Chapter Text
It was a cold autumn night in Boston. The fallen leaves, softened by the wet pavement, never produced a crunch under Sam’s feet. It had been raining up until he’d reached the orphanage, and luckily now the clouds were retreating in the sky.
He ruffled his hair, making some of the raindrops caught in it splash into the cold air, and he gripped tight at the iron gate that was the entrance to the place. He climbed and jumped over it with ease, his eyes finding the window that he knew belonged to Nathan’s room.
Making his way there proved effortless enough. Running on rooftops was slowly becoming second nature to him. When he finally reached the window, which was open as per usual, he took a cautious peek into the room before deciding to jump inside to make sure that none off the kids that shared the bedroom with his brother were awake.
He was surprised to find the beds completely empty as he paced through the place, a frown slowly appearing on his face when he noticed Nathan was also absent. That was unusual.
A sudden sound made him jolt and take a step back for a second, his eyes scanning the dark room and finally finding a figure in front of him. The bedroom was lacking any source of light except for the moonlight coming from the open window, but even if this was the case, he was surprised he hadn’t spotted her earlier.
It was a girl. She appeared to be around his age, definitely older than his brother. She was crouching in front of an open suitcase and seemed to have just noticed him as well, her eyes wide with surprise.
“Hi.” Sam greeted, keeping his voice down. He raised both hands slowly at waist height in an appeasing yet awkward gesture. “Please don’t scream.”
But the girl wasn’t making a sound, apparently opting for standing there staring at him with unease. Sam’s lips turned into a thin line as he kept his distance in tension, lest he startles the girl even more. They stayed like this for a quiet moment, until he decided he probably needed to explain himself. Fast.
“Listen, I’m not a burglar or anything.” He blurted out, the words coming out as a faint laugh as he pointed at his own chest. “I’m just looking for my brother, I only came to see him… Where’s everyone?” The young man’s eyes gazed at the empty beds once more before locking back on the girl’s silhouette.
But once again, his words were met by silence, with her not making any signs of acknowledging the sounds coming out from his mouth. Sam noticed the girl didn’t look scared, nor did she look surprised anymore, she was simply staring at him with some form of curiosity. And suddenly it occurred to him that perhaps she wasn’t answering because she could not hear him in the first place. What if she was deaf?
“Okay.” He muttered to himself, approaching her very slowly in the gloom of the room. As soon as he reached her position, standing right in front of the girl, he made sure to draw a friendly and genuine smile to let her know he truly meant no harm. And somehow her expression seemed to soften a little. “Let’s try this…” With these words, Sam gently picked up her hand, his eyebrows raising with the motion as if asking for permission. She didn’t complain. “Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”
And it was only then that he got a response, the girl’s fingers now curling around his hand and squeezing as he’d requested. He drew a half smile and nodded proudly.
“Yeah, good! Now we’re getting somewhere.” So she wasn’t deaf. Perhaps she was mute? No matter. He’d find his way around it. But he didn’t enjoy the idea of questioning her out of the blue. Considering he was a stranger that had just crawled through the window, it all seemed a bit too upfront. So he’d make sure she was comfortable with ‘talking’ to him first.
“Sorry if I scared you, I didn’t notice the room wasn’t empty.” Apologizing seemed fair in this case, since he was the one who was not meant to be there. The girl returned his smile now with a soft one of her own, and he noticed the dimples that formed on her cheeks when she did so. Now that he’d managed to catch a better glimpse of her, he had to admit she was a pretty little thing, albeit quite shorter than him.
He then squinted slightly, as if measuring her with a look. “Are you my age? Eighteen.” She shook her head at his question and he nodded. “Alright, squeeze for yes, head shake for no. I can work with this.” He cleared his throat and switched his body weight from one foot to another, ready to try again. “Seventeen?” And this time he felt the grip on his hand tightening.
“Oh so just a year difference. You must be new here right? I don’t remember you from my time in this place.” Before she could answer, he let out an apologetic laugh. “I haven’t even told you my name yet have I? And yet here I am holding your hand.” Sam joked, earning himself a wider smile. And he was pleased to find she had not tried to retrieve her hand just yet.
“Sam Morgan.” He finally introduced himself, placing his free hand flat on his chest. Since he knew he wouldn’t get a name from her, he carried on. “Like I said I was actually looking for my little brother, Nathan. Do you know him?”
Then, a squeeze.
“Great, that’s amazing. Listen…” He now leaned a bit closer, his green eyes plunging deep into the girl’s. If she couldn’t talk, he had to make every effort to read her expressions. “I’d really like to talk to him but I’m not really allowed in here…” Making another pause, Sam gnawed on his lower lip with a slightly guilty look on his face. “Could you do me a favor? Could you go look for him and, if you find him, just bring him here?”
The girl didn’t answer, but her lips were still curled up on the faintest of smiles. She slowly let go of Sam’s hand as she backed away from him to walk towards the bedroom door, turning the handle to open it and disappear behind it.
He fumbled with his own hands for a second, doubtful. Hopefully that meant she would bring Nathan back. Or perhaps she simply wasn’t interested in helping him. In any case, he figured he could just wait by the window for a while and find out. That way if any of the nuns happened to come snooping around, he could just quickly jump out and make his escape.
So he backtracked on his own steps to sit on the ledge of the window, which was still slightly wet from the previous rain, and waited patiently.
It took shorter than expected for his brother to show up followed by the silent girl. At first, when the door to the bedroom opened, Sam promptly moved as if to jump out of the window, but soon stopped short when he saw Nathan’s head peeking in.
“Hey little brother.” Sam greeted the younger boy with a hint of glee in his voice, getting back inside the room to go wrap his arms around his brother, who was already sprinting towards him to hug him tight.
“Hey Sam!” There was real excitement behind the boy’s blue eyes. It had been more than a week since the last time Sam had swung by the orphanage to visit him.
Sam pried his eyes away from Nathan for a second and looked back at the girl who was now sitting on her bed and had picked up a book, seemingly getting ready to read it. She returned his gaze as soon as she felt his stare on her. There was something in her eyes that hinted towards a very intelligent mind behind them, and he felt somewhat curious about it.
“Thank you.” He let out, slowly guiding his brother towards the window now, even if his eyes never left hers as he walked. “See you around.”
She smiled once more, a faint wave being her goodbye for him. And he waved back with a smile plastered on his face that even he felt came out a bit goofy.
Nathan jumped out of the window and onto the tiled rooftop right below it, following his older brother. They always sat there to talk whenever Sam came around, that way if any of the nuns came into the bedroom at night to check on the kids, they could stay out of sight.
“You been good these past two weeks?” Sam asked. The night was cold, and the rooftop was damp beneath them, but they both looked happy nonetheless now that they got to spend some time together.
“I didn’t get into any fights, if that’s what you mean.” Nathan fumbled with the hem of his pajama shirt. “I might have started a food fight last Thursday, though…”
Sam let out an amused sound, resting his arms on his knees, his legs now flexed.
“If you don’t start eating the food instead of throwing it at people’s faces you’re gonna stay this skinny forever.” He joked, poking at his little brother’s arm.
“The food is crap anyway, and you know it.” Shrugging, Nathan laughed along with his brother. There was a brief silence, both of them gazing up at the starry night sky now that the clouds were gone.
“So this girl…” Sam began to say, pointing briefly at the window. “She’s new, right? I don’t remember seeing her around before.”
The younger boy nodded at the statement, his hands now on the wet and moldy roof as he leaned back. “Yeah, she arrived last week. Her name is Y/N…I think.” His brow furrowed with uncertainty towards the end of the sentence.
“You think?” A half smile curled Sam’s lips as he arched a single eyebrow.
“I’ve only heard it a couple of times. She’s not mentioned much, because she doesn’t talk.”
“I’ve noticed.” Biting on his lower lip with curiosity, Sam folded his arms now, eyes fixed on his sibling. He grew so fast that even after two mere weeks he could still spot some differences. “Do you know why?”
“Well…” Squinting, Nathan searched his mind looking for the exact words the nuns had told him about the new girl. “Mother Tilly said she was in a car crash. Both her mom and dad died there, so she was brought here. Apparently she was already like this when the paramedics found her, so they think it’s…what was it?” His eyes rolled slowly, looking for the right term. “Post-traumatic silence, or something like that.”
“Oh shit…” Sam breathed out, speechless to say the least. His eyes were slightly wide with surprise. “Poor bird.”
“She’s really nice though. On Tuesday James stole my pudding, so she gave me hers.” The boy Smiled up at his brother. “I’ve seen her reading these really thick, complex books as well, kinda like the ones you read. So I think she’s actually really clever.”
Nodding along with a pensive pout, Sam spoke out.
“Well, she might be. Not speaking wouldn’t change that.”
He noticed the sun was starting to peak through the horizon, casting the shadows of every building against the pavement.
“It’s a bit weird though. You never know what she might be thinking about.” Nathan’s words were followed by a confused yet somewhat amused sound.
“You could, Nathan. If you paid attention.” Reaching out, he ruffled Nathan’s hair and followed a wink with a cheeky smile. “Or maybe I’m just that good with the ladies.”
“Oh screw you!” The boy complained, swatting his brother’s hand away, who faked a shocked expression and made a gasping sound.
“Language young man!” Sam jokingly scolded him, quickly getting on his feet and picking Nathan up to carry him over his shoulder. “Now you go to bed and say fifteen hail Mary’s.”
The younger boy was wriggling, complaints leaving his lips between laughs and legs kicking the air. Once they were back at the window, Sam placed Nathan on the ledge, still smiling at him and a hint of brotherly love clear in his eyes when he patted the kid’s shoulder.
“I know I’ve come around a bit late tonight but I’ll swing by again next week, okay?” He promised, and Nathan nodded in acceptance. His legs were swinging from the window and Sam saw him swaying them back and forth as he waved him goodbye.
“Alright. See you then Sam.”
“See you around little brother.” Sam waved back, his silhouette slowly disappearing in the dark of the night.
***
Three days passed until Sam was finally able to make some time for a trip back to the orphanage again. He’d been pretty busy with a job, to the point of not having a free night until then. He wasn’t in a particularly good mood either, given that said job turned out to be a bit more complicated than expected, but still quite poorly paid. By the end of it, even if it only took him three days worth of effort, he still felt like his time had not been valued properly.
He made his way up the wall and onto the roof below the bedroom’s window, and as he walked over it he noticed how a couple of tiles gave in under his weight, albeit too late to react. His foot slipped when the tiles broke apart and he let out a curse through clenched teeth, quickly placing a hand on the roof as a support to try and keep himself from falling completely. But he found himself failing yet again when his palm slipped over the moldy rooftop as well. So he fell flat on his side and slid down a couple of feet before finally getting a grip that luckily avoided him sliding all the way down and dropping from what would’ve been an undoubtedly fatal height. He heard the sound of shattered ceramic as the tiles hit the ground below him.
“Fuck me…” He breathed out, his expression twisting with pain as he reached to grab his side, feeling his Henley sweater now stained with the mold that had ended up smeared over the white fabric. “Spend my days climbing around dangerous places and now I’m gonna be offed by some mold.” Complaining and hurting as he was, he rolled onto his back to catch his breath for a second, eyes staring at the completely clear sky and pulse pounding slightly faster.
Sam was about to get back up, an annoyed groan leaving his throat, when he noticed someone was staring at him from the window. And for a second his heart stopped at the possibility of it being one of the nuns. He didn’t feel like running away from the police that night. But his concern soon disappeared when he recognized the silent silhouette. It was that girl, what was her name?
“Y/N?” He tried, and she tilted her head at him, her arms resting on the stone edge of the window. One didn’t need to hear her to understand the message her eyes were clearly sending. She was definitely wondering what on earth he was doing laying down on the rooftop in the middle of the night, covered in mud and mold. A faint laugh escaped Sam’s lips.
“The uhm- The roof thing…broke” He hurriedly stuttered an explanation, promptly getting back up on his feet and dusting his clothes off. He’d be more careful now as he approached the window.
She was smiling down at him, the kind of smile that could precede a laugh, but she was probably trying to be polite enough not to make fun of his demise. There was a moment of silence as he just stared back at the girl, trying to preserve whatever drop of dignity he had left. Sam pointed at the bedroom casually, almost acting as if nothing happened.
“So, is my brother in there?”
She shook her head softly and he frowned, intrigued. He wasn’t used to interacting with someone who couldn’t say a word, but he remembered he had established some form of conversational code with this girl last time he saw her, so he figured that would still stand. Reaching out, he offered his hand once more and she seemed inclined to take it, her expression remaining neutral. She remembered too, then.
“Alright let’s play guess.” Sam laughed, holding her hand gently. “Field trip?” Y/N shook her head with an obvious look. “Yeah what am I saying, they would’ve been back by now…” Letting out a pensive sound, his eyes stared at his left hand side, to then gaze back at her. “Is it movie night tonight?”
He felt her squeeze his hand and grinned with accomplishment. “Movie then…well that’s a shame.”
For all he wanted his brother to enjoy himself, knowing that he liked watching movies, Sam still wasn’t finding the prospect of going back to the motel and spending the whole night alone eating snacks and re-reading his books in silence exactly delightful. Having grown up with Nathan around him, he was still getting used to spending his days on his own. But as he stood there holding the girl’s hand, he found himself entertaining the idea of taking her out instead of his little brother. Truth be told there was something about her that had him intrigued, and that way he would at least have some company. Even if it was of the quiet kind.
“Hey, do you feel like going somewhere?” He asked in a surprisingly direct way. She must’ve been a bit taken aback because her brow furrowed and her look turned slightly dubious. “I mean-” Sam’s eyes widened faintly at her reaction, and the more she frowned the more he panicked. “-if you’re bored? I know you barely know me… But you know Nathan. Maybe you’re just not interested. Well.. I know this diner that is still open now. Do you like milkshakes? Maybe we could have a milkshake. I’d take you straight back, I promise. I’m not trying to be weird or anything I just have a night off and I thought-”
Sam stopped talking when she started chuckling, a little smile gracing his lips and then he sighed. “I swear I’m usually much better at this.” This comment prompted Y/N to nod unconvinced, her laugh still refusing to relent. The tone in her look seemed to change. She was amused. So he pursed his lips, the corners of his mouth still slightly curved up, and figured he’d try again.
“Can I buy you a milkshake?”
This time her grip on his hand increased for a second, and he nodded back at her. “Right. Come out, I’ll get you outta this place.”
Yet another thing he’d have to figure out as they went, how to sneak out with her. Usually, Nathan and him had no problem climbing down the walls of the massive church that was the orphanage, but he was going to take a wild guess and presume she could not do that.
Approaching the edge of the roof, he leaned forward to peer down at the far off ground and then placed his hands on his hips, contemplating the situation. He would always gnaw on his lower lip whenever he was thinking. He found that chewing on things relaxed him. One only needed to see the chewed off caps of every pen he owned to confirm this.
“There’s no other way, you’re gonna have to jump on my back.” Sam finally offered, checking to see if she was okay with the idea. She seemed a bit dubious, and who could blame her, she’d probably never done something even remotely similar in her life. He was aware that monkeying around the city was not the norm. “It’ll be alright.” He quickly reassured her, his eyes looking for hers so she could see he was being frank. “I’m not going to drop you, you just need to hold on tight.”
After taking into account the height of the building once more, she took a couple of unsure steps before finally closing in the distance that separated them, and Sam knelt down to make it easier for her to prep herself on his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tightened her thighs around his hips, tapping on his chest twice to let him know she was ready. And so he stood up once more and took a long breath, bouncing lightly on his heels to prepare himself, his eyes fixed below. “Here we go.”
The first wall he had to climb down proved to be some of the worst few minutes of his life. She was light enough, but still, maintaining his grip with an extra weight he was not used to on his back was initially really hard and nerve wrecking. He moved excruciatingly slow, considering every drop, every distance. Making sure he wasn’t too rough on his movements, lest she lost her grip and fell. Or worse, if it happened to be him who lost his grip and then they would both fall. So he took it very slow, and it wasn’t until after they mustered a couple more walls that he started to feel a bit more comfortable with the situation. He started realizing she was actually strong enough not to let go unless he did something truly extreme, so that relieved a bit of tension. And after adjusting to the new amount of weight, it became almost fun.
Granted, his biceps were killing him by the time they climbed past the front gate and were finally in the streets, but he also felt somewhat accomplished of the feat.
“See? Nothing to it.” He joked, shaking his arms a couple of times by his sides to relieve the stinging pain in his muscles. Y/N laughed a bit, shaking her head to let him know she was aware they could’ve died a couple of times and that whole thing had been anything but easy. But they made it, and they were out. And Sam was really craving that milkshake now.
It did not take them long to reach the diner, and Sam wasn’t surprised to find it was still open as he’d expected. He knew no other place that served milkshakes and pancakes and yet remained open until midnight. It was also run by a lady in her mid fifties that made the best waffles he’d ever had. It was the mix of these little things that made this tiny restaurant his favorite eating place in Boston.
As he pushed the door open for the girl to step inside first, the owner waved at him from behind the counter, and Sam returned a charming smile. The place was absolutely empty except for the two of them and the older woman at that time in the evening, so as soon as they picked a seat in one of the booths by the windows, they were presented with the menus.
“Evening, dear.” The lady cheerfully greeted them, audacious eyes glancing at the young boy now. “I see you’re in very good company tonight.” Sam let out a laugh that almost came out sheepish when she spoke. “I’ve never seen him bring a girl around until tonight. It’s usually just little Nathan and him here.”
“Yeah, this is Y/N.” Sam introduced, gesturing towards the girl sitting in front of him. “She’s a quiet one… still more charming than I am.” He couldn’t hold that last statement in, used as he was to putting his silver tongue to use in front of women, which caused the girl’s expression to turn somewhat bashful.
“Nice to meet you dear, I’m Lisa.”
A single nod evidenced that Y/N was listening, and the old lady’s greeting was then met with a wide smile and a gentle look from the girl’s eyes.
“Why you were right! She’s more charming than you are!” A melodic laugh emanated from Lisa this time, and Sam had to laugh along. He was good at acting nonchalant, even if he could feel a light blush creeping up on his cheeks. What a sweet way of ridiculing him that lady had. “What’s it gonna be this time, Sam?”
“I’ll be having a cookie milkshake. And…” He gazed at his friend, a finger pointing at the list of milkshakes now sitting on the table right in-between them, next to the hands they kept held together almost as a norm now for the sake of communication. But she wasn’t looking at the list of drinks, her eyes being fixed on him instead, bright and curious. “What? Cookie sounds good too?” Sam chuckled, raising an eyebrow. He felt her squeeze his hand immediately and his chuckling dragged for a bit longer. “Alright then. We’ll have two of them.”
“Oh good choice. You’re gonna love my chocolate chip cookie mix.”
Not needing to jot down their order, Lisa simply walked away to get to work with preparing their homemade milkshakes. This prompted a moment of heavy silence that surrounded them for a while, something Sam presumed he would have to get used to around her. She seemed entertained enough, however, gazing around the place. She was probably excited up to some degree to leave the orphanage, since the kids there don’t tend to go out much. He sure was the first few times he sneaked out on his own.
It was during this quiet moment that it occurred to Sam that he´d never seen this girl under the light, the bedroom where they’d met having been so dim lighted every time. And with this thought lingering in his mind, and his eyes lingering on her, he started noticing little things. There was a little bundle of freckles that speckled certain parts of her face, really faint and hard to notice unless one paid attention, gathered around the highest point of her temples and the tip of her nose. For some reason he wondered if he’d find any freckles on her shoulders, were he to look there. Since she was wearing a sweater, his curiosity would not be satiated any time soon.
He also noticed that her eyes now looked bigger and brighter, but the one thing he had not observed before was how long and pretty her eyelashes were. She’d bat them around often with curious demeanor, and it made his glance want to linger in her eyes for longer than advised. So he quickly shifted his stare, traveling down to her mouth. Her lips were a sweet shade of pink, and they had an alluringly delicate shape to them. Then he wondered if she’d ever kissed someone before. Her whole aura stroke him as being so unadulterated.
‘You’re staring.’ A voice warned inside his head, making him clear his throat and shift on his seat slightly, prying his eyes away from her just in time for the girl not to catch him looking. Somehow now the warmth seeping from her hand onto his own skin was prompting the tip of his ears and his cheeks to turn a light shade of red, so he drummed his fingers on the table with fake nonchalance. He had to remind himself he only kept holding her hand so that she could easily call for his attention.
Thankfully, Lisa came back with their milkshakes on that precise moment, and he almost sighed in relief at the sight of her. Working on a smile when he thanked the lady, he pulled the drink closer to him with his free hand, dragging it across the table, and sucked in through the straw. The sweet and cold taste of the milkshake soon hit his tongue and spread throughout his mouth like a sugary wave.
“I hope you enjoy it.” Lisa smiled, and Sam swallowed to reply as she walked away once more
“You make the best milkshakes, sweet cheeks.” This immediately prompted a laugh from the older woman, who waved him off as she walked around the counter.
Sam felt Y/N´s hand shake slightly and noticed she was laughing along too, slurping from her own milkshake with a delighted expression on her face. “Yeah, sorry.” He jokingly apologized. “I might be sitting here with you, but her shakes found a path straight to my heart long ago.”
“Oh enough now, I could be your mother!” They heard Lisa giggle from the other side of the room.
Returning his eyes back to the girl, Sam took another swig from his drink, eyebrows raising as he took the time to swallow before speaking.
“You like it then?” A squeeze on his hand was quickly prompted by his question and he run his fingers through his hair to readjust it, satisfied. “She can also make them to take away on these cups with a lid. Maybe I could bring you another one next time I go visit the orphanage?” And again, a squeeze and a smile were the answer he got, and somehow he started feeling extremely comfortable. He wasn’t doing so bad, after all. It was easier to be around her that one might originally think, in fact. And even if she wasn’t talking, he never once felt like he was missing any information, and silences with her were never really awkward.
He could easily get used to this.
And so their one sided conversation went on for longer than expected, past the time where their milkshakes were finished and the moon was high in the sky. He’d make sure to ask plenty of questions that could be answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, since this was his only way of finding out stuff about her. Sometimes he’d have to guess, and she’d squeeze his hand and chuckle when he finally got it right. She wasn’t limited to yes or no, however, and she’d use some obvious gestures every once in a while. She also had a voice, even if she never talked, which meant she’d hum when unsure, laugh, or make surprised noises among other sounds. Sam started to find these little hints of her voice delightful.
The girl was surprisingly expressive, and he found it relatively easy to understand everything she meant to convey at any given time. And it was like this that he found out she loved to read history books, but that romance novels were her guilty pleasure. She could not bear with poorly written books, however. He’d offered to bring some of his own books for her to read the next time they saw each other, since reading was pretty much all he did during his time alone. He also learned that she had a soft spot for animals, enjoying their company since they don’t need speech to communicate. She’d always wanted a pet, but never got to have one. Apparently, Y/N also loved music, all kinds of it as long as it was pleasing to her ears. And that made him want to bring her back home and show the girl his CD collection.
But soon before they realized, the diner had to close its doors and Lisa had to ask them to leave for the night, albeit reluctantly.
They walked their way back through the deserted streets, hand in hand like it was now second nature, and Sam told her a bunch of stories from when he was still back at the orphanage. Most of them featured a younger Nathan who was really determined to be a famous magician. He didn’t enjoy talking about himself back at that time, since most people back there never liked him, specially the nuns. Sam was unsure whether she’d heard some of the stories that the ever wagging tongues must still tell about him, but if she hadn’t then he’d rather it stayed that way.
When they reached the front gate, Sam bent the knee once more so she could jump on his back, and they repeated the whole climbing routine they did to leave the place hours before, even if this time it was to sneak in and not out.
Once they’d reached the roof by her bedroom window, she let go of him and her feet landed gently on the rooftop right before Sam placed his hands on her waist to grab the girl firmly and help her up the window ledge. From up there, Y/N smiled down at him, her eyes glistening in a way that let him know she’d had fun, and she was grateful he took her out that night. Then a wave as a goodbye that he returned with a vocal one, pushing the word out with a faint smile that he realized might have looked slightly entranced.
He was watching her pull her legs up to the other side, and land silently inside, being careful not to wake anyone up, when he felt a sudden urge to run over and grab her hand one last time that he did not repress in time. And so she stopped short of making her way further into the bedroom, her arm stretched out as Sam gripped her wrist, half of his body still outside and his upper half now in the room, having stopped himself mid-way through getting inside.
She let out the faintest of chuckles, a single eyebrow arching on her face as she wondered what he was doing. And he decided to speak quickly before it started to look awkward.
“Can I see you again?” Sam asked, realizing too late he’d just blurted out whatever was going through his brain without considering if he was now sounding weird, or making a complete fool of himself.
But the girl was still smiling, which he decided to take as a good sign. She knew he did not mean simply showing up once more, to bring her that milkshake, or the books he promised, perhaps. He wanted permission to take her out again. If he asked, was that not a date? It certainly wouldn’t mirror that night’s situation, where she simply happened to be there out of sheer chance when he came to see his brother.
Great. He’d pulled off the lamest, most rushed way of asking a girl out on a date ever, and he never even noticed until now. He wasn’t thinking, really. He’d just felt this sudden need to make sure he could repeat the whole experience from that evening again, and the words had simply pushed their way out of his mouth. ‘Very smooth, Sam. Good job.’ Mocked the voice inside his head. And he was starting to bite down on his lower lip and consider retracting himself when he saw her smile widen a bit, a hint of awareness towards the whole situation present in her eyes.
She started to pull away slowly, and his breath hitched unconsciously because he never felt her hand tighten around his own for a ‘yes’, and as much as he wanted to run away in embarrassment, he wanted an answer so much more. But just as she let go of his fingers one by one until she was grasping nothing more than the tip of his middle one, there she squeezed softly and followed the gesture with a light giggle, finally letting his hand drop and walking back into the darkness of the room and towards her bed in the far end of it.
And there she left him, half hanging from a window and smiling like an idiot, but smiling after all.
That night after making his way back to his motel room on his own, the sun rising once more as he entered the place, Sam cooked dinner for himself and slumped on the couch as per usual. But when trying to read his book, he would find himself getting distracted often, the words scattered on every page turning blurry when his eyes couldn’t focus and his mind wandered towards places where he could bring the girl next time. He gave up soon after, his head falling back against the arm of the couch as he let the book drop flat on his chest, still open, and he allowed his mind to have its way. This resulted in him not sleeping until long after, when he’d visited a dozen places with her in made up scenarios within his own head.
They were skipping stones and holding hands by the riverside during a warm summer night by the time he gave in to sleep