"This is a hell of a lot longer than I thought," He groaned, glancing over at Glenn, "Screw it."
Sam pulled over onto the side of the road, making sure he was fully on the gravel. He then shut off the car and settled back into the darkness as his headlights went out. The change in motion was enough to at least stir Glenn who shifted around in his seat and grumbled something about bacon and cats. Sleep talking was always Sam's favorite part about him. He checked his phone in hopes of a message, but at the sight of nothing but a glaring light Sam put his phone up and pulled the lever letting his seat back down as he tried getting some sleep.
Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. Sam bolted upright upon hearing the third vibration and grabbed his phone. A puzzled look crossed his face as there were no new messages or calls. 7 A.M. is a very confusing time for most people who are really lacking in the sleep department and just slept 5 hours in a car. He looked over again at Glenn who was wide awake and texting. Sam again groaned and flopped back into his seat/bed finally identifying the mysterious buzzing.
"So, when are we getting this show on the road?" Glenn mused, furiously tapping away on his phone.
"When I feel more like it." Sam replied as he closed his eyes hoping to get a few more hours of sleep.
Glenn shrugged and unbuckled himself, stepping outside. By his own estimation they were somewhere in Indiana, an estimation made by the amount of nothing to do in their vicinity. The big sign reading Caramel, IN also helped, but Glenn gave most of the credit to his pioneering intuition. They were about a third of the way through their journey at this point. The downtime bored Glenn who decided it best to trust his pioneering intuition and wandered off, leaving Sam asleep and alone.
"I really hope this is worth our time." Glenn sighed as he trotted off.
4 months ago
Failure set Sam up for contentedness as the massive screw-up that was talking to Remi only furthered the idea that he didn't need a romantic relationship right now. Or ever for that matter, but Sam was being a little over dramatic. He shuffled out of bed, grabbing a pile of assorted clothes hoping there was enough to make on outfit. A quick shower and teeth-brushing later Sam was out the door heading to school. The school was about a mile from his house, but seeing as he didn't play sports or work-out this was his daily exercise. That is until winter came, then it was car rides because screw the cold. Sam ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back into a sort of comb over, sort of bed-head type of fashion that was more lazy than stylish. Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. Confused, he grabbed his phone after letting it ring just to make sure someone was actually contacting him.
"Hey, it's Remi. I stole ur # off Facebook." the text read.
"Hey?" he replied.
"Sry I no its weird I just wanted to apologize for being a bitch that time we talked."
"No. I mean it's OK I was kinda weird for messaging you in the first place."
"LOL its fine I get messaged by random dudes I add all the time."
"Then why add random dudes?"
"IDK. Sumtimes I get bored and add random people I think are cute."
Sam blushed looking at his phone and almost walked into a tree. It's not often he was called cute, let alone acknowledged by another human being. Suffice it to say, he was well thrown-off and it took a minute or two for him to recover and take the stupid grin off his face. However, the conversation had to end as he quickly stuffed his phone into his pocket while Glenn rode up beside him on his Schwinn.
"Hop on!" Glenn motioned his head backwards to his begs and Sam hopped up, placing his hands on Glenn's shoulders.
Most of the time Sam declined the offer of a ride and they just went on side-by-side, but Sam didn't want to risk pulling out his phone and having Glenn steal it. There was nothing going on between him and Remi, but the mere mention of the word cute would set Glenn off on another one of his chivalrous rampages. Any time he even sensed that Sam was interested in someone Glenn went off like a bloodhound hunting a fox. It was an eerie 6th sense that he had, but it never amounted to much for Sam other than an occasional "he seems nice, but he's not my type" or the one in a million occurrence that ended up in one date of awkward silence and a polite, but reluctant, hug at the end to signify "well it was a total failure I guess".
Thankfully for Sam, during the ride his phone didn't ring anymore and was quiet throughout classes. The silence was usual, but given the mornings events it seemed weird for once to him. His mind instantly began racing around all the possible points at where he went wrong. Was he too apathetic? Too abrasive seeming? Should he have responded to being called cute by calling her cute? Oh god, he ruined every chance he ever had with the one girl he'd ever had a shot at. The one time he had a perfect chance at love, it was over too soon. Or so Sam thought at least, men in love or infatuation are oft prone to melodramatics and over-analysis. And then in the most serendipitous of moments his phone rang once again as the final bell rang. Deciding to play it cool, Sam slung his backpack around sliding the straps up onto his shoulders and made his way to the locker. Locker 238, ain't it great? He mumbled mnemonic device under his breath as a reminder of how stupid he can be sometimes.
Once there, he opened it up and hid behind the door to conceal his phone from any would-be peeping toms. Sam couldn't unlock his phone fast enough to check the text. As it opened he let out a disappointed sigh, a text from his mom telling him she left pizza money on the table was all that his phone held. Nothing new from Remi. Sam shut his locker hard and made his way back home, carrying a disgruntled look as he went. But about halfway home, Sam gave way to the temptation in his head and pulled out his phone again opening Facebook. His thumb twitched a bit with nervousness as he navigated to Remi's profile, deciding to get a look at this girl and see what he could assess.
Soft green eyes and a tannish complexion dotted with the occasional freckle that was so light Sam had to squint to see it. Pale lips, curled into an expression that wasn't quite smile and wasn't quite smirk, but held in it a wonder of secrets unknown to Sam. Jet black hair pulled into a braid, coming down the right side of her head and hanging loosely next to her neck that was slightly arched to the left.
Sam was caught off-guard by the picture as he locked eyes with hers, the screen went black after a few moments locking itself, and Sam was now caught in his own gaze. Short, polished looking blondish hair where everything seemed in place. Dull, brown eyes that carried nothing in them except the contentedness that comes from mundane life. A pale complexion from too many hours indoors and a general average look that made him look like 4 out of every 5 people. By comparison the pair were on different ends of the spectrum. Remi was a piece of perfection that takes hours of make-up and retouching to even hope of being half as beautiful as she was. Sam on the other hand was a factory model 18-year-old white male with no distinguishing features.
Later that night Sam lay sprawled out on the couch with a box of pizza laying on his chest. He apathetically chewed on slices as he flipped through the channels. 500 channels and nothing to watch but terrible shows, terrible movies, terrible movies about shows, and so on and so forth. Click after click Sam couldn't settle on anything and as he switched through the faces slowly turned into Remi's. For all intents and purposes she was virtually, no pun intended, a stranger to him. And yet despite that, despite all the rationalizations that Sam went through, she never left his mind that night. For better or worse, Sam was set on her. It wasn't often that he felt this convicted about something or someone, so he knew it had to be that special once in a lifetime love.
"Hop on!" Glenn motioned his head backwards to his begs and Sam hopped up, placing his hands on Glenn's shoulders.
Most of the time Sam declined the offer of a ride and they just went on side-by-side, but Sam didn't want to risk pulling out his phone and having Glenn steal it. There was nothing going on between him and Remi, but the mere mention of the word cute would set Glenn off on another one of his chivalrous rampages. Any time he even sensed that Sam was interested in someone Glenn went off like a bloodhound hunting a fox. It was an eerie 6th sense that he had, but it never amounted to much for Sam other than an occasional "he seems nice, but he's not my type" or the one in a million occurrence that ended up in one date of awkward silence and a polite, but reluctant, hug at the end to signify "well it was a total failure I guess".
Thankfully for Sam, during the ride his phone didn't ring anymore and was quiet throughout classes. The silence was usual, but given the mornings events it seemed weird for once to him. His mind instantly began racing around all the possible points at where he went wrong. Was he too apathetic? Too abrasive seeming? Should he have responded to being called cute by calling her cute? Oh god, he ruined every chance he ever had with the one girl he'd ever had a shot at. The one time he had a perfect chance at love, it was over too soon. Or so Sam thought at least, men in love or infatuation are oft prone to melodramatics and over-analysis. And then in the most serendipitous of moments his phone rang once again as the final bell rang. Deciding to play it cool, Sam slung his backpack around sliding the straps up onto his shoulders and made his way to the locker. Locker 238, ain't it great? He mumbled mnemonic device under his breath as a reminder of how stupid he can be sometimes.
Once there, he opened it up and hid behind the door to conceal his phone from any would-be peeping toms. Sam couldn't unlock his phone fast enough to check the text. As it opened he let out a disappointed sigh, a text from his mom telling him she left pizza money on the table was all that his phone held. Nothing new from Remi. Sam shut his locker hard and made his way back home, carrying a disgruntled look as he went. But about halfway home, Sam gave way to the temptation in his head and pulled out his phone again opening Facebook. His thumb twitched a bit with nervousness as he navigated to Remi's profile, deciding to get a look at this girl and see what he could assess.
Soft green eyes and a tannish complexion dotted with the occasional freckle that was so light Sam had to squint to see it. Pale lips, curled into an expression that wasn't quite smile and wasn't quite smirk, but held in it a wonder of secrets unknown to Sam. Jet black hair pulled into a braid, coming down the right side of her head and hanging loosely next to her neck that was slightly arched to the left.
Sam was caught off-guard by the picture as he locked eyes with hers, the screen went black after a few moments locking itself, and Sam was now caught in his own gaze. Short, polished looking blondish hair where everything seemed in place. Dull, brown eyes that carried nothing in them except the contentedness that comes from mundane life. A pale complexion from too many hours indoors and a general average look that made him look like 4 out of every 5 people. By comparison the pair were on different ends of the spectrum. Remi was a piece of perfection that takes hours of make-up and retouching to even hope of being half as beautiful as she was. Sam on the other hand was a factory model 18-year-old white male with no distinguishing features.
Later that night Sam lay sprawled out on the couch with a box of pizza laying on his chest. He apathetically chewed on slices as he flipped through the channels. 500 channels and nothing to watch but terrible shows, terrible movies, terrible movies about shows, and so on and so forth. Click after click Sam couldn't settle on anything and as he switched through the faces slowly turned into Remi's. For all intents and purposes she was virtually, no pun intended, a stranger to him. And yet despite that, despite all the rationalizations that Sam went through, she never left his mind that night. For better or worse, Sam was set on her. It wasn't often that he felt this convicted about something or someone, so he knew it had to be that special once in a lifetime love.
