Last chapter :( Fortunately it's, like, twice as long as all the others cause I couldn't find a logical place to separate it, so there you go. Thanks for all the reviews, guys. Seriously. I don't care if you have reviewed before, review again. I would love it if you guys gave me some story ideas, if you don't mind. My problem is coming up with original story ideas, so if you have one that you wouldn't mind me using, let me know and I'll see if there any I can use :D
Sam's POV
Freddie woke me up as usual the next morning, but instead of a shake on the shoulder or the promise of bacon, he woke me up with a kiss.
"Morning, sleeping beauty" he said with a smile. "Come on, last day of the road trip!"
I dragged myself out of bed and had a shower, emerging to find Freddie waiting with my bag in his hand, as per usual. He handed it to me and we left the motel, finding breakfast in a café. We got back in the car and drove, happy as could be. Freddie drove with one hand on the wheel and one hand around mine.
"Hey Sam?" he asked, in a lull in the conversation. "How did you know?"
"How did I know what?"
"That I like you"
"Oh. That night we sang on the balcony" I explained.
"You felt it too?" he asked, sounding relieved. "I thought it was just me"
"No" I corrected. "Well, yes I did feel it, but that's not it. I heard what you said when I was walking away"
"You heard that?"
"Mmhmm"
"Oh" he said, blushing. I squeezed his hand.
"Don't be embarrassed, idiot, that was the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me"
"Still…"
"My turn to ask. How come you didn't tell me about the Fourth of July?"
"Huh?"
"I remember it all" I said significantly.
"Ah. Well, I was afraid that you only did those things because you were drunk"
"I did" I said. "I was too much of a wimp to do it sober, that's all. Haven't you ever heard the expression 'drunk words are sober thoughts'?"
"Yeah"
"Well, drunk actions are also sober thoughts"
"Good to know"
"I'm just glad to know that you didn't take advantage of me" I teased. "You know, rape me or something"
"No, just invade your bed"
I paused, startled. "What?"
"That morning, after you had a nightmare? The alarm woke me up"
"Well why the hell didn't you get up?"
"Cause I knew that you were awake, and if I didn't pretend to be asleep and act oblivious then it would have been really awkward"
"True that"
"So I rolled over to let you get out of bed, and pretended that I didn't have a clue. Didn't you realize that I "didn't notice" that I woke up in your bed, not mine?"
"I did" I admitted. "But I wasn't about to point it out to you. Talk about awkward"
Freddie's POV
We talked and laughed and held hands until we stopped for lunch. We were getting excited – Providence was only a few miles away. As soon as we finished lunch we raced to the car, eager to get going so we could see Carly. I drove faster than usual, feeling the excitement mount as we drove into Providence. We asked a man on the side of the street where Brown was, and he pointed the way for us. We headed towards it excitedly, pulling into the parking lot after telling security that we were here to visit a friend. We got out of the car and walked hand in hand around the campus for a little while before we realized that we had no idea where Carly was. We were about to go ask the security man when we heard an ear-splitting shriek coming from our left. We whipped around and saw Carly racing towards us, grinning. Her bag was abandoned on the grass near a cluster of very confused-looking teenagers. She launched herself at us, enveloping us both in a bone-crushing bear hug.
"I can't believe you guys are here!" she squealed, letting us go and giving Sam a huge hug. She planted a huge kiss on Sam's cheek before wrapping her arms around my neck, hugging me tightly. I hugged her back until she pulled away and gave me a huge kiss of my own.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"We missed you, so we decided to take a road trip and come visit you" Sam answered, subtly taking my hand again. Unfortunately, nothing got past Carly, and she stared at our interlocked hands in confusion.
"Are you guys…together?" she asked, furrowing her brow at us. We smiled and nodded, provoking another squeal and group hug.
We spent the night in Rhode Island, checking into a motel down the street from the university. Carly managed to persuade the program coordinators to let her spend the evening with us. They reluctantly agreed eventually, as long as she was back by ten thirty. We hung around the campus for the afternoon, and as soon as the last activity was over, we raced to the truck and got the hell out of there, finding a restaurant to eat dinner in. The three of us talked non-stop, Carly telling us about the program and us telling her about our road trip. We talked until I looked at my watch and realized that Carly's curfew was in seven minutes. We raced to the truck and sped back to the university, making it through the gates with three minutes to spare.
We spent a few days in Providence, wandering the town during the day and spending time with Carly at night. On our last night in Rhode Island we had a special dinner, in a restaurant that wasn't crappy and cheap. We dropped Carly at the university and hugged her tightly one more time.
"Bye, guys" she whispered in our ears. "I love you"
"We love you too" Sam and I answered in unison. We pulled away and Carly walked back to her room, fading into the darkness. Sam and I drove back to the motel to go to sleep, since we were up early again the next day to make our way back home. I was spending another week driving with Sam, except now she was Sam-my-girlfriend, not Sam-the-girl-I-liked-but-tried-not-to-show-it. In the first week, Sam and I had progressed from frenemies to a couple, and I couldn't wait to see what the next week would bring.
Freddie's POV
It had been nearly a week since Sam and I returned home, and it had been the happiest week of my life. I was sitting at my laptop, loading the pictures from our trip onto the computer. They finished loading and I looked through them. There were a few of scenery and things like that, but most were of Sam. Sam sitting on the dock on our first night, backing the camera, with a spectacular sunset in the background. Sam standing in the middle of that horrific pink room, looking at the camera disgustedly. Sam sitting on a bench, once again backing the camera, with a pond in front of her. Sam sitting on that same bench laughing delightedly as she tossed food to the cluster of ducks in front of her. A series of shots of Sam playing in the rain, drenched from head to toe and grinning, ending with the shot of Sam jumping into the puddle. She had planted her feet in the puddle, knees bent, water spraying out from under her. She was haloed in the streetlight above her head, which was coming down in a cone shape, showing some of the raindrops. Sam sitting in the back of my truck, gazing up at the sky in wonder, the light from the fireworks illuminating her face in colour. Sam playing in the playground, climbing on the monkey bars, swinging and going down the slide. Then there was a series of shots of me from when Sam stole my camera. I was chasing her, talking in every picture, my face growing increasingly red. A picture of Sam smiling exultantly that I took when I finally got my camera back. Then there was the photo of Sam and me on the monkey bars, still in our pajamas, hanging upside down. Our arms dangled above out heads, our shirts were falling down, and Sam's hair was a sheet of golden curls, and we were kissing, our faces red. I had printed that one and put it in my room, next to the photo from third grade that had inspired it. Then there were the pictures of when we were in Rhode Island. Pictures of Carly and Sam, and me and Carly, and me and Sam. There was one picture of the three of us on our last night that our waiter took that I loved. We had been smiling for the camera when Sam said something funny. I don't remember what it was, but it was clearly hilarious, because the three of us were cracking up, our arms around each other. Suddenly, there was a knock on my door.
"Yeah?" I called. My mom opened the door and peeked her head around.
"Here are your pictures" she said, holding out a paper envelope. I walked over to get them, thanking her. When I was cleaning out my bag I had found the disposable camera and sent it to get developed, and I was eager to see the pictures. I pulled them out of the envelope and began flipping through them. The first couple were of the girl who had given me the camera and her parents, but I froze when I got to the sixth picture. It was of me and Sam. We were holding hands and dancing in the rain, laughing. I looked at the next picture, also of us dancing. There were four more of Sam and I just playing around in the rain, laughing the whole time. When I looked at the next photo I froze. It was of Sam and me when we were spinning. I had my hands on her back supporting her, and she was leaning back with her arms stretched out and her wet hair whipping around her head. I was looking at her and she was looking up, and we were both smiling. It was a beautiful picture, and I was stunned that it was taken by a girl with a disposable camera. In the next picture we had collapsed onto the ground in dizziness. I was looking at Sam and Sam was looking at the sky, and you could clearly see the infatuation on my face. And here I thought I had been so good at hiding my feelings I thought wryly. The next picture was of me, taken in the park, smiling at the camera. The next photo was slightly off-centre, and you could see Sam's arm in the corner of the picture. Sam was smiling at the camera, looking incandescently happy, and I was kissing her cheek. I smiled at the picture, propping it against my lamp. I then pulled out my video camera to load Sam's video onto the computer, the one she had taken during the traffic jam. To my surprise, there was another video on the camera. When it was loaded, I clicked on it to open it. I saw myself sitting cross-legged on a bed, my guitar in my lap. I watched, confused. When had this been taken? I clearly didn't know that I was being filmed. When the video began I had just started playing a song, and I instantly recognized what was going on. We were in a motel one night on the way home, and Sam had asked me to play a song. I liked the song, and I thought that it was rather appropriate. I was playing the beginning of the song when the video started, and suddenly Sam appeared, walking into the frame from next to the camera and sitting on the other bed, facing me. As she sat down, I began to sing.
Do you hear me? I'm talking to you
Across the water, across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying.
I looked up at Sam who nodded before singing the female part in her unbearably sweet voice.
Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel you whisper across the sea
Keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard.
We began to sing together, looking up at each other and smiling.
I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
We began to ooh, still smiling at each other.
They don't know how long it takes
Waiting for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye I wish we had one more kiss
I'll wait for you, I promise you I will
I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again.
I'm lucky we're in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday.
I began to sing alone again, Sam bobbing her head to the music.
And so I'm sailing through the sea
To an island where we'll meet
You'll hear the music fill the air
I'll put a flower in your hair
Sam took over, smiling at me before beginning to sing.
Though the breezes, though the trees
Move so pretty you're all I see
As the world keep spinning round
You hold me, right here, right now.
I joined in and we sang together.
I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again.
I'm lucky we're in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday.
We oohed again, looking at each other and smiling as the final ooh faded away. We smiled and Sam got up, leaning forward to kiss me before walking over and turning off the camera. The video stopped, the screen going black before the first frame of the video appeared, waiting for me to press play again. I sat there staring at the screenshot, surprised and confused. Surprised because we sounded pretty good, and confused because I wasn't sure why Sam had filmed us in the first place. Fortunately, at that moment, she walked into my room.
"Hey Fredward" she greeted me. "What goes on?"
"Sam, why did you film this?" I asked, pointing at the screen. She looked and obviously recognized the screenshot, because she looked slightly embarrassed.
"I dunno" she said, sitting on my bed. I swivelled around in my chair to face her. "I like it when we sing, and I think we sound pretty good, so I thought I would make a video of it. Besides, I kinda want a video of us singing. You know, for when I'm old and grey. Are you mad?"
"Mad? No. Confused? Slightly. Hungry? Very"
"Excellent" Sam said, getting up. "Let's go get some food"
We walked towards the door before I remembered the pictures.
"Oh, remember the disposable camera that the girl gave me randomly?"
She nodded and I handed her the paper envelope. She opened it and looked at the first picture. She looked at me confused.
"Keep going"
She kept flicking, her face growing more confused as she saw more pictures of these people she didn't know. Suddenly she froze, and I knew that she had reached the first photo of us.
"The girl was taking pictures of us?"
"Apparently"
She flipped through them, laughing under her breath at the photos of us acting like idiots, dancing in the rain. She stopped at one picture, and although I couldn't see it, I knew which one it was. She flipped it around to show me, and sure enough, it was the one of us spinning.
"This is amazing" she said, looking at it again. "Can I keep it?"
"Sure. My mom got doubles of everything"
She looked at the rest of the pictures, smiling at the one of us in the park, me kissing her cheek.
"I love this one"
"Me too" I said, pointing at where my copy was propped up on my desk. She put the envelope down and held out her hand. I took it and we walked hand in hand out of my bedroom. I thought about how unpredictable life was. You could think you had it all figured out, then life would throw you a sudden curveball and you realized that you had it all wrong. Who knew what life would bring? I certainly didn't, but as I walked down the street, the sun shining on my face and Sam's hand in mine, I felt pretty sure that I could take whatever came my way.