Page 13 of Surviving You, Scotch and Sammy 1

I point to my temple. “Creative and emotional teenaged brain, remember?”

Her lips twitch, but her eyes remain desperate as she leans away from me. “I can’t, Sam. Whatever it is you’re asking for, I can’t give it to you.”

“What do you think I’m asking for, Sammy? Because there’s nothing I want to take, only what I want to give.”

“You’re asking for a good time. Or a relationship. You’re asking for me to get emotionally invested in you.”

“Yes. Okay!” I throw my hands in the air. “You’re right. I am asking those things of you – except the good time. I mean, I want that too. But later. But for right now, we’re young, we have time and I won’t rush you. I can wait as long as you need to catch up to me. I’ve already waited three years, I can go more.”

Her chin quivers and her eyes sparkle in the last of the star light. “I’m moving away, Sam.”

“You’re--” I’m dead. I’m dying. My heart just broke away from the valves that feed it blood. “What?”

“When I graduate, I’ll be on the next flight out of this place. I don’t intend to ever come back.”

“Where will you go?”

“Anywhere! As far as I can go.”

The goosebumps that weren’t there minutes ago now cover her rapidly cooling body. She’s completely submerged in the freezing water my toes couldn’t handle five minutes ago. I want to scoop her up. I want to put my sweatshirt over both of us so our skin touches and she can get warm from my body. Soon. Soon I’ll have that freedom and once I have it, I’ll never take it for granted. I’ll never give it up. “I’ll come with you, Sammy. I’ll go anywhere you wanna go.”

“No, you wouldn’t. You can’t! Your family is here. I know about your brother. And your sister. And your friends. I know all about your big happy family up on Maple Tree Hill. Why the hell would you leave that? The rest of us would kill for a family like that, yet you throw them away so easily.”

“No Sammy. I don’t throw them away. They’d hear my reasons for leaving and they’d support us. Then they’d come and sleep in our basement every damn Christmas and annoy the shit out of us until we ask them to leave. You say you’d kill for a family like mine, yet here I am offering them to you. If you’re mine, then you’re theirs too. And they’d be yours.”

She shakes her head sadly as her long hair swishes in the frigid water. “We’re only seventeen. This is crazy talk. We don’t even know each other. You’re literally the band version of the school jock. You’re hot and popular, and I’m the girl who would legitimately rather eat alone in the bathroom than sit with the people I do because they literally only bitch about everyone or they stare at your group anyway.”

“So you admit I’m hot?” She lets out an adorable huff of frustration, but I press on. “Because if you like what you see, then at least we have something to build from. I swear I have a sparkling personality too. I can be funny, and sometimes my dry jokes get me in trouble. I think I have a black heart sometimes and my mama still smacks me when I take a joke too far. But my dad and brothers and sisters think I’m funny, so maybe you could think the same… So that’s funny. And hot.” I tick my qualities off on my fingers. “That’s a decent foundation. Then you can bring the brains and the beauty, and we’re unstoppable.”

“You think you have everything planned out, don’t you, Samuel Turner? You think the whole world is this easy.”

“Not the whole world. But I think we could be this easy. I think you and I could be the easiest thing there ever was.”

“I don’t believe you.”

She wants to. Her willpower is cracking and sliding away. “What if you trusted me then? Don’t believe, but trust?” I hold my hand out in the dead space between us. “Hold onto me Sammy, and I swear I’ll never let you fall.”

“I don’t need a reason to stay here, Sam. I don’t want you to break my heart when I leave.”

“I swear to god, take my hand. I’ll never break your heart. I’ll follow you anywhere you wanna go and we’ll Skype my family. That’s all I need.”

“Sam--”

“We could have something amazing together. You just need to get out of that water. Take a chance on us. Jump.”

Her brows pinch. “No, I can’t--”

“Take my fucking hand, Sammy!”

Her hand snaps away from the wooden pier she was clutching so hard her knuckles were turning white, and with a little squeak of excitement and fear, her fingers close around my wrist.

“Atta girl.” I stand immediately, and I pull her from the water. If I thought she was cold while submerged, she’s positively freezing when I pull her out. Goosebumps race across her chest and down her arms, but like the good little Boy Scout my dad taught me to be, I tear my sweatshirt off to reveal a second underneath. I plop her head through the hole of my shirt before she has a chance to object, then I feed her arms through like she was a small child.

I want us to share one single shirt, but I haven’t even kissed her yet. I should start with baby steps. She deserves slow and gentle.

“I brought a towel.” She points off to a stack of material ten or so feet away, but I shrug my shoulders and pull her small body against my chest. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. There are a lot of things I’ve wanted to do with this girl, and hugging her after she tells me she trusts me is right up there as a man’s god given rights.

“I like seeing my shirt on you.” I lean down and press my lips to her hair. She just smells like dirty water, not her usual Sammy smell, but when I lean down another couple inches and my lips tickle the side of her ear, I catch a whiff of the girl underneath. There she is. “Can we be together, Sammy? Can you give us a go? If anyone breaks anyone’s heart, it’s gonna be you ripping mine out. I’m trusting you to treat me gently. Can you trust me to do the same?”

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