She hasn't slept in almost two days and fifteen minutes of having her lay down on Lance's couch, singing to her softly, pulling my fingers through her hair results in her snoring softly on my right thigh. I let her sleep for a good twenty minutes before I get up and get something to drink. Hawaiian Punch! Sam must've demanded he get it for the tour kick off. I get a glass and drink it, watching her sleep from the kitchen counter.
A smile forms on my lips, I feel good about us and I'm hoping we last. She's good to me, treats me like the only guy that matters, doesn't make me do anything except work when I'm supposed to and do my school work, and my parents love her. I know Trace says she's cool from talking on the phone and the week he was here in August. The guys love her because we've known her for over a year and a half. She talks to me, understands my situation, makes me laugh, makes me happy, she blows my mind when it comes to intelligence, and she doesn't expect anything that has to do with money. Most of the time, she wants to talk or cuddle or spend time together. The rest of the time, one of us is sleeping like right now.
"Where's Sam?"
"Asleep," I answer, nodding toward the couch. "I'll take her to her designated room in a few." I take the last guzzle of my drink, wash out the cup and put it in the strainer. I walk over to her, grabbing her hands to place them around my neck, slip my hands under her knees and back, lift her and shift her weight in my arms to put her in the bedroom she has dibs on. I carry her there, lay her on the bed and she won't let go, forcing me to crouch at her bedside until she does.
"No," she whispers.
"Sam, it's ok. I'm in the room across from yours. Same as always," I say loud enough for only her ears to hear. Her grip slackens and I kiss her tenderly on her rose petal pink lips. She whimpers and I pull my fingers through her hair a few times to ensure she's asleep before heading back to the living room.
"What took so long?"
"She wouldn't let me go," I tell him, realizing it had more than one meaning.
"She does that when she dreams about her bad memories," he tells me, looking at me.
"Oh, I hope they're not too often."
He shakes his head. "No, this is the second time since last year. It used to be more frequent."
"How do you know?"
"I asked her. It was one of our many subjects."
He's a little too casual about it. "I have some history homework, can you help me?"
"Sure. What's it on?"
"Lewis & Clark."
"She's better at it. Let's try some English work."
"Shakespeare, Dickenson and Poe."
"She's better at it. Let's do math."
"She sucks at everything but what I'm doing. I'll just head to bed."
"Why did she look so tired?"
"She hadn't slept in two days for some reason." I head to the room I took claims to, making sure to bring my bags with me, and hear Lance do the same. I toss and turn for a little while, quickly giving up and pull out a blank notebook to start writing. Just as I finish, I hear her knock on the door in a rhythm only she can. Two, five, three, one which means 'Justin, it's just me knocking. Coming in now' and she always waits a few seconds before she opens the door out of respect. "Couldn't sleep?"
"Not alone." She's gotten so dependent on cuddling to someone at night, thanks to that fucker. It takes pure exhaustion, Lance or myself cuddling her before she sleeps. I've begun to wonder if she was abused. So help me, if he ever laid a hand on her... "Justin?"
I shake my thoughts out of my mind and see her in front of me. I grab her hand and pull her onto my lap. We share a long kiss and I follow her lead in the matter, but to a point. If I follow her lead constantly, I wouldn't be a virgin. She pulls my arms around her waist, signaling she wants me to scoot back to have me lean back on the wall at the head of the bed and I envelop her in my arms to comply. Once we get settled in that position, she rests her head on my shoulder and I rub her back. "Sam, you know that if you have something on your mind, I'll always be here to listen."
"Yeah," she affirms, yawning.
~~~~~
"Bounce! Let's go!" I hear her yelling at me.
"Five minutes."
"We leave now or I set your Jordans on fire!"
"Josh! Come on. We can sleep on the bus." I open my eyes enough to get up and wrap my body around hers before closing them again, hoping she can guide me to my bunk half asleep while I have my body draped around hers. She puts her hands on mine. "When I tap one hand, turn that way, ok?" she utters, just enough loud for me to hear and I nod.
My hands are laced together on her stomach and she starts to move. She taps my left hand, I turn that way. She taps the right, we go a little further and she stops. "Huh?"
"Steps to the bus," she informs me.
I open my eyes long enough to get to the top just to enclose her body with mine again. She taps my left hand and then she says something to Lance, I think, about putting me in my bunk. She said she might cuddle me to get some sleep too.
~~~~~
I wake up and smell her shampoo, feel her hair near my face. I love waking up curled around her. I know it's crazy, but I could deal with this forever. My cell rings. "Hello?"
"Justin?" a familiar girl's voice comes across the line.
"Yes, who's this?"
"It's Britney." She waits a few seconds. "From MMC."
"Hey."
"How have you been?"
"Good. It's been a couple years since we spoke last."
"Yeah, I know. We've both been crazy busy. What are you doing when you come to Louisiana?"
I look at Sam and she knows I've liked Brit alot since I met her on set. "I don't know yet. What's up?"
"I was thinking we could hang out."
"I'll let you know, ok?"
"Yeah, talk to you later."
"Yeah, bye." I hang up, grab my traditional bowl of cereal and eat. She made sure to have a few different options-Lucky Charms (marked 'eat & get beaten' in her slanted script writing), Cap'n Crunch, Cinnamon Toast Crunch (marked), Fruit Loops, Honey Nut Cheerios (marked) and Frosted Flakes. She claims three and my marked three are all my favorite.
She probably knows Chris is going to eat some of hers anyway and is probably why she took her time hand decorating bowls for each of us, all she used were sharpie markers. She took the time to really get to know us for us, not a single thing she put on our bowls is on anybody else's. She has our names, nicknames, hometowns, fave animals, fave teams, fave sports, our schools' names, fave colors, and important dates on them. The dates mean something and they have memories attached, she put a place or thing related to the date near it. She has an artistic side and I love how she took the time to detail the designs on my bowl, everything was done freehand. Every one of our bowls is unique and there is almost no room to add to it, she had them glazed at a local pottery store to make sure the designs never fade. "It rises from the dead!" Chris teases.
I drink the milk and nod. "Yeah, don't wake her up. Before last night she was up for almost two days straight," I inform him.
"She will probably beat you senseless and roll over," Lance tells him.
"She didn't do that when Joe shoved his camera in her face a year and a half ago," Chris argues.
"That was then, now she's not afraid to kick any of our butts. She had also slept the night before he did it."
"Just don't mess with her," I agree.
"You're no fun," Chris whines, heading for the lounge in the back. Lance heads for his bunk and lays down.
JC comes out. "How is she?" he asks, nodding in the general direction of the bunks.
"Jazz? She's exhausted, almost two days of no sleep."
"She looked like shit."
"She's still beautiful and selfless."
"I know."
"Britney called me."
"What did she want?"
"To hang out when we get to Louisiana."
"Your call."
"Yeah, I know," I reply, hesitant about telling him.
Joey sits down on the couch behind me, a Superman comic in hand. JC leaves with a cup of juice. "You should talk it over with Jazz," Joey advises me.
"Planned it. How do you know?"
"I see it. I'm not blind, stupid or deaf. When it's not my business to tell, I am mute."
"Aahhhhh, ok. Does Scoop know?"
"He didn't hear it from me."
I see Diane and she smiles at me, I swear she winked too. I wonder who's parents know what. I can ask her, she won't mind. I see her get up and grab all the cereal tools she needs, choosing her HNC. She's just like me and JC, won't let a word slip from her mouth for a little while after waking up. She says she's always been like that. I smile at her and grab a nearby notebook. She hands me a pen, she has at least five in her pocket or something all the time. 'Who knows what?' I write.
'All parents know everything. JC & James are clueless. Joey & Chris figured us out.'
'Explains why Diane smiled and winked at me. What's her stand on us?'
'Ok with it, we're happy'
'How well do you know her and Lance?'
'Very well'
'You made time to get to know them better than the rest of us'
'Something like that'
'Ok. What do you want to do after you eat?'
'Sonic? Take turns?'
'Sure, I'll boot them out'
'Nah, it's ok, let them play too'
'I wanted to talk'
'We have our code'
I think about it and remember she taught me op-top and 'relationship' in Irish. I nod and ask them if they want to play. "I'll play," Chris says.
"I'll try to play," JC agrees.
"Sure," Joey replies.
Lance is sleeping. Sam comes to the lounge, sitting across from me. She yawns and stretches as I set it up. I hand her the controller. "What's on your mind, Timbs?" she questions putting in the master code for all levels.
"When could we tell Joposophop about our caidreamh?"
"I haven't told James, so after I tell him."
"What if one of them copatopcophopesop us kopisopsoping?"
"Justin, ropelopax. We have more to worry about when it comes to who kopnopowops already, bopabopyop."
I notice JC looking back and forth between her and I as we talk. "Cophopropisop and Jopoeyop won't say anything," I argue.
"Cophopropisop just needs to be on a sopugoparop hopigophop and the cat's out of the proverbial bag," she points out.
"Jopoeyop?"
"Itopalopianop fopoodop or anything Sopupoperopmopanop related."
She really knows how to make us cave and she can get her way in fifteen minutes or less. "Why are you two talking like that?" JC asks, clearly annoyed.
"She wanted to play and be social and I wanted to ask her a couple things, so we compromised and we're talking in our code."
"Are we ever going to learn it?"
She finishes the level and hands it to Chris. "If you want to learn op-top, I can teach you," she offers.
"Sure, start with something easy."
"The group's name is NopSopYopNopCop."
"Just add 'op' after every letter?"
"Pretty much. It's the principal idea," she confirms.
"Let's see if I say this right. Jopusoptopinop, wophopatop arope yopou hopidopinopgop fopropomop mope?" he asks with a sly smile on his face.
"Other than that, Josh," she scolds, irritated.
"He's hiding something."
Chris and Joey glance at each other and their eyes bug out. JC caught it. "Am I the only that doesn't know?" he asks, becoming enraged.
"Jopamopesop doesn't konopowop either, Josh," she informs him.
"We've been sopusoppopicopousop about why you two have been so close lately."
"We know. Just because we're teenagers doesn't mean we're oblivious."
JC sits back and fiddles with the medallion, his eyebrow raised in deep thought as he bites the inside of the corner of his mouth. I wish I could tell him, but I had agreed not to say anything to anyone that hasn't figured it out on their own. He walks out of the lounge and makes a phone call to someone, Kace maybe? He talks to his friend everyday. "Jazz, come here please," he calls out.
She walks over to me, pushes me against the seat and gives me a quick kiss. "Be back in a few." I smile and nod.
"Does she kiss you every time she leaves the room?" Chris wonders.
"Yeah, it's her thing."
"What about the cuddling thing?" Joey speculates.
"I don't know why, but it's part of the deal."
I get handed the controller and I play the fourth level. She comes back in and stops at the door. "No, it's confidential. Friend to friend information. You'll find out when he and I are ready to tell you," she barks at JC.
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