Hunter’s buddies stared at me and Jake like antelopes staring down the barrel of a lion. They knew they were outclassed. The two smaller ones picked Hunter up by the arms.
“Let’s go,” Hunter grunted, pulling free from his friend’s helping hands, as if their grips were acid. He wiped his forearm under his nose, smearing blood.
“Better get that shit looked at,” I said. With any luck, I hadn’t actually broken his nose. I couldn’t tell in this light.
Fuck, I hoped he didn’t call the cops.
Was he that much of a pussy?
Only time would tell.
SAMANTHA
In the morning, I texted Christos, just to make sure he was all right.
I started to worry when I hadn’t heard back from him after I had breakfast, but I had to get to campus for classes. I finally received a text from him during Sociology 2.
I replied,
I put my phone away and did my best to focus on the lecture. Knowing Christos was all right, I actually managed to take decent notes for once, and not just waste class time doodling in my sketchbook.
I met Madison for lunch at the Student Center after class. We got in line to get Mexican food.
“Do you and Christos have any plans for Valentine’s Day?” Madison asked while we waited to order food.
“Oh, I don’t know. I hadn’t asked him,” I said taken off guard. I hadn’t even thought about it.
“How can you not have Valentine’s plans?” Madison goggled. “I’ve been bugging Jake about it for three weeks! He keeps putting me off by saying it’s a surprise. I think that’s guy code for ‘I haven’t thought of anything yet.’”
“Totally,” I smiled.
“So, do you think Christos is planning something?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been so worried about my parents…” I stopped myself. I hadn’t told her about their freak out, and I really didn’t feel like going into it.
“What about your parents?” Madison probed. “Are they okay? Did something happen to them?”
“No, it’s nothing. Just the usual petty parental annoyances,” I said nervously.
“Ok, girlfriend, you’re holding out on me. I can tell. What’s going on? Is there something I should know?”
I grinned at Madison. I shrugged.
“Tell me, Sam! I’m on a need-to-know basis. As your BFF, I
“Ah…” I smiled nervously.
She arched an eyebrow. “Sam?”
“Fine,” I grimaced reluctantly, “I told them about moving in with Christos and they freaked—”
“What?! You never told me about moving in with Christos!”
I hadn’t. My life had become so crazy, I was barely keeping my best friends in the loop anymore. Romeo didn’t know either, and Kamiko probably didn’t want to know. “Sorry, Mads. I was afraid I’d jinx things if I talked about it before it actually happened,” I said sheepishly.
Madison swallowed me in a huge hug. “That’s awesome, Sam! I’m so happy for you!” She was jumping up and down with her arms around me while we waited in line.
I couldn’t help myself, I started jumping with her, overtaken by her enthusiasm.
People stared at us like we were crazy teenagers, which we basically were.
I started giggling. “It’s pretty awesome.”
Slowly, we stopped jumping.
Madison asked, “Are you guys getting an apartment, or what?”
“No, the plan is for me to move into his house, with him and his grandfather.” I used the word “plan” because everything was still so up in the air. I
“Really? Wow! That’s totally cool.”
I sort of expected Madison to ask if Spiridon was okay with things, but I realized that was how my parents saw the world, not other people. Because I could totally imagine Madison’s parents inviting me to move in with them if I needed a place to stay without giving it a second thought. More and more, it seemed like my family was the strangest family that ever existed.
“Maybe now you can quit your Grab-n-Dash job,” Madison said. “I know how much you hated that place.”
“Yeah, it was not conducive to my sanity,” I smiled.
“So what about Valentine’s Day? Maybe Christos is going to throw you a surprise Valentine’s Day thing at the house! Like, a Moving In on Valentine’s Day celebration!” Madison’s eyes were wide with excitement. “You should totally do it! It would be
It would. But was any of it going to happen? The sudden knot in my stomach made me wonder. I’d turned in my 30-day notice already. Was it too late to cancel that, just in case?
Just in case my mom was right.
No, please no.
A wave of nausea rippled through me as Madison and I made it up to the cashier at the Mexican restaurant. Right now, not even fish tacos sounded good.
Hopefully, Christos would set my mind at ease over dinner later.
SAMANTHA
Christos surprised me by bringing sushi on the back of his motorcycle to my apartment at seven o’clock on the dot.
I hadn’t had sushi in forever. It was perfect. We sat at my dinner table in the kitchen, sitting next to each other.
“I’m so sorry about last night,
“You should’ve called,” I said, setting down my bite of tuna sashimi. “I would’ve come and picked you guys up.”
“Nah,” he said, wiping his mouth with a napkin, “it was late. I didn’t want to wake you.” He smiled.
“Next time, call me. No matter how late,” I said forcefully.
“Will do,” he smiled and leaned over to give me a peck on the lips.
“I’m here for you too, you know,” I said seriously.
He gazed into my eyes for a long time. I expected a cocky response, but all he did was nod.
Fishing for information, I said, “So, Madison tells me Jake has some big surprise planned for Valentine’s Day.”
“I’m not surprised,” Christos smiled. “Jake is totally in love with her.”
Did he look uncomfortable when he’d said that, or was it just me? I wasn’t sure. Whatever it was, this was Christos’ cue to say suggestive but ambiguous things about how awesome
We looked at each other. He smiled and picked up another piece of dragon roll with his chopsticks and popped it in his mouth.
Okay, so Valentine’s Day for me and Christos was top secret? Did that mean it would be that much more
