"So, are you going to explain?" I blurted out the moment my ass made contact with the leather of his seats.

Okay, so maybe I lied. I said it before my ass made contact.

How could I not? It had been eating me alive all day. Where was my fate lying? Because I saw what could happen if my life was in those freaks' hands, and l was definitely not about that life. Did it technically mean that I couldn't trust my life in Sam's hands, since he was the one who pulled me into this mess to begin with? Or my own hands because I did it to myself?

I didn't know, but I did know that I didn't trust Brian, Caden, or Dennis.

Sam sighed heavily, partially amused by how frantic I was. His head tilted back against the headrest and his hands rested carelessly atop the steering wheel. No wonder no one would ever suspect him of be involved in something so grotesque. He just seemed so careless and free all the time, and even I was still having a hard time remembering that things weren't at all like I thought they were.

"How was your day?" He teased, earning a glare from me.

"Answer me, or I will bite your finger off like a carrot." I deadpanned.

A slightly disturbed look decorated his face. "You are sick in the head."

"Talk or I will do it."

"Jesus, just don't eat my fingers." Sam huffed, and I raised an unamused brow. "Calm down, calm down." Air suddenly grew thick as all signs of joking disappeared. "I came home last night to a note of my own. It wasn't nearly as disturbing as yours, but it basically told me that we needed to meet up tonight with a portion of the money."

I listened closely, my eyes trained on the way he was biting his lip. The scab was almost gone, leaving just a small crescent to remain, and it was only left behind because he bit it nonstop. I brought my gaze up to the rest of his face, studying the state of it. Most of the bruises were already fading, and the one on his nose had entirely disappeared. However, it seemed that the remnants were to stick around for the long hall.

That was the result of the last altercation with them. How many more punches could he take? To people who didn't pay attention, the circles beneath his eyes would seem like results of being punched, but I knew that it was from tossing and turning late into the night. That was how it had been for me ever since I found out that I was potentially being watched while I slept.

"How much?" I asked after having taken in the possible outcomes.

"No, I'm not going to tell you that, Sawyer,." Sam shook his head, something in his eyes locking away behind thick doors.

I frowned. "Why not?" When he didn't budge in the slightest, I instead asked, "When is the deadline for the money in total?"

I watched as a battle played out on his face. He didn't want to tell me, but he knew that the question effected me just as much as it did him. It meant freedom from that everlasting hell for all of us.

"Two weeks from tomorrow." Sam finally gave in, his voice small and broken.

I turned my eyes forward, witnessing cars driving past the school's parking lot. Had his friends already left? Where were we meeting them? Do they have the amount of money needed? How the hell was he even making the money in the first place? There were so many questions that I couldn't seem breathe properly, drowning amidst them all.

"Well, can you fill me in on how this 'meeting' is supposed to go?" I put air-quotes around the word to emphasize my disdain towards the concept as a whole.

After a pause, he spoke up. "So the guys will go to my house at about-" He checked the clock, "-seven or eight, so it'll be dark when it happens. We're going to go to Jack Of Clubs, since it's become our meeting spot, and that's where it'll take place."

Having a few questions answered was enough for me to feel a little bit better. Things might end up alright. Especially if we head to Jack Of Clubs. Doing it in a public place was to our advantage. However, last time we were there there wasn't a whole lot of help for Sam and I.

I was either going to puke or sigh. Maybe both.

"I know this is fucking stupid, okay?" Sam mumbled, reading my exact thoughts relating to this whole thing. "But when I have enough money to get them to stop whining, you, and everyone else, can move forward with life."

I hoped he was right. I knew that it didn't always seem like it, but I was rooting for Sam.

So long as he didn't get me killed. Then we would have a problem.

"How do you know one of the workers won't come out and see us?" I inquired.

Sam glanced my way, finally turning the ignition and allowing the car to idle. "You were there on Friday. Jack was diagnosed with lung cancer, so Dee hardly spends anytime there anymore. It's typically just Ezra working the front, and we all know how often she goes into the bathroom. The cooks never leave the kitchen."

It was true. Jack and Dee Nolan had been together ever since Jack's gambling days, wherein he got the nickname Jack Of Clubs. It wasn't until after he had lost a ton of money that he stopped gambling altogether for the sake of his relationship with Dee. Because Dee didn't want to force Jack to completely forget about that era of his life, she honored it through naming her dream diner after them.

Everyone in town knew them. The Nolan's were the true definition of love. Over the years, Jack had become more of a grouchy old man, yet even I saw how he still looked at Dee. And she still smiled every time they were in a room together.

I remembered how she would always complain to my mom when we went there about how Jack wouldn't quit smoking. It was no wonder that he ended up with lung cancer. It was still devastating news that upset the entire town.

"How the hell is Ezra even still working there?" I laughed, thinking back to all the times she made out with her boyfriend while on duty, or even the time when she asked Millie and I if we wanted to take a weed brownie with her. She was the definition of a college student.

"Jack and Dee haven't been around the diner much recently, so no one is there to make sure she isn't being a total teenager." He laughed in return. He finally reached forward and put the car into drive, making his way out of the parking lot in a practiced motion.

"She is technically an adult, though," I reasoned.

"Nineteen has the word teen in it." Sam continued, chuckling to himself.

I smiled softly when I realized that the tension was gone. It felt nice to be able to talk about something important, and then start joking not long after. The prospect of what could occur was never going to leave the back of my mind, but I didn't want to only think about that. I would just end up all frustrated and scared.

As of right then, I was going to attempt to focus on the little things.

I watched as Sam reached his hand towards the radio, not hesitating at all to crank it up. It occurred to me then that I didn't even know what sort of music he was into. For all I knew, whatever was playing on the radio wasn't even his type.

However, when I heard the song Come A Little Closer by Cage The Elephant start to play, I prayed that he wouldn't change it. A wave of relief washed over me when he let it play, and I was beyond shocked to hear him start to sing along.

"Time shakes, found you at the water. At first you were my father, now I love you like a brother." He began, singing like he was alone in the shower.

I found myself being mesmerized by his singing voice. It was rough, like his normal one, and yet it felt soft. It certainly wasn't good, but nor was it the worst I had ever heard. Everything about it had me smiling wide. My heart even did a stupid little skip.

If he wasn't so confident about it, I wouldn't have felt comfortable enough to join him. My voice was far worse than his was, but I could tell that he didn't mind.

"Ten thousand people stand alone now. And in the evening the sun sank." We sang in tandem, the both of us bearing stupid grins. Our eyes made contact for a spilt second.

God, those hazel eyes would be the death of me.

The reminded me a bit of a forest, all speckles of green amidst waves of brown and gold. I wanted to swim inside of those irises for all of eternity. Then I realized how weird that sounded, so I suppressed a grimace and pushed the thought away.

We finished singing as the car crept into his perfectly paved driveway, and we both exited. Once we were inside, I tossed my bag onto his couch and laid down.

"Make yourself at home, why don't you?" Sam laughed, leaning his forearms against the back of the couch and peering down at me.

I gazed up at him with a smug look on my face. "You're just jealous because I got the best seat in the house."

A determined expression settled onto Sam's face instantly after the words were out of my mouth. I was suddenly terrified. "You think so?"

I paused, unsure of where this was going. Why did he look that way? "Yeah..?"

A smirk grew tall on his skin as he rounded the corner of the couch and faced me directly. His eyes were alit with a fire that I had yet to witness. It was playful excitement, leaving me to wonder how he managed to flip that switch so quickly.

Without a moments notice, Sam lunged forward, his smirk morphing into a smile. His hands gripped my wrists, and his leg hooked under mine. If he moved at all, I'd be pushed onto the floor. However, Sam had very different ideas in mind.

I squirmed around, trying to break out of his grasp, a smile on my face just like his. He pulled my wrists together and effectively held them both with one hand. Meaning that I was totally screwed.

His face hovered above me as his right hand slowly drifted down to the pit of my stomach. Then, with enough suddenness to startle the hell out of me, he started tickling me profusely.

Laughs instantly began flooding out of my mouth, my body attempting to shoot out in every direction. I wasn't even pissed at him, finding something so oddly exhilarating about his light touch.

I didn't even notice that he had traveled beneath my shirt, and was now directly tickling my skin. My lungs soon began to burn from the lack of air, so in between gasps, I tried to express how little I could breathe.

Thankfully, after torturing me for sometime, he seemed to understand, his hand stilling against my skin. When all movement subsided, the realization of how close we were finally clicked. His face was only mere inches from mine.

The feeling of his palm pressed to my bare stomach was driving me insane. There was something about the way Sam touched me that drove me over the edge. I couldn't handle it. I could barely breath.

Yet, when his lips finally traveled down to mine, I knew that was all my body was waiting for.

We stayed like that for a while, kissing and holding each other. It went on for so long that both of our brains seemed to just shutdown.

And once we had enough of kissing, Sam collapsed down beside me, laying with his arm wrapped protectively around my back. My own arm was pressed up against his chest. It felt so right.

Everything about it felt right and perfect, and as though the stars had aligned. I think I was beginning to come to terms with that boy-crush, and all of those butterflies that bat their bodies against my rib cage when he got too close. It was our secret, and no one else needed to know.

Of course I still had questions. Like, did it make me gay? Or, what would people say when they found out? But for right then, none of that mattered. All I needed was the lavender scent of the room, and the subtle cologne scent radiating from the fabric of his hoodie.

That was, until the sun had set, and the sound of a car pulling into the driveway began to echo. Leaving us to have to untangle ourselves.

Good things could never last for too long.

It was funny, because I felt the same way just last Friday for a completely different reason.

•O•O•