Full Circle

Samantha laid her head on Corey’s bare chest. She dragged her hand from his stomach up to his toned chest, loving the warmth his body emitted. Corey let out a groan from the sensual contact. Samantha giggled lightly as she teased him. This has become sort of normal for the new couple. Samantha was becoming more comfortable with Corey. They’ve been intimate but not sexually yet. Samantha’s not quite ready for that and Corey respects that.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” warned Corey, playfully.

He swiftly flipped a laughing Samantha on her back and hovered over her. She ran her fingers gently through his blonde hair and looked into his pale blue eyes. Corey smiled and propped himself up with his elbows. He stroked her bottom lip with his thumb and moved down to steal a quick kiss. Samantha laughed and grabbed his face, kissing him with more intensity. He grabbed her hips and grinded down. Samantha moaned into his mouth and pushed her hips off the bed to meet his. He grunted and started kissing down to her neck, nibbling lightly.

“Corey,” she moaned.

He stopped and smirked at her, “Want me to stop, baby?”

Samantha had to come down from the high he was giving her before she could answer. “Umm..we should get dressed.”

Corey smiled and kissed her before rolling off of her, slightly out of breath. He knew she wanted him to stop. Sam regulated her breathing before sitting up and checking the time; it was going on noon. Today was Christmas Eve and Samantha’s mom was cooking a big dinner. Sam decided it was the perfect time to introduce Corey to her family. Samantha picked out an outfit while Corey took a shower.

Samantha looked in the mirror one last time. She tugged on the form fitting sweater dress. She hasn’t worn the dress in months and forgot how tight it was. It stopped a few inches above her knees and hugged her curves perfectly. She turned to the side to fix her curled hair that fell just past her upper back. Then she sighed and tugged on the dress again.

“Corey is this dress too short?”

He looked at her from head to toe and smirked.

“Sammy, you look fine. Pun intended,” he joked.

Samantha groaned and continued to fix her dress.

“Seriously, babe. The dress look’s fine. Don’t worry!” Corey assured.

He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, placing his head on her shoulder.

“You know I wouldn’t lie to you.”

Samantha smiled and nodded. She unwrapped his arms and gave him a quick kiss. “Let’s go!”

Samantha introduced Corey to her parents and they seemed to like him. Of course her dad sat him down to question him. Once her dad and uncles got what they wanted out of Corey, the day went on as normal. Samantha helped her mom make dessert, which consisted of two cakes and three pies. Samantha didn’t know why they were making so much food. You know the Sanders are coming for dinner, right? Samantha mentally smacked herself. She had forgotten about the Christmas collaboration between her family and Matt’s family. Sam’s mother and Mrs. Sanders were friends before Sam and Matt were born. And since they were neighbors, they decided that Sam’s mother would host Christmas Eve dinner and Mrs. Sanders would host Christmas day dinner.

“Hello, everyone!” Samantha recognized that voice; it was Mrs. Sanders.

Mrs. Walker put down her kitchen towel and rushed into the living room. Sam made sure everything was okay in the kitchen before following her mother.

“Samantha! We’ve missed you so much, sweetie,” said Mrs. Sanders.

Samantha received a hug from her and Mr. Sanders before letting them greet the rest of her family. A few more members of Matt’s family arrived just before dinner. Mrs. Sanders informed Sam that Matt was eating dinner with Anna’s family but would stop by later. Samantha was excited to see Matt again. They’ve been texting each other since they met up at the beach the previous week. However, Anna would be with him this time and Sam hoped she would at least try to act civil. After dinner, Samantha sat on the couch with Corey. He held her hand as her uncle told stories from Sam’s childhood. Samantha blushed at some of the stories he told. Especially the story about her and Matt’s pretend wedding at 6 years old.

An hour later, Matt and Anna finally arrived. Matt greeted everyone and gave hugs to his and Sam’s parents. It looked like everyone already knew Anna, so Matt didn’t have to introduce her to anyone. However, Sam had to introduce Corey to Matt. Samantha unhooked her hand from Corey’s and led him over to where Matt and Anna sat. Matt smiled at Samantha until he noticed her dragging Corey over.

“Hi, Sammy,” said Matt.

Samantha reached over and gave Matt a side hug, “Hey, Matt.”

Anna cleared her throat and extended her hand out to Samantha.

“Hi, Sam,” she held her hand. “I’m sorry for how I treated you. Can we start over?”

Samantha sighed and smiled.

“Sure. That's fine, Anna.”

Samantha decided to put what happened with Anna behind her to keep the peace.

“This is my boyfriend, Corey,” Sam introduced.

Corey held out his hand and Matt shook it firmly.

“Corey, this is my old friend and his girlfriend.”

“I already know, Corey,” said Anna, matter-of-factly.

Samantha and Matt looked at her with confused expressions. Corey stiffened slightly while he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yeah, Anna came in with her friend once to look at motorcycles,” Corey said, smoothly.

“Yeah. W-we were looking for a bike to buy for another friend of ours,” Anna said.

Matt was still confused. Why didn’t she tell him about any of this before?

“For which friend, babe?” he questioned.

“My friend, Tabitha. You know? The girl with the tattoo’s?”

Matt nodded. He glanced over at Sam and she looked at him, shrugging her shoulders.

“Hi, Anna. Come talk with me, dear.”

Mrs. Sanders saves the day.

Anna nodded and gave a Matt a kiss before leaving the room. Samantha didn’t know how ease the tension between her ex and her boyfriend. She could tell they purposely avoided looking at each other. After a few minutes of silence, Corey finally broke it.

“Umm, I should go, babe. I have to be at my dad’s house early tomorrow.” He wasn’t lying but Sam knew he probably felt intimidated by the awkward situation. Corey pulled her into a passionate but quick kiss and left. Matt rolled his eyes at the couple. He didn’t like Corey already. Yeah, he seemed like a cool guy. But Corey has something that Matt wants back. Samantha felt slightly overwhelmed. Once again she was caught in another awkward situation she couldn’t fix. Having Corey apart of it made her want to hide from embarrassment. All she wanted to do now was find a quiet place to simmer down. She smiled weakly at Matt and then quickly headed up the stairs to her old bedroom. To her surprise, nothing had changed. All of her old pictures were still up. All her stuffed animals were still sitting on her bed. Everything was right where she left it. She stretched out across her bed and hugged one of her stuffed animals to her chest. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

“Why must I get caught in such awkward situations,” she said out loud.

“It wasn’t that awkward.”

Samantha flinched and sat up quickly. Matt stood in the doorway, smiling. He walked over to her nightstand and picked up a familiar picture. It was a picture of him and Sam at the beach. He laughed lightly and sat the picture back down.

“Nothing has changed in here,” said Sam.

Matt sighed and sat on the bed next to her.

“Nope. It feels nice. So many memories in this room,” he said.

Samantha nodded.

“So, do you like Corey?”

Samantha already knew Matt didn’t like him but she wanted to see if he would be honest with her.

“I like him. He seems cool,” he lied.

Samantha rolled her eyes and groaned as she lay back on the bed.

“Matt, are you really going to lie to me? Remember, if we’re going to be friends again, we have to be honest with each other.”

Matt put his face in his hands for a second before responding.

“Fine. I don’t like him. But do you really expect me to like any guy you date? It’s still weird for me.” He sighed and lied down next to Samantha.

They both stared at the ceiling.

“I don’t see why it’s so weird for you. You have Anna. It shouldn’t matter who I’m dating,” she said.

Matt was getting frustrated. He wanted her to understand how he felt but he didn’t want to bring up their breakup. Meanwhile, Samantha was getting pissed because he wasn’t responding. She wanted him to understand her side of the situation. She let out a groan and got up to walk away.

“No!” Matt gently pulled her back down.

“Stop, Matt! I’m not going to lay here and argue with you,” said Sam, raising her voice.

“Then we won’t talk about it. Just drop it,” he said.

He was now straddling her, hoping to keep her from leaving the room. Samantha stared into his calm hazel eyes and relaxed. Matt smiled down at her when he felt her relax under him.

“See? No arguing,” he said softly.

Sam rolled her eyes playfully and poked one of his dimples with her finger.

“Whatever, Sanders.”

Matt chuckled and removed a strand of hair from her face. He felt as if he were in a dream being in this room again with Sam. He couldn’t stop what he was about to do; his mind wasn’t thinking about anything but the beautiful girl looking up at him. Samantha could feel his warm breath inching closer to her face. Why am I letting this happen? She thought.

“I still care about you, Samantha. I never stopped caring,” he said as he rubbed his thumb gently across her check. He then planted a tender kiss to her lips. Samantha’s mind was numb at this point. All she could do was feel; she wanted to feel that familiar spark again. So she pulled his head back down and connected his lips again with hers. Matt deepened the kiss and groaned when she tightly wrapped her arms around his neck. She suddenly came to her senses when Matt ran his hands down her legs and lifted her dress up her thighs. She gasped. What am I doing? She unlocked her arms from around his neck and pushed on his chest.

“Shit! I can’t do this. We can’t do this. I have a boyfriend. You have a girlfriend. This isn’t right, Matt,” she said as she got up from the bed, adjusted her dress and ran from the room.

“Sammy, wait-“

Matt frowned as he watched her run from the room. He sat on the edge of her bed and stared the picture of them at the beach. He knew he just fucked up, again. But then he thought about how much she contributed. They both had some explaining to do!