by Nicole Nwosu
“You know,” Justin said after a moment of silence, “she should’ve played basketball. I think she would’ve been really good.”
I snorted at Justin’s words but he only continued. “A basketball necklace sounds really good. Macy, take notes for my birthday present.” Nonna and I burst into laughter at Justin’s remark and he put the necklace back in its box then handed it back to our grandmother.
25
I Don’t Smell Like a Fruit
“Royal flush,” Nonna gloated, taking the chips all for herself. That Thursday, we continued bonding over card games, with Justin and Nonna becoming more competitive the more we played.
“You cheated.” Justin glared at Nonna.
“I did not. It’s all about the probability.”
“Did you spend a year in Vegas or something?” Justin muttered.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I read the message.
Jerk: Grandmother’s making me tag along to a function of hers
Jerk: I’ll come over tonight
This week was going by fast. We were returning home on Sunday. Home made me think of Jasmine, of Cedric, of how Sam and I would be after this break. How I would react seeing him flirt with other girls. In fact, I didn’t know if he expected me to act like one of the girls he had been with back in Port Meadow while we were here.
Later that evening, I was playing in the small backyard, counting the passes I made with the soccer ball against the wall of the house. Getting past only fifty, I stopped the ball when the backyard gate opened.
“Miss me?” Sam asked.
I must’ve taken too long to answer as I stared at his gray suit, black tie, and nice shoes, because a conceited expression overcame his face. “How do I look?”
Then his expression softened. “You can say it, Hazel. I know I look sexy but it would sound better if you say it.” Always arrogant.
“You are not letting me get a word in edgewise,” I said.
“You wouldn’t believe the day I had. The least you could’ve done was give me an award. I couldn’t even text you because my grandmother took my phone.”
“You missed me?” I teased.
“I did. I’ll be back in a bit.” He leaned in and kissed me, but my worry from earlier distracted me. When I pulled away, his hands were still cupping my face. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me.” I focused on the grass underneath us when he sighed. “We’ll talk later. Wow, here we are acting like a married couple.”
The thought of me married to Sam made me roll my eyes. We couldn’t even stick to being an actual couple. Sam’s lips pressed against my forehead. I indulged in the feeling even as he pulled away. “There’s the Hazel I know.”
Sam returned to Nonna’s house a few minutes later in his leather jacket and jeans. “How was the event, Samuel?” Nonna asked him.
“Most boring thing I’ve ever had to attend.”
Sam laid his head on my lap, facing the TV. I played with his hair as the night progressed. Nonna excused herself. “I’m going to make a call.”
Justin was typing on his phone, chatting with Emma. Sam and I grabbed throw pillows and launched them in my brother’s direction. He grumbled under his breath and left the room.
“Now can you tell me what’s wrong?” Sam asked.
“I know you said we were in this ‘relationship’ because we needed to get each other out of our systems,” I said. “I just want to know if you’re expecting what you usually do with other girls.”
Sam paused. “I wouldn’t do anything you’re not comfortable with. Besides, you should have your first time with someone special to you. I don’t think I’m that person.”
Think. The way Sam viewed himself an undeserving person bothered me but I didn’t press the matter, instead running my fingers through his hair. “What kind of conditioner do you use? You smell like apples.”
His puzzled expression made me laugh as he said, “I don’t smell like a fruit. We were having a normal conversation literally eight seconds ago.”
With Nonna and Justin no longer here, I asked, “Want to come upstairs?”
Sam bolted upright. “Hazel, if you wanted me in your bed then you should’ve been blunt about it.” We entered my mom’s old room as his phone rang and I lay down on my bed. Sam lay down next to me as he answered the video chat. “What do you want, dude?”
Caleb was in his kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal. “Are you two still doing the spark, spark, bang, bang thing?”
“Shut up,” Sam muttered.
“Ooh,” he exclaimed. “I see that the spark, spark, bang, bang is now spark, spark, lock.”
“What are you talking about?” a voice said behind him, and Jon Ming looked at us over Caleb’s shoulder. “How did you two end up together on break? Wait, why is he talking about locks?”
“Not locks,” Caleb said. “They kissed.”
“They did what?” Jon Ming exclaimed.
“Are you two dating? I need an answer,” Caleb asked. “What about the cousin?”
“Did you break up with Cedric?” Jon Ming looked shocked at my lack of response, my stomach in knots at a reminder of home. “Mace.”
“Is this thing you and Sam have only temporary?” Caleb interjected.
“Yeah,” Sam answered.
“This isn’t going to affect anything when you guys get back, is it?” Jon Ming asked.
“No,” Sam and I said in unison.
“Does the rest of the gang know about this?” Caleb asked, and Sam said no.
Jon Ming’s eyes were on me when he sighed. “Not even Andrew? Our lips are sealed then. We’ll let you guys go. Bye.”
The video chat disconnected and Sam put his phone on the nightstand, almost knocking off one of the scrapbooks from the attic I had been looking through last night. He picked it up, glancing at me for permission to look through it. I nodded, attempting to push the guilt away as he opened it up. “Have you watched her soccer tapes yet?”
“I was going to watch them tonight. Want to join?”
“Yeah. Where’d you get the scrapbook from?”
“Justin and I raided the attic yesterday. We found so many pictures of Mom,” I said, wishing we could stay here longer for me to find out more. “I don’t want to leave.”
“I don’t want to leave either.”
“Are you trying to be romantic?”
“No. I was joking,” he said dryly. “I can’t wait to get out of here.”
As I whacked him with my pillow, he blocked the playful attack with his hands. “I’m kidding. I don’t want to leave—ow.” Sam tumbled off the bed and onto the floor, taking me down with him. I landed on his body as he groaned. “That’s the second time I’ve fallen off this bed because of you.”
I lifted my head from his chest, beaming. “You’re welcome.”
As I helped him up, the door opened. Nonna stood at the threshold holding a phone to her ear. “If you two are in here, this door had better be open.” My face grew hot with embarrassment, and I looked out the window at the setting sun. “And Sam? Lucy wants you back in thirty minutes.”
Sam’s phone rang once Nonna left; the plain ringtone I knew to be Alexis’s. He waited for the ringing to stop before powering down his phone. “I’ll call her back later. Alexis doesn’t like you.”
“Of course she doesn’t,” I said. “Because she’s in love with you.”
“She’s not,” he assured me, sitting down on the bed.
I sat down beside him and swung my legs over his lap. “She said that you were coming here so that you both can finally be together.”
“She’s just a friend.” He dismissed me. “I’ve known her for a long time. Alexis is not someone you should worry about. No one should be.” He was right. I hadn’t seen Alexis since that encoun
ter in the café. “I have thirty minutes. Show me the tapes?”
Sam made his way downstairs and I ran up to the attic to get the videos Nonna had shown me. Justin wasn’t in his room, leaving me to assume that he was out with Emma but would soon be returning. Heading to the living room where Sam was settled on the couch, I placed one video in the old VCR Nonna had yet to get rid of.
The first video showed a sunny day on the field. Mom was with her team, in her high school soccer jersey. The game started off slow but then she had the ball, sprinting on a breakaway. She took the shot and it went in the net. Sam chuckled next to me at the sight of my mom’s excitement in the video as she was surrounded by her team.
“Knew she would be good,” he commented.
“Are you the only soccer fan in your family?” I asked.
“No, my dad,” Sam said after a moment. “He played a bit when he was in secondary school.”
“Your siblings weren’t into it?”
Sam’s eyes cast downward. “Beth wasn’t a big fan but she came to all my games. Greg despises football.”
“Despises?”
“He hates it. He could not kick a ball to save his life.” Sam twiddled his phone in his hands. “It’s why I was happy that Phillip got into football. Greg plays tennis and he likes it.”
“Do you talk to him often?”
“Every day.” For once, he seemed okay with talking about something connecting him to England. “Do you want to see what he looks like?”
“Sure.” Sam went through his phone and pulled up a picture of his family. His little brother’s arm held the phone to take the selfie, his family surrounding Greg. They were outside, in nice clothing, with big smiles.
At the sight of Sam’s father, I said, “When my dad said you were the spitting image of your dad, he wasn’t kidding.” The main differences were that his dad’s eyes were brown, his hair was wavy instead of curly, and he was older, but they looked very similar.
His mom was pretty, with straight brown hair and green eyes. Even just looking at the picture of her, I could tell that Sam shared her confidence. His little brother had similar curly hair but his dad’s brown eyes. In the photo, Sam stood next to his sister. The Sam I met in Port Meadow only smiled on rare occasions but the way he was with his family in England was brighter. Before everything changed for him.
My hand covered his, squeezing. “You really miss them, huh?”
“Yeah, I do.” He cleared his throat and put the phone back in his pocket to focus on the TV.
Friday was spent with Nonna, Justin, and Emma, who’d come over to play board games with us. Sam and his grandmother, Lucy, eventually joined and it was fun. It reminded me of when Justin and I were kids and the game nights Nonna had held with us, Mom, and Dad.
On Saturday, Emma and Justin were playing video games in the basement. I gave her a high five when she killed Justin’s character. “Justin, when Macy said you suck, I didn’t think she meant it.”
“I was letting you win,” he defended himself lamely.
“Three times?”
Justin cursed under his breath, reloading the game and digging into the popcorn next to him. Sam came down the stairs and pointed at me. “I’m taking you out on the best date of your life.”
The sight of him in a great mood provoked me to kiss him, which didn’t last long as pellets of popcorn assaulted us. Justin scowled, scooping another handful of popcorn. “Do us a favor and play tonsil hockey somewhere else.”
I picked the popcorn out of my hair as he and Emma resumed their game. Sam brushed the popcorn off himself. “What was that for?” he asked, referring to my spontaneous kiss.
Because after eighteen years, those romance books and movies I had made fun of with Andrew finally made sense.
Shortly after, Sam and I made our way up the stairs, passing by Nonna, who was seated on the couch in the living room, her phone hovering by her ear. “Nonna, we’re going out,” I told her.
“Might be back around ten or eleven,” Sam added, and my grandmother didn’t object, shooting us a thumbs-up to show she had heard before the two of us left the house.
About twenty minutes later, Sam drove into the parking lot of a grocery store.
“You took me out to buy groceries? What are we going to do? Race shopping carts?”
Sam laughed and I decided that I loved this side of him—the playful one that teased and made jokes every second. After he parked, we exited the vehicle. Sam then took a bag from the trunk.
“Let’s go.” He pulled me to a narrow alley. There was a dumpster against the wall. “Hazel, don’t say something dramatic.”
I kept my mouth shut, and we continued walking farther into the alley, eventually reaching an open gate. Sam pulled me through, shutting it behind us, and we were surrounded by graffitied walls. “Whoa.”
Sam rifled through the bag and then tossed a can of spray paint at me. I caught it as he took out more cans, placing them on the ground. “Can’t we get arrested for this?”
“Life is all about taking risks, no?” he teased. “People use this wall as a canvas all the time, don’t worry.” Pulling us forward, he turned me around to face a brick wall. “Close your eyes.” I did as he said, feeling only his presence around me. “Tell me what you feel right now.”
I didn’t think about it. “Happy.”
“Open your eyes.” I did. “Now write something that makes you feel happy. Like food or football.”
We got to work separately, and after a few moments, I snorted at how bad my writing looked. Spotting what Sam was doing, my eyes widened as I hadn’t expected to see my name. Sam cleared his throat, his cheeks a slight pink. I picked up another can. “Let’s do another one. How about I write something that makes me feel confused? I’ll write your name.”
“I’m not that confusing.”
“You change moods so fast. You’re as confusing as Caleb’s theories.”
He pulled me toward him. “Like this?”
The can in my hand dropped to the ground.
Sam clamped a hand over my mouth as I attempted to sing, driving with one hand. “I think you ruined this song for me,” he muttered, not entirely annoyed.
As he slowed down, people of all ages walked past the car, carrying drinks or bags full of popcorn. Other cars were lined up around us, some people sitting on the hood or staying inside, everyone awaiting the bright screen a good distance away.
“Ever been to a drive-in?”
“No,” I said as we both got out of the car.
“Since it hasn’t snowed since early January, they opened up early, recommending that people stay in their cars.”
“You say that as we get out of the car.”
“I was never really one for following the rules.” He spread out a blanket on the hood of the car for us to sit on, then left and returned with food. As the movie started, his hands played with mine as I sat between his legs, my back against his chest.
“My family and I used to come here a lot when we were younger,” he said.
“The entire family?”
“Usually. Mostly my family and Ivan’s.”
“Even Cedric?”
“Even Cedric,” Sam said with a sigh. “Better days, I suppose.”
His comments throughout the night made the film more interesting than if I had watched it alone. I was comfortable in his presence, but then a cold breeze whipped through the air. I shivered, about to get my thicker jacket from inside the car when Sam stopped me. Wordlessly, he removed his leather jacket and gestured for me to put it on. I stared at it. This was Sam’s jacket. He almost never took it off. He probably slept in it.
“Are you serious? This is sacred. Like ‘Thou shalt not wear Samuel Cahill’s jacket’ sacred,” I said.
Sam rolled his eyes. “Just wear the damn jacket, Hazel.”
As I put the jacket on I said, “I was right, you do smell like apples.” Sam faked irritation, and I pressed a kiss to his cheek before leaning into him, playing with the soccer-ball pendant around my neck.
We returned to Nonna’s house, but I had dozed off during the drive. Sam rushed over to the passenger side, opened the door, then hoisted me up into his arms, bridal style. I pretended to stay asleep, hoping to prolong being so close to him. He kicked the door closed with his foot before making his way up the front steps. “Hazel, you weigh a ton.”
The front door opened. “Wow, I didn’t expect you guys to come back here.” Justin.
“Where’s your grandmother?” Sam whispered.
“Sleeping. What’s wrong with my sister? Did you kill her?”
“What is it with you Andersons and your imaginations?”
Justin walked away. Sam groaned under his breath as he made his way into the house. “How much does this girl weigh?” he repeated.
I hit him lightly on the chest, opening my eyes.
“I knew you were awake. I was kidding, by the way.”
I got out of his arms and closed the door behind him. The two of us made our way up the stairs and into my bedroom, and I took off his jacket, placing it on the dresser before tumbling onto my bed.
“Did you have a good time?” He didn’t even wait for me to reply before he whispered, “Of course you did; you were with me.”
“You’re very arrogant and annoying today, aren’t you?”
“You’re very beautiful today, aren’t you?” he teased. “Are we done pointing out the obvious?”
“Don’t,” I protested. “Don’t call me things like that.”
He furrowed his eyebrows as he sat next to me, and I pulled my legs up and hugged them to my chest. “I may be a jerk sometimes—”
“I noticed.”
“And I may be obnoxious—hell, even annoying at times—but I always mean what I say.”
His eyes. His stupid eyes that had to look right through me. “We have to get up early tomorrow and I’m a little tired.”