Childhood Sweethearts

-Cesc.
“Sam, please.” I begged into the phone. I ran my free hand through my hair and grasped it tightly. I turned my head and sighed when I saw Daniella asleep beside me. It was eight in the morning and when I woke up, I had the sudden urge to call Sam and apologize over and over again for all the things I did to hurt her.

“I don’t think so, Cesc. We tried this friendship thing and it didn’t go so well.” She muttered into the phone. I looked down at my hand and sighed, rubbing my face. I couldn’t believe what an ass I was to Sam. I blew her off just when we were starting to give our friendship another go.

“One more chance, Sam. If I blow it again this time, you can just say the words and I’ll leave you alone for good.” I begged, hoping the words that came out of my mouth wouldn’t be the words I’d regret for the rest of my life.

She was quiet for a while and I wondered if she hung up on me when I heard her sigh, “Alright. One more chance.”

I grinned and I was about to suggest the few hundreds of thousands of things that we could do together when Daniella stirred and sat up beside me.

“Thanks Sam, I’ll call you later, okay?” I said. She muttered something in response and we hung up. I turned to Daniella and smiled at her.

“Who’s that?” she asked, stretching her arms above her head.

“Sam.”

“Sam who?”

“Samantha Castillo.” I mumbled. Daniella knew nothing about my friendship or the fling I had with Sam and she was probably going to think that I was cheating on her and this whole thing would be a huge mess.

“Now you’re seeing models behind my back?” Daniella growled, shaking her head and storming towards the bathroom. I sighed and massaged my temples, muttering words to myself to calm myself down. I stood up and walked towards the bathroom where Daniella was. She was brushing her teeth and running a brush through her hair at the same time.

I wrapped my arms around her waist and pressed my lips to her neck. “Dani, I’m not cheating on you. I thought I proved that to you yesterday.” I said, gritting my teeth. I know I had absolutely no right to blame Daniella for what we did yesterday. It was my own fault for not pushing her off when I knew that Sam was waiting for me.

“Then why are you talking to Samantha?” she asked me, rinsing her mouth out with water. “She’s my best friend. She has been for pretty much all my life. We lost contact with each other for about seven years and we’re finally talking to each other again, so I hope you understand.” I explained to Daniella, making sure to emphasize the best friend part.

My girlfriend put her long dark hair up in a ponytail and shrugged, brushing past me and walking out the room to tend to her kids. I sighed and followed after her.

“Morning, Cesc.” Maria smiled at me. I smiled back at her and followed her to the kitchen where Joseph was already sitting and eating cereal. Maria sat down next to her brother and started eating her own breakfast. I looked at Daniella who was sipping coffee across from her children, watching them with loving eyes. She glanced up at me and her eyes turned cold. She turned away from me and I tried my best not to start yelling in frustration.

“Would you like to meet her?” I blurted out. I sat down next to Daniella and she looked at me weirdly, “Meet her?”

“Yes. It’d be good to have my girlfriend meet my best friend. You’ve met Aaron before, so I want you to meet Sam.”

“I’ve already met your best friends. Gerard, Carles, Lionel, Victor…” she said, continuing to list off most of my close friends. “Come on, Daniella. Sam’s one of the most important people in my life besides you guys and I want you to meet her.”

She was silent for a while but finally replied: “Fine.”

-Samantha.
“You want me to WHAT?” I yelped into the phone. Cesc sighed loudly on the other end of the phone. “I just want you to meet Daniella and Maria and Joseph. I’ve been dating her for a little over a year and I just want my best friend to meet my girlfriend.” He replied.

I ran a hand through my hair as I paced back and forth in my room, kicking my dirty clothes to one corner of the room, watching as they piled up. I rolled my eyes and sat down on the foot of my bed as I looked around my messy room.

“Half an hour. Tops.” Cesc added. I rolled my eyes and massaged my temples. “Okay.” I said, finally agreeing. “I’ll text you my address.” He said before hanging up. I sighed and pulled at my hair. What was I doing? Meeting my sort of ex’s new girlfriend? I knew that deep down, I would always have feelings for Cesc.

I ran around my room, trying to find something suitable to wear. I knew that Daniella wouldn’t like me. What kind of a girlfriend would like her boyfriend hanging out with some other girl? I quickly pulled on my dark blue jeans and pulled on a simple long sleeved shirt since it was pretty chilly outside. I grabbed my bag and stuffed all my things into it and walked downstairs and got into my car.

“It’s fine, Sam. It’s not like Daniella’s going to grill you alive…right?” I asked myself, breathing heavily through my nose. I finally pulled outside of Cesc’s house and mentally prepared myself for whatever was inside that house. I knew that if Daniella didn’t like me, Cesc would side with Daniella and I couldn’t blame him for that.

I made sure I looked okay before ringing the doorbell to the large house Cesc lived in. A little boy yanked the door open. He had curly hair and big brown eyes. He looked up at me with curiosity but then he smiled at me. “Are you Samantha?” he asked me. I smiled back at him and nodded, biting my lip. “Yeah, you must be Joseph, right?” he nodded in return and he led me inside the house.

“CESC! YOUR FRIEND IS HERE!” Joseph yelled up the stairs, making me giggle. After a few seconds, Cesc appeared. He shot me a small smile and moved forward to embrace me but I carefully side stepped him and awkwardly shook his hand instead. Just because I agreed to meet his girlfriend and her kids didn’t mean I was okay with Cesc.

He gave me a small sad look and moved towards the stairs, “Daniella, Sam’s here.” He called. I awkwardly rocked back and forth on my feet and smiled at Joseph who was holding on to the back of Cesc’s shirt.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m here.” Daniella said while walking down the stairs. I gulped when I saw her. She looked like she should be on the cover of Vogue Italy or something. She had amazing cheekbones, sparkling blue eyes and long, wavy dark black hair.

“Sam, this is Daniella. Daniella, this is Sam.” Cesc said, looking back and forth between the two of us. Daniella shot me a small smile, though I could see that it was faked.

“Pleasure to meet you, Sam.”

-

After awkwardly eating lunch with Cesc, Daniella, Joseph and Maria, the five of us settled into the living room to watch a movie that Cesc picked out—Jack and Jill.

I settled onto the comfortable couch and kept my mouth shut, not wanting to say anything to make it even more awkward. Daniella didn’t talk much—well, not with me and it made me feel so unwanted. Every time I tried to leave, Cesc kept telling me to stay for a little while longer.

Joseph paused the movie halfway and went to go to the bathroom while Maria got a refill of her drink and Cesc went to grab some more blankets. I turned towards Daniella and smiled at her, but she didn’t return it.

She moved closer to me and gave me a fake smile, “Samantha, I know that you like Cesc and I know that no matter what I say to you, he’ll always side with me,” Daniella started.

“Wait, I don’t—” I tried to say, but she raised her hand to silence me. “I don’t appreciate you hanging out with my boyfriend a lot. We are happy and you coming back into the picture is going to ruin everything. So when Cesc gets back, tell him you want to go home and you don’t ever contact him again. Do you understand, Samantha? Now, if you don’t do as I tell you to, we’ll find ourselves back to where we started. Although, mind you, it will be much, much worse.” She hissed, glaring at me.