My Wish for You (7 page)

I was about to
sprint back into the trees when a familiar voice called my name.

Chapter Eight

“Sam, stop. Get
on the quad and let me take you home.”

“Oh, my god,
Brian. You just about gave me a heart attack.” As the events of the day weighed
on me, I jogged to a little clump of bushes and threw up for what felt like the
millionth time that day. I walked back to the road slowly and sat down, putting
my head between my knees.

“Sam, what
happened tonight?”

“Take me back to
the house first; then, I’ll explain everything.”

“But—”

“Stop. If I
start to explain anything, I’ll get upset. If I get upset, then I won’t be able
to sneak in.”

“You don’t have
to sneak in. Just tell Dad that you changed your mind about staying.”

“Yeah, at what
is it? Midnight? He’d love that. Can I just sleep in your room tonight?”

“Um…yeah, I
guess. If you want.”

“Yeah, that’s my
best plan.”

“Well, hop on.
Let’s get you home.”

I climbed on the
back of the quad and gripped Brian loosely. He didn’t squirm away like he had
earlier, and he drove slower than usual. Brian didn’t ask me any questions,
thankfully. In silence, Brian and I drove up to the back of the cabin where the
window of his room was. There were lattices conveniently located underneath all
the second story windows, and thanks to the teens that stayed here, they were
still in great shape. I climbed off the quad.

“Are you okay
enough to climb up there?” he asked, concerned.

“Yeah, I’ll see
you up there,” I reassured him. He turned the quad around and took it to the
front. I put my foot in the bottom square and began my ascent slowly. It was an
easy task, so I took my time in climbing to put off talking about tonight. By
the time I got to the top, Brian was there to pull me in.

Once inside, I
stood by the window, feeling awkward. Brian was rummaging through some drawers
looking for something. He stood and tossed me a pair of old sweats and a
t-shirt of his. Then, he turned and left the room to let me change. I pulled
them on, rolling up the too long legs to fit mine, grateful to get out of those
clothes that I might never wear again. I sat them on the edge of his bed.

He came back in,
after knocking softly, with two water bottles in his hand, and handed me one. I
sat down on the ground and he turned to his bed and surprised me by taking a
pillow and a blanket that was sitting by the head of his bed. When he was
finished making the makeshift bed, he sat down on it.

“You’re not
really going to sleep on the ground are you?” I questioned him.

“Yup. So, get on
the bed and tell me what I’ve been missing.”

“Fine,” I
grumbled, as I moved to his bed. “So, after you dropped me off at Cara’s—”

“No, start off
with last night.”

“He already told
you though, right?”

“I like to hear
both sides of the story,” he smirked.

“Oh, fine,” I
gushed out, defeated. “Where do you want me to start?”

“Going to the
movie.”

I told him
everything that I had already explained to Sarah and Cara. Like the two of
them, he was silent until I got to the kiss.

“So, what did
you think?” he asked.

“What do you
mean?”

“About the kiss.”

“Oh….”

“Sam. I’m
shocked. You’re blushing! Jeez, he reacted the same way.”

“What?!” I
exclaimed.

“He got all
quiet and blushed.”

“What did he
say?” I was excited despite everything I had gone through.

“Nope. Not ‘til
you tell me what you thought.”

“It was
indescribable. There are no words to describe it at all,” I sighed happily.

“That’s not
fair.”

“Ha! It’s what I
thought. Now, tell me what he thought.”

“Ugh. I hate
that I tell you both everything.”

“Spit it out,” I
demanded.

“Fine. He said
it was way different than any kiss he and Tasha had ever had.” Then he quickly
added, “In a good way.”

“Anything else?”
I asked, knowing that he was hiding something.

“He also said
that you were a good kisser,” he reluctantly added. I didn’t say anything. My
stomach soared and warmth spread through me. I was about to continue with my
explanation of the events when Sean walked through the door, lip bleeding. He
walked slowly, like he was tender.

“Sam, please
tell me you’re not hurt,” he pleaded, eyes closed.

“No, I’m
alright,” I lied. My wrists hurt where Blake had pinned them together and I was
rather shaken up, but I wasn’t going to worry Sean with that.

“Can you explain
to me what happened tonight?”

“Actually, she
was about to tell me all about it when you walked in.”

“Okay.” He
opened a drawer and pulled out a clean t-shirt. I gasped softly when he took
off the dirty one. It looked like there were bruises starting to form on his
ribs, and I felt a pang of guilt. He replaced the t-shirt with the clean one
and sat on the bed, waiting for me to speak.

I decided that I
would skip the part where Cara and I made plans to make him jealous, and
started with Blake and me talking. I explained everything besides my
conversation with Cara in the closet and my real reason for leaving the dance
floor. When I stopped talking, they both looked at me anxiously.

“What happened
when she left the room?” Brian asked Sean cautiously.

“He said
something to his idiots and followed Sam,” Sean growled through gritted teeth.

It was getting
harder to talk about it. My throat was closing up. I brought my knees up to my
chest and wrapped my arms around them, then took in a deep breath and continued.

“I found a room
that had no one in it. When I went to shut the door, he pushed me into the room
and bent to kiss me.”

I stopped
talking. I was tired and this was the last thing I wanted to do.

“What did you
do?” Brian whispered.

“Well, I told
him he had the wrong idea. When he tried to kiss me again, I spit in his face,”
I chuckled humorlessly.

“I bet he didn’t
like that,” Brian laughed.

“Oh, he
loved
it,” I said sarcastically.

I went on to
explain how he threw me on the bed and took off my jeans. Now and again I’d
hear grunts of anger or the tightening of fists or jaws.

“He undid his
pants and—”

“I walked in,”
Sean finished for me, his eyes on the floor.

“Wow. So why was
everyone at the dock?”

“I took his bike
down there,” I told him at the same time Sean said, “He came to me looking for
a fight.”

“What?!” the
three of us said in unison. Sean and Brian were looking at me. So, I sighed and
explained myself.

“Well, after I
left the room, I went to find Cara and told her I was leaving. She kindly
reminded me that I had no way home because Brian here couldn’t keep his pants
on for one night.”

“Hey!” Brian
began to protest, but I ignored him.

“So, then I went
to look for Blake; I had noticed that his keys were dangling from his back
pocket. Once I had his keys, I drove his bike down to the dock to leave it
there for him to find. When I saw them come up, I figured that they must’ve
found out and Sean heard them talking. I assumed that was what the fight was
about.”

“Well, that’s
kind of what happened,” Sean explained. “I came out of the room to get a beer.
Blake and his friends came up to me. He shoved me and said I ruined his night,
you were his, and that you were enjoying everything. When I told him that you
weren’t his and rape wasn’t something enjoyable, he tried to hit me. I grabbed
his wrist and twisted it. Cara came running up, saying if we were going to
fight, we were going to have to find somewhere else to do it. So, we did. And
you happened to be there, shoving him again.” Sean laughed.

“I hope you beat
the shit out of that bastard,” Brian growled.

“Believe me, I
did.” Sean reassured him.

Everyone became
really silent, absorbed in their own thoughts. After a few minutes, Brian’s
stomach growled and everyone looked up.

“I haven’t eaten
anything since lunch,” he said, getting up. “I’m gonna get some food. Want
anything?”

“No, thanks,”
Sean said as I shook my head. Brian left quietly, leaving Sean and me alone. We
sat looking at each other, not saying a word for I don’t know how long. I
swallowed the lump in my throat that was still present…or, at least, I tried
to.

“Thank you,” I
whispered. “If you hadn’t shown up—” I began to cry. “Then, I treated you
so…so….” I choked on my words and started to sob. Sean got up and sat next to
me. He tugged my arms away from my knees and pulled me until I was cradled in
his arms, crying into his shoulder. He softly patted my hair and rocked me back
and forth.

“How did you—?”
I gasped.

“How did I know?”
I nodded. “I actually was headed to the bathroom…I wanted to be alone too. When
I heard you scream, I got worried, so I went down the hall trying doors.”

“But…but…, he
lo–locked it,” I stuttered through the tears.

“He may have
been smart enough to lock it,” he said through gritted teeth. “But, the idiot
didn’t close it all the way.”

I looked at him
and began to cry even harder. He’d saved me, and after I’d been so awful to
him, here he was comforting me.

He rocked me
back and forth, again and again, whispering, “It’s okay. You’re okay. You’re
safe. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Shh....” He repeated it over
and over again in a chant, letting me cry on his shoulder until I finally fell
asleep.

Chapter Nine

The next few
days were quiet. Sean and I had gone into an unspoken truce. The morning after
the party, I woke up before anyone else was awake and snuck out the window. I
walked around the lake for a while, trying to clear my head. For the most part,
it had worked. A few hours later, I walked back to the cabin and pretended
nothing was wrong.

I spent a lot of
time by myself the following days. On the third day of this silent pattern, my
mother approached me.

“Sam, are you
alright?” she asked me. “You seem so distant from everyone. I’m getting worried
about you.”

I turned away
from her and rolled my eyes.

“Mom, I’m fine.”

“That’s what
every troubled teen says.”

Oh, great,
she’s been talking to her shrink again
. Kristi had a habit of putting ideas
into Mom’s head, most of them bad. Like the day she told her that she wasn’t
crazy for wanting more mother-daughter time. That sucked. Every Friday night
after that for six long weeks, we got to sit in a knitting class. I sat in an
old rocking chair set in a circle amongst little old ladies reminiscing about
when they were young. It was horrid.

“You’ve been
talking to Kristi again, haven’t you?” I asked her. She shot me a look.

“Just quit
moping and get involved,” she ordered as she walked away. Not knowing where I
was headed, I sighed and trudged off in the opposite direction.

Eventually I
landed at the lakeshore, staring at the stupid island in the middle of it. When
we were younger, my brothers, Sarah, and whatever friends were around would
race out to the island. It was small, but it was still an adventure. We would
spend hours out there, playing in the trees.

I had a sudden
urge to be out there. The swim wouldn’t take nearly as long as it used to. I
wasn’t much bigger, but I had more stamina than before. I pulled my shirt off
and adjusted my swimsuit. There wasn’t much point of wearing anything different
underneath clothes. Random swims became too much of a hassle if you had to go
home and change every time. I went to pull off my shorts and my phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Sam?”

“Yeah Cara?” I
answered shortly.

“Okay. So,
before you say no, hear me out. A friend of a friend of mine has a houseboat,
and only a select few get invites to his parties. Well, I got like four. It’s
amazing.” She rushed the words out so I could barely understand them. I knew,
though, that I would not be participating in social activities such as parties.
All I wanted to do was lay in bed.

“Cara. Listen to
me. I am not going to any parties.”

“Please, oh,
please Sam. I really want you to go. It would be so much fun. Plus, Blake isn’t
gonna be there.
Pleasee...
for me.”

It was more
appealing knowing that Blake wasn’t going to be there. Of course, that didn’t
mean that Sean wouldn’t be there either.

“I know what you’re
thinking. Yes, Sean is going to be there.”

“How do you know
everything?” I asked, frustrated.

“I have a little
birdie,” she simply answered. “It tells me everything.”

“Sure it does,”
I rolled my eyes.

“Is that a
yes...for me?”

“Fine,” I
conceded. “But, know that it is not because Sean will be there.”

“Who are you
trying to convince?”

“You.” I hung up
on her. I really
was
trying to convince her. I had been trying to avoid
Sean as much as I could get away with. We were decent to each other, but that
didn’t mean that things weren’t awkward. I picked up my shirt off the log bench
and my phone vibrated.

Party starts
at 5. Bring Brian. Ask Sarah. Look hawt!! ;] -C

I quickly
replied.

Fine. I’ll
let you know if Sarah is comin. I hate your guts. >=| -S

I pulled on my
shirt and headed back to the cabin. Sarah was lying out in the sun when I
walked up. She looked up at me and laughed. I stopped in my tracks and glared
at her.

“What’s got you
flustered?” she chuckled.

“You’re coming
to a party on a houseboat with me tonight,” I told her. After laughing at me,
she didn’t get an option.