he’s not!” I protested.

“Yeah, he is!” Mal went to a whisper. “OMG. He’s coming over here. Before I had any time to think I heard a voice.

“Hi, I’m Danny,” he said. I turned around.

“Hey, I’m Sam,”

“…after meeting him, we instantly clicked and started hanging out, which led to dating,” I told John. “We went out for almost a year, but something happened,” I awkwardly changed positions, while thinking about what happened.

“Hey Mal, have you seen Danny around?” I loudly asked. We were at a party and I lost Danny when I went to get some drinks.

“Uhm, maybe you should check outside or something,” Mal replied. She quickly left when she saw Alex, her boyfriend of that time.

I went to the porch and saw Danny making out with some girl. At first I thought he was drunk so I eavesdropped before I did anything.

“Aren’t you glad you left your girlfriend for me?” she asked.

“Absolutely, babe,” Danny replied. He didn’t slur his words, which meant he’s perfectly sober.

That’s when I dumped out drinks all over them.

Danny turned around and saw me. Tears were welled up in my eyes.

“How could you?” I softly asked.

“…then I left,” I didn’t know I was crying until I realized I was softly gasping for air. I curled up against John and continued to sob as he stroked my hair, trying to calm me down.

“And the worst part,” I continued. “He didn’t follow me, or tried to explain, or stop me from leaving. He did absolutely nothing,”

“Well he’s an idiot for doing that,” John said. “But just so you know, I thought it was pretty awesome that you dumped drinks on them,” I laughed a little. “At least there’s an upside to this sad story,” John continued.

“What’s that?” I asked, now calm.

“If you didn’t leave that punk, you wouldn’t be here with me,” he said. John was right. If I didn’t leave Danny, there was no way of me meeting John, since he hates all the music that I love.

I leaned up and kissed John on the cheek.

“Thanks for staying, and listening to me,” I said.

John smiled, “You’re welcome, and I’ll always be here for you,”

“Promise?” I asked.

“I promise,” he reassured. “Forever and always, I’ll be here for you,”

With that, he leaned down and kissed me softly. We pulled away when a breeze blew at us.

“Can we go back inside now?” he asked.

“Wimp,” I jokingly pushed him and got up.

“No need for names,” John chuckled.

“I’m sorry,” I laughed. “Now get up, so we can go inside,” I helped John get up and took the blankets. We climbed back into my room and lied on my bed for a while.

“What time is it?” I yawned.

“Almost 11,” John replied.

“It’s a school night, so we better get to sleep,” I concluded. I jumped out of bed, grabbed some pajamas, and went to my bathroom and changed.

“We?” I heard John ask from the other side of the door.

“Yeah,” I opened the door. “Aren’t you staying over?” I asked. I was pretty sure I asked him to.

“Of course,” he replied with a smile. “But where am I going to sleep, and what am I going to sleep in?” I grabbed some of Adam’s pajamas from his room and threw it at him.

“Those are Adam’s, so you can sleep in them and you can sleep in the guest room,” I said.

“I can’t sleep here?” he joked.

“No, Adam would kill me if I had a guy sleep in the same room as me,” I told him apologetically.

“I understand,” John said. “Where’s the room?” I went down the hall and showed him the room.

“And there’s an attached bathroom,” I gestured towards the door to the left.

‘There should be extra toothbrushes in the cabinet and some toothpaste, along with some towels.” John looked pretty impressed on how big the room was.

“Okay, thanks Sam,” he said. I smiled and gave him a peck on the lips.

“You’re welcome,” I reached my bedroom door and heard John.

“You sure I can’t sleep in your room?” he started to joke again. “I mean, Adam doesn’t have to-,” I turned around.

“Goodnight John” I smirked at him.

He let out a sigh, then a smile. “Goodnight Sam.”