My Wish for You (12 page)

“Seriously? This
is what you called me out for? It’s almost as annoying as the night Brian
slammed the door when you guys snuck in. Now, since I’m out here, I might as
well get myself a s’more.” She walked over to the logs, sitting down on the
fourth log next to Lance and me.

Brian made a
face at me as I handed her the bag of supplies and roasted my marshmallow over
the blazing fire. I stuck my tongue out at him while I let the marshmallow
catch fire, then watched it burn briefly before blowing it out and sticking it
on my graham cracker and chocolate.

“I still don’t
get how you can eat them burnt,” Sarah said. “It’s like eating charcoal.
Marshmallows should be fluffy and gooey.”

“That’s the
point though…I like them crunchy.” I glanced up towards the window again out of
the corner of my eye. To my disbelief, it was empty this time. I sighed in
relief and took a bite out of my s’more. It melted in my mouth and I smiled to
myself. I pulled a marshmallow out of the bag sitting between Sarah and me and
threw it at Lance’s face.

He looked at me,
slightly shocked, and I grinned up at him. He smiled back, leaning around me
and grabbing a marshmallow, then sticking it on the rod. I watched him as he
stuck it in the fire and let it burn.

“For the record,
I like my marshmallows burnt too,” he nudged me playfully, and I nudged back. I
took another bite of my s’more while Lance put his together. I looked back up
at him and he glanced down at me, smiling slightly.

“You, uhh, have
a bit of s’more on your lip.”

I went to go
wipe it off with my finger, slightly embarrassed, when he stopped me.

“Here, let me
get it for you.” He leaned down towards me, pushing his lips softly against
mine. He slid his tongue across my bottom lip, getting the s’more off of it and
sending shivers down my spine.

I kissed him
back, knowing in the back of my mind that it might be wrong to lead him on like
this, but he was so sweet, so…easy to be around. He was non-complicated. I
threw caution to the wind and pushed the guilty thoughts out of my mind. What
the heck? Why not? And despite knowing the answer, despite knowing that
eventually I would hurt him, I put my hand on his cheek and leaned into him, sighing
happily, kissing back.

“You’re all
having a party out here and no one invited me? Where’s the fun in that?”

I jerked my head
away from Lance to look at Sean, who stopped in his tracks when he saw us
kissing, sitting so close, me in Lance’s jacket; horror and jealously filled
his eyes.

“Well, at least
he’s not drunk this time,” I heard Lance mutter darkly and sarcastically under
his breath.

Chapter Sixteen

So, Lance had a
point. At least he wasn’t drunk. I didn’t have to take care of him. But on the
other hand, maybe it would have been better if he had been.

Things went from
good to bad to downright awful. Once Sean came down, Lance got slightly
possessive of me. I don’t know why that bothered me, but it did. He wrapped his
arm around me, pulling me close to him, laying his hand on my waist. It felt
like we had been dating for way longer than the actual two dates we’d had. He
didn’t really have any reason to be possessive of me.

And poor Sean
was acting so awkward, trying to fit in. He had never had to try to fit in for
his entire, perfect life. He was always a part of the “in” crowd. Popular
girlfriend, good looks, things had always looked up for him. So what was his
deal tonight?

“Sam, pass me
the marshmallows please,” he called from across the fire. I looked at him, then
up at Lance, then back at him. Hesitation came over me and I didn’t really know
what to do. Thank goodness Sarah picked up on the hesitation and tossed the bag
over towards Brian, who handed the bag to Sean.

“So, Sam.” I
looked up toward Chad, who had to disentangle his face from Cara’s. He had a
smirk on his face, rather cocky. In that second I decided I wasn’t his biggest
fan. “What’s this about you beating Brian up? I’d love to hear it.” He was
totally pompous. I didn’t know how Cara could stand to be around him. Maybe his
kissing made up for it. I wasn’t kissing him though. Rather, I wanted to hit
him. Instead, I chuckled to myself softly.

“Well—” I
started.

“Ohmyghod. Hit
whas thottally hilarious,” Sean interrupted, his mouth full of s’more. You
could barely understand what he was saying. I looked at him with a tinge of
pity.

“Okay. So we don’t
have any more arguments for tonight, I am going to tell the story.” Sarah said,
taking the attention away from Sean. “It was about a year ago. Sam was taking a
self-defense class. She rather hated it…quit after a few weeks. Said it wasn’t
much help to her. So, one night, we’re all hanging out at the house, and Sam’s
kinda minding her own business, reading some book, and Brian’s being stupid and
picking on her. She tells him ever so quietly, barely whispering—she didn’t
even look up from her book—‘You better cut it out Brian, or else I’m going to
hurt you. And you are going to cry.’ Oh, of course, he didn’t believe her and
continued to be an annoying little shit. So, she gets up and walks out of the
room. Not two seconds later, she’s back in the room and Brian is on the floor,
crying like a baby. So, she sits on his back and flicks his ear and says ‘Did
you learn your lesson?’ And he just nods and says, ‘You win Sam, you win!
Uncle! Uncle!’ So, Sam gets up and goes back to her chair, picks up her book,
and keeps on reading.”

Everyone was
laughing except for Brian, who sat there looking like he’d explode from
embarrassment. I was about to say something to console him when Sean addressed
me.

“Too bad you
couldn’t remember that the other night. Would have saved you a lot of trouble
with Blake.”

I looked at him
with the utmost shock. Did he really say what I thought he’d said? He looked at
me, stunned at his own words. Lance could feel there was something being
buried. He rubbed my back lightly as I stared at Sean in horror.

He knew what he
said was awful, I could see it in his eyes. There was something more there too.
Something
was
different. I could just tell. He looked at me differently.
Maybe it was just because I was with another guy. I looked away from him,
intending to ignore him the rest of the night, up to Lance, who looked worried.
I smiled a smile of reassurance and jumped back into the conversation.

That stupid
movie would come back to haunt me forever. Of course, I would be stuck in the
middle of another endless conversation about the stupid
Gravediggers
movie. Everyone had seen it, so that obviously meant that they all had to talk
about it. That damned movie would be the death of me.

Lance noticed me
withdrawing from the conversation and tried to pull me into it.

“Did you see it?”
he asked.

“Yeah,” I said
tentatively. I really didn’t want to talk, or even think, about it.

“Who did you see
it with?”

I froze and
looked around the fire. Everyone was staring at me: Sarah and Brian with hidden
horror, Cara with slight amusement—how she loved drama—Lance and Chad with
polite curiosity, and then, there was Sean. I looked at Sean last, for in his
eyes, I saw that he knew that the movie wasn’t just an encounter between
friends, it was more romantic than that. In his eyes, there was hope. In his
eyes, there was adoration for me…those wonderful, gorgeous eyes.

Damn those eyes.

“Uhh..,I saw it
with Sean.” I sounded so unsure, but so confident at the same time. I looked
away from Sean up to Lance.

“Oh,” was all he
said.

“Did anyone see
that one comedy where that girl and guy get into a taxi and it gets lost or
something?” Sarah asked, pulling the conversation in a different direction.

“Oh, yeah. It
was really funny. What’s it called?” Lance said.

“
Lost In New
York
or something like that,” Brian said.

“Ohmigod! That
movie was
so
stupid,” Cara jumped in, giving her much needed opinion, “How
could someone drag a cab ride out for two hours?”

If Lance was
upset, he sure didn’t show it. He sat there as pleasant as ever to everyone
except Sean, who he was short with and ignored.

Sean got the
message quickly enough and soon made his departure, quickly followed by Sarah,
who didn’t want to be the odd man out. I looked after him for a short second,
wanting to follow, wanting to find out what was going on, but I couldn’t. I
couldn’t just leave Lance to follow Sean. So, instead, I stayed with the other
couples.

I looked up at
the cabin out of the corner of my eye in time to see the light of Sean’s room
flicker on. I sighed sadly and turned back to the ongoing conversation. It had
switched to some off-roading experiences and I had no idea what was going on. I
just wanted to get out of there.

I yawned softly,
pretending that I was getting tired and almost as if on cue….

“So, Samantha, I’m
sorry to steal lover-boy away from you, but we do have a party to make an
appearance at,” Chad addressed me.

“You’re more
than welcome to come, though,” Lance eagerly added.

“You know,” I
yawned again, falsely. “I would love to but I’m rather sleepy. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, it’s okay,”
he said cheerfully. “There’ll be other parties.”

“Yeah, of
course,” I smiled softly up at him. Everyone had gotten up and gathered their
things together. It looked like Brian and Alisha were going to go out too. I
stood up slowly, Lance following suit. He leaned down and kissed me softly on
the lips.

“I had a really
good time tonight Samantha,” he whispered softly, sweeping a stray hair out of
my face. I felt a twinge of guilt, knowing I was cutting the night short to go
find Sean. I pushed it out of my head quickly.

“I had a good
time too, Lance. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

“Sure.” He
smiled at me as I turned to walk up the walkway to the house. When I got to the
door, I turned back to look at him. He was still watching me and I smiled at
him one more time before going inside.

Quickly, I
trotted up the stairs. Slowing down as I got into the hallway, I walked lightly
through the hall, being careful of the random loose floorboards. Finally, I
made my way to Sean’s room, put my hand on the door, and started opening it.
When I heard voices coming from behind the door, I paused.

In that moment,
I don’t know why, but, I froze. I stepped away from the door right onto one of
the creaky floorboards. Silently cursing myself, I made my way into my room.
Sarah was lying on her bed flipping through a magazine. She glanced up at me,
then back at her magazine, turning the page.

I went to go
find my book so I could read, opening the chest on my bedside table where I
usually left it, but it wasn’t there. I closed the door and stood up straight,
glancing around the room. Sarah cleared her throat slightly and I returned to
my search.

“So, tonight
was…interesting,” she commented nonchalantly, still looking at the magazine.

“Mhmm,” I
murmured from under the bed. “Have you seen my book?”

“Last time I saw
it, it was downstairs,” she said absentmindedly. “Anyway. What was that all about?”

I shrugged
again, making my way back towards the door to go look for my book downstairs. “I
don’t know.”

She said
something as I shut the door behind me and walked down the hall. I was about
two steps from Sean’s door when it opened quietly. He stepped out into the hall
with a slightly surprised expression when he saw me.

“We need to quit
meeting like this,” I joked lightly. He smirked softly before grabbing my hand
and pulling me into the hall bathroom. “What are you doing?” I asked him in a
hushed tone.

“We need to
talk.” He flicked on the light in the bathroom and looked down at me. He
burrowed his eyebrows together, a glimpse of anger in his eyes. I looked down
and realized I was still wearing Lance’s jacket.

“Uhh…I…it was
cold. I forgot to give it back.”

He shook his
head slightly as if he was trying to clear it. He brought his eyes back up to
mine, staring deeply into them.

“I told her I
needed space, Sam,” he said, ignoring the jacket.

I stared at him
blankly, trying to comprehend.

“I told Tasha
that we needed to take a break, Sammy. That we need to see other people.” He
put his hands on my shoulders and slowed it down, like he was talking to a
little kid, but not offensively.

I looked down,
taking it all in. He did it? It didn’t seem real. It was just a break…but
still…he did it. He started talking again as I soaked it all in.

“…and I just saw
the two of you and something in me snapped. I didn’t want you to be with him.
So, I called her and told her that I needed room. That I wanted to take a break.”

“That’s great
Sean.” I pulled my eyes back up to his, looking at him. “But what does it mean
for —”

He put his hands
on my cheeks and kissed me hard, taking me completely by surprise. I gasped and
put my hands on his face, mirroring his hands on mine. We moved up against the
cabinetry heatedly.

Next thing I
knew, I was sitting on the counter, my arms wrapped around his neck, fingers
weaved into his hair, kissing him passionately. He slid one of his hands over
my body, slowly making his way to my back, rubbing it lightly. His other hand
winded into my hair, loosening the braid and letting it fall loose around my
face. I sighed happily, relaxing against him. I felt him smile against my lips.

“That’s what
that means for us,” he murmured against my lips.

When we heard a
creak in the floorboards in the hall, we both froze, knowing that the light
underneath the door was visible in the hallway. There was a soft knock on the
door.