“Coming from you, I can believe it.” No doubt she already had a few ideas running through her head.
I’d never thought of her as the arts and crafts type, but it also didn’t surprise me. She always came up with these great ideas, though most of them involved our dinner and whatever supplies we had left at the time.
With Sam still smiling and our food getting cold, I nodded, then finished the rest of my meal. For the remainder of lunch, we ate in silence. Sam’s mind was likely on the ornament she’d planned to make while I concentrated on the conversations happening behind us at the adult table.
My sister was trying to get back with her ex, Uncle Joe was planning a trip to Alaska, and Brad still had to put the colorful streamers on my old bike for Sally. Nothing terribly important when compared to the woman sitting at my side.
It was great having her there, but why did I feel so rotten? I had butterflies, of course, but something churned under the surface. Just thinking about the coming month made me half-sick to the stomach. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to spend time with her, because I did, but what about when we went back to school? Would everything change?
She was so easy to talk to that I’d started to depend on her company after one of my bad days. If things between us went
south, I’d lose my friend.
Sam was fully focused on her studies, whereas I did just enough to get by. We were on two different sides of the spectrum. I’d never seen her throw a ball, but she loved to read. She went through books the way most kids in college go through chips. I’d seen her read several of them in a single day, and they weren’t short, either.
I bet if they ever allowed it, she’d camp out in the library and never go back to the dorm.
As for me, I only ever cracked the spine of a book for school and couldn’t stand reading for pleasure.
The fictional worlds Sam loved so much weren’t enough for me. I’d tried to secretly share her interest in them before, reading the first few pages while she was at class, but it was very slow going. They took a page and a half to describe the grass. Who the hell does that?
Still, if slogging through the first two or three chapters meant joining Sam in her worlds of fiction, I’d gladly do it.
“Hello? Earth to Taylor.”
Sam’s voice drew me from my thoughts.
“Huh?”
She placed a hand under my plate, righting it before the contents could fall to the floor. “You almost lost your dinner to the carpeting. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I managed, swallowing around the lump in my throat before speaking again. “Everything’s good.”
She wasn’t convinced but didn’t say anything else. Instead, she removed her hand from under my plate and got to her feet.
“I’m going to see if there’s anything left.”
“Good luck. There might be some more biscuits warmed in the oven so long as Uncle Joe hasn’t gotten to them yet.”
Sam smiled, then retreated into the kitchen, hidden from sight as she went in search of seconds. Or was it thirds? I’d zoned out, so anything was possible.
Sitting with my plate on my knees, I stared at my food only to find I was no longer hungry. I thought again about Sam’s books along with her invitation to take me ice skating during winter break. Both didn’t sound too exciting to me, but I wanted to get to know her better, or at least more than I already did.
She talked about her family a lot, but we’d never really talked about ourselves. Anything I knew about her I’d learned through observation. Aside from my dating spree, there probably wasn’t much she knew about me, either. She probably thinks I’m an ass.
I wouldn’t have blamed her if she did. I hadn’t really treated her that well. Not like how I should’ve done from the beginning.
So start over.
A fresh beginning was exactly what we needed. We also had an entire month to do it.
When a hand landed on my shoulder, I half-expected to find Sam standing next to me. Instead, my sister looked at me with a concerned expression on her face.
“What?” I asked, now wondering where Sam had gone.
Getting another helping shouldn’t take this long.
“I was right,” Katie called over her shoulder to the rest of my family, smiling when she met my gaze. “You’re so lovesick, you can’t help yourself, can you?”