“Into a place where thoughts can bloom/Into a room where it's nine in the afternoon/And we know that it could be/And we know that it should/And you know that you feel it too.” -Panic! At the Disco, “Nine in the Afternoon”

The next day was Saturday, also known as Samantha and Nick’s day. For as long as Nick cared to remember, they had hung out together every Saturday at one of their houses.

In the summer, that meant going to the pool, seeing a movie, basically keeping out of the heat. These activities would usually involve other people, such as Tobias or Meredith, Lorie if she was in town. The real hanging out would be that evening.

The two would watch movies and eat junk food together. Or watch TV at eat junk food together. Or play three board games at once and eat junk food together. Junk food, usually taking the form of pizza and ice cream, was always involved.

In the winter, they usually would usually start the real hanging out earlier, basically as soon as it was dark. The actual hanging out was not much different, it still involved junk food and some kind of activity, but Nick liked it better. It just seemed, to him at least, that during the winter these nights were better. Cozier, somehow.

So that night should have been great. It should have been them getting back to normal. He had actually looked forward to tonight and had gotten out all Samantha’s favorite movies and gotten her favorite ice cream, Strawberry Spectacular. But it wasn’t great. It wasn’t even good.

Samantha had spent the last two hours talking all about Luke. It wasn’t as bad as usual with the description of his entire body, but now she had moved onto the depths of Luke’s soul.

Nick was sitting on the floor and she was on his bed sitting up against the wall. He was going through the books he had stacked under his bed since his bookcase was filled with his records. He was trying to find his copy of The Giver, which had been a gift from Samantha.

He hadn’t actually read it yet but that was only because when she had given it to him last Christmas he had also gotten a car so the book ended up getting stuffed under the front seats when he was late to school the day they went back.

Also under the seats were numerous CD’s (bought only because they were not on vinyl and CD’s are better than downloaded songs), his copy of A Farewell to Arms (which he read for English last year and still hadn’t returned to the library), a few dirty t-shirts, and a belt he wore to church that one time his mom made him go (it was Christmas Eve so he couldn’t refuse).

The problem was that when he went to look for the book the only book he found was A Farewell to Arms (it was covered in Cheeto dust by the way). So now he was looking under his bed behind the stacks of books. Hopefully it was under there.

It wasn’t just that he hadn’t read the book yet. He had survived a year since Samantha had given it to him perfectly well. He only decided to find the book for two reasons. One, Samantha was giving him crap about it. Two, he remembered she had written a note inside it that he had liked but he couldn’t remember what it said.

Finally he laid on his stomach and put his arm under the bed, waving it around wildly. Finally he hit something and he pulled it out, hoping it wasn’t some moldy food he had forgotten. Luckily it was the book.

“Found it!” He said, holding it up in victory until Samantha looked up at him and nodded before going back to painting her nails. He hated it when she painted her nails in here, it made his room smell like rubbing alcohol for days.

Satisfied with his victory, Nick lowered his arm and inspected the novel. There was something on it.

“Why does all my stuff have Cheeto dust on it?”

Samantha looked up at him with surprise but when she saw the confused look on his face she grinned and motioned to him.

“Hold it up and let me smell it.”

“Okay…”

He held it up to her nose since her nails were still wet and smelly and she waited a second before saying,

“It’s Dorito dust, not Cheeto.”

“How do you know?” He asked, taking it back and dusting it off.

“How do you not know?” She said before going back to her nails.

“So how was Homecoming for you?” She asked after a second. Nick looked up from the book in surprise.

“For me?”

“Yes…”

“Uneventful.”

“Uneventful? You found a night people wait for for months uneventful?”

“Well I didn’t have a date,” Nick said.

“Yeah but you were still there.”

“I was but I was there with Tobias. We just ate the crappy food and hung out with the stoners.” Nick flinched at his accidental mention of Tobias. They hadn’t spoken.

“I don’t understand why you hang out with the stoners,” Samantha said.

“They’re not so bad.”

“But they’re going nowhere.”

“You didn’t seem to mind me hanging out with them before.”

“Before what?”

“You know what.” He swiped one last spot of dust off the book and opened to see what Samantha had written.

Nick,

As you surely know, this is my favorite book. While I don’t understand why you STILL haven’t read it, I am happy to give you the opportunity now. Read it soon so we can talk about it. If you don’t, you shall face my wrath.

No my wrath is not only fictional,

Samantha

When Nick finished reading he couldn’t help but smile. Samantha was a big talker but her wrath was very fictional. She liked to pretend she was tough but anyone who knew her knew she was full of shit.

“Nick? Are you planning on answering me?”

“What?” He said, looking up at her once again, this time finding her looking at him with her eyes narrowed.

“I replied to your little crack at Luke just now and then you completely zoned out.”

“My crack at Luke?”

“Yes, your crack at Luke,” she said, “The one about how I didn’t mind hanging out with the stoners ‘before.’” She did air quotes there.

“Samantha, believe me, it wasn’t meant to be a crack.”

“Whatever.”

“Come on, you don’t really think I meant it do you?” He asked. She shrugged.

“I don’t know anything about you anymore.”

“Come on Samantha…” He got up and sat on the bed, tickling her feet. She stifled and giggle and tried to wrench her foot away but he didn’t let go.

“Let! Go! Of! My! Foot!” She screeched, laughing uncontrollably.

“Not until you forgive me!” He said, tickling her feet even more.

Finally, after deciding she could take the torture no more, Samantha relented.

“Fine, fine, fine. I forgive you,” she said.

“Yes!” Nick collapsed onto the bed in victory and swung his legs up so they were near Samantha’s left shoulder. She tried to push him off but wasn’t strong enough.

“So what movie are we going to watch?” He asked her. They switched off who chose the movies each week and this week it was Samantha’s turn.

“The Conjuring,” she said. He tried to not looked scared when she said it. He hated that movie, all scary movies, even that parody scary movie series, with all his heart and soul.

“What about The Princess Bride? We haven’t watched that in a while,” he said, citing Samantha’s second favorite movie.

“No. We’re watching The Conjuring.”

“Do we have to?” He asked, again grabbing her foot but this time just holding onto it and looking up at her with puppy eyes.

“Yes, Nicholas, yes we do,” she said, yanking her foot away and taking the DVD out of her purse.

“But this movie is scary.”

“It’s not that scary.”

“It is. Remember last time?” He asked.

“Which last time?”

“The last time we watched it and I got scared.”

“That doesn’t narrow it down,” she said laughing as she put the DVD in and turned the TV on. Nick curled up under a blanket, making sure his feet were completely covered, and braced himself.

“When after we watched it I couldn’t stick my feet out from under the blanket for weeks?”

“And why did you do that again?” She asked, trying to get him to share the blanket but he held on tight. She finally gave up and got her own blanket.

“Because in the movie the spirit grabs the girl’s feet, remember?”

“Oh yeah, and you’re a little bitch.”

“I am not.”

“You are.”

“Nuh uh,” he said.

“You are. Now shut up the movie’s starting.”

“But I don’t want too,” he whined. She reached up and covered his mouth with her hand. He glared at her when she took it away but didn’t say anything.

They watched the movie in silence. Well, Samantha watched the movie. Nick just hid the entire time and tried to convince himself that he wasn’t a pussy. It didn’t work.

About halfway through the movie, Samantha put her head on his shoulder and said, rather sleepily,

“Nick?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think we’re going to be friends even after we graduate?”

“We don’t graduate for months,” Nick said.

“I know but after that.”

“We’ll stay friends.” He put his arm around her.

“How do you know?” She asked.

“Because I know.”

“That’s not helpful.” He laughed.

“I know. Why are you so worried?” Samantha mumbled something.

“What?” He asked.

“Because I don’t want to lose you,” she said, still mumbling.

“You will never lose me.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.” They fell back into silence.

“Hey Samantha? Since I calmed you down could we watch something else?” He was mostly kidding. She didn’t respond.

“Samantha?” He looked down at her and saw she had fallen fast asleep.

He took his arm from where it was around her and laid her down on the bed. He tucked her in and sat back up, turned of the movie, and started watching another episode of The West Wing, his favorite show.

He fell asleep after deciding that he should call Tobias in the morning. Samantha was right, graduation was getting closer and he didn’t need to push his friends away.

A/N: Sorry this is a late for some of you since it's Sunday where you are but it's still Saturday for me lol. This is dedicated to jentari for all her help on getting this story ready for you guys. But anyways, I hope you liked it!

The photo on the right is who I have cast as Lorie, Jodelle Ferland :)