“Looks like I just got here in time. Dressed like that, I’m certain someone could have stolen you away from me,” Marcus stated. The shadow of uncertainty washed over his face. “I’m so sorry I’m late.”
“Don’t worry. It happens.”
“Thank you for forgiving me.” He chuckled. “You look beautiful.”
When Sam told me that, my whole body blushed.
“Thank you.” Although I smiled, I felt nothing. I felt nothing and I knew there would be nothing more to feel.
Feeling the intensity of eyes on me, I looked over Marcus’ shoulder and saw that Sam was standing by the door. He hadn’t left yet. While Marcus opened the drinks menu, I continued to stare at Sam.
The cautious look that tugged on his handsome features reminded me of the night I first realized he might feel the same way about me.
I was sixteen, and to me there was no one else like him.
It was the first time I felt real chemistry.
It was like nothing else. Just like now. He was standing far away from me, people were milling about between us. Sitting around the tables, moving around.
But…we could have been the only two people in here.
He moved from the door and disappeared into the night.
Leaving.
Chapter 8
Olivia
15 years ago…
Thanks, Jada.
Great advice.
Follow Sam.
Why did I listen to her? Why, oh why. Now look at me. I was stuck up an oak tree in the middle of Eidlewood forest, watching Sam with the girl from the new beauty salon that opened on Main Street.
The beautiful blonde girl with bright green eyes that looked like she just stepped off the set of a Hollywood film.
I was stuck up a tree watching at only God knew what time it was now. I left the house at nine. Night had fallen long before that and it was at that stage that I called thick darkness. Where it was so dark you could barely see.
Below me, and about twenty feet away, were Sam, the girl, Coop and his latest girl, who was just as beautiful as the blonde. They had a fire going by the lake. Coop was making out with his girl while Sam had the blonde on his knee.
Even from here I could see the way he looked at her.
God, please remind me to strangle Jada. Okay, I know you won’t remind me to do something like that, but could I at least shake her.
I’d wanted to leave the minute I saw the women who met the guys here, but they all would have seen me. Any movement would give me away and I would look like a complete idiot. I wouldn’t know how to explain myself or what I was doing. It would for sure look like I was doing exactly what I was doing, and that was spying on Sam.
I was so stupid.
What the hell did I think was going to happen? He’d never be interested in me, let alone a sixteen year old. He was twenty-one and Miss Hollywood looked to be at least nineteen or twenty. Closer in age to him and closer to his type of girl. Long blonde hair, skinny, with big boobs.
He liked blondes. This was the third one I’d seen him with. The third one that I knew of, anyway. Sam was gorgeous. He’d always had some girl chasing him, so I was pretty certain there were girlfriends I didn’t know about.
Not only was I too young for him, but I was not blonde. Blonde hair did not suit me. Jada made me wear a blonde wig last year for Halloween. We were going to a party and I was supposed to be Beyoncé.
Coop laughed me to scorn and told me I looked more like a black Miss Piggy. Sam was there. That was the first and last time that I ventured down that path. So, no blonde for me, not even highlights. Besides, I didn’t want to be blonde, or change anything about me.
It was just that sometimes I wondered if he could like me for me.
Sometimes when he looked at me, there was a sparkle in his eyes that looked interested in the real me.
The girl hopped off his lap and he stood up, pulling out a cigarette from his back pocket. It was sexy the way he lit it up and took a draw off it.
He looked sexy and cool with his cigarette. And the way he flicked his long hair to the side and rolled his jacket sleeves up his thick forearms.
I rolled my eyes as Coop took a break from his intense make-out session on his girl. So gross. Again, thanks Jada, I so wanted to spend my night watching my brother make out with his girlfriend.
I frowned at what I saw next, and my heart sunk too. Coop pulled out a small pouch from his back pocket and started rolling something up in a piece of paper.
What was that?
Was it drugs? Coop taking drugs. God…
No, I hoped not. He wouldn’t, would he?
When Sam saw, he moved over to him and punched him in his arm. I couldn’t quite hear what he said to him but he didn’t look happy.
Coop pushed him and started laughing. He lit the roll up and took a draw on it.
As I watched him stagger backwards and shake his head, I decided I could no longer reside in the safety of ignorance. He looked like he’d taken something that affected his balance, but he started laughing like he’d been told the funniest joke in the world.
Drugs. Had to be that. Bad enough that he was smoking, but drugs…
If Dad knew he’d be so mad. Granted, if Dad knew I was here, out so late and in the damn woods, he’d kill me dead.
Coop taking drugs, though, was next-level bad. I didn’t know what happened to him. Okay…that was a lie. I did know. It was Sam. Sam happened. Coop was an A-grade student before we got in so thick with Sam.
They got on straight away when we moved here from Arizona for Dad’s job, and they soon became more like brothers. They got closer after Mama died, probably the same way I got closer with Jada.
When you saw one, the other wouldn’t be too far away. Sam was always up to no good. He came to live with us a few years back, and by that time he’d been in juvie five times.
Sam motioned to the blonde girl and she stood, following him as he walked ahead toward where I was.
Good. If they left, I could go home. Coop and his girl followed too. By the time they came closer to me, I could hear their conversation.
“I’m too high, man. Can’t steal a car when you can’t think straight,” Coop cajoled, putting an arm around his girl.
“Fucking asshole, I told you not to smoke that,” Sam snapped.
“You’re the asshole, and a hypocrite. The stuff’s good, man. You gave it to me last week.”
“Not to be used every fucking day.” Sam looked furious. “I want that car. It’s a Ferrari.”
Great, Coop was high on drugs and now Sam was going to steal a car.
What should I do with that information?
Sam went to juvie once more after he came to live with us. Dad whipped him into shape and Sam cut down on the minor misdemeanors for a good few years until he was part of a gang that were attempting to steal a truck. The truck was one of those security deposit trucks.
Sam was seventeen at the time, nigh on his eighteenth birthday. Because of the seriousness of the offence, he went to juvie for the month prior to his birthday and was transferred to an adult prison after for four months. I was so distraught.
That was when we started writing to each other, for real. Nice as that was, it was horrible when he was away.
If he got caught again doing something similar, he could go to prison for a longer sentence. I’d read all about it.
I sighed with complete frustration and watched him straighten up and look around like he heard me. I couldn’t imagine how he would because I didn’t actually make a noise.
He looked around, though, then up in the trees. Thankfully the leaves on the tree I was in were so thick it completely concealed me. And thank God he moved away and the pack followed.
Ugh. This was bad. I didn’t know what to do. This was definitely the kind of situation where I should do something. I should tell Dad.
However, if I did tell, I knew that would be bad too.
Coop would be mad at
me. And as for Sam…
Well, that could ruin whatever I had with him. Better that, though, than have him go to prison. And better to tell Dad about Coop before Coop ended up like some junkie on the roadside with no future.
Telling would be what Dad called tough love, and I loved them both.
I slid out of the tree, being careful not to lose my footing and fall. It would help no one if I broke my back and had no one around to call on for help.
Once on the ground I walked to the path where I’d come from earlier. The path that led back to the greenery behind the road to my house. As it was darker now I could barely see straight and—
A loud snap stopped me mid stride.
What was that? Shit!
I turned to look around. The sound came from somewhere behind me. It was the opposite direction to where the guys had gone. So that meant that maybe someone else was here?
Or something else? Sam said he saw a wolf in the woods once. He used to try and tell me the most terrifying things to scare me. I pretended like he couldn’t, but it was a lie and I was scared now. Sam also told me that all kinds of people lurked around the woods at night waiting for people like me to come on by.
The noise sounded again and definitely sounded like footsteps.
Jesus, it was a person!
I didn’t bother to wait to see who it was, I started to run. I ran for all I was worth and as fast as my legs could carry me. Faster when the sound followed, then bam!
I ran straight into a wall. A wall with arms that steadied me.
I screamed, feeling like surely death had come for me, but relief washed over me when I looked up and saw Sam.
Sam beaming down at me, looking completely amused while I was trying so hard to catch my breath.
“There you are,” he said in a loud, purposeful voice. “Never can tell what sorts of people lurk around these parts. Good thing I came when I did,” he continued.
When I heard a shuffling noise behind us I clung onto his jacket, trying my hardest to stop shaking.
Someone was actually following me.
Sam chuckled deep and low, but then looked down at me with a frown.
“What are you doing here, kid?”
Kid.
I hated him calling me that so much it snapped me out of the trembling and took me straight to annoyed in an instant. I released his shirt and stepped away from him.
“I’m not a kid,” I argued.
“Dear Olivia, what the fuck is wrong with you wandering the woods at this hour?” This was how we talked. Like we were writing a letter to each other.
“Don’t you Dear Olivia me.”
“Are you crazy? You know how dead you could be right now? ”
“Sam, what are you doing out here?” Wait…he came back. Alone. No girl. And where was Coop? “Where are the others?”
He leaned in and glowered at me.
“Others? Olivia, were you spying on us?”
I looked down, feeling my cheeks warm from embarrassment.
“No, I was… I just happened to be on a stroll and I heard you guys talking.”
“A stroll at one in the morning?”
Shit. Dad was going to definitely kill me. I hadn’t realized it was that late. That was crazy late, and it was a school night.
“I had a bad dream and needed some fresh air,” I lied.
He wasn’t buying any of it. “Come on, I’m taking you home.” He went to take my hand as if I was a child, so I backed away.
“No, I want to stay out here.” I must have hit my head at some point and forgot, because that was the only thing that could make me say such craziness.
“You want to stay here? Even though someone was clearly following you and they could still be out there waiting for you to be stupid again so they can either rape and/or murder you?”
“It could have been a dog, or a cat?”
“The fuck it wasn’t a dog or cat, come on. Your dad is going to be furious.”
I scowled. He was going to tell on me. That was rich, considering what he was up to.
“Well, I’m going to tell him about the car you plan to steal, and Coop looked like he was on drugs.”
I definitely hit a nerve because the bravado he previously exerted shifted into caution.
“Sounds like you heard a lot, except that thanks to a certain someone I won’t be getting a car tonight.”
“Someone?” I gave him a pointed stare.
“You, kid.”
I shook my head at him, passing on correcting him again. “How’d you know I was here?”
“I just did. Come on. I’ll walk you home.”
“And tell Dad?” No way was I going anywhere with him if that’s what he was going to do.
“No. Olivia, let’s get out of here. It’s not safe.”
He moved to go, looked back at me over his shoulder and I followed.
He took out another cigarette and lit up as we walked.
“Sorry to ruin your fun.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice. “Although maybe I saved you from prison,” I stated against the silence that filled the space between us.
“I wasn’t going to get caught.”
“How do you know?” I shot back. I’d bet he thought that last time too.
“Better planning. More efficiency.”
“And how would you explain a Ferrari? My dad would definitely have questions, as would everyone else.”
He shook his head at me again and took a few more puffs on the cigarette. “You hear too much, Olivia, and see too much too.”
“Can’t you just be good? It’s not that hard. All you have to do is not be bad.”
He laughed. “Right, because good people have everything. How could I forget that?”
“Don’t you remember what happened the last time?” I glanced across at him.
“You kept me great company with your letters.”
“I won’t write to you this time.”
He looked at me and started laughing, adding to my irritation. “Dear Olivia, why the hell not?”
“Dear Sam, you don’t deserve it. You can get your new skank to write,” I huffed.
He stopped and whirled around facing me. I stopped, too, and folded my arms in defiance.
“Skank? What makes you think she’s a skank?” The soft glow of the moonlight made his eyes look glossy.
“I’m entilted to my opinion.”
He threw down his cigarette and stepped on it to put it out. “And you think she’s a skank?” he asked, inclining his head to the side. The look he gave me was so piercing it was like he was staring inside my soul, trying to read my thoughts.
I nodded and he took out another cigarette.
“Would be good if you didn’t smoke so much.” I smirked.
He lit up, drew in the smoke and released it, allowing it to waft around him. That just added to the mysterious vision of him, making him look even more alluring than he already was.
“Would be good, too, if the girls you picked weren’t so shallow,” I added I had no idea what this girl was like. She might be nice, but niceness tended to be the last thing on anyone’s mind when the guy you’d had a crush on since you were five hooked up with some girl who wasn’t you. “Would be nice, also, if the girls you went for didn’t all look the same. There are different types of girls in this world.”
He started walking again and I joined him.
He glanced at me and the hardness on his face softened. “Different types of girls. That’s an interesting thing to say.”
“Exactly, so you could broaden your horizons.” I sounded exactly like my English teacher, Mr. Porter, who everyone was always making fun of because hardly a day went by when he told us to do just that. Broaden your horizons.
I didn’t have any qualms with him since I had big dreams to go to Harvard and study law. And it was sayings like that that made me push the limits of faith when I was with Sam, hoping against hope that he could like me too.
“Looks
like you have a whole bunch of tips ready for me.” There was an air of mischief mingled with curiosity in his tone.
“Well, for a start, you could open your eyes to what’s around you.”
“What’s around me?”
“Girls of a wider age range, and all sorts of shapes, sizes…colors. Light, or…um…darker…”
He stared ahead at the clearing before us, not really paying attention to me. Not answering either.
“Sam…”
“Huh…”
“Did you hear me?”
“Something about girls.” The corners of his lips turned up and a smooth smile lit up his face. “Don’t worry, kid. Message received loud and clear. I promise to choose less skank-like girls with different shapes and sizes.”
Oh my God, that’s what he thought I was saying? This was stupid. He didn’t get it and I was being stupid for thinking I could be brave enough to tell him how I really felt about him. Maybe something like that called for more planning.
We walked on in silence for a good twenty minutes until we got to a path I recognized. We were about five minutes away from home.
Tonight was a total waste of time. I should have stayed at home in my bed, at least then I’d have fewer worries, and feel less hopeless. That hopeless part was on me, because there was no hope with him and I shouldn’t want something I couldn’t have.
We got to my house quicker than I thought and Sam led me around the back to the basement door in the ground. He and Coop used to use it to sneak in and out of the house all the time.
“Mission accomplished. Goodnight.” Sam waved his hand toward the door.
I stood there, staring at him. Tonight really was such a waste. He never even questioned why it was I was spying on him in the woods.
“Rushing back to your girlfriend?” I hadn’t meant to sound so harsh.
“Not my girlfriend.”
“What is she then?”
“What’s with the girlfriend obsession, Olivia?” He leaned in closer. So close I could smell the mixture of his aftershave and the smoke from his cigarettes.
“I’m not obsessed.” I pouted.
“Great. Bye then.” He moved to go and I watched him walk away.
Dear Olivia Page 7
