I stood tall, waiting.
Hunter glanced at his buddies. They nodded. They were ready to rumble. His buddies were pretty big. Thick-necked gym rats. One of them was busy cracking his knuckles while making fists. Another lowered his center of gravity into a crouch. He maybe knew what he was doing.
Did Hunter?
“Throw it, bitch,” I said.
Hunter was considering.
I knew Jake was down. He turned to a forty-five degree angle facing the other guys. Fighting stance. He shook his arms loosely and cross-stepped to the side, lining himself up so that Hunter’s second buddy, the one beside him, blocked the path of the third guy behind him. It would give Jake more time to take down the second guy before the third guy in back could get at him.
That left me with Hunter and the fourth guy.
“Are we cracking heads?” Jake asked me quietly. It was his way of saying he had my back while giving me a final chance to walk away from this bullshit. He didn’t really care what we did. But we both knew the wisest path to tread in this situation.
Fuck wisdom.
“I’ll let Hunter make that call,” I grunted.
I watched Hunter swallow hard.
This bomb was about to go off.
I glared at Hunter. There was no way I was going to throw the first punch.
Please, I thought to myself, let me take you out. Please, come on, please.
Hunter was psyching himself up.
Shit, was this going to take all week? I was ready yesterday.
Hunter dropped into a boxer’s stance and fainted left with a jab a split-second later. I saw where this was going. Wrong move. His torso twisted as his shoulder tensed to deliver a hard right.
Too slow. I snapped forward on the balls of my feet and slapped his lead hand down before he launched his fist. The backs of my knuckles crashed down on his nose. At the same time, the toe of my boot slammed into his shin. Boxers never expected a simultaneous strike to come from that low. Their nervous systems weren’t accustomed to dealing with a low attack when their hands were busy.
Hunter tumbled to the ground, shocked. He was on his ass, staring up at me wide-eyed. He probably wasn’t even hurt. But he would have a bloody nose in about five seconds.
“Who’s next?” I asked calmly.
Jake laughed and glared at Hunter’s three pals. “Any time, ladies.”
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.
Late night with Jake. Just woke up. Sorry. I love you. Talk tonight?
I replied, Dinner at my apartment?
I’ll be there. What time? he replied.
7pm?
Ok. I’ll bring food. ILY
ILY2 <3 <3 <3
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 demand to know.” She folded her arms across her chest.
“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 hoped I wasn’t jinxing myself talking about it.
“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 so romantic!”
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, agápi mou,” Christos said. “Jake and I
were out pretty late, and I was sauced. We had to wait it out till we got sober enough to drive home.” He chop-sticked a piece of dragon roll into his mouth.
“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 our Valentine’s Day was going to be. Silence hung between us. I waited.
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 awesome? Or was bad news brewing and I was going to be the last to know?
I needed a change of subject.
“Any more calls from your parents?” Christos asked.
Not the subject I was looking for.
“No,” I said. “I mean, they’ve left a bunch of voicemails I haven’t listened to and emails I haven’t read. They’re probably all death-threats. knowing my parents.”
“Sorry to hear that. Maybe you need to call them and clear the air. Let them know you’re okay. They’re probably worried about you.”
I huffed a laugh, “Yeah, they’re worried I’m not following orders.”
“Was it that bad?” Christos said while dipping tuna sashimi in soy sauce and wasabi with his chopsticks. He popped the raw tuna in his mouth and chewed.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I told you they’re evil.”
Christos set down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Look, agápi mou, I know it’s the last thing you want to hear from me, but maybe you just need to call them and set things straight. I’ll be right here for support, like when you told them you changed majors. What do you say?”
I wanted to say that last time my parents had thrown me to the lions with their decision to stop paying for my apartment and this time they might throw me to the tigers, bears, sharks, and carnivorous dinosaurs, oh my!
Which led me to my real concern. Now that I’d given a 30-day notice to my apartment manager, I needed to make absolutely sure I wasn’t walking a high wire without a net. “Christos, before I call them,” I said tentatively, “I have to ask you one thing.”
“Anything, agápi mou,” he said before drinking some water.
I looked into his eyes. They were so sincere, it gave me the courage to press forward. “I feel silly for asking this, and please don’t hate me, but…are we moving in together?”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
Was I sensing doubt? Screw it, I needed to get this over with. “I mean, are you totally sure it’s cool for me to move in with you and Spiridon? Cuz if it’s not, I totally—”
He put a reassuring hand on my thigh. “Agápi mou, I meant what I said. And so did my grandpa. You can move into the house for as long as you want.”
“You’re sure?” I asked hopefully. It really did seem too good an offer to be true.
“Yes.”
I was wrong. It was true. “Okay, good. I just needed to make sure. My mom said some nasty things that made me, I don’t know, nervous about the whole thing.”
“Like what?”
“You don’t want to know,” I chuckled nervously.
“Sounds to me like you need to call them, agápi mou. I can tell them myself that you have a place to live for as long as you want. I mean, I spent two weeks at their house. Why wouldn’t my family extend the same courtesy to you?”
“That’s right!” I smiled. “But, it’s for more than two weeks,” I winced.
“So what?” He’d said it with such confidence, I couldn’t possibly doubt him.
“Okay, I’ll call them!” I cleared our dinner plates from the table, wiped it down with a damp sponge, and washed my hands in the sink.
I was drying my hands on a dish towel when Christos grinned at me.
“Ready to rip that Band-Aid off?” he asked.
“Do you have to make it sound like this situation is a bloody wound?”
He chuckled. “Okay. Uh, are you ready to call your parents and tell them what they’ve won?”
“What, like a sweepstakes? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Yeah it does. They have an awesome daughter who’s taking charge of her own life in admirable ways. Sounds like the big win to me.”
I giggled. “You always know the right things to say, agápi mou,” I said.
“You keep talking with that sexy Greek accent you’ve picked up, and we won’t make it to the phone call,” he said suggestively.
“Fine by me!”
He laughed. “I knew you were trying to distract me. Call them, Samantha. Let’s get this over with. How bad can they be?”
I took a shaky breath. I didn’t want to make any predictions lest they come true. “Fine,” I said and grabbed my phone. I plopped down on the couch and Christos sat next to me.
“Here goes nothing,” I said as I dialed and set the phone to speaker.
“Hello?” my mom said.
I sighed, wishing my dad had answered. He would’ve given me a slight buffer before everything went nuts. “Hey, Mom.”
“To what do we owe this honor?” she said sarcastically. “Considering you didn’t bother to answer any of our previous messages.”
I rolled my eyes at Christos. He took my hand and held it.
“Sam?” my mom asked.
“I’m here,” I said rolling my eyes, already sounding whinier than I’d planned.
“What do you want?” she snapped bluntly. She was never this bad.
“You might want to get Dad on the phone.”
“Why,” my mom chuckled, “are you eloping with that Christos? Getting married in Las Vegas? Or have you already gotten hitched and dropped out of school?”
Wow, she sure knew how to set me at ease. I wondered if the State Department needed any more diplomats to bridge gaps between warring nations and rekindle world peace. I’d totally recommend my mom. Not. “No, Mom,” I sighed. “Just get Dad. Please?”
“Fine.” She put the phone down. A minute later the other phone line clicked on.
“Hello?” my dad said. “Sam?”
“Hey, Dad,” I sighed. Would he be as bad as Mom?
“Is everything all right?” he asked. “Your mother and I were worrying about you.”
More like yelling about me, would be my guess.
My mom was back on the phone, “So what was your big announcement?” she grated.
Here went nothing. Or everything. “I’m moving in with Christos. I gave my 30-day notice to the manager at my apartment.”
“You what?!” Mom shouted.
Christos squeezed my hand supportively.
“I’m moving in with Christos,” I said confidently. Ironically, my mom’s sudden anger strengthened my resolve.
My dad started nervously, “Sam, are you sure this is a guh—“
Like she’d been on a time-delay fuse, my mom blew up again, “Over my dead body you will!!”
Maybe I shouldn’t have told them?
“You will NOT move into that young man’s house! I will not have you throw your life away on a whim for some two-bit tough!”
I goggled at Ch
ristos. He raised his eyebrows sympathetically and winced. So it wasn’t just me. My mom was a lunatic, like I’d always suspected.
“I’m not throwing my life away, Mom!” I pleaded. Why did I have to plead at a moment like this? I didn’t know, but that’s what I was doing. “Christos is a good person! I’m going to live with him and his grandfather. Both of them are working artists! They make their livings selling art. They’re showing me how to do it too!”
“I don’t know what kind of a hippie commune this Christos and his grandfather have,” my mom said acidly, having calmed from stark raving lunacy to simmering insanity, “but I’m sure it sounds much better than it actually is. You can’t pay the gas and electric bill with peace and love, Samantha. But if you like taking cold showers, that’s your prerogative,” my mom said with finality.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Mom! They’re not hippies! They live in a mansion. I mean, an actual mansion. It has a gazillion bedrooms. And the last time I took a shower there, it was really hot, and it never ran out of water, like when I shower after you and Dad get ready for work.”
In my experience, there was nothing quite as annoying as running out of hot water and shivering in the shower because your dad was too cheap to set the central house thermostat to a reasonable temperature. Not even my mom could change Dad’s mind about that. Our house was an icebox most of the winter. I swear, one time, I woke up and saw icicles dangling from the ceiling in my bedroom as my breath puffed out of my mouth in cold clouds.
“That’s all well and good, Samantha,” my mom continued, “but—”
I cut her off. “Yes, mom. It is well and good. It’s nicer than your house. And I’m moving in with them. Christos’ grandfather Spiridon is a very nice man, and he—”
“Spiridon?” my mom scoffed. “What kind of a hippie name is that?”
She was going too far. “It’s Greek, mom. Look it up. It’s a real name. And he’s nice.” I was getting flustered. My mom was turning this into an insult-a-thon. I wasn’t going to stoop into the sewer with her.
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